Southampton University
Record Mirror 7th November 1987

The boy singer displayed his armpits, jumped across the stage and tried to be sweaty yet sincere. The girl singer writhed enthusiastically, delivered her shrill backing vocals and stared in awe at the boy singer. Deacon Blue in full swing were professional, musically competent and very, very boring. As each soft rock song merged into the next, Deacon Blue sounded at best like the great Prefab Sprout, but more often than not they were like a million other banal rock bands.

'Chocolate Girl' saved the evening, showing some promise lurking among the synthesisers and power chords. 'Love's Great Fire' made us imagine that the boys and girl playing at pop stars on stage could write a good tune when they put their minds to it. One or two people had danced around a bit and some were even impressed enough to clap their hands during the first verse of the up tempo numbers. And that's really where it all ended. Simon Dine