Dougie Adam met up on 10th August with Ricky Ross of mainstream pop rockers DEACON BLUE

We then discuss whether there will be any previously unreleased tracks on the reissues such as demos, alternate mixes, radio session tracks or previously unreleased songs. Ricky is clear on that point, "No, because there aren't really that many about. Because of the way that we worked, every time we did a single, take for example 'Fellow Hoodlums' which was the peak of this time, for every single there were four or five formats, each of which needed at least one extra track. So, a single like 'Your Swaying Arms' will have, I don't know, two, three or four songs [on the different formats for that single] times four sets of singles from the 'Fellow Hoodlums' album, which means probably 16 songs would come out accompanying the singles in addition to the songs recorded for the actual album plus mixes and live tracks. So probably something like another album and a half was recorded for the singles and that's an incredible amount of material and it became this beast which ate up your creativity. I took a very pragmatic take on it, they were b-sides but they weren't just nothings. Sometimes they were a wee bit experimental, they were things we definitely wouldn't have on an album, but I am pretty sure that a lot of them were pretty OK songs. I mean 'Wages Day' was written as a b-side. The demand was such that we went into the studio to cut a whole lot of b-sides as we needed b-sides for 'Real Gone Kid' and what was coming next before we got on to the album. We cut 'Wages Day' as a b-side and it was actually me that was thinking, 'This is pretty good you know.'"

Another reason for no unreleased tracks being part of the package is highlighted by Ricky. "To be honest with you, with the unreleased stuff Sony did not catalogue recording sessions well. So you would have to go back to masters, get the 24 track tape out; maybe at some point we'll get round to some of that and find some things. There are also a lot of live cuts and songs we tried live and didn't put out. There is at least one I know that is out there which we'll have to find. We did a lot and I had forgotten that there were certain songs that we did live and different versions of them. There was almost a hidden album between 'Fellow Hoodlums' and 'Whatever You Say, Say Nothing' called 'Sleeper' which was almost pretty well done as an album, so there is lots of stuff. So the first thing to do is to get the other stuff that was released available in one place."

A few weeks after our interview had taken place and after the tracklisting appeared on Amazon and a few other sites some fans aired minor quibbles on the band's facebook page that one or two tracks which had been released by Sony had been overlooked on the reissues and no previously unreleased tracks had been utilised, the b-sides compilation 'Ooh Las Vegas' had been split up and issued on the first two sets in the series instead of left intact as a separate release. The only track I personally have any sense of regret about is the missing "Dignity" but on the 'Raintown' set we already have the album version, the re-recorded single, the extended 12" mix, and two live versions as well as three promo videos of the song so maybe a ninth "Dignity" isn't too essential after all.

Ricky took time to reply to the fans complaints, "Firstly, there is no missing material. We don't have vaults of unreleased songs. If there are songs not on this it's because I don't think they are really any good. Frankly I don't really think a load of the b-sides are very good either - but they are what they are - b-sides. Secondly, I'm very glad we are finally looking after these records properly. They are not aimed just at collectors of obscurities - they are there for people who want to buy a Deacon Blue CD which is properly mastered, edited and compiled. Finally, on 'Ooh Las Vegas' - this album was never an album properly. It was a collection of odds and ends. Sony, however, were never able to deal with these kinds of releases in the arty way that say Rough Trade would have and it became a 'new album'. I had been annoyed at people having to re-buy 'Raintown' to get 'Riches' and wanted to avoid this with 'Ooh Las Vegas' - in the end it all got obscured. So I confess, it was my decision to delete 'Ooh Las Vegas' as I don't think it stands up to scrutiny in the way the official studio albums do. If anyone wants to share obscure songs they know about I have no objection to this, but believe me when I say there is very little there I know of any good that is not released by Deacon Blue. There are probably a ton of songs of mine floating around - but again, I don't think the world really needs them."

I ask whether the process of listening to all the old Deacon Blue stuff again has led to him rediscovering songs he had forgotten about. "Yes, there are certain songs I had forgotten about and also at the same time I was finding stuff in my attic. I've got a pile of DATs on my desk and cassettes to go through so yeah, there are things because there is just so much stuff and I've only had time to listen to what we are putting out this year. The stuff we aren't putting out is another thing altogether!"

We talk about how prolific the band were during their first incarnation. From 1987-89 Deacon Blue released over 100 tracks inside three years as well as touring constantly when they weren't in the studio, a manic schedule The Beatles would have been proud of! I ask whether it is more enjoyable being in the band now since they work together when they want as opposed to it being their day job. "I think we enjoy it now. It's completely different because when you are young it is your whole life. But I think it is nice to have other places to go. It is great to have this and I am really enjoying doing this now and really enjoying waiting for the new album to come out and going on tour, but I know that by the end of October I'll be quite happy just to work with some other people, do other projects, do a solo project, whatever it is."

Tour Plans
October sees the band going out on their first UK tour in five years, although UK tour is something of a misnomer as the dates are, this time round at least, restricted to Scotland and England. When the band undertook UK tours in 2006 and 2007 Concert Live travelled with them to produce instant double CDs from many of the shows with the discs available for collection 15 minutes after the last song finished. I ask if there are any plans to do something similar on the forthcoming tour. Ricky replies, "I don't think so, because to be honest with you it doesn't make us any money, it's just a lot of work. Much as it is a nice idea I think the numbers that you would need to make any money from it are pretty huge. It's probably a really nice luxury but I presume Concert Live make some money from it but as far as we were concerned they sold as well as they could sell but you still don't make very much money."

I ask whether Ricky's reviewing of the back catalogue has reminded him of any obscure songs which may get a rare outing during the October dates, but my question jumps the gun. "I haven't got that far yet," he laughs. "I tend to think in terms of openings and closings and so on. You get into a habit of playing certain songs at certain points in the show so what I am trying to think of now is how do we readdress that, but we haven't all got in a room yet, so we need to do that. Once we get in the room that will start to happen. We'll find things."

How does he approach finding setlists which strike a balance between new material, hits, album tracks and a few obscure gems? I ask whether it gets harder to narrow them down when you have more and more material to pick from. He responds, "It gets harder in some ways, also in the sense that it gets harder to leave things out because on any given night you could just go out and play the 17 or 18 singles for example. You could do the 'Raintown' album and most people would be happy if you did all of that. So you've always got to make a decision and I think that fortunately we've always been a band who, if you come on any night, it might be different, not wilfully maverick. There were times when we didn't do certain material, but now they know we'll do hits, we'll do big songs and it's really important to do them. But it's also really good to mix it up a bit and play some things that they might not expect."

We also talk about the fact that the band have a couple of new recruits in Gregor Philp and Lewis Gordon and that Mick Slaven who had played lead guitar with them since 1999 has moved on. Do the line up changes influence what songs get played and how the band perform? "It will influence things. Mick has gone very amicably and I think he just feels he wants to do other things. We've carried having two guitarists for a while as a sort of hang over from when Graeme was ill. I think really, to be honest with you, it will freshen things up as well. I mean we'll miss Mick and if he's about it would be great to get him up and we'll do something but having a young guy in has been brilliant. Lewis is a lovely guy, a really sweet guy, and he's a great bass player."

With our 30 minutes up and a few expectant journalists calling Ricky's mobile during our time together I squeeze in one last question about whether the band have any plans to work together beyond the end of 2012. Ricky rounds things off, "Well to be honest with you I would like to think that we have more touring to do. We just put these dates in for October and that was the initial step. I mean in October we're not going to Ireland for goodness sake, we're not going to Wales, we're hardly going anywhere! We keep getting things on the facebook page, 'When are you coming to Ireland?' We would like to do some of that stuff, so if everyone is free and everyone is still enjoying it, yeah, I would like to do more touring. I mean, it was good even doing the summer festivals the year before so maybe next summer we'll do a lot of stuff like that as well. Who knows? We are really pleased about the amount of tickets being sold so that has been great. Our manager has got this thing about not putting up 'sold out' signs on the concert dates because he feels that people won't check on the show but in actual fact some of the dates are sold out so we are really pleased at how its going.