Obituary
Maybe not everyone’s favourite band, but one that I love. Jim Prime, keyboard player and architect of many of the band’s best songs, has died rather suddenly of cancer.
Deacon Blue keyboard player James Prime dies aged 64 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgl9p193d5o
I’m really cut up about this one.
Aren’t they touring shortly? I saw adverts when I was at NEC last week.
Yes, they are. Jim was insistent that they continue without him, but there aren’t many players out there who could obviously fill his shoes. You listen to a song like Raintown, sounds like a load of sequencers and stuff, but he always actually played that intricate stuff. I guess they got popular because they could always bring it when they played live.
I’ve told the story on here before of how Raintown nearly cost me my job. I still love that record.
RIP, James.
Jim’s classy playing highlighted here…
We saw them last year at Dreamland, Margate. They’ve been on my “quite like to see” list for a long time and they didn’t disappoint. As Leffe Gin says, not everyone’s cup of tea but their “best of”is very good and they knew how to work the crowd. My wife, who manages to drift through life, only vaguely aware of a handful of bands and singers really enjoyed it.
I loved Raintown it reminds me very much of a time and place. No band is everyone’s cup of tea.
In their heyday I was a big fan but sort of drifted away. This happens often as there is too much stuff diverting your attention but I think will get the greatest hits for a nice dollop of nostalgia.
Rain town and the Bacharach EP are all you need, Steve.
Whilst Raintown is probably the album I go back to most, the track “Your Town” from the album “Whatever You Say Say Nothing’ album is an absolutely brilliant track.
Definitely. They might not be the band’s best known, but Your Town and I Was Right and You Were Wrong are my top two DB tunes.
Maybe it’s because they’re both a bit more synth-y or keyboard-heavy, but I think they have a similar atmospheric vibe. I wish the band could do more in that vein.
Re IWRaYWW, I particularly like the almost Blue Nile-ish voice-over-muted-trumpet/horn intro before the beat comes in at 0.36:
There’s also a (pretentiousness alert) real spaciousness in the mix, where Ricky’s voice in particular has plenty of room to breathe. Bravo to all concerned.
Not one of my favourites, though I thought they had a sharp ear for a good pop-rock tune. Actually the thing I most enjoyed about them was they were probably the least likely band to try and do an ‘Achtung Baby’, yet on Whatever You Say…they did – even to the extent of going for that badge of rock going dance in the early 90s, the Perfecto mix:
This is a decent Oakenfold tune, but from the original there’s a bit of keyboard, a bit of floaty backing vocal and that’s it.