THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #174

The Real Gone Singles Bar has always championed emerging talents, but in terms of doing so, this week’s column goes an extra mile, casting a spotlight on a couple of Scottish singer songwriters, a fantastic new track from a fantastic Irish performer and a US singer going against geographical location. For those who came to hear a couple of newer rock singles, we’ve got those too: one from a familiar name continuing their run of great releases, and one from a new band we hope will be big in 2027. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy.

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THE MORNING LINE – Stars

There’s so much new music being released in the modern world, it’s become all too easy to miss the good stuff. This fact hasn’t escaped The Morning Line. Their 2026 release ‘Stars’ provides a handy recap of the best bits of the San Franciscan band’s catalogue, even stretching as far as including a couple of the year’s singles. It’s more than a standard compilation, though; for those who’ve been on board for a while, there’s still interest, since ‘Stars’ goes to the effort of remixing some of the previously released stuff to bring it up to scratch. With that in mind, and whichever way you look at it, ‘Stars’ has all the makings of a career defining disc, showcasing a superb blend of college rock, power pop and other retro sounds.

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Deacon Blue to perform the whole of classic ‘Raintown’ debut on 2026 tour

When it comes to debut albums from the 1980s, few are as perfectly formed as Deacon Blue’s ‘Raintown’. The way the album’s songs shared a very 70s inspired level of storytelling could’ve presented a band out of time, but some very talented musicians fused Ricky Ross’s rich narratives with a musical sound that felt wholly contemporary for the era. It’s no wonder it quickly became a fan favourite,

In October, the band will set out on a UK tour where they’ll play the whole of the album from end to end, alongside other hits and album cuts. It promises a tour not to be missed. Full details can be found in the press release below. To read a review of Deacon Blue’s Margate gig from 2024, click here.

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HOWARD JONES – Like To Get To Know You Well: Live At High Wycombe Town Hall

Much like its predecessor ‘In Japan’, ‘Like To Get To Know You Well’, the second long form visual release from Howard Jones to be released in 1984, spent far too many years stuck in a VHS limbo as far as UK audiences are concerned. It was given a Laserdisc release in Japan, but would be over thirty years later that the show would finally make its hi-def debut in Britain. Eventually brought to the deserving fans via Cherry Red Records’ extensive HoJo reissue programme which has yielded – among other things – huge box sets of ‘Humans Lib’ and ‘Dream Into Action’, and a lavish 5CD set of BBC related recordings, the long overdue reissue goes the extra mile by coupling the original video material with a full CD soundtrack for the very first time.

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