The Waterboys are a rock band formed in 1983 in London by Scottish musician and songwriter Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Britain and Ireland, with Scott being the only constant member. Over a four-decade career, the band has drawn on multiple styles of music including punk rock, rock and roll, folk music (in particular Irish and Scottish music), Celtic soul, noise rock, country music, rhythm & blues and chamber music.
Having originally dissolved in 1993 (when Scott departed to pursue a solo career), the group reformed in 2000, and continue to release albums and to tour worldwide. Scott emphasises 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 became known as "The Big Music" after a song on their second album, A Pagan Place. This style was described by Scott as "a metaphor for seeing God's signature in the world." This article appeared as part of the Academy of American Poets' web-based National Poetry Almanac's 2004 "Poetry and Music" series. The author is unidentified. See for more information about the series. Waterboys chronicler Ian Abrahams elaborated on this by defining "The Big Music" as "...a mystical celebration of paganism. It's extolling the basic and primitive divinity that exists in everything ('the oceans and the sand'), religious and spiritual all encompassing. Here is something that can't be owned or built upon, something that has its existence in the concept of Mother Earth and has an ancestral approach to religion. And it takes in and embraces the feminine side of divinity, pluralistic in its acceptance of the wider pantheon of paganism."Strange Boat: Mike Scott & The Waterboys by Ian Abrahams (2007) p. 57
"The Big Music" was used to describe other bands specializing in an anthemic sound, including U2, Simple Minds, In Tua Nua, Big Country and Hothouse Flowers. 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.
History The Waterboys have gone through four 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 the release of a mainstream rock and roll album with Dream Harder, the band dissolved until they reunited in 2000. In the years since, they have revisited both rock and folk music, and continue to tour and release studio albums.
Formation Scott, the Edinburgh-born son of a college lecturer, is the founder and only permanent member of the Waterboys. Having begun his career in teenage Ayr punk band White Heat and its Edinburgh successor Another Pretty Face, he moved to London and formed another short-lived band, The Red and the Black. This latter band included saxophone player Anthony Thistlethwaite, whom Scott had included after hearing him play on Waiting on Egypt, a Nikki Sudden album. The Red and the Black performed nine concerts in London, during which Thistlethwaite introduced Scott to drummer Kevin Wilkinson (previously with Stadium Dogs, Barry Andrews side-project Restaurants for Dogs and the League of Gentlemen), who also joined the band. During 1982, Scott made a number of recordings, both solo and with Thistlethwaite and Wilkinson. These sessions, recorded at Redshop Studio in Islington during late 1981 and early 1982, are the earliest recordings that would be released under the Waterboys' name and would later be divided between the Waterboys' first and second albums.
In 1983, even though Scott had signed to Ensign Records as a solo act, he 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 (a multi-instrumentalist and Beatles fanatic who'd previously been in the pre-Alarm band Quasimodo as well as having spent a spell as musical director for The Rocky Horror Show; Wallinger would go on to lead World Party).
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.A comparison which continues to be made. See The band's earlier sound was described as a new wave and post-punk.
Early years: the Big Music
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 trumpets, Martyn Swain on bass and Kevin Wilkinson on drums. John Caldwell (from Another Pretty Face) also played guitar, and Scottish singer Eddi Reader sang backing vocals for the band's first two concerts.
In late 1983 and early 1984, the band made some new recordings and over-dubbed old material, all of which was 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. The release of the album was followed by further touring in the UK, Europe and US including support for The Pretenders and U2 and a show at the Glastonbury Festival.
A Pagan Place was preceded by the single "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, which were built up by Scott from hard-panned multiple twelve-string rhythm guitars, rolling piano and judicious use of reverb to form "a shimmering wall of music" and added to by saxophone, occasional violins or trumpets, plus Wallinger's increasing breadth of instrumentation (which now included synth bass, various other orchestral synthesizer experiments and percussion).
Although Wilkinson left the Waterboys to concentrate on his other project, China Crisis, the band began to record new material in early 1985 for a new album. 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 Singles Chart. 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.
Wallinger (a budding songwriter and producer in his own right, who'd co-produced and arranged much of the initial album sessions, including "The Whole of the Moon"), was by now chafing under Scott's leadership and songwriting dominance. During the American tour, he announced his departure and subsequently left to form his own successful solo project (later band) World Party. Roddy Lorimer rejoined the band on subsequent tour dates to widen the sound. Wallinger was later replaced as keyboard player by Guy Chambers (who'd later become Robbie Williams's songwriting partner), and at the same time, former Ruts drummer Dave Ruffy replaced Chris Whitten. Sin left the Waterboys towards the end of the next European tour, following a heroin overdose, with Thistlethwaite covering for him on bass for the last few concert dates.
1986–1988: The Raggle Taggle band and Fisherman's Blues Having become discouraged by the stadium rock career path he was now being expected to follow (and frustrated by his inability to recreate the Waterboys' expansive studio sound in a live rock setting), Scott was now becoming interested in American roots music, (country, gospel, cajun and blues), something in which he was enthusiastically supported by Thistlethwaite and Wickham. At Wickham's invitation, Scott moved to Dublin where he could pursue these ideas at a remove from the music industry and in a more congenial musical climate. The band's line-up changed once again with Scott, Wickham and Thistlethwaite (the latter now focussing at least as much on mandolin as on saxophone) now joined by Trevor Hutchinson on bass and a succession of drummers, starting with Peter McKinney.
The new band, which the official Waterboys' website refers to as the "Raggle Taggle band" line-up, spent 1986 recording in Dublin and touring the UK, Ireland, Europe and Israel with a lineup of Scott, Wickham, Thistlethwaite, Hutchinson and a returning Dave Ruffy. In late November 1986, Scott, Thistlethwaite and Wickham (minus Hutchinson) spent a week in California recording roots and roots-inspired music with producer Bob Johnston and various American session players. McKinney was back on drums for live dates in early 1987, but had been replaced by Fran Been by summer 1987 in a Waterboys lineup which now included Uilleann piper Vinnie Kilduff and which played a free date on the Greenpeace vessel Sirius in Dublin harbour. Another former Waterboy, trumpeter Roddie Lorimer, briefly rejoined for a performance at the Pictish Festival in Letham, Scotland. Some of the performances from this era were released in 1998 on The Live Adventures of the Waterboys, including a famous Glastonbury performance in 1986.
In late 1987 Scott temporarily relocated to Spiddal in Galway in the west of Ireland, resulting in a deeper immersion in Irish music and culture. In early 1988 he brought the band there, where they set up a recording studio in Spiddal House to finish recording their new album. Patti Smith Group drummer Jay Dee Daugherty was briefly a member of the band for the Spiddal sessions, which featured the Scott, Wickham, Thistlethwaite and Hutchinson core augmented by visiting West Coast Irish folk musicians.