Members of Deacon Blue performing on stage with large TVs in the background and a standing crowd. Viewed from above and side

Deacon Blue is one of those bands that you may remember from the late 80s and early 90s, belting out Dignity, Chocolate Girl, Raintown, and Real Gone Kid.

While you may not have seen them on Top of the Pops recently (is that still a thing?), Deacon Blue didn’t vanish entirely, and they’ve been knocking out albums on a regular basis until 2001, and then again from 2012 to the present day.

Right now they’re on tour, and taking adantage of a cheap ticket offer, we went to see them in the stupidly named M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.

What’s better than rocking out at a concert on a glorious summer evening?

Going for waterside pre-concert drinks, beforehand, of course. We met up with the daughter and her boyfriend at Revolucion de Cuba on the Albert Dock, and had a couple or three delightful and delicios pink cocktails before heading to the event.

Turin Brakes opened for the main act - a band I had forgotten existed, although the easrworm “cycle on your bicycle” from “Painkiller” has periodically infected my brain while queueing in supermarkets over the last 20 years. They were… pretty good actually.

Deacon Blue themselves were awesome, and Lorraine played a much more prominent part than I remembered from first time round.

It was a great night out, and my only criticism is the lack of merch. I like to pick up LPs at concerts, but all Deacon Blue was offering was keyrings.

Turin Brakes did better, and had “Spacehopper” - their tenth studio album on sale. I was impressed by the live performance, and bought a copy.