Music Review : Deacon Blue
Eventalaide 22nd November 2019
LIVE REVIEW – Deacon Blue
The Gov -Wednesday 20 November 2019
Words Geoff Jenke
Celebrating their 30th Anniversary, Deacon Blue flew into Adelaide on a
44-degree day. I wonder what they were thinking about the weather, coming from
winter in Scotland, although they did tell us during the evening, they had
enjoyed telling their friends back home freezing, about the heat.
The previous evening it was Ireland’s turn with U2 at Adelaide Oval, but this
evening, it was all about Scotland. There couldn’t have been a Scotsman left on
the street of Adelaide, such was the crowd at The Gov for the show. At times
however, I felt like I could have used an interpreter to understand what was
being said.
Kicking off with Circus Lights from the 1989 album When the World Knows Your
Name, it was immediately apparent this audience knew the songs. Voices were
raised from the start, along with hands. Raintown from 1987 came next and during
the third song Bethlehem Begins, singer Ricky Ross told us that “tonight will be
the best time of your life”. Judging from the reaction to this comment, many
people at this evening would be agreeing with him.
Backing and occasionally lead, vocalist, Lorraine McIntosh never stopped moving
all evening, bouncing around the stage like an Energiser bunny, banging her
tambourine nonstop. Her voice is beautiful, especially as she segues into Carole
King’s You’ve Got a Friend during Chocolate Girl. It is also powerful in her
backing of Ricky’s lead vocal being determined and succeeding, to be heard.
The first big sing along came with Loaded when Ricky asked us if we were ready
to sing with them. That is like asking a Scotsman if he likes whisky. When you
tell a Scotsman you want voices, you get them, loudly.
The band delivered songs from most of their albums with a generous 23 song set.
Real Gone Kid received a boisterous reception and the crowd were helping the
band with the “woo -oo -oo -oo -oo’s” along the way. Your Town’s tribal beat
pounded around the main room of the Gov and set closer, Dignity, had the
audience singing the song for the band as Keyboardist, James Prime’s chords
cascaded around the room.
There was no way the crowd were going to let them go and the band came back for
a generous 4 song encore which naturally included the favourite and stand out
song of the night, Fergus Sings the Blues. Ricky also pointed out the pictures
on the walls, of bands who had played The Gov and flippantly told us “it is a
little known fact, Jimi Hendrix had played The Gov”. (No, he didn’t). An obscure
Bruce Springsteen song, Light of Day, originally performed in the movie of the
same name by Joan Jett, closed out the evening.
But wait, there is more. With people leaving the venue, the band came back with
acoustic guitars for a rendition of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young, with various
members of the band each taking a chorus vocally.
On a hot 44-degree day, this was the cool down song the band needed after an
extremely hot, musically and temperature wise, 2-hour plus set. A perfectly
delightful evening.