‘Play it like you mean it’

Deacon Blue frontman Ricky Ross performs his new solo show at Dundee’s Gardyne Theatre on November 14. Gayle Ritchie catches up with the Dundonian singer-songwriter in his favourite cafe

There’s a faraway look in Ricky Ross’s eyes when he remembers boyhood camping trips in Angus and Fife. It’s an area he enjoys taking his family to these days and he spent a weekend camping near Carnoustie with his 16-year-old son in the summer.

“I’m keen on road trips and wanted Seamus to see the beauty of that neck of the woods, near Dundee, where I’m from,” he recalls.

Back in July, Ricky – who cites Lunan Bay in Angus as his favourite place in Scotland – toured the North Coast 500 route with his wife, Lorraine. “We camped at Fortrose and went up to Durness and John o’ Groats,” he says. “Lorraine was keen to wild swim but I had to point out it wouldn’t be as warm as France!”

I’m catching up with Ricky in one of his favourite hangouts, the Glad Cafe in Glasgow’s southside. With the release of a new solo album in September and a tour this month, he’s in an excitable mood. I order us cappuccinos and we settle down on leather sofas for a chat. “The new album is like a souvenir of my solo shows, which are a very different beast from Deacon Blue,” Ricky muses. “It’s a collection of tiny, little stories which are intimate and minimal, and it’s a place for what I call my ‘homeless songs’. There’s something very raw and honest about it.

“It’s a chance for me to revisit songs that started out life with just piano and vocals and take them back to their roots, as well as play some new songs inspired by recent times.”

Thirty years ago, Deacon Blue’s debut album, Raintown, spent 77 weeks on the UK charts and sold more than a million copies. The 1989 follow-up, When the World Knows Your Name, reached number one. The band were originally together for eight years before splitting in 1994, reforming in 1999.

Ricky’s solo album contains vocal and piano versions of Raintown and Wages Day, and a take on Carole King’s Goin’ Back. There’s also a song called A Gordon for Me, written for Joe, the partner of Gordon Aikman, the motor neurone disease campaigner from Edinburgh who died last February, aged 31.

Another, At My Weakest Point, was inspired by a woman Ricky met while visiting Zambia with Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, for whom he is an ambassador. She told him her vision was to have her own water supply.

My personal favourite is Only God and Dogs, written from a dog’s perspective. “It’s about a special love,” explains Ricky. “I saw this dog on Byres Road running over to his owner – a homeless guy – like the happiest dog in the world.

“I thought, what is it about dogs? They have no hierarchy. As long as someone loves them, they’ll live anywhere.”

Having been on the scene with Deacon Blue since the ‘80s, does Ricky feel he’s matured musically? “You like to think you’ve got better but you’ve maybe got worse!” he beams.

“One of the reasons I like to do old

It’s a collection of tiny, little stories which are intimate and minimal, and it’s a place for what I call my ‘homeless songs’