The Waterboys put smiles on faces in Milton Keynes

Thanks to Paul Blake:

“A 4pm sit-down show on a Sunday doesn’t sound like a very promising set-up to see a rock band, but those turning up for the Waterboys show at the tiny Stables in Wavendon last weekend needn’t have worried – Mike Scott and his crew were in rambunctious form. As the man himself said halfway through the set, ‘here is a band working its balls off for you’.

“For me, it is always interesting to see a musician at work close up (we had tickets in the second row) and watching Mike Scott I was struck by how self-conscious he is with the wild rock ‘n’ roll poet persona he has created for himself. It is both his defence as a human being and his vehicle as a performer, and, if he didn’t quite look comfortable, it still made for compelling theatre. Perhaps it is just his time of life, as my wife mused afterwards.

“Certainly the Book of Lightning album, on which much of the set is based, is dominated by ‘my baby done me wrong’ songs and in a live setting they begin to sound a little like a man protesting too much (are you sure you didn’t contribute just a bit to the break-up, Mike?) - even if the band play them with muscular grace. And there is much to enjoy at a Waterboys gig, not least the violin playing of Steve Wickham, who gives his boss a good run for his money on the charisma stakes.

“The set veers on the side of rock workout – we get Medicine Bow, a compelling Red Army Blues, and a hammered out version of Old England, but little of the gentler side of the Waterboys. Still, there is something life-affirming about seeing Mike Scott up there doing his stuff all these years.

“The audience has aged with him, and it is touching to see long-term partners and parents with young children dancing to Fisherman’s Blues during the encore. It leaves us all with both a sense of community and smiles on our faces. The band leave the stage grinning as well and in Mike Scott’s smile I can finally see the man behind the persona. He looks contented after a job well done. As Gerry Smith said when he saw him last year – he gives good gig.”