This predominantly Glaswegian act became one of the top-selling UK bands of the late 1980s/early 1990s. The group's members were Ricky Ross, Lorraine McIntosh, James Prime, Dougie Vipond, Ewan Vernal and Graeme Kelling.
Ross, a former school teacher originally from Dundee, was the group's frontman, penning the vast majority of Deacon Blue's songs. He married female vocalist Lorraine McIntosh in the later years of the band's career. McIntosh, born May 1964 in Glasgow joined the band in 1987 as a vocalist.
The band's first album, Raintown, produced by Jon Kelly and released in 1987, is regarded by many as the band's finest effort, spawning the singles "Dignity", "Chocolate Girl" and "Loaded". Many consider Raintown to be a concept album, since nearly all the songs contribute to the overall theme of being stuck in a dead-end life in a deprived city longing for something better. The city that the album's title refers to is Glasgow, and the memorable cover art of the album is a shot of the River Clyde's docks taken on a miserable day from Kelvingrove Park.
The second album, 1988's When The World Knows Your Name, was the band's most commercially successful, with the mega-selling singles "Real Gone Kid", "Wages Day" and "Fergus Sings The Blues". However, music critics began deriding the band at this stage for pursuing commercial success over artistic quality, citing the earlier achievements of Raintown.
Jon Kelly returned to the producer's chair in 1991 for Fellow Hoodlums, and the album was met with more critical success, but by now the group's honeymoon period was over and their success started to wane. This album was followed up with Whatever You Say, Say Nothing in 1993, a much more experimental album which gained praise from the critics, but was a commercial failure.
The band released a Greatest Hits compilation the following year.
With Vipond's decision to quit the group in favour for a career in television, Deacon Blue split up in 1994.
Five years later, the band held an unexpected reunion gig in 1999, and this led on to a new album, Walking Back Home, with the band now working on a part-time basis.
The band released another album, Homesick, in 2001.
Though Graeme Kelling died from cancer in 2004, the band has vowed to continue in his absence.
The year 2006 saw Deacon Blue returning to the studio to record three new tracks for a Singles album - including the track "Bigger than Dynamite".
The band performed at Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium, as the pre-match entertainment for the Rugby League Super League Grand Final on the 14 October, and continued on to a full UK tour in November.
The album The Hipsters was released in 2012.
http://www.deaconblue.com/, followed by A New House, Believers, City of Love and Riding On The Tide Of Love.
In 2023 the band released a greatest hits set titled "All The Old 45's" along with a box set of all their albums titled "You Can Have It All".
Plastic Shoes
Deacon Blue Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Empty in the hall
Well, I gathered the news
That you'd gone after all
Whats left is this:
And from what I can recall
Theres something I've missed
And I have seen it all
You caught me drawn in the
Bathroom mirror
And said I looked a little older
Walking along on a beach at dawn
With your head upon my shoulder
In your plastic shoes
Broken and used on me
And what have we been through?
Are you watching alone
The same film I'm tuned to?
Do you still cry
When the doctor gives her the news?
Theres a big black bag of belts and hats
You wore to other weddings
A broken chain and a picture frame
That once held us together
I put out these shoes that I helped you choose
And I bolted all the doors
So they won't walk back........
Those plastic shoes
Oh you looked so good
That was all you wore
Some things need summer weather
Others want the dark
Some things work well together
But still keep falling apart
The lyrics of Deacon Blue's song "Plastic Shoes" seem to be about loss and moving on. The singer seems to have lost someone important to them and is left with the remnants of their life. The plastic shoes left empty in the hall could represent the person who is no longer there. The line "Whats left is this" suggests that all that's left after their departure is emptiness. The singer reflects on what they may have missed and what they have seen, possibly trying to make sense of the loss.
Later in the song, the singer remembers a moment with the person who is gone. They were walking on a beach at dawn with their head on the singer's shoulder. The plastic shoes come back again, this time "Broken and used on me," possibly symbolizing the end of the relationship. The line "And what have we been through?" suggests that they've been through a lot together. The following lines ask if the person is still crying when the doctor gives bad news, raising the possibility that the person in question was ill.
The end of the song speaks to the complexity of relationships. The singer talks about the things left behind, like belts and hats, and how these items no longer hold them together. They put the shoes out and bolt the doors, perhaps trying to find closure. The conclusion that some things need summer while others want the dark and that some things work well together but still keep falling apart further emphasizes the intricacy of life and relationships.
Line by Line Meaning
Plastic shoes
The song starts with the image of plastic shoes, symbolizing how fragile and easily breakable their relationship was.
Empty in the hall
After their separation, the hall feels empty and abandoned.
Well, I gathered the news
That you'd gone after all
The singer learned about their separation after it had already happened.
Whats left is this:
All that remains after the separation is memories and the physical evidence of their relationship.
And from what I can recall
Theres something I've missed
And I have seen it all
Despite remembering everything that happened between them, the artist still feels like something important is missing.
You caught me drawn in the
Bathroom mirror
And said I looked a little older
The singer remembers a moment when their former partner commented on their appearance, which signals that they were once close to each other.
Walking along on a beach at dawn
With your head upon my shoulder
The singer recalls a romantic moment they had together.
In your plastic shoes
Broken and used on me
The plastic shoes mentioned earlier now serve as a symbol of how the former partner was also fragile and easily breakable.
And what have we been through?
Are you watching alone
The same film I'm tuned to?
Do you still cry
When the doctor gives her the news?
The artist wonders if their former partner still thinks of them and experiences the same emotions that they do.
Theres a big black bag of belts and hats
You wore to other weddings
A broken chain and a picture frame
That once held us together
The artist finds physical evidence of their relationship that was once loving and intimate, but are now reduced to broken items.
I put out these shoes that I helped you choose
And I bolted all the doors
So they won't walk back........
The singer lays out the plastic shoes they once chose together but secures their doors as a way of sealing out the harm that the former partner may bring.
Those plastic shoes
Oh you looked so good
That was all you wore
When I really understood
Some things need summer weather
Others want the dark
Some things work well together
But still keep falling apart
The song ends by reinforcing the idea that relationships can be fragile and complex, failing even when everything seems to point towards success.
Contributed by Max T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Nigel Smith
on Long Window To Love
This whole explanation is completely wrong. The song is about the Labour Party not winning a general election