Deacon Blue will perform for first time at Sheffield's showpiece Utilita Arena

Armed with a new album The Great Western Road, the group will be performing at the showpiece venue on September 29, 2025 as part of a 15-date tour of the UK’s arenas. Deacon Blue will herald the arrival of the album with five shows in theatres stretching from Edinburgh to Bristol in late March/early April.

Lead singer Ricky Ross said: “I love the idea that a circus coming to town is a temporary existence, a little bit of magic suddenly appears in the middle of a town or a village and then it goes away. It’s very similar to what you do live. The live experience is so ephemeral, at the end of a show people lose all their inhibitions, and then it’s over. You have to be there. That’s what’s magical about it.

“There will be two different shows, we’re curating a show that changes and evolves, pulling out little surprises every now and again. The theatres are more intimate and give us a chance to bring out one or two things that we wouldn’t do in the arenas. They give us a chance to play songs from the new album and songs from other albums that we have never played before. And we have some amazing nights at the big shows in the arenas, we suit the show to the place we’re playing and our mantra is ‘we want people to have the best night of their lives’. Every night has got to be brilliant.”

Deacon Blue have 12 top 40 singles to their credit including Real Gone Kid, which topped the charts in Spain and was nominated British single of the year in 1989, and Dignity, voted Scotland’s greatest song by listeners of the radio programme Ewen Cameron in the Morning.

The band has had two number one albums in the UK charts – When The World Knows Your Name which produced five charting singles including Fergus Sings the Blues and Wages Day – and Our Town, which was a greatest hits compilation. Deacon Blue’s album sales have now topped more than seven million worldwide.

Tickets for Deacon Blue – The Great Western Road Trip at Sheffield Utilitia Arena are priced £46.95 are now on sale; go to www.utilitaarena.co.uk