Chart entered : 23 January 1988
Chart peak : 31 ( 20 on re-release in 1994 )
Number of hits : 19
Deacon Blue were formed in 1985 by Dundonian singer-songwriter Ricky Ross ( born 1957 ) . He released an album "So Long Ago" in 1984, featuring future Wet Wet Wet guitarist Graeme Duffin, on Sticky Records but seems to have been very successful in suppressing it as there's not a sniff of it on Spotify or YouTube.
He formed Deacon Blue on relocating to Glasgow. Besides Ricky the band consisted of backing singer Lorraine McIntosh ( born 1964 ) , James Prime ( born 1960 ) , a keyboard player who'd recorded and toured with Altered Images but never been officially part of the band, drummer Dougie Vipond ( born 1966 ), bassist Ewen Vernal ( born 1964 ) and guitarist Graeme Kelling ( born 1957 ) veteran of numerous unsigned Glaswegian bands. Deacon Blue were originally called Dr Love but then chose Steely Dan over Tina Charles for their naming inspiration.
Their first recording was for a compilation cassette of new Scottish talent Honey At The Core ( strangely not featuring the Friends Again song of the same name . "Take The Saints Away" is a pleasant enough ditty that could have slipped easily on to their debut album.
They then signed for CBS. From that point , I've covered all the necessary ground in my review of "Raintown" which is here
As I said on your Albums blog, it's easy to rip the piss out of these lot, but I think this number in particular is strong. I suppose the story of a council sweeper saving up his money for a contented summer holiday appeals to the sentimentalist in me.
ReplyDeleteThe Maynard Keynes reference always felt a little bit forced, though.