TASTY NEW CHOCOLATE

Deacon Blue today release a new acoustic version of their classic hit ‘Chocolate Girl’. This version of the much-loved track is taken from the brand new acoustic album Peace Will Come that is included within the forthcoming You Can Have It All 14CD Box Set. Ricky Ross said of the song, “‘Chocolate Girl’ was the best ‘flop’ single we ever had. It never made the Top 40 but seemed to be played on the radio as much as anything else we’d released.  It meant that people kept checking out our debut album, Raintown and we’ve always been grateful”.

Thirty-six years since their debut single, ‘Dignity’ – and their debut album, Raintown – Deacon Blue have announced their most comprehensive greatest hits anthology to date, along with a career-spanning box set. All The Old 45s – The Very Best of Deacon Blue (2CD / double vinyl), and the 14CD You Can Have It All – The Complete Albums Collection, which includes a brand-new unplugged CD, will be released by Cooking Vinyl on September 1st, 2023.

All The Old 45s – The Very Best of Deacon Blue (2CD and double vinyl track listings below) coincides with the band’s UK and Ireland tour of the same name (dates below), and charts their multi-million selling history – from bringing ‘Chocolate Girl’ and ‘Dignity’ to life in the corner of a Glasgow basement, to skyscraping, stadium-filling hits like ‘Wages Day’ and ‘Real Gone Kid’, via their swoon-inducing tribute to Bacharach and David (‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’), their collective favourite single (‘Your Swaying Arms’), and one of the most significant songs in the Deacon Blue canon, which followed a split in 1994 and the loss of two original members: 2012’s comeback single ‘The Hipsters’ heralded a new lease of life for the group, and jump-started a second act that’s seen them more fired up, and prolific, than ever.

“We’ve added so many songs, albums and EPs which have become a strong part of Deacon Blue and our live repertoire since ‘The Hipsters’ in 2012,” says songwriter and vocalist Ricky Ross. “It feels like the right time to celebrate that; to release something that’s a true compilation of our music so far.”

You Can Have It All – The Complete Albums Collection (14CD box set details below), meanwhile, is Deacon Blue’s most comprehensive musical biography to date. It features all of their studio long-players, including – among other wonders – their landmark debut (1987’s Raintown); their post-split return to glorious form (2012’s The Hipsters); their myriad fan favourites, many of which reached the UK Top 5 (1991’s Fellow Hoodlums; 1993’s Whatever You Say, Say Nothing; 2020’s City Of Love); and the one that knocked Madonna off the top of the charts (1989’s When The World Knows Your Name). There are two well-loved b-sides and rarities compilations (1988’s Riches; 1990’s Ooh Las Vegas) – and there’s also a brand-new stripped-back compendium of hits, live favourites and cover versions, Peace Will Come.

“We really enjoyed playing our campfire sets on the last tour, when we deconstructed and rearranged songs to fit an acoustic format,” says Ricky Ross. “Essentially, Peace Will Come is an extension of that concept. It’s rough around the edges, but it captures the core of what we do. There are no overdubs or drops – we all just sang and played together and took the best take. Almost all of our albums are represented in its tracklisting – plus, we include a couple of cover versions we’ve often sung towards the end of our live shows. The one original song is the title track.”

Along with that new song, ‘Peace Will Come’ – a unifying hymn for the ages, which echoes Deacon Blue’s earliest single – the unplugged CD revels in fresh takes on harmonic career-highs like ‘Chocolate Girl’ (from Raintown), ‘Delivery Man’ (from 2016’s Believers), and ‘In Our Room’ (from City of Love) – and that’s not to mention gorgeous renditions of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’, and their long-standing live encore of Bob Dylan’s ‘Forever Young’. Recording the Peace Will Come CD has been a galvanising experience for the band, says Ross. “It ended up being a vital artistic exercise for us. After we’d finished, I did think – ‘Why have we never done this before?'”

The packaging for both All The Old 45s and You Can Have It All features rare photos from over the years, and extensive liner notes with new insights from all current members of Deacon Blue, who reflect on the songs – and albums, and memories – that mean the most to them.

It sees Ross wax lyrical on ‘Wages Day’ (“As a songwriter, you get so many gifts every year, and your job is to know when to accept them,” he laughs. “That was one…“); co-vocalist Lorraine McIntosh on dance-rock juggernaut and enduring live highlight ‘Your Town’ (“That’s one of my favourites; it’s got this unbelievable energy and power…“); drummer Dougie Vipond on the song his late mum loved the best – “She always used to say we should have been number one all over the world with ‘When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)’ – and keyboard player / songwriter Jim Prime on ‘Queen of the New Year’s bluegrass roots (“I wanted to write a southern train rhythm, so I grabbed a guitar and detuned the bottom string, and that’s the riff that I came up with”).

More recent recruits Gregor Philp (guitar / songwriting) and bass player Lewis Gordon variously muse on the thrill of The Hipsters, and all of the songs / albums that have followed, while also paying tribute to original members Ewen Vernal (bass) – who’s still a lively and well-loved presence in folk and traditional music circles – and guitarist Graeme Kelling, who died in 2004. He will be forever missed, but he’s never far from the silhouettes onstage, from our memories, and from the songs, even as the decades march on.

No-one is more surprised than Ricky Ross that they’re releasing a new compilation to mark 35 years of greatest hits; that a box-set of his band’s albums to date now numbers 14 separate discs. In the ’80s, he couldn’t see beyond Raintown.  “All I ever wanted to do was to make that album,” he says of their calling card and politically-charged pop manifesto. “Everything else just got lost. I didn’t give singles, or what might happen after that, any thought.”

Not even thinking how good it would be.

It’s a lifetime, yet no time at all, since Deacon Blue first roared their gospel according to hope, work, dignity, and Scottish towns beset with rain. We’re still taking cover under their words. Everything and nothing’s changed. There’s still a thrill in pressing play. We still need their songs in our cities of love, in our hearts, in our homes, in these hurricane days.

All The Old 45s – The Very Best of Deacon Blue, and You Can Have It All – The Complete Albums Collection are both released September on 1st 2023, via Cooking Vinyl.

All The Old 45s – The Very Best of Deacon Blue, and You Can Have It All – The Complete Albums Collection are both released September on 1st 2023, via Cooking Vinyl.

Track listings, formats and live dates as follows
All The Old 45s – The Very Best of Deacon Blue – 2CD tracklisting

CD1
Dignity
Loaded
When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)
Chocolate Girl
Real Gone Kid
Wages Day
Fergus Sings The Blues
Love And Regret
Queen Of The New Year
I’ll Never Fall In Love Again
Your Swaying Arms
Twist And Shout
Closing Time
Cover From The Sky
Your Town
Will We Be Lovers
Only Tender Love
Hang Your Head
I Was Right and You Were Wrong
Bound To Love

CD2
Homesick
Every Time You Sleep
Bigger Than Dynamite
The One About Loneliness
The Hipsters
The Outsiders
That’s What We Can Do
Turn (Remix)
You’ll Know It’s Christmas
A New House
I Wish I Was A Girl Like You
Bethlehem Begins
Win
The Believers
This Is A Love Song
Gone
I Will And I Won’t
City Of Love
Hit Me Where It Hurts
Wonderful
Riding On The Tide Of Love

All The Old 45s – The Very Best of Deacon Blue – 2LP tracklisting

Side 1
Dignity
When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)
Chocolate Girl
Real Gone Kid
Wages Day
Fergus Sings The Blues

Side 2
Queen Of The New Year
Love And Regret
I’ll Never Fall In Love Again
Your Swaying Arms
Twist And Shout
Closing Time

Side 3
Cover From The Sky
Your Town
Will We Be Lovers
Only Tender Love
Hang Your Head
I Was Right and You Were Wrong

Side 4
Everytime You Sleep
Bigger Than Dynamite
The Hipsters
A New House
The Believers
City Of Love

You Can Have It All – The Complete Albums Collection – 14CD box set

Raintown
1 Born In A Storm
2 Raintown
3 Ragman
4 He Looks Like Spencer Tracy Now
5 Loaded
6 When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)?
7 Chocolate Girl
8 Dignity
9 The Very Thing
10 Love’s Great Fears
11 Town To Be Blamed

Riches

1. Which Side Are You On?
2. Kings Of The Western World
3. Angeliou
4. Just Like Boys
5. Raintown (Piano Version)
6. Riches
7. Church
8. Shifting Sand
9. Suffering
10. Ribbons And Bows
11. Dignity (Bob Clearmountain Mix)

When The World Knows Your Name
1 Queen Of The New Year
2 Wages Day
3 Real Gone Kid
4 Love And Regret
5 Circus Lights
6 This Changing Light
7 Sad Loved Girl
8 Fergus Sings The Blues
9 The World Is Lit By Lightning
10 Silhouette
11 One Hundred Things
12 Your Constant Heart
13 Orphans

Ooh Las Vegas: B-sides, Film Tracks & Sessions: CD1
1 Disneyworld
2 Ronnie Spector
3 My America
4 S.H.A.R.O.N.
5 Undeveloped Heart
6 Souvenirs
7 Born Again
8 Down In The Flood
9 Back Here In Beanoland
10 Love You Say
11 Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

Ooh Las Vegas: B-sides, Film Tracks & Sessions: CD2
1 Gentle Teardrops
2 Little Lincoln
3 That Country (Beneath Your Skin)
4 Is It Cold Beneath The Hill?
5 Circus Lights (Acoustic Version)
6 Trampolene
7 Las Vegas
8 Killing The Blues
9 Long Window To Love
10 Christine
11 Take Me To The Place
12 Don’t Let The Teardrops Start
13 I’ll Never Fall in Love Again
14 The Look Of Love
15 Are You There (With Another Girl)?
16 Message To Michael

Fellow Hoodlums
1 James Joyce Soles
2 Fellow Hoodlums
3 Your Swaying Arms
4 Cover From The Sky
5 The Day That Jackie Jumped The Jail
6 The Wildness
7 A Brighter Star Than You Will Shine
8 Twist And Shout
9 Closing Time
10 Goodnight Jamsie
11 I Will See You Tomorrow
12 One Day I’ll Go Walking

Whatever You Say, Say Nothing
1 Your Town
2 Only Tender Love
3 Peace & Jobs & Freedom
4 Hang Your Head
5 Bethlehem’s Gate
6 Last Night I Dreamed of Henry Thomas
7 Will We Be Lovers
8 Fall So Freely Down
9 Cut Lip
10 All Over The World

Homesick
1 Rae
2 Out There
3 This Train Will Take You Anywhere
4 Everytime You Sleep
5 Now That You’re Here
6 Silverlake
7 A Is For Astronaut
8 Beautifully Still
9 Homesick
10 Even Higher Ground
11 I Am Born

The Hipsters

1. Here I am In London Town
2. The Hipsters
3. Stars
4. Turn
5. The Rest
6. The Outsiders
7. That’s What We Can Do
8. She’ll Understand
9. Laura (From Memory)
10. It’ll End In Tears
11. Is There No Way Back To You?

A New House

1. Bethlehem Begins
2. For John Muir
3. A New House
4. An Ocean
5. The Living
6. I Wish I Was A Girl Like You
7. Win
8. Wild
9. March
10. Our New Land
11. I Remember Every Single Kiss

Believers

1. The Believers
2. This Is A Love Song
3. I Will And I Won’t
4. Meteors
5. Gone
6. What I Left Out
7. A Boy
8. Birds
9. You Can’t Know Everything
10. Delivery Man
11. Come Awake
12. B Boy

City Of Love

1. City Of Love
2. Hit Me Where It Hurts
3. Weight Of The World
4. Take Me
5. In Our Room
6. Intervals
7. Keeping My Faith Alive
8. A Walk In The Woods
9. Come On In
10. Wonderful
11. On Love

Riding On The Tide Of Love

1. Riding on the Tide of Love
2. She Loved the Snow
3. Nothing’s Changed
4. Look Up
5. Time
6. Send a Note Out
7. Not Gonna Be That Girl
8. It’s Still Early

Peace Will Come

1. She’ll Understand
2. Queen Of The New Year
3. Chocolate Girl
4. Cover From The Sky
5. Dancing In The Dark
6. All Over The World
7. When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)
8. In Our Room
9. Every Time You Sleep
10. Delivery Man
11. Forever Young
12. Peace Will Come

All The Old 45s – The Very Best Of Deacon Blue Live

Fri-15-Sep-23 Liverpool M&S Bank Arena

Sun-17-Sep-23 Newcastle Utilita Arena

Mon-18-Sep-23 Sheffield City Hall

Wed-20-Sep-23 Birmingham Utilita Arena

Thu-21-Sep-23 Nottingham Royal Concert Hall

Sat-23-Sep-23 Cardiff Motorpoint Arena

Sun-24-Sep-23 Plymouth Pavilions

Mon-25-Sep-23 Portsmouth Guildhall

Wed-27-Sep-23 London Royal Albert Hall

Thu-28-Sep-23 Bournemouth BIC

Sat-30-Sep-23 Brighton Centre

Mon-02-Oct-23 Dublin Olympia

Tue-03-Oct-23 Dublin Olympia

Wed-04-Oct-23 Belfast SSE Arena

Fri-06-Oct-23 Manchester AO Arena

Sat-07-Oct-23 Hull Bonus Arena

Sun-08-Oct-23 Leeds Arena

Tue-10-Oct-23 Edinburgh Usher Hall

Wed-11-Oct-23 Edinburgh Usher Hall

Fri-13-Oct-23 Aberdeen P&J Live

Sat-14-Oct-23 Glasgow OVO Hydro