Is Raintown played in the original order?

That has not been confirmed. Deacon Blue have said they will play Raintown in full each night, but not that the songs will follow the album's running order, and no 2027 setlist has been published. On the record the order runs from Born in a Storm to Town to Be Blamed, with Dignity at track eight.

Will the 2027 shows include the CD bonus tracks?

Deacon Blue have not said. The original Raintown has 11 tracks, and the UK CD edition added Riches and Kings of the Western World. The band describe the first set only as Raintown in full, so for now the only certain songs are the 11 on the original album.

What is Dignity about?

It is the story of a Glasgow council street sweeper whose dream is to sail away on a boat named Dignity. Ricky Ross began it on a 1985 holiday in Crete, with the cleansing workers outside his Pollokshields flat in mind, and has called its real subject the dignity of labour. It is track eight on Raintown.

Did Raintown go to number one?

No. Raintown's best position on the UK albums chart was No. 14, reached in August 1988. Deacon Blue topped the UK albums chart twice after that, with When the World Knows Your Name (1989) and the hits collection Our Town (1994).

Deacon Blue Setlist 2027: Raintown in Full

Last updated: 28 September 2026

The Deacon Blue setlist for 2027 starts with Raintown, their debut album from May 1987, played in full. They play it every night of Raintown, The 40th Anniversary UK and Ireland Tour, then a second set of songs from across their career. So six album tracks that rarely appear in fan-logged setlists, among them Ragman and Town to Be Blamed, are in the set at every show. Across the tour there are 18 UK and Ireland shows in 15 cities, from 6 to 31 October 2027. The album itself was a slow burner: none of its 1987 singles reached the UK top 40, and Raintown did not reach its No. 14 peak on the Official Charts Company's albums chart until August 1988, about 14 months after it first charted.

What is the Deacon Blue setlist on the Raintown tour?

Each Raintown tour show comes in two parts: Deacon Blue play the Raintown album in full, then a second set "featuring songs from across our career", in the band's own words. As of 25 September 2026, the band have published no running order, no song count and no second-set song, nor said whether the album keeps its original track order.

The Deacon Blue setlists you will find online come from earlier shows, such as the 2025 tour and the 2026 dates, not from the 2027 tour.

What songs are on Raintown?

Raintown, Deacon Blue's debut album, has 11 songs and came out on Columbia in May 1987. All 11 are in the first set every night of the 2027 tour, whatever order they are played in. Dignity, the song most people know, is track eight. The original record runs:

Born in a Storm
Raintown
Ragman
He Looks Like Spencer Tracy Now
Loaded
When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)
Chocolate Girl
Dignity
The Very Thing
Love's Great Fears
Town to Be Blamed

The UK CD added two more tracks, Riches and Kings of the Western World. Some answers online fold them into the album, but they are not on the original record, and Deacon Blue have not said whether "in full" covers them in 2027. Riches was also the B-side of the first Dignity single, released in March 1987.

Which Raintown songs are rarely played live?

Six of the 11 Raintown songs rarely appear in fan-logged Deacon Blue setlists: He Looks Like Spencer Tracy Now, Town to Be Blamed, Ragman, The Very Thing, Born in a Storm and Love's Great Fears. The other five, Dignity, Loaded, Chocolate Girl, Raintown and When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring), turn up again and again. Playing the album in full puts all six back in the set every night.

Fan logs do not cover every show, so read this as a pattern, not an exact record.

What might the second set include?

Deacon Blue describe the second half of the Raintown shows only as songs from across their career, and they have not named a single one, so any second-set list you see now is a guess. That career runs well past Raintown: all three of their UK top 10 singles, and both of their UK No. 1 albums, came after it.

The three top 10 singles, from the Official Charts Company:

Real Gone Kid, No. 8 in 1988
Four Bacharach and David Songs (EP), No. 2 in 1990
Twist and Shout, No. 10 in 1991

The No. 1 albums were When the World Knows Your Name in 1989 and the greatest hits collection Our Town in 1994. The Great Western Road, their most recent studio album, was a UK No. 3 and a Scottish No. 1 in 2025. The Deacon Blue band guide covers the line-up and the wider catalogue.

How long is a Deacon Blue concert?

A Deacon Blue Raintown show has two parts, the album in full and then a second set, but no running time has been published for 2027, and the band have not said whether there will be a break between them. Of the 2027 venue listings checked on 25 September 2026, none gives a stage time for Deacon Blue, and only Utilita Arena Cardiff gives a finish time: an 11pm curfew.

The closest guide is a two-set show the band toured in 2023. For 17 September 2023, Utilita Arena Newcastle listed doors at 6.30pm, Deacon Blue on stage at 8pm and a 10.30pm finish, so the listing allowed about two and a half hours of show, break included. The listing quoted Ricky Ross: after an acoustic first half, the band would "take a short break then come back and make a lot of noise". Read the 2023 night as past practice, not as the 2027 timing.

For the 2025 tour, the OVO Hydro in Glasgow and Connexin Live in Hull both listed 6.30pm doors and a finish at about 10.30pm.

Door times for each 2027 date, where the venues have published them, are on the Deacon Blue tour 2027 page.

Who is supporting Deacon Blue in 2027?

Deacon Blue have not named a support act for the Raintown tour: as of 25 September 2026, neither the band's own channels nor the 2027 venue listings carry one. The Lightning Seeds, who supported the summer 2026 shows at every date except Edinburgh, are not billed for the October 2027 dates.

Recent tours set no single pattern either. Utilita Arena Newcastle's page for 17 September 2023 said that year's two-set tour had no support act, while the 2025 listings at the OVO Hydro and Connexin Live in Hull each billed one.

How did Raintown become a hit?

Raintown became a hit slowly. Deacon Blue's debut spent just two weeks on the UK albums chart in June 1987, and its 1987 singles stalled far outside the top 40. It reached its No. 14 peak only in the week of 13 August 1988, more than a year after it first charted, and in all it spent 77 weeks on the chart across several runs up to 1990.

Dignity had missed the top 100 on its first release in March 1987. Re-released in January 1988, it reached No. 31 in February, and by March the album was back on the chart. A 42-week run that began in July 1988 carried the album to its peak, in the same week that Chocolate Girl reached its own best position of No. 43.

Raintown on the Official Charts

Release	Year	Best UK position	Weeks in the top 100
Raintown (album)	1987	No. 14 (August 1988)	77
Dignity (first release)	1987	Outside the top 100	None
When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)	1987	No. 86	2
Dignity (re-release)	1988	No. 31	8
Chocolate Girl	1988	No. 43	7
Dignity (third release)	1994	No. 20	4

Who played on Raintown?

The Deacon Blue players on Raintown were Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, with James Prime on keyboards, Graeme Kelling on guitar, Ewen Vernal on bass and Dougie Vipond on drums. Kelling died in 2004, and Prime in June 2025. Engineer Matt Butler, who worked on Raintown, came back for The Great Western Road in 2025.

The cover is Oscar Marzaroli's photograph of a rainy day over Glasgow's West End.

Why is Dignity the song everyone waits for?

Dignity is the Raintown song that outgrew its chart record. Ricky Ross wrote it about a Glasgow council worker who sweeps the streets and dreams of sailing away on a boat called Dignity. It never reached the UK top 10, peaking at No. 31 in 1988 and No. 20 in 1994, yet a 2020 public vote named it Scotland's greatest song.

Ross told the Guardian in March 2025 that the song began on a holiday in Crete in 1985, when he started thinking about the cleansing department workers he used to watch sweeping the road outside his tenement flat in Pollokshields. He made the boat a dinghy because it felt like something a cleaner might afford, and at a time of mass unemployment he saw the song as being about "the dignity of labour". He says the piano melody brought the song to life, and that the demo got the band their record deal.

In Lorraine McIntosh's words from the same interview, the song "took on a life of its own". Deacon Blue played it at the closing ceremony of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games at Hampden Park. Ross says it is played at weddings and funerals, and that Dundee United play it when they win. McIntosh has said she hardly sings the first verse live any more, because the audience sings it.

In March 2025 the BPI certified Dignity Platinum as a UK single, 38 years after its first release.

Dignity was in the band's set again at BBC Radio 2 in the Park in Stirling on 13 September 2026.

Where can you see Raintown played in full?

Deacon Blue play Raintown in full at 18 shows in 15 cities between 6 and 31 October 2027. The run opens in Belfast on Wednesday 6 October, and three nights at the OVO Hydro close it, from Friday 29 to Sunday 31 October, in the city where Deacon Blue formed in 1985.

In London the band play the Eventim Apollo twice, on Sunday 24 and Monday 25 October. The band added one London night and two Glasgow nights after the first announcement, and put all three down to demand.

Three stops on the tour have their own pages:

Liverpool, Saturday 9 October 2027, M&S Bank Arena Liverpool: Deacon Blue at M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool
Manchester, Friday 22 October 2027, Co-op Live: Deacon Blue at Co-op Live, Manchester
Glasgow, Friday 29, Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 October 2027, the Hydro: Deacon Blue's three Glasgow nights at the Hydro

For every date on the tour, and what the venues offer in premium seating and hospitality, see Deacon Blue Raintown tour premium and VIP experiences.