Homesick For Music
South Daily Echo 13th April

Deacon Blue Portsmouth Guildhall May 16th

If you had to name a band from the eighties that are still going strong today, doing exactly what they want to do, then you'd probably struggle.

Deacon Blue, though, seem to have managed it with unbelievable ease. The band (Ricky Ross, Lorraine Mc Intosh, Ewen Vernal, Graeme Kellings and Jim Prime) are about to head back on the road (taking in Portsmouth Guidhall on May 16) simply because they enjoy it so much.

Their new album Homesick is out on April 30, preceded by their new single, Everytime You Sleep, which is out on Monday. "The thing is if Lorraine and I want to work together, which is a big part of what we want to do, we will do it and it all comes from a need to do it. Deacon Blue is very much about keeping us singing together and Jim, the keyboard player, and me writing together," says singer Ricky Ross.

During the eighties and nineties Deacon Blue scored 19 hit singles and released 6 albums. Nowadays, the band are targeting an audience which grew up to the sounds of singles like Real Gone Kid, Wages Day and Fergus Sings The Blues, although they now see themselves as primarily an albums band. Ricky, though, is happy to take on board developments in music technology. "I never see these things as a threat. I grew up with music at a time when they were saying that home taping was killing music, but nothing could be further from the truth.

"No one ever taped a record in their house that threatened the livelihood of musicians, because all it did was turn people onto the music. "Today people who use Napster (The Internet service provider) are music lovers and I don't think for one minute that they are going to stop buying records. "You've just got to find a way of paying musicians what they deserve, obviously, but I think all these things make people listen to more music."

Music is truly what Ricky Ross and Deacon Blue are about - one listen to Homesick and you just know they love what they're doing. Paul Green