Dom Robinson reviews
Deacon Blue: Live
Distributed by
P3 Music
CD/DVD: 
Singles:
- Cert:
- Running time: 75 mins (concert)/35 mins (extras)
- Cat no: P3MCD022
- Year: 2007
- Pressing: 2008
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 15 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 16:9
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: CD/DVD 9
- Price: £11.98 (Amazon.co.uk)
- Extras:
Interviews, Bonus Track, Soundcheck, Photo Gallery
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Director:
Producer:
The Band:
Ricky Ross
Lorraine McIntosh
James Prime
Dougie Vipond
Deacon Blue
came to the fore in the late '80s with few top 10 hits but many timeless songs that set them apart from most bands out there,
partly because of the way the melodies meet Ricky Ross' distinctive tones and partly because their lyrics rarely follow a
conventional path and you can tell that just by listening to most of the songs in this live set.
They didn't really make a big impression on the general public until their third Top 40 single, Real Gone Kid (No.8, Oct 1988),
but that was a bit too weird of a song for me given that the lyrical structure didn't quite work for me there, but I had already
loved their earlier tracks Dignity (No.31, Jan 88) and especially When Will You Make My Telephone Ring? (No.34, Apr 88)
because that's something every lovestruck teenager is hoping for. Sadly, Chocolate Girl didn't follow their first two
into the charts before Real Gone Kid made its mark, as it only reached No.43.
Wages Day (No.18, Mar 89) and Fergus Sings The Blues (No.14, May 89) were equally big but I much preferred the
slightly depressing Love and Regret (No.28, Sep 89) with its tone that, just maybe, everything isn't going to be alright
in the game of love after all - kinda easy to identify with. The band then kicked off 1990 with the rousing Queen Of The New Year
(No.21, Jan 90) and their other hit from that year was a set of covers with the Four Bacharach And David Songs EP (No.2, Aug 90),
its main track being their outstanding version of I'll Never Fall In Love Again.
Of the hits that followed, Your Swaying Arms (No.23, May 91) and Your Town (No.14, Nov 92) were the ones that
stood out for me, with their only Top 10 hit around that time being Twist and Shout No.10, July 91), but as the 1990s
set in, so was Deacon Blue's hit-count drying up, ending with a re-release of Dignity in May 1994, reaching No.20, just
eleven places higher than the original release.
When they were at their height, though, I went to see them at the Manchester Apollo. I forget whether it was 1988 or 89, but
while for the most part they played all their hits plus some of their album tracks, it was rather marred by the fact that the
'plus support' turned out to be no-one and that - and maybe it didn't help that we were in the upper section - we rather lost
track what was going on at one point where Ricky and the band started telling a story about something or other which went on
for far too long and from where we stood we could barely see them, since they'd moved forward to the front of the stage for this
segment. Just one of those odd moments that stays with you, I guess.
For me, the best tracks on this live concert are Your Town, one of their later singles which definitely broke with
tradition from the average type of song, the soothing Your Swaying Arms, the brilliant Chocolate Girl, which segues part-way through into the classic Love is Strange
Raintown, a wonderful album track that should've been a single, as was the incredible Loaded. When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)
makes me feel just as depressed as I did 20 years ago - which is a compliment for such a fantastic track, even though in most
circumstances for other bands it wouldn't be, and before too long we have I'll Never Fall In Love Again and Dignity.
Fergus Sings the Blues closes the set, although Ricky does seem to go a little mad towards the end, and this track also
features as the menu music, with Raintown playing over the track selection menu.
This concert, recorded at the Edinburgh Playhouse on November 11th 2007, captures the band at their best, both musically and vocally.
It's also put together in a nicely low-key way, in that it doesn't go for a zillion flashy lights on stage like some bands, and
which is a perfect example of "less is more". James Prime (keyboards) and Dougie Vipond (drums) excel in their chosen fields
while Lorraine McIntosh's wispy backing vocals compliment Ricky's lead perfectly.
The concert is presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen and looks superb with nothing obvious in the way of artifacts.
It's a standard definition disc which I'm watching upscaled via my Xbox 360 with a VGA connection so it looks as crisp and
clear and colourful as it can be and looks outstanding on a 37" Plasma screen. The sound is presented in Dolby Surround,
rather than Dolby Digital 5.1 which is how you expect the soundmix on most concert DVDs these days, but it still does justice
to all 15 tracks on show here.
The extras begins with separate (for most of the time) Interviews (21:42) with members of the band, mixed together, looking at how they met,
their early years, their first track - Dignity, plus Fergus Sings the Blues, band member guitarist Graeme Kelling
who died of pancreatic cancer in 2004, plus their thoughts on their tour at the time of recording, the first tour they ever
played and also early influences for the band.
There's also a Soundcheck (6:27) from earlier in the afternoon as the band rehearsed, a Picture Gallery (2:40)
as various tour shots come one after another with Wages Day playing behind it; and finally a bonus track, Homesick
(6:41), the title track of their last album.
The DVD contains 15 chapters, one for each track, the last song leading into the end credits without a separate chapter whereas they should've
had a separate one for that (I'd normally say that one is required for the opening but the music starts as soon as the disc does)
- although this is also replicated in the extras where there were no chapters there either, and it would've been nice to see the
interview segments individually split that way. This disc could also really use some subtitles for the lyrics - these should be
essential on all concert DVDs.
Note that the DVD, which was previously available on is own, sees its music replicated on a CD that also comes in the same
package in this dual-disc release just in time for Xmas.
The full list of tracks included are :
