John, 100: I’ll keep preaching
CHURCHMAN John Murdoch has no intention of quitting – despite turning 100.
The lay preacher has been active in the church for about 90 years and still takes the occasional Sunday service.
John also regularly conducts services at nursing homes and plays the organ and piano at his local kirk in Torphins, Aberdeenshire.
The great-grandad, who was born in Glasgow, was presented with an award authorised by the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
He also received a letter of congratulations from the Moderator.
He has often saved the day – once taking a service at the last minute three days before his 99th birthday after the minister lost his voice.
John – who lost his wife Margaret in 1997 and one of his two sons, Bill, two years ago – said: “I used to always have a service in the glove compartment of my car in case I was ever called out.”
He added that the secret to a long life is simply “not to die”, adding: “As a Christian, you believe someone up there has decided what’s happening and I have just done my best to follow that.” RICKY Ross will be 60 this year. He has spent more than half of his life in Deacon Blue, who released their first album 30 years ago.
It’s as good a time as any for him to dust down some of the band’s most familiar songs and give them another turn around the block.
This time, there is no string section or swelling choir. Lorraine McIntosh – also known as Mrs Ross – will not be adding backing vocals and moral support.
In between new songs, it’s just him singing huge hits such as Raintown and Wages Day in the stripped-back way he first wrote them.
Ricky said: “For me, it’s good to be back on my own. There is something very raw and very honest about it.
“Sometimes it goes horribly wrong, you forget what you’re doing and you’ve got no one else to help you out.
“But when it goes right, it’s a really interesting connection to a room and you have a shared experience.”
His new album, Short Stories Vol 1, started on a skiing holiday with his son Seamus. (One great thing about being a rock ’n’ roll veteran is being comfortable with doing un-rock ’n’ roll winter sports.) After a day on the piste, Ricky found himself revisiting forgotten tunes and abandoned lyrics.
He said: “I had my laptop with me. For those few hours on my own every day, I was going through all these snippets of ideas. I’d forgotten about all this stuff.”
By the time he got home to Glasgow, he was fired up to write a new album. In March, he recorded 15-odd songs over two days.
Some had started life in the French alps. But he also felt ready to revisit some of the hits that defined the band in the 80s.
One in particular – I Was Right and You Were Wrong – was ready for a different treatment.
He said: “It was on our greatest hits record. It was a big expensive arrangement, it was a single and it was a hit but I didn’t really love it.
“We were in the studio for what felt like months, working on this one song.
“It was the opposite of everything I ever wanted to do with that song and with the music in general. I got the idea to redo some of them the way they were first written.” Looking at the video on YouTube, it’s clear I Was Right and You Were Wrong had everything the producer could find on the mixing desk thrown at it. And who is the dude in the leopard-skin shirt acting out a film noir scenario? Surely not this quiet Yes campaigner and radio presenter in a denim jacket. Today, Ricky no longer has to play the role of the pop star. If he wants to sit behind the piano and revisit old songs, there is nothing stopping him. He has played the huge hits with Deacon Blue over the years. But giving them a solo outing in a small venue is quite different to belting it out for the crowds at the Barrowlands. Ricky said: “I loved the original version of Raintown. I loved the album.
“But it’s different to go back and sing a song you wrote 30 or 35 years ago.
“You sing these songs automatically if you sing them with the band. If you sing them on their own, you remember.
“That’s why it’s stimulating to go back and revisit the back catalogue. Do they still have the same emotional punch?
“You end up with just these songs, you and a few people sitting in front of you and you kind of know if they’re going to work.”
Deacon Blue were together for eight years. Ricky says i the time. He added: “Fo it, we said, ‘We’re not d old songs any more.’ It w craziness. Now we don anything of doing a son 30 years old.”
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