Review: Deacon Blue bring their ‘The Great Western Road Trip’ tour to Cambridge Corn Exchange

Celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2025, Scottish pop legends Deacon Blue returned to Cambridge to perform a mix of classic hits and material from their latest album, The Great Western Road.

The gig at the Corn Exchange, on Thursday, 3 April, was sold out and Deacon Blue frontman Ricky Ross took the stage at 7.30pm to thank the audience for coming out early to witness support act, Martyn Joseph.

The Welsh singer-songwriter impressed with his acoustic guitar-led songs, some of which had a hint of Americana about them. The crowd showed their appreciation for this talented tunesmith.

The six-piece Deacon Blue - which includes original members Ricky Ross, singer Lorraine McIntosh, keyboard player James Prime, and drummer Dougie Vipond - began their set with the title track off their new record, which was only released last month.

It’s a wonderful pop-soul tune and was the ideal way to kick things off. It was followed by the even better Turn Up Your Radio!, an insanely tuneful piece that is probably my favourite track on the new album.

The first of their timeless classics from ‘back in the day’ to be performed was Fergus Sings the Blues, a punchy sing-along from 1989. It got certain sections of the very enthusiastic audience up on their feet.

The affable Rick noted that the band would be playing “songs we know, songs you know, and some we’re not quite sure about”.

A new song, Wait on Me, which Ricky revealed they were playing tonight for the very first time, probably fell into the latter category. “Can you smell the fear up here?,” he joked.

There were other songs I didn’t know very well, but at no point did I ever get bored. Ricky is a charismatic and very capable frontman, and his voice sounded great - as did Lorraine’s.

The band as a whole seemed to be really enjoying themselves too, and that certainly came across. Indeed, the gig felt more like an event than just a standard concert - and this was reflected in the way the crowd reacted.

Further highlights included Wages Day (another great song from their 80s heyday), another outstanding new song Late ’88, the bouncy and very catchy Twist and Shout, the beautifully nostalgic How We Remember It - another tune off The Great Western Road - and the gloriously emotive When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)?.

The new songs combined quite brilliantly with the older material and no-one seemed disappointed that the group’s most recent album dominated the set (in total, I believe they played seven tracks from it).

Ricky introduced the band, noting that although they still refer to guitarist Gregor Philp and bass player Lewis Gordon as “the new guys”, the pair have actually been in the band longer than Deacon Blue’s original run lasted (they formed in 1985 and broke up in ’94, reforming in 1999).

When it was time for the band’s biggest and best-known hit, 1988’s Real Gone Kid, they drew out the low-key intro in order to build anticipation.

It definitely succeeded in doing that as the place went crazy as soon as the familiar piano riff and “ooooo” refrain hit. What a song it is and what a delight it was to see it done live!

It was back to Deacon Blue’s debut album, Raintown (1987), for the heartfelt He Looks like Spencer Tracy Now and the gorgeous Dignity, the band’s first single. The audience happily sang along.

The band members each sang part of the joyous People Come First and then this fantastic show came to an end with Forever Young, an old Bob Dylan song.

Deacon Blue have always been regular visitors to Cambridge and to the surrounding region (Ricky even joked at one point that he’s “spent more time here than the bloody students!”) and long may that continue.

The hardworking sextet are deservedly enjoying a lot of success with The Great Western Road.

The album entered the official UK albums chart at number three and hit number one on the official Scottish albums chart – their highest position on the UK albums chart since 1991’s Fellow Hoodlums.

For more on Deacon Blue, go to deaconblue.com.