May 6th 1986 – Leicester University
Now with 3 albums out, including big hit “The Whole of the Moon”, The Waterboys were a well known band, but still hadn’t really hit the big time.
They had a great cult following, which included me, but to a certain extent, we were all a little bit disappointed this gig was at Leicester University and not De Montfort Hall. Even so, this was the logical step up from the Poly gig in 1985.
No “Rags” again…..disappointed, but that’s the only disappointment. This would be another great gig, straight into hits from all albums. Mike Scott played a song called “Fisherman’s Blues” which was very folky and would be an early sample of the next album released in 1986. It was ok, but I remember I was a bit worried about the direction.
The Pan Within was a firm favourite which also morphed into “Because the Night”. There was also a fantastic cover version to finish of Prince’s “Purple Rain” a phenomenal version.
Strange that they didn’t play “The Whole of the Moon” but it had been over played on the radio by now and as we were beginning to discover, Mike Scott wasn’t one to conform to expectation, so what you got was what you got…….and it was always tremendous!
Steve Wickham and Anthony Thistlethwaite were as usual class on saxaphone, violin and keyboards. Karl Wallinger had recently left the band to start is solo work as World Party, but the music was not affected by this change.
As we would see over the coming years, The Waterboys were Mike Scott and a mix of other extremely talented musicians who fitted the music style to which Scott would be following.
I would actually not see them again for a while, for a mix of reasons, but what a brilliant night this was.
Set List
- Medicine Bow
- Be My Enemy
- Medicine Jack
- Fisherman’s Blues
- We Will Not be Lovers
- Drunkard Head Ghost of Rimbaud Blues
- I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams cover)
- Meet Me at the Station
- Spirit / The 4 Ages of Man
- The Pan Within
- A Pagan Place
- Old England
- Savage Earth Heart
- You Gotta Move (Mississippi Fred McDowell cover)
- This Is the Sea
- The Wayward Wind (Gogi Grant cover)
- My Generation
- A Girl Called Johnny
- The Big Music
- Encore: Purple Rain (Prince cover)
Leave a Reply