Scottish singer/songwriter Mike Scott started his own punk fanzine, called Jungleland, in Edinburgh in 1977.
Two years later he formed a group called Another Pretty Face but soon tired of being in a band and began recording music himself.
The result was a five-track mini-album, The Waterboys, released in 1984 on his own label (Chicken Jazz), at which time the only other musician was sax player Anthony “Anto” Thistlewaite.
By the time the second Waterboys album, A Pagan Place, was released, Scott and Thistlewaite had added keyboard player Karl Wallinger.
They first gained extensive recognition for their third album, This Is the Sea (1985), which got to #37 in the UK charts and included the #26 single The Whole of the Moon.
Wallinger then left to form World Party and Scott spent more than three years preparing 1988’s brilliant Fisherman’s Blues.
His restless musical adventure found him in Galway, reinvigorating his patented “Big Music” with a dose of Irish folk. Apparently the album – The Waterboys’ finest moment – was culled from 159 songs and hundreds of hours of tapes.
It was followed two years later by Room to Roam. Scott backed away from Irish folk on 1993’s Dream Harder, which featured a more straightforward, epic rock that recalled their earlier albums.
Mike Scott
Vocals, guitar, piano, bass Anthony Thistlewaite
Saxophone, bass, mandolin
Karl Wallinger
Keyboards Roddy Lorimer
Trumpet Martyn Swain
Bass
John Caldwell
Guitar
Chris Whitten
Drums Ken Blevins Drums
Peter McKinney
Drums Noel Bridgeman
Drums Trevor Hutchinson
Bass Fran Breen
Drums Vinnie Kiduff
Guitar Colin Blakey
Flute, organ, piano
