Deacon Blue Star Ricky Ross Reveals He Is Writing With Acoustic Indie Singer Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Daily Record 22nd August 2014

Deacon Blue star Ricky Ross reveals he is writing with acoustic indie singer Benjamin Francis Leftwich

Daily Record 22nd August 2014

THE writing partnership came about after Benjamin’s single Box of Stones was remixed online by DJ MikeA with Ricky’s hit Real Gone Kid last year.

DEACON Blue star Ricky Ross has revealed he is writing with acoustic indie singer Benjamin Francis Leftwich.

Ricky said: “Benjamin came up and we wrote some stuff together. He’s a lovely guy and we really enjoyed working together.”

The writing partnership came about after Benjamin’s single Box of Stones was remixed online by DJ MikeA with Ricky’s hit Real Gone Kid last year.

The Dundonian singer loved the ecoustic mash-up so much he performed it live while touring his solo album.

In the past, Ricky has written for Ronan Keating and Will Young as well as co-writing James Blunt’s hit High.

Now he has teamed up with Dan Sells and Richard Jones from The Feeling, as well as John Newman songwriting partner Steve Brooker, for two songs on forthcoming Deacon Blue album A New House.The new LP is released on 9 September, and the video accompanying its lead single features footage of the band - as kids.

Singer Lorraine McIntosh said: “People probably wouldn’t recognise that it’s us. There’s footage of me climbing up a cliff in Arbroath with my Auntie Mary, who’s not around now, and a clip of me sliding down a pole as a wee girl.

“There’s footage of Ricky a party in his old back garden too. I love old home movies. I could sit and watch them all night. Time just disappears when you watch them.”

Ricky added: “The guy who made the video for us was recommended by (Scottish singer songwriter) Jo Mango.

“He goes by the name Bob’s Train Set and he has done a really lovely job with them. We basically didn’t want to be in the video, so we gave him some ideas.

“It’s a really simple song but it felt like a breakthrough one for me in terms of writing for this album.” Paul English