Deacon Blue was formed as a vehicle to showcase the songwriting talents of frontman Ricky Ross. The Glasgow, Scotland based band's debut album Raintown (1987) was a huge success, remaining in the UK album chart for over a 16 months. Raintown was about life in urban Scotland and spawned three top ten hits for the band, "Loaded", "Chocolate Girl" and "Dignity". Although their second album When The World Knows Your Name (1989) was more commercially successful it didn't obtain the same critical praise, with some critics going so far as to accuse the band of selling out to achieve pop success, rather than maintaining artistic integrity. However the public were unconcerned and the album reached No.1 in the UK album charts and produced three top forty hits "Real Gone Kid", "Fergus Sings the Blues" and "Wages Day".
In 1994, after two more successful albums, Fellow Hoodlums (1991) and Whatever You Say, Say Nothing (1993), the band decided to break-up, when drummer Dougie Vipond decided to pursue a career in television. Ricky Ross would have a fairly successful career both as a solo artist, releasing five solo albums, but particularly as a songwriter for other a popular range of artists including, K.T. Tunstall, James Blunt, Ronan Keating, and Emma Bunton. However in 1999 Deacon Blue reformed on a part-time basis and would go on to release a further two albums Walking Back Home (1999) and Homesick (2001). All band members continue to have independent careers acting, songwriting and as musicians for other bands and work with Deacon Blue part time.
