The Waterboys
Encyclopedia
The Waterboys are a band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott
. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland and England. Edinburgh
, London
, Dublin, Spiddal
, New York
, and Findhorn
have all served as homes for the group. The band has played in a number of different styles, but their music is a mix of Celtic folk music
with rock and roll
. After ten years of recording and touring, they dissolved in 1993 and Scott pursued a solo career. They reformed in 2000, and continue to release albums and tour worldwide. Scott emphasizes a continuity between The Waterboys and his solo work, saying that "To me there's no difference between Mike Scott and the Waterboys; they both mean the same thing. They mean myself and whoever are my current travelling musical companions."
The early Waterboys sound was dubbed "The Big Music" after a song on their second album, A Pagan Place
. This musical style was described by Scott as "a metaphor for seeing God
's signature in the world." It either influenced or was used to describe a number of other bands, including Simple Minds
, The Alarm
, In Tua Nua
, Big Country
, the Hothouse Flowers
and World Party
, the last of which was made up of former Waterboys members. In the late 1980s the band became significantly more folk influenced. The Waterboys eventually returned to rock and roll, and have released both rock and folk albums since reforming. Their songs, largely written by Scott, often contain literary references and are frequently concerned with spirituality. Both the group and its members' solo careers have received much praise from both rock and folk music critics, but The Waterboys as a band has never received the commercial success that some of its members have had independently. Aside from World Party, The Waterboys have also influenced musicians such as Eddie Vedder
, Johnny Goudie
, Colin Meloy
of The Decemberists
Grant Nicholas
of Feeder
and Miles Hunt
of The Wonder Stuff
; both Bono
and The Edge
from U2
are fans of the band.
, the band dissolved until its rebirth in 2000. In the years since, the band has revisited both rock and folk music, and continues to tour and release studio albums.
player Anthony Thistlethwaite
, after hearing him play on Waiting on Egypt, a Nikki Sudden
album. The Red and the Black performed nine concerts in London. Thistlethwaite introduced Scott to drummer Kevin Wilkinson
, who joined The Red and the Black. During 1982, Scott made a number of recordings, both solo and with Thistlethwaite and Wilkinson. These recording sessions, both of Scott's solo work and the group performances, would later be divided between The Waterboys' first and second albums.
In 1983, even though Scott's record label, Ensign Records
, expected his first album to be a solo effort, Scott decided to start a new band. He chose The Waterboys as its name from a line in the Lou Reed
song "The Kids" on the album Berlin
. In March 1983, Ensign released the first recording under the new band name, a single titled A Girl Called Johnny, the A-side of which was a tribute to Patti Smith
. This was followed in May by The Waterboys' first performance as a group, on the BBC
's Old Grey Whistle Test
. The BBC performance included a new member, keyboard player Karl Wallinger
. The Waterboys released their self-titled debut, The Waterboys
, in July 1983. Their music, influenced by Patti Smith, Bob Dylan
and David Bowie
, was compared by critics to Van Morrison
and U2
in its cinematic sweep.
After the release of their debut The Waterboys began touring. Their first show was at the Batschkapp Club in Frankfurt
in February 1984. The band then consisted of Mike Scott on vocals and guitar
, Anthony Thistlethwaite on saxophone and mandolin
, Wallinger on keyboards
, Roddy Lorimer
on trumpet
s, Martyn Swain on bass
and Kevin Wilkinson
on drum
s. John Caldwell from Another Pretty Face also played guitar, and Scottish singer Eddi Reader
sang backing vocals for the band's first two concerts. The band made some new recordings and over-dubbed old material in late 1983 and early 1984 which were released as The Waterboys' second album, A Pagan Place
, in June 1984. The "official" Waterboys line-up at this time, according to the sleeve of A Pagan Place, was Scott, Thistlethwaite, Wallinger and Wilkinson, with guest contributions from Reader, Lorimer and many others.
A Pagan Place was preceded by the single The Big Music. "The Big Music", the name of the single's A-side track, was adopted by some commentators as a description of The Waterboys' sound, and is still used to refer to the musical style of their first three albums. The release of the album was followed by further touring including support for The Pretenders
and U2 and a show at the Glastonbury Festival
.
The band began to record new material in early 1985 for a new album, with Wilkinson leaving the band to join China Crisis
. Late in the sessions future Waterboy Steve Wickham
added his violin
to the track The Pan Within; he had been invited after Scott had heard him on a Sinéad O'Connor
demo recorded at Karl Wallinger's house.
The Waterboys (officially a trio of Scott, Thistlethwaite and Wallinger with a slew of guests) released their third album, This Is the Sea
, in October 1985. It sold better than either of the two earlier albums, and managed to get into the Top Forty. A single from it, "The Whole of the Moon", reached number 26 in the UK. Promotion efforts were hampered by Scott's refusal to perform on Top of the Pops
, which insisted that its performers lip sync
. The album release was followed by successful tours of the UK and North America with Wickham becoming a full-time member, Marco Sin replacing Martyn Swain on bass, and Chris Whitten
replacing Kevin Wilkinson on drums. Towards the end of the tour Wallinger left to form his own band, World Party
, and was replaced by Guy Chambers
. At the same time, drummer Dave Ruffy replaced Chris Whitten.
there as well as by country
and gospel
. The band's lineup changed once again with Scott, Wickham and Thistlethwaite now joined by Trevor Hutchinson
on bass and Peter McKinney on drums. The new band, which the official Waterboys' website refers to as the "Raggle Taggle band" lineup, spent 1986 and 1987 recording in Dublin and touring the UK, Ireland, Europe and Israel. Some of these performances were released in 1998 on The Live Adventures of the Waterboys
, including a famous Glastonbury performance in 1986.
In 1988 Scott took the band to Spiddal
in the west of Ireland where they set up a recording studio in Spiddal House to finish recording their new album. Fisherman's Blues
was released in October 1988 and showcased many guest musicians that had played with the band in Dublin and Spiddal. Critics and fans were split between those embracing the new influence of Irish and Scottish folk music and others disappointed after hoping for a continuation of the style of This Is the Sea. World Music: The Rough Guide notes that "some cynics claim that Scotsman Mike Scott gave Irish music back to the Irish... his impact can't be underestimated", but Scott himself explains that it was the Irish tradition that influenced him; "I was in love with Ireland. Every day was a new adventure, it was mythical... Being part of a brotherhood of musicians was a great thing in those days, with all the many musicians of all stripes we befriended in Ireland. I still have that connection to the Irish musicians and tap into it..." Owing to the large number of tracks that were recorded in the three years between This Is the Sea and Fisherman's Blues, The Waterboys released a second album of songs from this period in 2001, titled Too Close to Heaven
(or Fisherman's Blues, Part 2 in North America), and more material was released as bonus tracks for the 2006 reissue of the remastered Fisherman's Blues album.
After further touring the band returned to Spiddal in order to record a new album. The Waterboys now consisted of Mike Scott, Steve Wickham, Anthony Thistlethwaite, Colin Blakey on whistle
, flute
and piano
, Sharon Shannon
on accordion
, Trevor Hutchinson on bass and Noel Bridgeman on drums. Their fifth album, Room to Roam
was released in September 1990. One of the album's tracks was a recording of the traditional folk ballad "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy".
Just before Room to Roam was released, Wickham left over a disagreement with Scott and Thistlethwaite regarding the future direction of the band's sound. Scott and Thistlethwaite wanted to move the band back to a more rock and roll style, and Wickham disagreed. His departure started the band's dissolution, and in his wake Shannon and Blakey both left. Scott, Thistlethwaite and Hutchinson recruited Ken Blevins on drums to fulfil the group's tour dates.
-influenced sound. Frustrated by not being able to get a new touring Waterboys band together, Scott left New York, abandoning the "Waterboys" name and embarking upon a solo career.
However, Scott later resurrected the Waterboys name, citing its recognition amongst fans, for the 2000 album A Rock in the Weary Land
. The album had a new, experimental rock sound, inspired by contemporary bands Radiohead
and Beck
that "shocked" some listeners. Scott described the new sound as "Sonic Rock". A number of old Waterboys guested on the album including Thistlethwaite and Wilkinson. By 2001 the core of the new Waterboys included Mike Scott on vocals and guitar, Richard Naiff
on keyboards and organs
and Wickham, who had returned to the band, on violin. The group changed direction once again in 2003 and released Universal Hall
a mostly acoustic album with a return of some Celtic influences from the Fisherman's Blues era. The album was followed by a tour of the UK and then Europe. Their first official live album, Karma to Burn, was released in 2005. A new studio album, Book of Lightning
, was released 2 April 2007.
, Dublin. The five-night show quickly sold out, later receiving several rave reviews, among which were The Irish Times
and Irish Actor/Playwright Michael Harding
. The performances boasted an eclectic mix of musicians that involved Irish rock singer Katie Kim, Irish Singer/Writer/Guitarist Joe Chester, and Simon Wallace (keyboards). Some of the poems performed include 'The Hosting of the Sidhe', 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree', 'News for the Delphic Oracle', and 'The Song of Wandering Aengus', along with an amalgamation of two Yeats lyrics that became the song 'Let the Earth Bear Witness' which Scott had produced during 'The Sea of Green' 2009 Iranian election protests
. The musical arrangements for the poems were varied and experimental.
On the band's website Scott described the arrangements as "psychedelic, intense, kaleidescopic, a mix of rock, folk and faery music," the delivery of which signals yet another musical shift in the ever mutable world of The Waterboys.
An Appointment With Mr. Yeats returned to Dublin on 7 November 2010 in the city's Grand Canal Theatre. The show was performed at the Barbican Hall, London in February 2011. The album was released on the 19th September 2011.
, where he has lived for some years.
's "Wall of Sound
". The archetypal example, the song "The Big Music", gave the style its name, but the best-selling example was "The Whole of the Moon", the song that the early-1980s Waterboys are best known for and that demonstrates both Wallinger's synthpop
keyboard effects and the effectiveness of the brass section of the band.
After Wickham's joining and the move to Ireland, the band went three years before releasing another album. Fisherman's Blues, and more particularly Room to Roam, traded "The Big Music"'s keyboards and brass for traditional instruments such as tin whistle, flute, fiddle, accordion, harmonica
, and bouzouki
. Celtic folk music replaced rock as the main inspiration for song arrangements on both albums. Rolling Stone
describes the sound as "an impressive mixture of rock music and Celtic ruralism..., Beatles and Donovan
echoes and, of course, lots of grand guitar, fiddle, mandolin, whistle, flute and accordion playing". Traditional folk songs were recorded along with those written by Scott. "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy", a British folk ballad at least two hundred years old, was recorded on Room to Roam. It became closely associated with the band, much as the song "The Big Music" did, and also gave its name to describe the band's character. The recording emphasizes how distinctly different the band's music had become in the five years since the last of "The Big Music" albums.
After the break-up of the "Raggle Taggle band", Scott used The Waterboys' name for Dream Harder and A Rock in the Weary Land. These two albums, separated by seven years and bookending Scott's solo album releases, were both rock albums but with distinctive approaches to that genre. Dream Harder was described as "disappointingly mainstream", whereas the sound of the A Rock in the Weary Land was inspired by alternative music and was praised by critics. For 2003's Universal Hall, however, Wickham had once again rejoined the band, and that album saw a return of the acoustic folk instrumentation of the late 1980s Waterboys, with the exception of the song "Seek the Light", which is instead an idiosyncratic EBM
track.
Scott, who briefly studied literature and philosophy at the University of Edinburgh
, has made heavy use of English literature in his music. "The Whole of the Moon", one of the Waterboys' signature songs, is partially a tribute to writer C. S. Lewis
. Lewis' work is also referenced in other Waterboys songs, such as "Church Not Made With Hands" and "Further Up, Further In".
The Waterboys have recorded poems set to music by writers including William Butler Yeats
("The Stolen Child
" and "Love and Death"), George MacDonald
("Room to Roam"), and Robert Burns
("Ever To Be Near Ye"). A member of the Academy of American Poets
writes that "The Waterboys' gift lies in locating Burns and Yeats within a poetic tradition of song, revelry, and celebration, re-invigorating their verses with the energy of contemporary music". So close is the identification of the Waterboys with their literary influences that the writer also remarks that "W.B.", the initials to which Yeats' first and middle names are often shortened, could also stand for "Waterboys".
The Waterboys returned to W.B. Yeats in March 2010. Having arranged twenty of his poems to music, the band performed them as An Appointment With Mr. Yeats for five nights at the Abbey Theatre
, Dublin (which Yeats co-founded in 1904). The shows were a radical venture for the Waterboys, as Scott himself said in an interview with The Guardian
ahead of the performances: "Scott describes the Waterboys show as a radical statement. In his hands News for the Delphic Oracle becomes a twisted, sinister waltz, somewhere between Tom Waits and Kurt Weill. Set to music during last summer's Iranian protests, Let the Earth Bear Witness – an amalgam of words taken from Cathleen Ni Houlihan
and The Blood Bond – is a protest song with palpable modern resonance. Even The Lake Isle of Innisfree – "the chocolate-box poem, the one they all got in school" – becomes a blues. "Now, that's blasphemous," he laughs. "I love that. I think putting Yeats to rock'n'roll and doing it for 20 songs is radical. It's changing his context absolutely."
Scott has also used a number of poetic
tropes in lyrics, including anthropomorphism
(e.g. "Islandman"), metaphor
(e.g. "A Church Not Made with Hands", "The Whole of the Moon"), and metonymy
(e.g. "Old England"). The latter song quotes from both Yeats and James Joyce
. While the lyrics of the band have explored a large number of themes, symbol
ic references to water are especially prominent. Water is often referenced in their songs (e.g. "This Is the Sea", "Strange Boat", "Fisherman's Blues"). The Waterboys' logo, first seen on the album cover of The Waterboys, symbolizes waves.
and esotericism
of authors such as Yeats and Dion Fortune
, which can be observed in the repeated references to the ancient Greek
deity Pan
in both "The Pan Within" and "The Return of Pan". Pan was also featured on the album art for Room to Roam. "Medicine Bow", a song from the recording sessions for This Is the Sea, refers to Native American
spirituality in its use of the word "medicine" to mean spiritual power. Scott's interest in Native American issues is also demonstrated in his preliminary recordings for the group's debut album, which included the songs "Death Song of the Sioux Parts One & Two" and "Bury My Heart". "Bury My Heart" is a reference to Dee Brown
's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
. a history of Native Americans in the western United States
. Scott took the traditional Sioux song
"The Earth Only Endures" from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and set it to new music; the arrangement appears on The Secret Life of the Waterboys. Christian
imagery can be seen in the songs "December" from The Waterboys, "The Christ in You" on Universal Hall, and indirectly in the influence of Lewis in a number of other songs, but Scott writes that his lyrics are not influenced by Christianity.
Scott has also said, "I've always been interested in spirituality, and I've never joined any religion. And it really turns me off when people from one religion say theirs is the only way. And I believe all religions are just different ways to spirituality. And if you call that universality
, well, then I'm all for it." Despite Scott's pluralist
perspective, The Waterboys have been labelled as "Christian rock
" by some reviewers and heathens by some Christians .
Over fifty musicians have performed live as a Waterboy. Some have spent only a short time with the band, contributing to a single tour or album, while others have been long-term members with significant contributions. Scott has been the band's lead vocalist, motivating force, and principal songwriter throughout the group's history, but a number of other musicians are closely identified with the band.
Anthony Thistlethwaite
was an original member of the band, and remained a member until 1991 when the band broke up, although he also joined a few recording sessions for A Rock in the Weary Land. After Scott and Wickham, Thistlethwaite has more songwriting credits than any other Waterboy. His saxophone, regularly featured in solos, was one half of the early group's distinctive brass section, but he has also played guitar, keyboards and a number of other instruments for the band. He pressed to return The Waterboys to a rock music sound after Room to Roam, but did not appear on Dream Harder, the result of that decision. He is now a member of The Saw Doctors
, and has also released three solo albums.
Kevin Wilkinson
, another original member, was the band's drummer from 1983–1984, and continued to play in some studio sessions afterwards. His later appeared on A Rock in the Weary Land. He led the rhythm section of the group during its "Big Music" phase, sometimes without the assistance of any bass guitar. Scott describes Wilkinson's drumming as "bright and angular, an unusual sound".
Karl Wallinger
joined the group in 1983, shortly after its formation. He left the group two years later, but in that relatively short period made important contributions to both A Pagan Place and This is the Sea. He co-wrote "Don't Bang the Drum", the environmentalism
anthem on the latter album. His keyboards and synthesizer work expanded the group's sound, and he also did some studio work for demo sessions. Wallinger's World Party
project was heavily influenced by his work with The Waterboys.
Roddy Lorimer
's participation in the group began in 1983, contributing his trumpet playing "on and off" until 1990. He and Thistlethwaite took turns leading the brass section of the band, and Lorimer was also a featured soloist, most famously on "The Whole of the Moon" and "Don't Bang the Drum". He further contributed backing vocals to the song. His trumpet style is a combination of his classical training with an experimental approach encouraged by Scott. Lorimer returned for some studio work in 2006.
Steve Wickham
transformed the group with his joining in 1985. His strong interest in folk music directly resulted in the band's change of direction. His initial involvement with The Waterboys ended in 1990 when Scott and Thistlethwaite wanted to return to rock and roll, but Wickham rejoined the group again in 2000, and, as of 2007, continues to perform with the band. Described by Scott as "the world's greatest rock fiddle player", he has written more songs for the band than anyone other than Scott, including the group's handful of instrumental recordings.
Richard Naiff
first recorded with the band in 1999, and joined permanently in 2000. As of 2007, he is a core member, along with Scott and Wickham. He is a classically trained pianist
and flautist
, and plays keyboards for The Waterboys. Ian McNabb
described him as Scott's "find of the century" and reviewers have described him as "phenomenally talented". Naiff officially left The Waterboys in February 2009 to spend more time with his family.
Other notable past members have included Ian McNabb, leader of Icicle Works
; Sharon Shannon
, who became Ireland's all-time best-selling traditional musician; the experimental music
ian Thighpaulsandra
, producer Guy Chambers
, Patti Smith
drummers Jay Dee Daugherty
and Carlos Hercules, bassists Steve Walters and Mark Smith
who was the band's bassist when he died on 3 November 2009.
The Waterboys lineup as of 2010 appeared at the world premiere of An Appointment With Mr. Yeats at The Abbey Theatre
, Dublin. Along with Scott and Wickham the ensemble included Irish rock singer Katie Kim, Irish singer/writer/guitarist Joe Chester, flautist and member of Flook
, Sarah Allen, drummer Ash Soan
, keyboards and piano, Simon Wallace
, bassist Marc Arciero, Blaise Margail on trombone and Ruby Ashley on the oboe.
The Waterboys:
Mike Scott:
Mike Scott (musician)
Michael 'Mike' Scott is the founding member, lead singer and chief songwriter of rock band The Waterboys. He has also produced two solo albums, Bring 'em All In and Still Burning...
. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland and England. Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Dublin, Spiddal
Spiddal
Spiddal is a village on the shore of Galway Bay in County Galway in Ireland. It is west of Galway city on the R336 road. Spiddal is on the eastern side of the county's Gaeltacht near Connemara, and is a tourist centre with a scenic beach, harbour, and shore fishing.-The village:The Mac...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and Findhorn
Findhorn
Findhorn is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles northwest of Kinloss, and about 5 miles by road from Forres....
have all served as homes for the group. The band has played in a number of different styles, but their music is a mix of Celtic folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
with rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. After ten years of recording and touring, they dissolved in 1993 and Scott pursued a solo career. They reformed in 2000, and continue to release albums and tour worldwide. Scott emphasizes a continuity between The Waterboys and his solo work, saying that "To me there's no difference between Mike Scott and the Waterboys; they both mean the same thing. They mean myself and whoever are my current travelling musical companions."
The early Waterboys sound was dubbed "The Big Music" after a song on their second album, A Pagan Place
A Pagan Place
A Pagan Place was an album released in June 1984 by The Waterboys. It was the first Waterboys record with Karl Wallinger as part of the band and also includes Roddy Lorimer's first trumpet solo for the band on the track "A Pagan Place"....
. This musical style was described by Scott as "a metaphor for seeing God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
's signature in the world." It either influenced or was used to describe a number of other bands, including Simple Minds
Simple Minds
Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band who achieved worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The band produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s and best known for their #1 US, Canada and Netherlands hit single "Don't You ", from the soundtrack of the...
, The Alarm
The Alarm
The Alarm are an alternative rock band that emerged from North Wales in the late 1970s. They started as a mod band and stayed together for over ten years. As a rock band, they displayed marked influences from Welsh language and culture...
, In Tua Nua
In Tua Nua
In Tua Nua was an Irish rock group who achieved a modicum of fame and success in both Ireland and Europe throughout the late 1980s.- Biography :...
, Big Country
Big Country
Big Country are a Scottish rock band formed in Dunfermline, Fife in 1981. They were most popular in the early to mid-1980s, but they still release material for a cult following...
, the Hothouse Flowers
Hothouse Flowers
The Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock group that combines traditional Irish music with influences from soul, gospel and rock.-Career:The group first formed in 1985 when Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin began performing as street musicians, or buskers, on the streets of Dublin,Ireland as "The...
and World Party
World Party
World Party is a British pop/alternative rock band, which is essentially the solo project of its sole member, Karl Wallinger. He started the band in 1986 in London after leaving The Waterboys.-Career:...
, the last of which was made up of former Waterboys members. In the late 1980s the band became significantly more folk influenced. The Waterboys eventually returned to rock and roll, and have released both rock and folk albums since reforming. Their songs, largely written by Scott, often contain literary references and are frequently concerned with spirituality. Both the group and its members' solo careers have received much praise from both rock and folk music critics, but The Waterboys as a band has never received the commercial success that some of its members have had independently. Aside from World Party, The Waterboys have also influenced musicians such as Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
, Johnny Goudie
Johnny Goudie
John Charles "Johnny" Goudie is a Cuban-American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumental musician, record producer, actor, and podcaster based in Austin, Texas...
, Colin Meloy
Colin Meloy
Colin Patrick Henry Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for the Portland, Oregon, folk-rock band The Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, harmonica, percussion and interpretive hand gestures.-Early life...
of The Decemberists
The Decemberists
The Decemberists are an indie folk rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. The other members of the band are Chris Funk , Jenny Conlee , Nate Query , and John Moen .The band's...
Grant Nicholas
Grant Nicholas
Grant Nicholas is a Welsh musician, best known as the lead singer and lead guitarist of the rock band Feeder, along with bassist Taka Hirose and drummer Karl Brazil.-Early years:...
of Feeder
Feeder
-Technology:* Feeder , any of several devices used in apiculture to supplement or replace natural food sources* Feeder , another name for a riser, a reservoir built into a metal casting mold to prevent cavities due to shrinkage...
and Miles Hunt
Miles Hunt
Miles Hunt is the singer / guitarist and songwriter for the Stourbridge, England-based Alternative Rock band The Wonder Stuff.- Early life :His father was a union official for the TGWU...
of The Wonder Stuff
The Wonder Stuff
The Wonder Stuff are a British alternative rock band, originally based in Stourbridge, West Midlands, in the Black Country, England.-Origins:...
; both Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
and The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
from U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
are fans of the band.
History
The Waterboys have gone through three distinct phases. Their early years, or "Big Music" period was followed by a folk music period which was characterised by an emphasis on touring over album production and by a large band membership, leading to the description of the group as a "Raggle Taggle band". After a brief return to the "Big Music" for one tour and the release of a mainstream rock and roll album with Dream HarderDream Harder
Dream Harder is an album released in 1993 credited to The Waterboys, but recorded by Mike Scott with session musicians. It was the last Waterboys album before Scott spent seven year pursuing a formal solo career, with Bring 'em All In and Still Burning...
, the band dissolved until its rebirth in 2000. In the years since, the band has revisited both rock and folk music, and continues to tour and release studio albums.
Formation
Scott, the founder and only permanent member of The Waterboys, made a number of solo recordings in late 1981 and early 1982 while in a band named Another Pretty Face (later called Funhouse). These sessions at Redshop Studio are the earliest recordings that would be released under The Waterboys name. During the same period, Scott formed the short-lived band The Red and the Black, with saxophoneSaxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
player Anthony Thistlethwaite
Anthony Thistlethwaite
Anthony "Anto" Thistlethwaite is a British multi-instrumentalist best known as a founder member of the folk-rock group The Waterboys and later as a long-standing member of Irish rock band The Saw Doctors.After a year busking in Paris, playing tenor saxophone around the streets of the Latin...
, after hearing him play on Waiting on Egypt, a Nikki Sudden
Nikki Sudden
Nikki Sudden was a prolific English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He co-founded the post-punk band Swell Maps with his brother Epic Soundtracks while attending Solihull School in Solihull.-Career:...
album. The Red and the Black performed nine concerts in London. Thistlethwaite introduced Scott to drummer Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson was a musician based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England.- Career :Born Kevin Michael Wilkinson in Stoke-on-Trent, he is credited as a former official member of several successful British pop groups, including The League of Gentlemen , The Waterboys , China Crisis and Squeeze...
, who joined The Red and the Black. During 1982, Scott made a number of recordings, both solo and with Thistlethwaite and Wilkinson. These recording sessions, both of Scott's solo work and the group performances, would later be divided between The Waterboys' first and second albums.
In 1983, even though Scott's record label, Ensign Records
Ensign Records
Ensign Records was started in 1976 by Nigel Grainge, as an independent Phonogram subsidiary.-History:Grainge had been the head of A&R at Phonogram in London for the previous two years and directly signed Thin Lizzy, 10cc, The Steve Miller Band, and a worldwide license for the successful All...
, expected his first album to be a solo effort, Scott decided to start a new band. He chose The Waterboys as its name from a line in the Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
song "The Kids" on the album Berlin
Berlin (album)
Berlin is a 1973 album by Lou Reed, his third solo album and the follow-up to Transformer. In 2003, the album was ranked number 344 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, though the publication had called the album a "disaster" 30 years prior.-Background and...
. In March 1983, Ensign released the first recording under the new band name, a single titled A Girl Called Johnny, the A-side of which was a tribute to Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
. This was followed in May by The Waterboys' first performance as a group, on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Old Grey Whistle Test
Old Grey Whistle Test
The Old Grey Whistle Test was an influential BBC2 television music show that ran from 1971 to 1987. It took over the BBC2 late night slot from "Disco Two", which had been running since January 1970, while continuing to feature non-chart music. It was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers...
. The BBC performance included a new member, keyboard player Karl Wallinger
Karl Wallinger
Karl Edmond De Vere Wallinger is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for leading the band World Party and for his mid-1980s stint in The Waterboys...
. The Waterboys released their self-titled debut, The Waterboys
The Waterboys (album)
This eponymously named debut album from The Waterboys was recorded in several studio sessions between December 1981 and November 1982. Allmusic describes the sound of the album as "part Van Morrison, part U2"....
, in July 1983. Their music, influenced by Patti Smith, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, was compared by critics to Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
and U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
in its cinematic sweep.
Early years: the Big Music
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
in February 1984. The band then consisted of Mike Scott on vocals and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, Anthony Thistlethwaite on saxophone and mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, Wallinger on keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, Roddy Lorimer
Roddy Lorimer
Roddy Lorimer is a Scottish musician who has performed with a number of bands, including Blur, Gene, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton, Suede and The Waterboys. He is currently a member of the horn section Kick Horns....
on trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
s, Martyn Swain on bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson was a musician based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England.- Career :Born Kevin Michael Wilkinson in Stoke-on-Trent, he is credited as a former official member of several successful British pop groups, including The League of Gentlemen , The Waterboys , China Crisis and Squeeze...
on drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s. John Caldwell from Another Pretty Face also played guitar, and Scottish singer Eddi Reader
Eddi Reader
Eddi Reader MBE is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known both for her work with Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo career. She is the recipient of three BRIT Awards and has topped both the album and singles charts...
sang backing vocals for the band's first two concerts. The band made some new recordings and over-dubbed old material in late 1983 and early 1984 which were released as The Waterboys' second album, A Pagan Place
A Pagan Place
A Pagan Place was an album released in June 1984 by The Waterboys. It was the first Waterboys record with Karl Wallinger as part of the band and also includes Roddy Lorimer's first trumpet solo for the band on the track "A Pagan Place"....
, in June 1984. The "official" Waterboys line-up at this time, according to the sleeve of A Pagan Place, was Scott, Thistlethwaite, Wallinger and Wilkinson, with guest contributions from Reader, Lorimer and many others.
A Pagan Place was preceded by the single The Big Music. "The Big Music", the name of the single's A-side track, was adopted by some commentators as a description of The Waterboys' sound, and is still used to refer to the musical style of their first three albums. The release of the album was followed by further touring including support for The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
and U2 and a show at the Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
.
The band began to record new material in early 1985 for a new album, with Wilkinson leaving the band to join China Crisis
China Crisis
China Crisis is an English pop/rock band. They were formed in 1979 in Kirkby, near Liverpool, Merseyside with a core of vocalist/keyboardist Gary Daly and guitarist Eddie Lundon...
. Late in the sessions future Waterboy Steve Wickham
Steve Wickham
Steve Wickham is an Irish musician described by Mike Scott as "the world's greatest rock fiddle player" and by New Musical Express as a "fiddling legend." Originally from Marino, Dublin, but calling Sligo home, Wickham has appeared on recordings by Elvis Costello, the Hothouse Flowers, Sinéad...
added his violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
to the track The Pan Within; he had been invited after Scott had heard him on a Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
demo recorded at Karl Wallinger's house.
The Waterboys (officially a trio of Scott, Thistlethwaite and Wallinger with a slew of guests) released their third album, This Is the Sea
This Is the Sea
This Is the Sea is the third and last of The Waterboys' "Big Music" albums. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock-oriented sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment", it was the first Waterboys album to enter the United Kingdom charts, peaking at number...
, in October 1985. It sold better than either of the two earlier albums, and managed to get into the Top Forty. A single from it, "The Whole of the Moon", reached number 26 in the UK. Promotion efforts were hampered by Scott's refusal to perform on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
, which insisted that its performers lip sync
Lip sync
Lip sync, lip-sync, lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with sung or spoken vocals...
. The album release was followed by successful tours of the UK and North America with Wickham becoming a full-time member, Marco Sin replacing Martyn Swain on bass, and Chris Whitten
Chris Whitten
Chris Whitten is a British session drummer who provided drums for the hit singles "What I Am" by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, "World Shut your Mouth" by Julian Cope and "The Whole of the Moon" by The Waterboys...
replacing Kevin Wilkinson on drums. Towards the end of the tour Wallinger left to form his own band, World Party
World Party
World Party is a British pop/alternative rock band, which is essentially the solo project of its sole member, Karl Wallinger. He started the band in 1986 in London after leaving The Waterboys.-Career:...
, and was replaced by Guy Chambers
Guy Chambers
Guy Chambers is an English songwriter and record producer, perhaps best known for his long partnership with Robbie Williams.- Biography :...
. At the same time, drummer Dave Ruffy replaced Chris Whitten.
Late 1980s: The Raggle Taggle band
At the invitation of new member Steve Wickham, Mike Scott moved to Dublin and quickly became influenced by the traditional Irish musicMusic of Ireland
Irish Music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalizing cultural forces...
there as well as by country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
. The band's lineup changed once again with Scott, Wickham and Thistlethwaite now joined by Trevor Hutchinson
Trevor Hutchinson
Trevor Hutchinson is the bass player and a founding member of Lúnasa. Born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, in Northern Ireland, he played with numerous bands before Lúnasa, including The Waterboys and Sharon Shannon.-Discography:With Lúnasa* Lúnasa...
on bass and Peter McKinney on drums. The new band, which the official Waterboys' website refers to as the "Raggle Taggle band" lineup, spent 1986 and 1987 recording in Dublin and touring the UK, Ireland, Europe and Israel. Some of these performances were released in 1998 on The Live Adventures of the Waterboys
The Live Adventures of the Waterboys
The Live Adventures of the Waterboys is a concert recording, released by The Waterboys in 1998. Mike Scott refers to this album as an "unofficial release" or bootleg recording, but praises the recording period as a "classic" period for the Waterboys...
, including a famous Glastonbury performance in 1986.
In 1988 Scott took the band to Spiddal
Spiddal
Spiddal is a village on the shore of Galway Bay in County Galway in Ireland. It is west of Galway city on the R336 road. Spiddal is on the eastern side of the county's Gaeltacht near Connemara, and is a tourist centre with a scenic beach, harbour, and shore fishing.-The village:The Mac...
in the west of Ireland where they set up a recording studio in Spiddal House to finish recording their new album. Fisherman's Blues
Fisherman's Blues
Fisherman's Blues is the 1988 album by The Waterboys. The album marked a change in the sound of The Waterboys', abandoning their earlier grandiose rock sound for a mixture of traditional Scottish music, country music and rock and roll. Critics were divided on its release with some disappointed at...
was released in October 1988 and showcased many guest musicians that had played with the band in Dublin and Spiddal. Critics and fans were split between those embracing the new influence of Irish and Scottish folk music and others disappointed after hoping for a continuation of the style of This Is the Sea. World Music: The Rough Guide notes that "some cynics claim that Scotsman Mike Scott gave Irish music back to the Irish... his impact can't be underestimated", but Scott himself explains that it was the Irish tradition that influenced him; "I was in love with Ireland. Every day was a new adventure, it was mythical... Being part of a brotherhood of musicians was a great thing in those days, with all the many musicians of all stripes we befriended in Ireland. I still have that connection to the Irish musicians and tap into it..." Owing to the large number of tracks that were recorded in the three years between This Is the Sea and Fisherman's Blues, The Waterboys released a second album of songs from this period in 2001, titled Too Close to Heaven
Too Close to Heaven
Too Close to Heaven is a collection of outtakes, alternative versions, and unreleased tracks from The Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues period, released September 2001. The album was released as Fisherman's Blues, Part 2 in the United States with five additional tracks in July of that year.The title...
(or Fisherman's Blues, Part 2 in North America), and more material was released as bonus tracks for the 2006 reissue of the remastered Fisherman's Blues album.
After further touring the band returned to Spiddal in order to record a new album. The Waterboys now consisted of Mike Scott, Steve Wickham, Anthony Thistlethwaite, Colin Blakey on whistle
Whistle
A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
, flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon is an Irish musician. She is best known for her work with the accordion and for her fiddle technique. She also plays the tin whistle and melodeon. Her 1991 album Sharon Shannon is the best selling album of traditional Irish music ever released there...
on accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, Trevor Hutchinson on bass and Noel Bridgeman on drums. Their fifth album, Room to Roam
Room to Roam
Room to Roam is an album by The Waterboys; it continued the folk-rock sound of 1988's Fisherman's Blues, but was less of a commercial success, reaching one-hundred and eighty on the Billboard Top 200 after its release in September 1990. Critical response continues to be mixed...
was released in September 1990. One of the album's tracks was a recording of the traditional folk ballad "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy".
Just before Room to Roam was released, Wickham left over a disagreement with Scott and Thistlethwaite regarding the future direction of the band's sound. Scott and Thistlethwaite wanted to move the band back to a more rock and roll style, and Wickham disagreed. His departure started the band's dissolution, and in his wake Shannon and Blakey both left. Scott, Thistlethwaite and Hutchinson recruited Ken Blevins on drums to fulfil the group's tour dates.
End and return of the Waterboys
Trevor Hutchinson left the band in 1991, a year that also saw a re-release of the single "The Whole of the Moon" from This Is the Sea. The single reached number three on the United Kingdom charts. Scott spent the rest of the year writing new material and moved to New York. Thistlethwaite left the band in December, leaving Mike Scott as The Waterboys' only member. The next album was completed with session musicians and was released in 1993 as Dream Harder with a new hard rockHard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
-influenced sound. Frustrated by not being able to get a new touring Waterboys band together, Scott left New York, abandoning the "Waterboys" name and embarking upon a solo career.
However, Scott later resurrected the Waterboys name, citing its recognition amongst fans, for the 2000 album A Rock in the Weary Land
A Rock in the Weary Land
A Rock in the Weary Land was an album released in 2000 by The Waterboys. It was their first album after a seven year break...
. The album had a new, experimental rock sound, inspired by contemporary bands Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
and Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
that "shocked" some listeners. Scott described the new sound as "Sonic Rock". A number of old Waterboys guested on the album including Thistlethwaite and Wilkinson. By 2001 the core of the new Waterboys included Mike Scott on vocals and guitar, Richard Naiff
Richard Naiff
Richard Naiff is a pianist and flautist from London, England who has performed with the bands Soulsec, The Catacoustics, The Waterboys and The Icicle Works. Naiff is a classically trained musician, having joined the Guildhall School of Music at age ten...
on keyboards and organs
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
and Wickham, who had returned to the band, on violin. The group changed direction once again in 2003 and released Universal Hall
Universal Hall
Universal Hall is a 2003 album released by The Waterboys. It is named after the theatre and performance hall at the Findhorn Foundation, which is pictured on the album cover. The album shows much more influence from folk music than its predecessor, A Rock in the Weary Land...
a mostly acoustic album with a return of some Celtic influences from the Fisherman's Blues era. The album was followed by a tour of the UK and then Europe. Their first official live album, Karma to Burn, was released in 2005. A new studio album, Book of Lightning
Book of Lightning
Book of Lightning is the ninth studio album by The Waterboys, released April 2, 2007 through W14/Universal Records. The album contains ten tracks, produced by Mike Scott and Philip Tennant, with musical contributions from Steve Wickham , Richard Naiff , Brady Blade , Mark Smith , Leo Abrahams ,...
, was released 2 April 2007.
An Appointment With Mr Yeats
Having harboured the idea for twenty years, Mike Scott set twenty W.B. Yeats poems to music in an enterprise that evolved into a show entitled An Appointment With Mr. Yeats. The Waterboys held the world premiere from 15 to 20 March 2010 in Yeats's own theatre, the Abbey TheatreAbbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
, Dublin. The five-night show quickly sold out, later receiving several rave reviews, among which were The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
and Irish Actor/Playwright Michael Harding
Michael Harding
Michael Harding is an Irish short-story writer, novelist, and playwright, born in County Cavan. He lives in Westmeath. He has published three novels Priest and The Trouble With Sarah Gullion' and'Bird in the Snow' 2008 He became a member of Aosdana, the National Academy for Creative Artists, in...
. The performances boasted an eclectic mix of musicians that involved Irish rock singer Katie Kim, Irish Singer/Writer/Guitarist Joe Chester, and Simon Wallace (keyboards). Some of the poems performed include 'The Hosting of the Sidhe', 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree', 'News for the Delphic Oracle', and 'The Song of Wandering Aengus', along with an amalgamation of two Yeats lyrics that became the song 'Let the Earth Bear Witness' which Scott had produced during 'The Sea of Green' 2009 Iranian election protests
2009 Iranian election protests
Protests following the 2009 Iranian presidential election against the disputed victory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi occurred in major cities in Iran and around the world starting June 13, 2009...
. The musical arrangements for the poems were varied and experimental.
On the band's website Scott described the arrangements as "psychedelic, intense, kaleidescopic, a mix of rock, folk and faery music," the delivery of which signals yet another musical shift in the ever mutable world of The Waterboys.
An Appointment With Mr. Yeats returned to Dublin on 7 November 2010 in the city's Grand Canal Theatre. The show was performed at the Barbican Hall, London in February 2011. The album was released on the 19th September 2011.
Music
The Waterboys' lyrics and arrangements reflect Scott's current interests and influences, the latter including the musical sensibilities of other members. Wickham in particular had a tremendous impact on the band's sound after joining the group. In terms of arrangement and instrumentation, rock and roll and Celtic folk music have played the largest roles in the band's sound. Literature and spirituality have played an important role in Scott's lyrics Other contributing factors include punk music's DIY ethic, the British poetic tradition, and Scott's experiences at FindhornFindhorn Foundation
The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain....
, where he has lived for some years.
Sound
The Waterboys' music can be divided into three distinct styles. The first is represented by the first three albums, released between 1983 and 1985. The band's arrangements during this period, described by Allmusic as a "rich, dramatic sound... majestic", and typically referred to as "The Big Music", combined the rock and roll sound of early U2 with elements of classical trumpet (Lorimer), jazz saxophone (Thistlethwaite) and contemporary keyboards (Wallinger). Scott emphasized the arrangement's fullness by using production techniques similar to Phil SpectorPhil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
's "Wall of Sound
Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, California, during the early 1960s...
". The archetypal example, the song "The Big Music", gave the style its name, but the best-selling example was "The Whole of the Moon", the song that the early-1980s Waterboys are best known for and that demonstrates both Wallinger's synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
keyboard effects and the effectiveness of the brass section of the band.
After Wickham's joining and the move to Ireland, the band went three years before releasing another album. Fisherman's Blues, and more particularly Room to Roam, traded "The Big Music"'s keyboards and brass for traditional instruments such as tin whistle, flute, fiddle, accordion, harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, and bouzouki
Bouzouki
The bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...
. Celtic folk music replaced rock as the main inspiration for song arrangements on both albums. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
describes the sound as "an impressive mixture of rock music and Celtic ruralism..., Beatles and Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
echoes and, of course, lots of grand guitar, fiddle, mandolin, whistle, flute and accordion playing". Traditional folk songs were recorded along with those written by Scott. "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy", a British folk ballad at least two hundred years old, was recorded on Room to Roam. It became closely associated with the band, much as the song "The Big Music" did, and also gave its name to describe the band's character. The recording emphasizes how distinctly different the band's music had become in the five years since the last of "The Big Music" albums.
After the break-up of the "Raggle Taggle band", Scott used The Waterboys' name for Dream Harder and A Rock in the Weary Land. These two albums, separated by seven years and bookending Scott's solo album releases, were both rock albums but with distinctive approaches to that genre. Dream Harder was described as "disappointingly mainstream", whereas the sound of the A Rock in the Weary Land was inspired by alternative music and was praised by critics. For 2003's Universal Hall, however, Wickham had once again rejoined the band, and that album saw a return of the acoustic folk instrumentation of the late 1980s Waterboys, with the exception of the song "Seek the Light", which is instead an idiosyncratic EBM
Electronic body music
Electronic body music or industrial dance is a music genre that combines elements of industrial music and electronic dance music...
track.
Literary influences
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, has made heavy use of English literature in his music. "The Whole of the Moon", one of the Waterboys' signature songs, is partially a tribute to writer C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
. Lewis' work is also referenced in other Waterboys songs, such as "Church Not Made With Hands" and "Further Up, Further In".
The Waterboys have recorded poems set to music by writers including William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
("The Stolen Child
The Stolen Child
"The Stolen Child" is a poem by William Butler Yeats, published in 1889 in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems.-Overview:The poem was written in 1886 and is considered to be one of Yeats's more notable early poems. The poem is based on Irish legend and concerns faeries beguiling a child to come...
" and "Love and Death"), George MacDonald
George MacDonald
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S...
("Room to Roam"), and Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
("Ever To Be Near Ye"). A member of the Academy of American Poets
Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
writes that "The Waterboys' gift lies in locating Burns and Yeats within a poetic tradition of song, revelry, and celebration, re-invigorating their verses with the energy of contemporary music". So close is the identification of the Waterboys with their literary influences that the writer also remarks that "W.B.", the initials to which Yeats' first and middle names are often shortened, could also stand for "Waterboys".
The Waterboys returned to W.B. Yeats in March 2010. Having arranged twenty of his poems to music, the band performed them as An Appointment With Mr. Yeats for five nights at the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
, Dublin (which Yeats co-founded in 1904). The shows were a radical venture for the Waterboys, as Scott himself said in an interview with The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
ahead of the performances: "Scott describes the Waterboys show as a radical statement. In his hands News for the Delphic Oracle becomes a twisted, sinister waltz, somewhere between Tom Waits and Kurt Weill. Set to music during last summer's Iranian protests, Let the Earth Bear Witness – an amalgam of words taken from Cathleen Ni Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan is a one-act play written by Irish playwright William Butler Yeats in collaboration with Lady Gregory in 1902 and first performed on 2 April of that year. The play is startlingly nationalistic, encouraging in its last pages that young men sacrifice their lives for the heroine...
and The Blood Bond – is a protest song with palpable modern resonance. Even The Lake Isle of Innisfree – "the chocolate-box poem, the one they all got in school" – becomes a blues. "Now, that's blasphemous," he laughs. "I love that. I think putting Yeats to rock'n'roll and doing it for 20 songs is radical. It's changing his context absolutely."
Scott has also used a number of poetic
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
tropes in lyrics, including anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
(e.g. "Islandman"), metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
(e.g. "A Church Not Made with Hands", "The Whole of the Moon"), and metonymy
Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept...
(e.g. "Old England"). The latter song quotes from both Yeats and James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
. While the lyrics of the band have explored a large number of themes, symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ic references to water are especially prominent. Water is often referenced in their songs (e.g. "This Is the Sea", "Strange Boat", "Fisherman's Blues"). The Waterboys' logo, first seen on the album cover of The Waterboys, symbolizes waves.
Spirituality
The Waterboys' lyrics show influences from different spiritual traditions. The first is the romantic NeopaganismNeopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
and esotericism
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
of authors such as Yeats and Dion Fortune
Dion Fortune
Violet Mary Firth Evans , better known as Dion Fortune, was a British occultist and author. Her pseudonym was inspired by her family motto "Deo, non fortuna" , originally the ancient motto of the Barons & Earls Digby.-Early life:She was born in Bryn-y-Bia in Llandudno, Wales, and grew up in a...
, which can be observed in the repeated references to the ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
deity Pan
Pan (mythology)
Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
in both "The Pan Within" and "The Return of Pan". Pan was also featured on the album art for Room to Roam. "Medicine Bow", a song from the recording sessions for This Is the Sea, refers to Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
spirituality in its use of the word "medicine" to mean spiritual power. Scott's interest in Native American issues is also demonstrated in his preliminary recordings for the group's debut album, which included the songs "Death Song of the Sioux Parts One & Two" and "Bury My Heart". "Bury My Heart" is a reference to Dee Brown
Dee Brown (novelist)
Dorris Alexander "Dee" Brown was an American novelist and historian.His most famous work, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee details some of the violence and oppression suffered by Native Americans at the hands of American expansionism.-Life:Born in Alberta, Louisiana, a sawmill town, Brown grew up in...
's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by American writer Dee Brown is a history of Native Americans in the American West in the late nineteenth century. He describes the people's displacement through forced relocations and years of warfare waged by the United States federal government...
. a history of Native Americans in the western United States
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. Scott took the traditional Sioux song
Sioux music
The Sioux are a diverse group of Native Americans generally divided into three subgroups: Lakota, Dakota and Nakota.Among the Dakota, traditional dance songs generally begin in a high pitch, led by a single vocalist who sings a phrase that is then repeated by a group. This phrase then cascades to...
"The Earth Only Endures" from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and set it to new music; the arrangement appears on The Secret Life of the Waterboys. Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
imagery can be seen in the songs "December" from The Waterboys, "The Christ in You" on Universal Hall, and indirectly in the influence of Lewis in a number of other songs, but Scott writes that his lyrics are not influenced by Christianity.
Scott has also said, "I've always been interested in spirituality, and I've never joined any religion. And it really turns me off when people from one religion say theirs is the only way. And I believe all religions are just different ways to spirituality. And if you call that universality
Universalism
Universalism in its primary meaning refers to religious, theological, and philosophical concepts with universal application or applicability...
, well, then I'm all for it." Despite Scott's pluralist
Religious pluralism
Religious pluralism is a loosely defined expression concerning acceptance of various religions, and is used in a number of related ways:* As the name of the worldview according to which one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus that at least some truths and true values...
perspective, The Waterboys have been labelled as "Christian rock
Christian rock
Christian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...
" by some reviewers and heathens by some Christians .
Membership
Anthony Thistlethwaite
Anthony Thistlethwaite
Anthony "Anto" Thistlethwaite is a British multi-instrumentalist best known as a founder member of the folk-rock group The Waterboys and later as a long-standing member of Irish rock band The Saw Doctors.After a year busking in Paris, playing tenor saxophone around the streets of the Latin...
was an original member of the band, and remained a member until 1991 when the band broke up, although he also joined a few recording sessions for A Rock in the Weary Land. After Scott and Wickham, Thistlethwaite has more songwriting credits than any other Waterboy. His saxophone, regularly featured in solos, was one half of the early group's distinctive brass section, but he has also played guitar, keyboards and a number of other instruments for the band. He pressed to return The Waterboys to a rock music sound after Room to Roam, but did not appear on Dream Harder, the result of that decision. He is now a member of The Saw Doctors
The Saw Doctors
The Saw Doctors are an Irish rock band. Formed in 1986 in Tuam, County Galway, they have achieved eighteen Top 30 singles in Ireland, including three number ones. Their first number one, "I Useta Lover," topped the Irish charts for nine consecutive weeks in 1990, and still holds the record for the...
, and has also released three solo albums.
Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson was a musician based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England.- Career :Born Kevin Michael Wilkinson in Stoke-on-Trent, he is credited as a former official member of several successful British pop groups, including The League of Gentlemen , The Waterboys , China Crisis and Squeeze...
, another original member, was the band's drummer from 1983–1984, and continued to play in some studio sessions afterwards. His later appeared on A Rock in the Weary Land. He led the rhythm section of the group during its "Big Music" phase, sometimes without the assistance of any bass guitar. Scott describes Wilkinson's drumming as "bright and angular, an unusual sound".
Karl Wallinger
Karl Wallinger
Karl Edmond De Vere Wallinger is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for leading the band World Party and for his mid-1980s stint in The Waterboys...
joined the group in 1983, shortly after its formation. He left the group two years later, but in that relatively short period made important contributions to both A Pagan Place and This is the Sea. He co-wrote "Don't Bang the Drum", the environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
anthem on the latter album. His keyboards and synthesizer work expanded the group's sound, and he also did some studio work for demo sessions. Wallinger's World Party
World Party
World Party is a British pop/alternative rock band, which is essentially the solo project of its sole member, Karl Wallinger. He started the band in 1986 in London after leaving The Waterboys.-Career:...
project was heavily influenced by his work with The Waterboys.
Roddy Lorimer
Roddy Lorimer
Roddy Lorimer is a Scottish musician who has performed with a number of bands, including Blur, Gene, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton, Suede and The Waterboys. He is currently a member of the horn section Kick Horns....
's participation in the group began in 1983, contributing his trumpet playing "on and off" until 1990. He and Thistlethwaite took turns leading the brass section of the band, and Lorimer was also a featured soloist, most famously on "The Whole of the Moon" and "Don't Bang the Drum". He further contributed backing vocals to the song. His trumpet style is a combination of his classical training with an experimental approach encouraged by Scott. Lorimer returned for some studio work in 2006.
Steve Wickham
Steve Wickham
Steve Wickham is an Irish musician described by Mike Scott as "the world's greatest rock fiddle player" and by New Musical Express as a "fiddling legend." Originally from Marino, Dublin, but calling Sligo home, Wickham has appeared on recordings by Elvis Costello, the Hothouse Flowers, Sinéad...
transformed the group with his joining in 1985. His strong interest in folk music directly resulted in the band's change of direction. His initial involvement with The Waterboys ended in 1990 when Scott and Thistlethwaite wanted to return to rock and roll, but Wickham rejoined the group again in 2000, and, as of 2007, continues to perform with the band. Described by Scott as "the world's greatest rock fiddle player", he has written more songs for the band than anyone other than Scott, including the group's handful of instrumental recordings.
Richard Naiff
Richard Naiff is a pianist and flautist from London, England who has performed with the bands Soulsec, The Catacoustics, The Waterboys and The Icicle Works. Naiff is a classically trained musician, having joined the Guildhall School of Music at age ten...
first recorded with the band in 1999, and joined permanently in 2000. As of 2007, he is a core member, along with Scott and Wickham. He is a classically trained pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and flautist
Flautist
A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...
, and plays keyboards for The Waterboys. Ian McNabb
Ian McNabb
Robert Ian McNabb is a British singer-songwriter and musician from Liverpool, England. He is known both for his work as leader and songwriter-in-chief of The Icicle Works in the 1980s, and his critically acclaimed solo career throughout from the early 1990s to date...
described him as Scott's "find of the century" and reviewers have described him as "phenomenally talented". Naiff officially left The Waterboys in February 2009 to spend more time with his family.
Other notable past members have included Ian McNabb, leader of Icicle Works
Icicle Works
The Icicle Works were an English alternative rock band of the 1980s. Named after the 1960 short story "The Day the Icicle Works Closed" by science fiction author Frederik Pohl, The Icicle Works joined Liverpool's early 1980s 'neo-psychedelia' wave, which also propelled Echo & the Bunnymen and The...
; Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon is an Irish musician. She is best known for her work with the accordion and for her fiddle technique. She also plays the tin whistle and melodeon. Her 1991 album Sharon Shannon is the best selling album of traditional Irish music ever released there...
, who became Ireland's all-time best-selling traditional musician; the experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
ian Thighpaulsandra
Thighpaulsandra
Thighpaulsandra is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. As Tim Lewis, he began his career working with Julian Cope. A collaboration with Cope in 1993 followed, as the experimental duo Queen Elizabeth...
, producer Guy Chambers
Guy Chambers
Guy Chambers is an English songwriter and record producer, perhaps best known for his long partnership with Robbie Williams.- Biography :...
, Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
drummers Jay Dee Daugherty
Jay Dee Daugherty
Jay Dee Daugherty is an American drummer and songwriter most known for his work with Patti Smith. As a member of the Patti Smith Group, he has been nominated twice to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.- Biography :...
and Carlos Hercules, bassists Steve Walters and Mark Smith
Mark Smith (musician - producer)
Mark Smith was a British bassist and record producer, who played bass guitar in recordings and performances with The Waterboys, Leo Sayer, Gonzales, Percy Sledge, Terry Reid, Alvin Stardust, Chris Farlowe, Patricia Kaas, Bryan Ferry, Tony O'Malley, Barbara Dickson, Shania Twain, Zoot Sims, Neneh...
who was the band's bassist when he died on 3 November 2009.
The Waterboys lineup as of 2010 appeared at the world premiere of An Appointment With Mr. Yeats at The Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
, Dublin. Along with Scott and Wickham the ensemble included Irish rock singer Katie Kim, Irish singer/writer/guitarist Joe Chester, flautist and member of Flook
Flook
Flook was an Anglo-Irish band playing traditional-style instrumental music, much of it penned by the band themselves. Their music is typified by extremely fast, sometimes percussive, flute and whistle atop complex guitar and bodhrán rhythms.-History:...
, Sarah Allen, drummer Ash Soan
Ash Soan
Ashley "Ash" Soan is a British drummer. His influences include Steve Ferrone, Jim Keltner, James Gadson, Phil Rudd, Art Blakey and Jeff Porcaro.-Career:...
, keyboards and piano, Simon Wallace
Simon Wallace
Simon Wallace is a British composer and pianist.Simon Wallace was born in Newport, South Wales. He studied music at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and University College, Oxford, where he ran the Oxford University Jazz Club and played with The Oxcentrics a Dixieland jazz band...
, bassist Marc Arciero, Blaise Margail on trombone and Ruby Ashley on the oboe.
Singles
For the sake of convenience, singles by Another Pretty Face, The Waterboys and by Mike Scott are included in this chart. All tracks were released as singles in the UK, except:- Tracks marked ♦ were released commercially as singles, but not in the UK.
- Tracks marked ♦♦ were released as promo-only singles, and only in the US.
Year Title Artist credit Chart positions Album U.K. Singles UK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...Australia Canada Ireland Irish Singles ChartThe Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured...New Zealand US Modern Rock 1979 "All The Boys Love Carrie" Another Pretty Face - - - - - - Non-album release 1980 "Whatever Happened to the West?" - - - - - - "Heaven Gets Closer Everyday" - - - - - - 1981 "Soul to Soul" - - - - - - 1983 "A Girl Called Johnny" The Waterboys 80 - - - - - The Waterboys The Waterboys (album)This eponymously named debut album from The Waterboys was recorded in several studio sessions between December 1981 and November 1982. Allmusic describes the sound of the album as "part Van Morrison, part U2"...."December" - - - - - - 1984 "The Big Music" - - - - - - A Pagan Place A Pagan PlaceA Pagan Place was an album released in June 1984 by The Waterboys. It was the first Waterboys record with Karl Wallinger as part of the band and also includes Roddy Lorimer's first trumpet solo for the band on the track "A Pagan Place"....♦ "Church Not Made With Hands" - - - - - - ♦ "All The Things She Gave Me" - - - - - - 1985 "The Whole of the Moon" 26 12 71 - 19 - This Is the Sea This Is the SeaThis Is the Sea is the third and last of The Waterboys' "Big Music" albums. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock-oriented sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment", it was the first Waterboys album to enter the United Kingdom charts, peaking at number...♦ "Don't Bang The Drum" - - - - - - 1988 "Fisherman's Blues" 32 54 - 13 20 3 Fisherman's Blues Fisherman's BluesFisherman's Blues is the 1988 album by The Waterboys. The album marked a change in the sound of The Waterboys', abandoning their earlier grandiose rock sound for a mixture of traditional Scottish music, country music and rock and roll. Critics were divided on its release with some disappointed at...1989 "And a Bang on the Ear" 51 - - 1 - - ♦♦ "World Party" - - - - - 19 1990 ♦ "How Long Will I Love You?" - - - 28 - - Room to Roam Room to RoamRoom to Roam is an album by The Waterboys; it continued the folk-rock sound of 1988's Fisherman's Blues, but was less of a commercial success, reaching one-hundred and eighty on the Billboard Top 200 after its release in September 1990. Critical response continues to be mixed...♦♦ "A Life of Sundays" - - - - - 15 1991 "The Whole of the Moon"
(reissue)3 - - 2 - - The Best of the Waterboys 81–90 The Best of the Waterboys 81–90The Best of the Waterboys 81–90 is a compilation album by The Waterboys, released April 29, 1991.-Track listing:Tracks written by Mike Scott, unless otherwise noted.# "A Girl Called Johnny"# "The Big Music"# "All The Things She Gave Me"..."Fisherman's Blues"
(reissue)75 - - 17 - - 1993 "The Return of Pan" 24 - 68 28 - 10 Dream Harder Dream HarderDream Harder is an album released in 1993 credited to The Waterboys, but recorded by Mike Scott with session musicians. It was the last Waterboys album before Scott spent seven year pursuing a formal solo career, with Bring 'em All In and Still Burning..."Glastonbury Song" 29 - - 12 - - ♦♦"Preparing To Fly" - - - - - - 1995 "Bring 'em All In" Mike Scott 56 - - - - - Bring 'em All In Bring 'em All InBring 'em All In was Mike Scott's first of two solo albums, the other being 1997's Still Burning. Dream Harder was recorded by Scott and session musicians, but was credited to Scott's band, The Waterboys..."Building The City Of Light" 60 - - - - - 1997 "Love Anyway" 50 - - - - - Still Burning Still BurningStill Burning is 1997's follow-up to Bring 'em All In , and the last of Mike Scott's solo albums before re-forming The Waterboys in 2000...1998 "Rare, Precious and Gone" 74 - - - - - ♦♦ "Questions" - - - - - - 2000 "Is She Conscious?" The Waterboys - - - - - - A Rock in the Weary Land A Rock in the Weary LandA Rock in the Weary Land was an album released in 2000 by The Waterboys. It was their first album after a seven year break..."A Rock in the Weary Land" - - - - - - "We Are Jonah" - - - - - - 2007 "Everybody Takes a Tumble" 125 - - - - - Book of Lightning Book of LightningBook of Lightning is the ninth studio album by The Waterboys, released April 2, 2007 through W14/Universal Records. The album contains ten tracks, produced by Mike Scott and Philip Tennant, with musical contributions from Steve Wickham , Richard Naiff , Brady Blade , Mark Smith , Leo Abrahams ,...2011 "Sweet dancer" - - - - - - An Appointment With Mr Yeats
Studio albums
For the sake of convenience, albums by The Waterboys and by Mike Scott are included here. Scott has stated on numerous occasions that he sees no qualitative or creative difference between the music produced under the two brand names.The Waterboys:
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK |
IRE Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
NLD Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
NO VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
NZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
SWE Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
|||
| 1983 | The Waterboys The Waterboys (album) This eponymously named debut album from The Waterboys was recorded in several studio sessions between December 1981 and November 1982. Allmusic describes the sound of the album as "part Van Morrison, part U2".... |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1984 | A Pagan Place A Pagan Place A Pagan Place was an album released in June 1984 by The Waterboys. It was the first Waterboys record with Karl Wallinger as part of the band and also includes Roddy Lorimer's first trumpet solo for the band on the track "A Pagan Place".... |
100 | - | - | - | 40 | - | - | |
| 1985 | This Is the Sea This Is the Sea This Is the Sea is the third and last of The Waterboys' "Big Music" albums. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock-oriented sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment", it was the first Waterboys album to enter the United Kingdom charts, peaking at number... |
37 | - | 4 | - | 6 | - | - |
|
| 1988 | Fisherman's Blues Fisherman's Blues Fisherman's Blues is the 1988 album by The Waterboys. The album marked a change in the sound of The Waterboys', abandoning their earlier grandiose rock sound for a mixture of traditional Scottish music, country music and rock and roll. Critics were divided on its release with some disappointed at... |
13 | - | - | 7 | 15 | 18 | 76 |
|
| 1990 | Room to Roam Room to Roam Room to Roam is an album by The Waterboys; it continued the folk-rock sound of 1988's Fisherman's Blues, but was less of a commercial success, reaching one-hundred and eighty on the Billboard Top 200 after its release in September 1990. Critical response continues to be mixed... |
5 | - | 69 | 11 | - | 16 | 180 |
|
| 1993 | Dream Harder Dream Harder Dream Harder is an album released in 1993 credited to The Waterboys, but recorded by Mike Scott with session musicians. It was the last Waterboys album before Scott spent seven year pursuing a formal solo career, with Bring 'em All In and Still Burning... |
5 | - | 54 | 3 | 28 | 13 | 171 |
|
| 2000 | A Rock in the Weary Land A Rock in the Weary Land A Rock in the Weary Land was an album released in 2000 by The Waterboys. It was their first album after a seven year break... |
47 | 17 | - | 27 | - | 51 | - | |
| 2003 | Universal Hall Universal Hall Universal Hall is a 2003 album released by The Waterboys. It is named after the theatre and performance hall at the Findhorn Foundation, which is pictured on the album cover. The album shows much more influence from folk music than its predecessor, A Rock in the Weary Land... |
74 | 54 | - | 24 | - | - | - | |
| 2007 | Book of Lightning Book of Lightning Book of Lightning is the ninth studio album by The Waterboys, released April 2, 2007 through W14/Universal Records. The album contains ten tracks, produced by Mike Scott and Philip Tennant, with musical contributions from Steve Wickham , Richard Naiff , Brady Blade , Mark Smith , Leo Abrahams ,... |
51 | 19 | 73 | 12 | - | - | - | |
| 2011 | An Appointment With Mr Yeats | 30 | 13 | - | 23 | - | - | - | |
Mike Scott:
- 1995: Bring 'em All InBring 'em All InBring 'em All In was Mike Scott's first of two solo albums, the other being 1997's Still Burning. Dream Harder was recorded by Scott and session musicians, but was credited to Scott's band, The Waterboys...
- 1997: Still BurningStill BurningStill Burning is 1997's follow-up to Bring 'em All In , and the last of Mike Scott's solo albums before re-forming The Waterboys in 2000...
Live albums and compilations
- 1991: The Best of the Waterboys 81–90The Best of the Waterboys 81–90The Best of the Waterboys 81–90 is a compilation album by The Waterboys, released April 29, 1991.-Track listing:Tracks written by Mike Scott, unless otherwise noted.# "A Girl Called Johnny"# "The Big Music"# "All The Things She Gave Me"...
IREIrish Albums ChartThe Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...
#1 - 1994: The Secret Life of the Waterboys 81–85The Secret Life of the Waterboys 81–85The Secret Life of the Waterboys 81–85 is an album of outtakes, live tracks, and demos, released by The Waterboys in 1994.-Track listing:Tracks written by Mike Scott, unless otherwise noted.# "Medicine Bow" – 5:07...
- 1998: The Live Adventures of the WaterboysThe Live Adventures of the WaterboysThe Live Adventures of the Waterboys is a concert recording, released by The Waterboys in 1998. Mike Scott refers to this album as an "unofficial release" or bootleg recording, but praises the recording period as a "classic" period for the Waterboys...
UK #91 - 1998: The Whole of the Moon: the Music of Mike Scott and the Waterboys
- 2001: Too Close to HeavenToo Close to HeavenToo Close to Heaven is a collection of outtakes, alternative versions, and unreleased tracks from The Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues period, released September 2001. The album was released as Fisherman's Blues, Part 2 in the United States with five additional tracks in July of that year.The title...
(issued as Fisherman's Blues, Part 2 in the United States) UK #111 - 2005: Karma to Burn
- 2006: Fisherman's BluesFisherman's BluesFisherman's Blues is the 1988 album by The Waterboys. The album marked a change in the sound of The Waterboys', abandoning their earlier grandiose rock sound for a mixture of traditional Scottish music, country music and rock and roll. Critics were divided on its release with some disappointed at...
(Collectors Edition) UK #119 - 2008: Room to RoamRoom to RoamRoom to Roam is an album by The Waterboys; it continued the folk-rock sound of 1988's Fisherman's Blues, but was less of a commercial success, reaching one-hundred and eighty on the Billboard Top 200 after its release in September 1990. Critical response continues to be mixed...
(Collectors Edition) UKUK Albums ChartThe UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
#179 - 2008: Kiss the wind (outtakes collection)
- 2011: In a Special Place - The Piano Demos for This Is the Sea UK #196
Further reading
An unauthorized biography of Mike Scott & The Waterboys has been published:- Abrahams, Ian. Strange Boat (SAF publishing) ISBN 0-946719-92-6