This was my seventh time seeing Deacon Blue who were playing at the On The Waterfront festival at a sunny Pier Head, again accompanying My Beloved Wife, with this being a real family affair as we were joined by her sister and one of our nephews.
This was my first proper gig with the latter, having only been to a couple of shows with my sister-in-law, firstly Bee Gees tribute act The Brothers Gibb at the Liverpool Empire Theatre in February 2009, then Nile Rodgers & Chic in September 2021, also at the Pier Head.
All six previous times seeing Deacon Blue had been at the now-M&S Bank Arena nearby, with the price hiked beyond the most recent £45.50 there to over £50 this time out, as there was an extensive bill of other acts, all bar one of whom we missed.
We went to the Slug & Lettuce for bottomless brunch, meaning we were very well refreshed ahead of joining the massive queue to get into the ‘venue’ ahead of the alleged 7pm cut-off point for entry.
This will be a shorter review than usual but suffice to say that it was a broadly similar experience to the previous times I’ve seen the band.
My history with the support act
I’d enjoyed seeing Lottery Winners from Leigh back in May 2016 when they played Liverpool Sound City at Bramley-Moore Dock, also trying but failing to catch them at Leaf as part of the same festival in October 2021.
I bought their eponymous debut album from Amazon for just £3.67 in June 2021 but have been very underwhelmed by it.
The support acts
We entirely missed local band East Exchange, Manchester-based Delights (who are signed to Modern Sky UK), The Cheap Thrills (another local act) and Glaswegian Rianne Downey, the last of whom apparently did a cover of The Beautiful South’s Rotterdam (Or Anywhere) at this show.
Most of Lottery Winners’ set came from last year’s fifth album Anxiety Replacement Therapy, so pretty much everything was new to me. The LP features contributions from Shaun Ryder, Frank Turner and Boy George – unsurprisingly, none of these made guest appearances at this show, though I don’t think they performed any of those particular songs.
The one song I knew very well was their cover of It Must Be Love, written and originally recorded in 1971 by Labi Siffre, but known to me and most others through the 1981 version by Madness, which seems to be a recent addition to their live shows.
Lottery Winners in the distance
A lot of their songs are very bouncy, pop tunes which went down well, no doubt entertaining most of the crowd even if they’d been previously entirely unfamiliar with their oeuvre.
The Meaning Of Life off the album I have was probably my favourite, maybe due to knowing it the best, of course.
Another highlight was You’re Not Alone, with its repeated title in the chorus and wise words “there’s no such thing as normal.”
My history with the headliner
As regular (ha!) readers of this blog will know (and casual browsers might well guess), I’m not a huge Deacon Blue fan, although I bought Our Town – The Greatest Hits from Tower Records in Kensington in November 1995 for £9.99.
My Beloved Wife bought 1991’s third album Fellow Hoodlums back in the day, with my first trip to the Arena to see them being in July 2011.
We returned in October 2012 and the Decembers of 2013 and 2014 (with the second of those reviewed here), before seeing Ricky Ross solo at the Capstone Theatre in December 2017.
The household Deacon Blue collection
I gave My Beloved Wife a copy of 2020’s ninth album City Of Love for her birthday in 2021 (which is a perfectly decent listen, without shaking my world all that much), ahead of us seeing Deacon Blue once more at the Arena that November.
Before seeing Ross solo again in September 2022 (as reviewed here), I also bought her his Short Stories Vol. 1 and Short Stories Vol.2, while I gave her his autobiography that Christmas.
The most recent time we saw them was last September.
The main event
The band played their typically hit-packed set, although my nephew was very disappointed that they didn’t include Love And Regret, which made the Top 30 in September 1989.
The sun setting on Deacon Blue
They started with City Of Love, as they had done when we saw them in November 2021.
As we were some way away from the stage, and some drink had been taken, my review will not be detailed as most other gigs, but suffice to say that all four of us enjoyed the show as much as we had expected to.
The band was the usual line up, with Lorraine McIntosh providing able vocal support to Ross, alongside guitarist Gregor Phelp, Lewis Gordon on bass, Jim Prime on keys and drummer Dougie Vipond.
About halfway through came How We Remember It, the only new song they included. So new in fact that it was first performed just four days earlier.
Deacon Blue
They played all of their Top 30 hits apart from the aforementioned Love And Regret, Only Tender Love and Hang Your Head, with those two both from 1993’s fourth LP Whatever You Say, Say Nothing.
The set closed with Dignity, as expected, and then probably my favourite of their songs, Wages Day.
My t-shirt
All in all, they’d been their usual entertaining selves, leaving the large crowd to head home happy.
Tonight’s t-shirt
I decided to wear my red Postcard Records tee to honour the best of Scottish music.
Sadly, I didn’t spot any other band tees, not even ones in honour of the headliners (apart from My Beloved Wife’s handcrafted one!).
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Playlist
Here is some of the music from the evening on Spotify:
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