Scottish soul pop legends Deacon Blue kicked off a bumper weekend of live music in Angus on Friday night.
Amidst increased security following the recent terror attack in Manchester, the six-piece performed a headline show at the town’s East Links to get the party started at Montrose Music Festival’s 10th anniversary.
The Deacon faithful in the crowd knew every word of all the hits during the packed set.
The much-loved Glasgow band, led by Ricky Ross, were returning to perform at MoFest for the first time since 2009 when they became the only headliner in MoFest history to play shows on two consecutive nights after the first gig sold out in less than two hours.
MoFest chairman David Paton said: “We are delighted to welcome back such an iconic Scottish band with a great MoFest history for this milestone weekend.”
It was also the band’s first live performance since taking a well-earned break following their concert at Glasgow Barrowlands in December which sold out in 60 seconds.
Highlights included big hits Fergus Sings the Blues, Chocolate Girl, Real Gone Kid and Dignity, which saw the crowd singing every word of the working class anthem about a Glasgow street sweeper.
This year also marks the 30th anniversary of Deacon Blue’s debut album Raintown and Ross said the band was delighted to be returning to Montrose to perform which was somewhere he described as “a lovely part of the world”.
Ross also said the band appreciates its success so much more ever since the untimely death of bandmate Graeme Kelling from cancer in 2004.
“We’re at an age where we are grateful that we are still doing it,” said Ross.
“We lost Graeme over 10 years ago and that makes us very aware that you can’t take anything for granted.”
The outfit, featuring Ross’ wife Lorraine McIntosh and drummer Dougie Vipond, originally formed in Glasgow in 1986 and split up in 1994 after six million album sales.
They reformed in 1999 and took a break from recording following 2001’s Homesick.
Since they returned to the studio they’ve released The Hipsters (2012), A New House (2014) and, most recently, Believers (2016).
LCC Live has worked in conjunction with MoFest since 2013 and has been responsible for bringing top musical acts to the town including Status Quo, Madness, Jools Holland and Bryan Adams.
Deacon Blue’s performance was the first of around 200 bands which will be performing over the course of the weekend.
The Beach Boys will sail in from California to bring the festival to a close on Sunday night at East Links for what organisers are promising will be another unforgettable weekend of live music.
