I always thought Deacon Blue were a poor man's Prefab Sprout - a band that should have been much more successful than they were.
I'm a big Steely Dan fan, and Deacon Blue took their name from a track off the Dan's 'Aja' Album, which is my least favourite (despite, or maybe because of, the fact that everyone else seems to drool over it), so they were always on a hiding to nothing.