Deacon Blue: All The Old 45s - the full collection of the band's greatest songs

It has been a long time coming but the full Deacon Blue collection will be available real soon. Some 36 years after Dignity was released from the debut album, Raintown, we can now savour all the hits or indeed the full album collection. Pre-orders have been boosted with the incentive of a signed print and even a signed tambourine from vocalist Lorraine McIntosh ahead of the official release date now set for September 1.

All The Old 45s collates the best known individual songs from the band and comes as double CD, vinyl LPs or limited yellow and pink LPs. The title refers to a line from Real Gone Kid, the smash hit single and an obvious high tempo live favourite.

The band actually split up in 1994 losing two original members, but returned in 2012 with The Hipsters. A return to live concerts saw them star on the Hogmanay show on BBC TV and sell out Edinburgh Castle esplanade just last year.

Dignity has become a stadium anthem with audiences relating closely to the council worker dreaming of his own boat to sail up the west coast, but so many other songs explore the creative writing from Ricky Ross with tracks like Fergus Sings The Blues, Wages Day, Chocolate Girl, Twist And Shout and Queen Of The New Year.

Their biggest chart hit is included of course and came from an EP of Bacharach and David songs. I’ll Never Fall In Love Again was handled with tender affection and reached number two in the UK chart. Lyrically though Ricky is matchless with songs like When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring) and City Of Love which was a fan favourite on recent tours.

Completists will also examine You Can Have It All - a 14 CD album box set with all the studio albums plus a brand new Peace Will Come acoustic album. The new single Chocolate Girl is on there along with previously unheard versions of Dancing In The Dark and Forever Young. A huge tour has been set too with October 10 & 11 bringing them to Usher Hall Edinburgh.