Deacon Blue share shock at intimate gift from 'unhinged' female fan

Deacon Blue's Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh were shocked when a fan sent them her pubic hair.

The 'Real Gone Kid' hitmakers encountered some "unhinged" people at the height of their fame and while frontman Ricky Ross has "erased" the memory of one disturbing parcel from his mind, his wife and bandmate Lorraine, wasn't so lucky.

Lorraine told ContactMusic.com: "Someone sent their pubic hair!"

A stunned Ricky interrupted: "No! I don’t remember that. No!"

His spouse insisted: "I do. Yeah. Photographs of her with her hamsters, and then a piece of her pubic hair.

"Oh, that was a long time ago."

Ricky quipped: "I must’ve erased that one!"

Lorraine doesn't think artists receive so much unwanted post these days because of the rise of social media and the interactions it offers between musicians and fans.

She said: "There are some unhinged people out there.

"Now, they would just go online and say something, but in those days, they would write, and they would send photographs of themselves - and up to all sorts of things!"

Despite one "stalky" incident over the years, the couple - who founded the band alongside James Prime, Dougie Vipond, Ewen Vernal and the late Graeme Kelling - are relieved they have largely only enjoyed "positive" experiences with fans.

Ricky said: "It was really mostly positive, to be honest with you. It was mostly positive.

"There were a few - there was this one particular time when someone was kind of getting a little bit too stalky, but we got a pretty easy ride."

Lorraine added: "That was one person out of thousands. And the amazing thing is we've made friends with some of these fans who have been coming to our gigs for years, and we see them every tour."

And some fans have even become close friends of the 'Dignity' hitmakers.

Ricky shared: "One of my best friends I just saw for dinner recently was a guy called Jimmy; I should mention Jimmy Rice he's a great friend, and he bought tickets for all his pals to come see us supporting Ben E. King in Manchester [in 1987], we were supporting Ben E. King.

"And then he and his friends would start coming to like tiny gigs - there was no one there; it was, maybe, 20 people there at Huddersfield Polytechnic or something like that.

"And he and his pals would come, and they were the ones that all started singing back, like, ‘Loaded'.

"‘Loaded’ was the first - it wasn’t ‘Dignity’ - it was ‘Loaded’, and we just became friends.

"We just became really good friends. So, we're grateful for that, and we've got friends across the world as well that we've met, which has been lovely."

Deacon Blue - which now features Gregor Philp and Lewis Gordon alongside Ricky, Lorraine, James and Dougie - are celebrating 40 years of the band in 2025 by releasing their highly anticipated 11th studio album 'The Great Western Road', as well as going out on two tours.

'The Great Western Road' is out now and available on music streaming platforms.

Deacon Blue 2025 tour dates:

March 30 - Edinburgh Usher Hall

March 31 - Bradford St George’s Hall

April 2 - Bristol Beacon Theatre

April 3 - Cambridge Corn Exchange

April 4 - London Shepherd’s Bush Empire

September 19 - Liverpool M+S Bank Arena

September 20 - Brighton Centre

September 22 - Birmingham Utilita Arena

September 23 - Leeds FirstDirect Arena

September 25 - Bournemouth International Centre

September 26 - Cardiff Utilita Arena

September 28 - Nottingham Motorpoint Arena

September 29 - Sheffield Utilita Arena

October 1 - Manchester AO Arena

October 3 - London Wembley OVO Arena

October 5 - Hull Connexin Live

October 6 - Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Utilita Arena

October 8 - Dublin 3Arena

October 10 - Glasgow Hydro

October 11 - Glasgow Hydro