THEY'RE one of Glasgow's favourite bands – and Deacon Blue front man Ricky Ross reckons that music in the city has never been better.

The group play the Royal Concert Hall this Sunday, as they celebrate 25 years since the release of classic debut Raintown as well as their new album, The Hipsters.

But Ricky has been blown away by the amount of young talent in the dear green place.

"It's a brilliant time for Glasgow," he says.

"I was interviewing Rachel Sermanni for the radio the other week, and she was talking about how alive Glasgow is as well.

"There's another level out there with all these folk and indie kids doing stuff, and creatively it's never been stronger. There's no shortage of good bands.

"I heard the Sparrow & the Workshop record, which I thought sounded great, and then I heard Admiral Fallow's stuff and that was great as well."

For Dundee-born Ricky there are similarities between the number of acts that have emerged in recent years and how bands came through in the mid 1980s, when Deacon Blue started to make their mark.

"Unfortunately, there are bad economic times, but creatively we excel.

"I think that's what Deacon Blue came out of, a situation with high unemployment, people struggling for jobs, but those things mean the creative side is very active," he explains.

Deacon Blue's own creativity is back, with The Hipsters their first album in 11 years. Ricky was so inspired by Admiral Fallow's record, Tree Bursts In Snow, that he asked producer Paul Savage to work with the band, and he's delighted with the results.

"He was the person we needed at the right time," says Ricky. "He was very enthusiastic, as for him it was very different and he usually works with bands out of the indie scene.

"He just worked away and didn't allow us to do anything that was sloppy or wrong. A lot of people have noticed how good he was with the vocals, he got us singing well."

Those vocals are what brought Deacon Blue to many people's attention the first time around, with the dynamic between Ricky and co-vocalist Lorraine McIntosh (now his wife). That led to Raintown being a smash hit in 1987, and Ricky's now happy to look back on the album fondly, although he admits that wasn't always the case.

"I'm not big on wanting to revisit things," he adds.

"The songs have a life beyond the record, in some ways. I'm a great Bob Dylan fan and he proves that sometimes a song has its own life and can be performed completely differently away from the record.

"I'm quite relaxed about it all now. Ten years ago I wanted to change everything about Raintown, but I think now I'm like 'That's the way things are'."

Fans of hits like Dignity and Chocolate Girl shouldn't worry, though, as Ricky has no plans to ape Dylan and start performing live numbers in a completely new way to how they were recorded.

"I do think Bob sometimes doesn't listen to the records and just plays them the way he remembers them," he laughs.

"I'm more in between that approach and then someone like Roy Orbison, who did the songs exactly as they were on the record.

"Maybe more towards Roy, but I think there's still something that happens live when you change things around a wee bit."

Certain songs by the band have proved so popular that they tend to pop up whenever there's debate on Scotland having a new national anthem, but Ricky's not going that far yet.

"Definitely not any of ours," he roars with laughter.

"The one we should sing as the national anthem is A Man's A Man For A' That, as it has a great lyric and is great to sing along to, so that's the one for me."

l Deacon Blue, Sunday and on December 5 at the Royal Concert Hall, £29.50, 7.30pm