Deacon Blue Hit The Right Note At Ayr Campus
University Of West Scotland 10th December 2015

Top Scottish band Deacon Blue gave University of the West of Scotland Commercial Music students an invaluable insight into the music industry during a visit to the University’s Ayr Campus on Tuesday 8 December 2015.

Deacon Blue, which was formed by lead singer Ricky Ross in Glasgow in 1985, are one of the country’s most famous and successful bands. From debut album Raintown and its follow-up, the chart-topping When The World Knows Your Name, through to 2014’s A New House, Deacon Blue are consistently one of the most respected and best loved bands of their generation.

The band has extremely close ties to UWS thanks to their keyboard player, Jim Prime who is a lecturer on the University’s popular BA (Hons) Commercial Music programme.

Rick Ross, who received an Honorary Doctorate from UWS this November, and Lorraine McIntosh performed two Christmas songs, ‘Circus Lights’ and ‘Starstruck’ to third year Commercial Music students during their visit to UWS. They then joined fellow band member Dougie Vipond in speaking to the students, providing them with an invaluable insight into the music sector.

The event was run by new events management company, MYST, which was founded by third year Commercial Music students, Hazel McDowell and Amy Groden. The event comprised a full day of bands and artists including a Christmas evening complete with a choir and renditions of songs from Muppets Christmas Carol by David Scott, UWS academic and member of the Pearlfishers, Douglas Stewart of BMX Bandits and singer/songwriter, Jo Mango.

Jim Prime said: “I was delighted that the rest of the band was able to attend this event. The feedback from our Commercial Music students has been fantastic – they really loved having the chance to speak to Ricky, Lorraine and Dougie about the music industry, as well as watch the excellent performance by Ricky and Lorraine.

“It was great to also be joined by Jo Mango and Douglas Stewart who performed during the day.”