The Waterboys

The Waterboys are a rock band formed in 1983 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." 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."

"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.

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.

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. The band's earlier sound was described as a new wave and post-punk.