Mke Scott is looking lean, match-fit and clearly chomping at the bit for some more live action. The chief Waterboy has just landed back in Dublin from the latest leg of an almost year-long tour in support of the band’s acclaimed Modern Blues album.
The mammoth jaunt has taken them across the US, down to Australia/New Zealand and throughout Europe. Highlights so far have included an appearance on one of the last ever David Letterman shows, a headliner on the main stage at Glastonbury, a gig at the famed Sydney Opera House and an outdoor show in Edinburgh, his old home town. With a new line-up featuring Muscle Shoals legend David Hood on bass and Memphis keyboard wiz Brother Paul, the band is, Scott agrees, a well-oiled machine.
“We’ve done over 70 shows this year so far, 27 of them in North America,” he muses, sipping a coffee in a Dublin hotel. “This band is the best band I’ve ever had - the band of my life. I’ve probably said that before about other lineups in the past but you see, my bands have been getting better over the years anyway, so it’s not all bullshit. But this one... oh my God, you have David Hood on bass, and Brother Paul on keyboards is the most amazing performer on stage.”
Scott won’t have long to wait to get back performing again – an Irish tour begins in a matter of days, culminating in a four-night stint at Dublin’s Vicar Street. But they’re not the first shows in Ireland this year, as he reminds Hot Press. A one-off at Cork’s Marquee was yet another highlight of the tour.
“Oh yeah that was one of our best gigs this year,” he enthuses. “It came just two days after Glastonbury – we were wild and the audience was wild. And by the way,” he adds. “I’m the guy who drew on the pictures of Van Morrison and Billy Idol backstage at the Marquee. I thought they could do with moustaches (laughs).”
Asked about some of the other memorable moments on the road this year and Scott doesn’t hesitate. “Playing First Avenue in Minneapolis, which was filmed for a live web-stream – that was a highlight. We did ‘Purple Rain’, which Prince actually recorded on that very stage. When we started playing it you could see that they immediately thought, ‘Well that’s a sacred song here in this town – they better play it well.’ And we did. I figured it was worth the risk and it paid off. We do it now on certain nights when something special is required. I mean we can have a killer gig and we still wouldn’t feel right doing it – there just has to be a certain atmosphere.”
Another personal highlight for Scott was the band’s appearance in Edinburgh on the old bandstand in Prince’s Street Gardens in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. “Ever since I was a kid I always thought that’d be a great place for a gig – and it was. During the sound-check, the first thing I did was ‘Pretty Vacant’. I wondered why I was doing it but it was my inner punk from the old days coming out. It was such a cool gig, lots of old friends turned up. I was trying to time the end of the set with the fireworks from the Edinburgh Festival tattoo. I almost got it right.”
Performing David Letterman provided yet another key moment for The Waterboys history book. “It was the most stress-free television I’ve ever done,” Scott recalls. “Usually when I do TV, there are people freaking out all over the place but there was no tension – it was a wonderful experience. And it was amazing to us just how cold the studio was. Apparently David doesn’t like to see people sweating so they keep it like a fridge. They all knew who David Hood was and every single instrumental link on that show was something that David was connected with.”
However he did have some reservations about the song the band performed on the show, namely, ‘The Girl Who Slept For Scotland (from the current album). ”I’d never have gone for that one –I would have chosen ‘Still A Freak’ or something rowdy. But they were absolutely clear that this was the song they wanted because ‘David liked it’, so fair enough.”
Bringing things bang up to date, can we expect each night at Vicar Street to be different? “Well it will be different – even if it’s the same,” he insists. “We just played two nights in Oslo where we did exactly the same set-list each night and they were totally different shows. Even if the set is the same my singing is often different, the improvising is different, the expression changes. I change songs, depending on the band. I got very tired of playing ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ on acoustic guitar, though I never get tired of singing the song as it’s one of my favourites. I got David Hood to change the bassline. I said if you’d never heard this song and you were at a Muscle Shoals session, what would you play? He came up with this great walking bassline and there’s a piano part there too that is made for the song. It’s brilliant.”
When the tour wraps up in London in December, Scotts says his focus will shift to working on the next album. “I have about twenty songs written already. I had a great songwriting burst here in Dublin. I want to go back to Nashville and use all the current members of the live band.”