The Waterboys Biography
The Waterboys were formed in London, ENGLAND, in the early '80s led by Edinburgh native singer+guitarist & songwriter Mike Scott, the ensemble's only constant member, with the supporting musicians from England, Scotland and Wales, ever changing around him.
Scott with Anthony Thistlethwaite on bass+mandolin, Karl Wallinger on
keyboards and Kevin Wilkinson on drums, released the band's eponymous
full-length debut in July 1983; the disc, which included the magnificent
single "A Girl Called Johnny", was hailed as a masterpiece by
critics.
"A Pagan Place", which came out the following year, began to
fulfill the potential of the band's promising debut, with Scott's ideal
of a huge canvas giving the album's melodic drive through his emotional
vocals.
In September 1985 The Waterboys released what would become their most
successful album to date, "This Is The Sea"; the record hit
the top 40 of the U.K. Pop chart spawning the hit single "The Whole
Of The Moon"; shortly thereafter, Wallinger left the band to form
the highly successful World Party.
1988's "Fisherman's Blues", The Waterboys' fourth LP for which
the band were joined by traditional Irish players like fiddler Steve Wickham,
who was all over the place on this album peppering the songs with a lovely
sense of refinement, keyboardist Guy Chambers, bassist Marco Weissman
and drummer Dave Ruffy, resulting in a stripped-down, Celtic-Rock sound
which was a marked step away from the “big music” period; the
album debuted at #13 in the U.K. and weighed in at #76 on the American
Billboard Top 200 chart while the title-song peaked at #3 on The Modern
Rock Tracks; the second single, "World Party", reached the #19
spot in the same chart.
"Room To Roam", a new folkish album, arrived in September 1990,
it failed to rise above #180 in U.S. but yielded "A Life Of Sundays"
which hit #15 on The Modern Rock chart. However, after the album's release,
Wickham left the group.
By the time 1993 rolled around, Scott found himself without a backing
band. Recorded in New York with session musicians, "Dream Harder",
marked a turn to more commercialized and overtly slick brand of Rock;
the record barely sneaked into The Billboard Top 200 chart producing the
Modern Rock top 10 hit "The Return Of Pan".
The Waterboys, bandleader Mike Scott, multi-instrumentalist Anthony Thistlethwaite
and drummer Kevin Wilkinson, returned after a seven-year hiatus, in September
2000, with "A Rock In The Weary Land".
"Too Close To Heaven", a collection of outtakes and unreleased
tracks from the "Fisherman's Blues" era, followed two years
later; in the U.S. the compilation was issued on Razor & Tie under
the title "The Fisherman's Blues, Pt. 2" with a 5-track bonus
CD.
June 2003 saw the release of the band's eighth studio record of original
material, "Universal Hall"; the album, recorded in Scotland
without Thistlethwaite and Wilkinson, also saw fiddler Steve Wickham return
to the fold.
The Waterboys released "Book Of Lightning" in April 2007; the
album included the single "Everybody Takes A Tumble".
The long-awaited next album, "An Appointment With Mr Yeats", was released in September 2011 across Europe by Proper Records.
