Deacon Blue set to finish upcoming UK tour with special Christmas gig at Glasgow's The Hydro
Daily Record 23rd March 2013

THE Glasgow band's special Christmas gig will take place on December 20th and will bring the curtain down on their 25th anniversary celebrations.

SCOTS rockers Deacon Blue are the latest big name to be announced for Scotland’s largest purpose-built music venue The Hydro.

The Glasgow band, fronted by Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, will finish their upcoming UK tour with a special Christmas gig on December 20th at the 12,000 seater venue in their hometown. It will bring down the curtain on the chart-topping band’s 25th anniversary celebrations which saw the release of their first new studio album in 12 years, The Hipsters.

Frontman Ricky Ross said: “After much discussion we thought we should end our biggest tour for years in Glasgow. It’s the best place to crown off what has been a remarkable 18 months for us since The Hipsters first appeared on the radio in 2012.”

The Christmas concert comes at the end of the band’s biggest tour in over a decade, which will see them return to London’s Royal Albert Hall in September and make their debut at the 20th anniversary of T In The Park in July. They’ll also play at this summer’s V Festivals in Chelmsford and Stafford in August.

The Hydro date will be their biggest headline show in Scotland since reforming in 1999. Other acts to be confirmed for the venue, currently still under construction on the banks of the Clyde and scheduled to open in six months, include Fleetwood Mac, The Proclaimers and Simple Minds. The arena show follows a return to the charts with comeback album The Hipsters which scored the Glasgow outfit, famed for anthems Dignity,

Fergus Sings The Blues and Real Gone Kid, a number one on the British indie chart last September, and went top 20 in the UK album charts. The band will also release the fourth single from The Hipsters, Turn, on Monday.

Meanwhile, lead singer Ricky Ross will embark on a stripped-back solo tour next month, featuring low-key versions of his band’s catalogue plus new material from his “modern folk” album Trouble Came Looking, which is out on 8 April. He’ll play Kirkwall Arts Centre (26 April), Ullapool Village Hall (27 April), An Lanntiar, Stornoway (29 April), Dunferline’s Carnegie Hall (1 May), Dundee’s Gardyne Hall (3 May) and Stirling’s Tolbooth on 4 May.

Paul English