October 11th 1985 – Leicester Polytechnic
The first Waterboys album I bought was A Pagan Place in 1984 on a recommendation. “The Big Music” and “The Thrill is Gone” were the two feature tracks, but the stand out track for me was “Rags”. It was such a mix of sounds, rock, pop, orchestra and piano. Really different from other music I was listening to, and yet, complementary to it as well.
I soon went back and bought their self titled first album “The Waterboys” and now I would just have bout “This is the Sea” with what will become their biggest and most memorable song “The Whole of the Moon”.
This offbeat sound, fitted alongside The Style Council, but also was a new sound as well. This was a concert I was really looking forward to and this would be my first visit to the Poly Student Union building. A really fine venue for gigs and socialising.
Mike Scott was a poet as well as a song writer and really bought into the musical lifestyle. For a while I remember being in the fan club and writing to him, you know what…he even wrote back and to friends of mine, he took it all seriously. Remember no social media in 1985, just pen, paper and vinyl records.
They never played “Rags”, disappointing and I heard soon after, Mike didn’t like to play it live very often, so I’d be waiting and hoping he would play it at later gigs.
It was a mix of all 3 albums and the songs range from quite moody reflective songs to anthemic, uplifting tunes. Difficult to classify, but I’d go with a folk blues rock type of thing…….with a bit of brass thrown in.
Mike Scott has a very distinctive voice and backed by Anthony Thistlethwaite (Saxaphone, Hammond organ and multiple instruments), Steve Wickham (Violin) and Karl Wallinger on keyboards, the band had a great bluesy, folk sound.
Anthony Thistlethwaite was actually born in Lutterworth, Leicestershire……so a local lad done good!
I would go on to love Karl Wallinger’s solo work (Goodbye Jumbo being his classic 1990 album as World Party).
A great night out, with a fair few beers….I alledgedly (true) rang my Mum at 1:30am, told her not to worry or stay up late as I’d be home to tomorrow, just staying at a friends…..oooops!!! A very good night out.
I also enjoyed that “The Whole of the Moon” a classic already, was not saved to the encore and played right in the middle……I would always like this behaviour from musicians 🙂
Set List
- Don’t Bang the Drum
- Be My Enemy
- Medicine Bow
- A Girl Called Johnny
- The Thrill Is Gone
- All the Things She Gave Me
- Spirit
- Gotta Serve Somebody (Bob Dylan cover)
- It Should Have Been You
- The Whole of the Moon
- The Pan Within
- A Pagan Place
- Savage Earth Heart
- This Is the Sea
- Encore: The Big Music
- Encore 2: Church Not Made With Hands, Death Is Not the End (Bob Dylan cover)
- Encore 3: Somebody Might Wave Back
Leave a Reply