Don’t forget we’re performing on @SusanCalman‘s Hogmanay 2020 tonight!

Tune in to @BBCScotland from 11:30pm or watch online https://t.co/qhpqOZF4Mj

BBC Scotland / Alan Peebles#deaconblue #hogmanay2020 pic.twitter.com/IAuEfUaT4u

— Deacon Blue (@deaconbluemusic) December 31, 2020

2020 has been a busy year for both acts. In October Macdonald released her fifth studio LP The Human Demands, a top ten album in the UK and across Europe. Though the majority of the record was written before the pandemic took hold, the lyrical themes of isolation, depression and ageing it touches on felt increasingly relevant in the context of lockdown life. The Bishopbriggs-born singer acknowledged this in a recent interview with the Glasgow Times, saying: “There’s nothing directly about this situation (in the album) but there are a lot of songs about life and the highs and lows, and the ups and downs, and everything in between. There are definitely tracks that feel extremely pertinent now. If you didn’t know better you might assume they were written about this situation.”

The latest single release from the album is Fire, a soaring, anthemic slice of rugged folk-rock in the same vein as earlier Macdonald hits like Slow It Down and Woman of the World. The Scottish songstress told XS Noise that the track was written for her husband, Partick Thistle football Richard Foster. She said “It was the first song I wrote after getting married, in Las Vegas of all places…I was so happy at the time, just married, that I came up with something that isn’t typical of me at all. I said to my husband: this is the only song you’ll ever get out of me, so enjoy it.”

Macdonald recently told The Herald that she was delighted with the record as a whole and her evolving sound. She said “I am absolutely thrilled with how the album sounds. I can’t think of any other female artist who is sounding like me right now. It just feels exciting and it feels new. It feels a bit different and it is something I am really, really, proud of.”

There was also new material this year from Deacon Blue, with the Glaswegian outfit topping the Scottish Albums Chart in March (and reaching fourth spot in the UK Albums Chart) with their ninth album City of Love. LA Weekly described the record as “spectacularly good“, adding that “everything that made their past work so special shines here too“; while PopMatters opined that the band had delivered “a confident set of arena-friendly songs of hope.”

The veteran pop-rockers, who first shot to international stardom with their 1988 hit Real Gone Kid, will follow up City of Love with a new mini-album, Riding On The Tide of Love, due out on March 5th. A statement on the band’s website says: “‘Riding On The Tide Of Love’ is a continuation of ‘City Of Love’, a companion piece that we recorded piece by piece, going into the studio one by one to record our individual parts. In its own way it’s brought us all together, we hope it will bring you together too.”

The group will play 26 British dates next year as part of their UK and Europe Cities of Love tour, which begins in Brighton on Sunday 6th June. Tickets for all dates are available to buy online here.

The Glasgow-based sextet, who first hit the big-time with 1988 jangle-pop classic Real Gone Kid, have confirmed that the new mini-album will serve as a spiritual sequel to 2020 release City Of Love, which topped the UK Indie Albums chart in March. In a statement on the band’s website, lead singer Ricky Ross says: “When we released ‘City Of Love’ back in March we celebrated it getting to No. 1 in Scotland…and we were looking forward to a summer of festivals followed by a big tour at the end of the year. As we all know, that didn’t happen and once the dust had settled we realised we weren’t going to be going out on the road any time soon. ‘Riding On The Tide Of Love’ is a continuation of ‘City Of Love’, a companion piece that we recorded piece by piece, going into the studio one by one to record our individual parts.”

Deacon Blue’s 30-date summer tour has also been rescheduled for 2021, incorporating dates across the UK and mainland Europe. Tickets for the tour, which will see the band supported by Devonian singer-songwriter Jamie Lawson, are available on the Deacon Blue website here.

The themes of the mini-LP the group are set to take on the road next year are expected to echo those of City of Love, which Ross has suggested can be read as a love-letter to Glasgow. In an interview with The Herald earlier this year, he said “Growing up in Dundee, Glasgow and the Gorbals always seemed quite frightening places. It was a big dark place with dark tenements. Once you get to know Glasgow, you do realise that it is a city of love. It’s a city of warmth and compassion…If the album is about anything really, people need to remember that without love, a city can be the loneliest place to be. It’s about that human connection that we all need.”

The as yet unnamed first single from Riding On The Tide Of Love will be released on Friday 27th November, capping off a year unlike any other in the band’s history. The initial optimism that surrounded City of Love‘s success in March (becoming their biggest chart hit in 26 years) was rocked when three members of the group – Ross, fellow vocalist Lorraine McIntosh and drummer Dougie Vipond – contracted Coronavirus.

Whilst recovering from the virus, the band supported The National Theatre of Scotland’s online series Scenes For Survival. Lorraine McIntosh – who is also an actress in her own right – filmed a monologue for the project, which helped raise funds for theatre workers through the Scenes For Survival Hardship Fund.

Speaking to The Sunday Post on the importance of the initiative, she said “Theatre and the arts are on a precipice. So many venues, actors, theatre practitioners are on the edge, as they simply can’t afford to sit about waiting for this to pass. They’ll need to go and find other ways of earning a living. And the arts have been helping keep us all going. When you can’t get out to these things you realise what a vibrant scene we had, in terms of gigs, theatre, art galleries and studios. It’s going to be hard to get these back.”