New album The Great Western Road arrives on a momentous anniversary for Deacon Blue, it is 40 years since songwriter and frontman Ricky Ross and drummer Dougie Vipond created the group’s first incarnation. But when the journey continues, where do you go next? The answer seems to be ‘full circle, then forward’. Ricky Ross is grateful.

In a recent Guardian review for Bryan Ferry’s new album Loose Talk (with artist Amelia Barratt), Alexis Petredis writes:

“There comes a point in every August artist’s career where they’re forced to make an accommodation with their own past, a tacit acknowledgment that anything new they release exists in the shadow of their own back catalogue”. 

He goes on to praise Ferry for taking a creative approach to both re-igniting his catalogue (highly successful jazz and orchestra projects) as he pushes forward with more alternative newer music. Many of the artists we’ve featured on The Art of Longevity podcast have very recently made superb albums, including Travis, Tindersticks, David Gray, Mogwai, Rickie Lee Jones, Crowded House, My Morning Jacket, and Norah Jones. Bands from as far back as the 80s are still making superb albums now, notably The Cure, Depeche Mode and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. 

And yet, Petridis’ remarks remain a truism. 

With the album’s reduced commercial clout and declining role in music consumption, a dilemma crops up for all long-established bands involved in the endeavour of making a new LP record. Put simply, why bother? Why toil for four years on a body of work that distils 100 song ideas into ten tracks, spending a fortune in the process, only to see it flash across the charts and then evaporate into the mesh of 100 million songs? It’s an existential question for Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue, who told me:

“It’s sort of madness really, when all the good songs and books have already been written. Who wants to hear what’s in my head or what we’ve created as a band? Does anyone even sit down and listen to an album now? But I think of it in the same way as poets, novelists and filmmakers. It’s still worth doing if you feel you can do it well”. 

Arguably, new albums have been especially challenging for Deacon Blue in part because the band made one of the most accomplished debuts ever, 1987’s Raintown. With its themes of growing up in Glasgow, work, money, expectations and dreams, Raintown is as universal a concept as any record and yet it is fundamentally a musical tribute to Glasgow that most Scots are really proud of. It set a high bar for Deacon Blue, and yet the band went on to have acute commercial success with the four albums that followed between 1989 and 1994, rounding the period off with a Greatest Hits compilation (remember them!) Our Town, in 1994. The band then split, and you can’t say they didn’t quit while they were ahead. They each went on to have their own multi-media career ventures, acting, writing and presenting, effectively avoiding the inevitable mid-career slump of many of their contemporaries. 

Alas, they came back together in 1999 and the second act has been a classic post limelight affair. A string of lower key albums placed them firmly in the ‘for fans only’ vortex of music careers - perfectly sustainable and yet largely forgotten by the mainstream. It hasn’t stopped the band hitting creative highs with albums though, notably 2014’s A New House  and the outstanding City of Love in 2020. But when the journey continues, where do you go next? 

The answer seems to be ‘full circle, then forward’. New album The Great Western Road arrives on a momentous anniversary for Deacon Blue, it is 40 years since songwriter and frontman Ricky Ross and drummer Dougie Vipond created the group’s first incarnation. With the opening title track set in Glasgow, it’s more than a nod to their debut (indeed, the title track echoes Raintown’s opener Born In A Storm, a ‘Gershwin meets Glasgow’ classic). The band reunited with Raintown recording engineer Matt Butler and so were clearly ready to revisit their origins. But as the new album unfolds, so does the metaphor of the band stretching out further and further. The result is a bunch of songs that reflect the sense of expectation of their early work with reflection, perspective and a contented resignation. Classic country songs How We Remember It and Curve of the Line are particular highlights of a mature, grown up pop record. 

Albums remain key milestones for artists, each one an important body of work that, as a whole, come to represent the artist’s career more than any other expression of their work. When an old band makes a new record, the acid test has to be whether or not it has the quality to add something of significance to the oeuvre. Has Deacon Blue accomplished it with The Great Western Road? 

Yes, yes they have. And it’s something that the band and their fans can be grateful for.

The Great Western Road and the Deacon Blue tour are both here.