Singer With A Colourful Past Goes Solo Again The Scotsman 3rd May 2002

IT’S not so very long ago that Ricky Ross played Edinburgh with Deacon Blue, having just reformed the band that broke up in 1994 when he launched a solo career.

That went well enough for the band to release both a greatest hits compilation and a new album last year, but now Ross is back playing solo and touring on his own.

So, is he in the band, out of the band, a lead singer or a solo act ?

To confuse matters still further, Ross has also been developing another career, as a soundtrack composer. He wrote the score for a Citizens Theatre production in his native Glasgow last year, as well as songs and incidental music for a new ITV drama, being screened in the autumn, starring Sarah Lancashire.

All that variety seems like the ideal situation for any musician - maybe that’s why his new album, his much-delayed follow-up to 1996’s What You Are, is titled This Is The Life.

Despite being so busy, Ross claims that when he’s not touring he’s glued to the telly - particularly daytime antiques show Bargain Hunt.

"For me, David Dickinson is the man - he can come to any of my gigs free any time," he enthuses. So if you see a middle-aged man raving about Sotheby’s at the gig, you’ll know who it is.