DEACON BLUE – BRIGHTON CENTRE 30.9.23
Digging out all their old 45s and some great album tracks Deacon Blue brought their unplugged and amplified ‘Greatest Hits UK & Ireland 2023’ tour to the Brighton Centre yesterday.
Thirty-five years since their debut single, ‘Dignity’, and millions of record sales since, Deacon Blue had never played gigs quite like this one. They performed two sets, with no support. The first half was an intimate acoustic show, and then an electric set for a raucous trip across their hits. Long queues of eager fans formed along King’s Road in anticipation of the performance. Inside it was an all-seated show, with the Centre laid out like it was ready for the party conference season, rather than the usual standing area.
At 8pm, the house lights dimmed as Eddie Cochran’s ‘C’Mon Everybody’ played over the PA system and the band came on stage. When the lights came up, all six band members were huddled around the microphones at the front of the stage, and sang the first verse of ‘Wages Day’ acapella.
For the next song, the band took up their instruments. Being an acoustic set, it looked a little different. Lewis Gordon has a double bass, and Gregor Philp sat while playing an acoustic guitar. Another difference was that Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh were seated for several songs in the first part of the show. That said, Lorraine still had her tambourine. Some things you can’t change. Placed among the band on stage were standard lamps. That second song was ‘Queen Of The New Year’ which had a country sound to it when played acoustically.
Before the next song, Ricky apologised for missing Brighton on their last tour and said they planned to make up for it that night. True his word, they did. He then shouted out various girls’ names asking if there was anyone with that name in the audience, before joking, “This is for Sharon”, a name he hadn’t called out, with the next song being ‘S.H.A.R.O.N.’.
There was a quick change in instruments for ‘Chocolate Girl’ as Ricky took over on piano, while James Prime swapped to an accordion. As well as the great vocal harmony between Ricky and Lorraine, Lewis’s double bass was key on this song. ‘Delivery Man’ which Ricky explained was written in Nashville after watching a barman bottling up, and thinking about jobs from other people’s perspectives, was a gentle number with just Ricky on guitar and the piano to start. Lorraine took lead vocal on ‘Cover From The Sky’ and her performance gave it a country style reminiscent of Emmylou Harris and Nanci Griffiths. The tempo picked up for ‘A New House’, after which Ricky promised “It’ll get even louder in the second half”.
Next up was a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’, which was sung with just a guitar accompaniment. Ricky then looked over to the piano saying “One last one, Jim”. That last one of the first set was ‘Homesick’. Towards the end of that song Ricky said “We’ll be back with Dougie’s big drum kit and plugging in guitars. But we’ll need your voices in the second half”. With his encouragement, many in the audience warmed up with a practice session singing the chorus on ‘Homesick’.
The band left the stage after about 40 minutes for the crew to set up the stage for the electric part of the show. I have to admit, I’m not usually keen on acoustic sets, but Deacon Blue pulled it off with a good mix of slower and faster numbers and engaging banter with the audience.
At 9pm, after a 20 minute interval, and following the sounds of Joan Jett and The Blackhearts ‘I Hate Myself For Loving You’, the second half of the performance began. James’s piano was joined by an electric keyboard. The standard lamps on stage for the first part had been removed and most notably so had Ross’s, Lorraine’s and Gregor’s chairs. No sitting down for the next part of the show, also applied to many in the Brighton Centre audience.
The second part of the show started with ‘The Hipsters’, which saw a far more animated band, as you’d expect. Ricky strolled across the stage while singing, while Lorraine danced enthusiastically singing and playing tambourine. The classic ‘Wages Day’ followed which everybody recognised from the opening bars. (It was far easier to beat the intro in the electric part of the show.) This took the energy levels in Brighton Centre up a notch or two. Dougie’s thumping drums introduced ‘Bethlehem Begins’. Things slowed for the next song ‘Your Swaying Arms’ with its great powerful vocal from Lorraine, and ‘Ragman’.
The next song started with a single spotlight on James on piano. Before the song proper started Ricky reminisced, “This song goes way back, when we were playing student unions. It was the song that was sung back by the crowd. It is about being excluded, when there were not jobs to be had. Now you need another job to keep living. It feels good to sing together, it’s ‘Loaded’”. The Brighton audience didn’t need a second invitation to join in singing. Towards the end Deacon Blue let the audience sing the chorus on their own, and it worked. After the song’s introduction, this was quite an emotional part of the set.
‘Your Town’ was followed by ‘On Love’. Before the latter Ricky remembered when “… there’s two more songs on the cassette, CD, playlist [that would have covered all generations who may have been in the audience] and you drive round the block a few times to hear them.” ‘On Love’ he explained was about different memories connected by love. This song had a different delivery with a spoken narrative for the verses and a sung chorus.
Ricky was back at the extra piano at the front for a mix of two songs ‘When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)’ and ‘Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)’. Cleverly the lights went down, while the piano was quickly brought on and taken off stage without interrupting the flow of the show.
The singing and dancing increased for the pop sounds of ‘Twist And Shout’ and even more again for the next song, an instantly recognisable old 45, ‘Real Gone Kid’. Ricky used the whole width of the stage to sing to different sides of the Centre leaving nobody out. The singers and guitarists all come together towards the end of the song when Ricky asks “Want more? Sing it for me” before another couple of choruses.
‘The Believers’ was followed by ‘Raintown’ and then ‘That’s What We Can Do’. During the last of these three songs, Ricky introduced the band and joked that he’d been married to his wife, co-singer Lorraine, for “33 1/3 years. The next anniversary is 45.”
All six band members came together to say good night to loud cheers for more songs and ongoing applause. Deacon Blue weren’t off stage for long returning after only a few minutes for an encore.
Their encore started with a story about a fan who used to wait around after the band’s south coast shows wanting nothing more than to take and share photos. ‘Peace Will Come’, sung like a hymn, was a beautiful tribute to this particular fan, who the band fondly remembered. Everybody knew the name of the particular ship in the next song, ‘Dignity’. Very few people were still seated at this stage.
Before the next song, Ricky talked about the recent Scotland vs England football fixture, and how “after consulting with football experts and legends of the game Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish and [Brighton’s] Billy Gilmour” the result would’ve been different if the pre-match song had been different and been ‘Fergus Sings Blues’. (Even with the band’s Scottish patriotism it would never have been Scotland 5 England minus 2!).
After ‘Fergus Sings Blues’ Ricky humorously pretended to walk off stage and then came back on, as the band took a bow to well-deserved cheers. It wasn’t the end of the evening’s performance, as there was one more song left, a cover of Warren Zevon’s ‘Keep Me In Your Heart’. With its perfect vocal harmony, this harked back to the acoustic start to the evening. After the two rousing classic Deacon Blue hits beforehand, this song somehow worked perfectly to close the show, as the words “Brighton City of Love” scroll across the backdrop. The show closed at 10:55, after over 2 ½ hours of great entertainment.
With twelve UK top 40 singles, and ten studio albums, two of which were number ones in the UK, Deacon Blue had an impressive and extensive back catalogue for the ‘Greatest Hits’ tour. The dual format allowed them to play more songs without any chance of the show becoming repetitive. (Honestly that was never going to happen regardless of the show’s format.) It was a thoroughly entertaining, professionally assured performance from Deacon Blue, with moments of real emotion in the songs and reminiscing about old times. It was great hearing the familiar hits, some delivered in a very different way, all of which are undoubtedly best heard live.
Deacon Blue:
Ricky Ross – lead vocals, piano
James Prime – keyboards, piano, accordion
Lorraine McIntosh – backing and lead vocals, percussion
Dougie Vipond – drums, percussion
Gregor Philp – acoustic guitar and electric guitar
Lewis Gordon – bass and double bass
Deacon Blue setlist:
Acoustic set:
‘Wages Day’ (acapella first verse)
‘Queen Of The New Year’
‘S.H.A.R.O.N.’
‘Chocolate Girl’
‘Delivery Man’
‘Cover From The Sky’
‘A New House’
‘Dancing In The Dark’ (Bruce Springsteen cover)
‘Homesick’
Electric set:
‘The Hipsters’
‘Wages Day’
‘Bethlehem Begins’
‘Your Swaying Arms’
‘Ragman’
‘Loaded’
‘Your Town’
‘On Love’
‘When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)’/ ‘Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)’
‘Twist And Shout’
‘Real Gone Kid’
‘The Believers’
‘Raintown’
‘That’s What We Can Do’
(encore)
‘Peace Will Come’
‘Dignity’
‘Fergus Sings Blues’
‘Keep Me In Your Heart’ (Warren Zevon cover)
A great evening indeed Pete.perfect review!