Our album of the month is Deacon Blue's Raintown, chosen by our shop manager Iain. Here is what he says about it:
Born in a Storm
The first album for most artists is a chore. You spend the formative days writing and touring the pubs and clubs looking for both an audience and acceptance for your work. The time comes to refine and collate the work and hope that it is recognised. If that goes to plan you then have the difficult second album syndrome... what a nightmare it is to want to record and perform.
With the album 'Raintown', Deacon Blue set the bar so high that you might have expected a crash and burn scenario. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Yes there was the inevitable line up changes and hiatus from performing and recording. Forty years on and they are at the top of their game with a fan base in Scotland to rival any, even before you look outside the country.
'Raintown' came along in 1987, two years after Ricky Ross and Dougie Vipond put their heads together and formed the band.
'Raintown' could be described as part autobiographical and part historical. It references very personal sentiments and describes things which sit in a particular time and place. Life, Love, Work, Money, Unemployment, Respect and Weather. These things resonate with most people who listen but there are some geographical / generational things that sound wonderful but may not quite hit the target with younger / non Scottish folks.
There's a man I meet, walks up our street
He's a worker for the council
Has been twenty years...
... And he packs his lunch in a Sunblest bag
What you get with Deacon Blue is a group of highly accomplished individuals where the sum of the parts far outweighs the immense solo talents which each has. The majority of the song writing falls to Ricky Ross and man can he write a lyric. They lift you and make you smile and in the same breath make you think and shed a tear. But the magic part, the rest of the band don't just simply fill in, they all stand out in their own rights with the most fantastic contributions and without ever stepping on anyone's toes.
Dougie Vipond sits behind his kit and provides the most sublime percussion, delicate or forceful when it needs to be. His playing on 'Dignity' exemplifies these extremes from the opening bars to the final full stop. Jim Prime's keyboards work to similar effect on that track. He opens with a lovely gentle touch building into a powerful left hand and a sublime middle section which sums up his playing style. Lorraine McIntosh is not simply a backing singer. Her vocal style and intonation is the perfect foil for Ricky's voice. She punctuates the tracks with subtlety and power in equal measures, sometimes more like an instrument rather that a vocal. In Graeme Kelling's hand the guitar simply soars when required to do so but his wonderful touch and shading is quite remarkable. Last but by no means least is bassist Ewan Vernel. Like Dougie he drives the music along with a wonderful sense of timing. On 'Town to be Blamed' he almost assumes the roll of lead guitar picking out the melodies and popping in little notes in just the right places with Graeme residing in the background providing the canvas. Again on Ragman the bass is tight, tuneful and takes a prominent position in the mix.
A last mention needs to go to producer Jon Kelly who was on the desk at Air Studios in London when the band laid down the album. Producers get lots of acclaim over their cannon of work. Had Jon only ever done one album in his career then this top drawer work. Taking a bunch of talented but relative newbies and allowing them to play and shine with his wonderful, even handed production.
Stand out tracks... 'Born in a Storm' running into 'Raintown', a great way to open an album and announce yourself to the world at large. 'When Will You' such a beautiful love song filled with hope and longing. The most soulful track on the album and one which could have been a track on 'Popped in Souled Out' the debut album from Clydebankers Wet Wet Wet, released a few months after 'Raintown' and another album which is stunningly good once you put aside preconceptions. 'Chocolate girl' is probably the most commercial track on the album and one that most people know but my choice and the choice of audiences in Scotland and worldwide is 'Dignity', great playing and sublime lyrics which tell the most uplifting story. Live the band don't really sing it because the audiences beat them to it every time. Talking vocals, Ricky's opening vocal on 'Town To Be Blamed' is simply stunning.
So you know where I'm going now: knock yourself out and give it a good listen with fresh ears. If you don't know the album then hunt it out. It's almost forty years old now but it still sounds as fresh as ever. In its streamed form there's the added bonus of the piano mix of 'Dignity' on the 2012 reissue version of the album.
We lost James Prime in the last few weeks and Graeme Keller back in 2004. Ewan Vernal left in 1994, joining Capercaillie in 1997. He still tours with them and has played with Chris Rea, Hue & Cry, Fish and Lou Reed. Ricky married Lorraine and hosts the BBC Scotland radio show Another Country. Dougie fronts Landward on the BBC amongst other TV activites, lives near me and shares a coffee shop with me. Most importantly, the three of them still tour and write with the band.
If you want to explore more of their music the difficult second album 'When The World Knows Your Name', a very clever title, keeps the ball rolling in the same direction. It contains the beautiful track 'Fergus Sings The Blues' along with the huge 'Real Gone Kid', 'Queen of the New Year' and 'Wages Day'. 'Live At The Glasgow Barrowlands' from 2016 captures them on top form with all the cracking tracks and really shows just how much they mean to an audience and vice versa.
Iain
Unfortunately we don't actually have the album and it seems that our friends at Last Night From Glasgow have also sold out!
You can of course stream it...