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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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THE
WATERBOYS
The Royal Albert Hall, London,
May 11th 2007
Well
who would have thought it? Less than twenty-four
hours later and we’re back in the Royal
Albert Hall, opened you’ll recall, in 1871,
having been built at a cost of £200,000
– somewhat less than the current value of
a two bedroom flat in London. Like all grand public
building projects it was dogged by controversy
and disagreement. Not everyone welcomed the thought
of such a massive arena – three times Prime
Minister Lord
Derby was concerned in 1865 that it would
end up as 'a mere place of public amusements,
of which monster concerts would be the least objectionable'. |
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| We’re
certainly here for some public amusement this evening
with Whiskyfun favourites Mike
Scott and his Waterboys (rather, one
of my favourites, perhaps not Serge’s). The
lottery of on-line booking has been kind; we’re
down on the floor of the auditorium, row 18, almost
stage centre. Perfect. Well almost. We’re
surrounded by people who all seem to know each other.
There are smiles and handshakes, and souvenir photographs
being taken for websites. These are the hardcore
fans of the numerous Waterboys message boards and
forums. Actually they’re a jolly bunch, and
it’s inevitable that we spend more of the
evening on our feet than on our sit-upon. The dancing
loons immediately in front depart stagewards early
in the evening, leaving us with Ned and his partner
Neddess. |
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“I’m
from Stornoway, hen” he remarks to the Photographer
in one of his loquacious moments (it’s never
really quite clear who he’s talking to). “Nice
black pudding”
she replies at a stroke, much to his surprise. |
| The
Waterboys have a new album to promote, Book of Lightning.
It’s received a hugely enthusiastic response
from the majority of critics, many choosing to describe
it as the long-awaited sequel to their landmark
1985 release This is the Sea. It’s certainly
a return to Scott’s ‘Big Music’
compared with the highly rated Universal Hall and
the strangely overlooked Rock in a Weary Land -
but on a par with This is the Sea – well,
good ‘though it is, I tend to think not. And
this was really evident in a set that drew heavily
on both albums. Placed side by side the songs from
This is the Sea stood the test of time in terms
of both their lyricism and depth of feeling. It
just seemed as though Scott was trying a bit too
hard on the new stuff – for example, the rhyming
in ‘She tried to hold me’ is a little
strained, and sometimes his vocals were over theatrical.
But that’s not to say that most bands wouldn’t
fall over themselves to have material of the quality
of ‘Strange arrangement’ or ‘It’s
gonna rain’. It’s just not quite as
good as some have claimed. |
| Mike
Scott is on fine rock and roll form. He prods and
goads the adoring audience with his quizzical observations
and pointed questions. The sound is excellent and
his voice soars through this huge auditorium as
strongly as sidekick Steve
Wickham’s (“Wigwam”) violin.
The Photographer suspects he’s wearing dark
eye-shadow, perhaps to help with some of his more
extravagant thespian gestures. He switches between
electric guitar (perhaps a few too many long solos
if I may say so, Mike), acoustic and electric piano.
At the keyboards he delivers one of the moments
of the night, singing ‘Old England’s
dying’, a pointed choice for this icon of
Old Albion, with lyrics suitably adjusted to reflect
ongoing events in the Middle East. It’s only
four songs into the evening but it’s such
a moment that he could have walked off stage and
I wouldn’t have minded. Other highlights are
‘Dumbing down the world’, the transportational
‘Iona’, the W B Yeats poem ‘Stolen
Child’ (another pointed choice) and ‘Red
Army’. And I have to remember that Roddy Lorimer
(whose playing helped to define the sound of This
is the Sea) comes on to play superb trumpet, and
that there’s a new rhythm session of Mark
Smith and Damon Wilson. From there it got a bit
bing-bang-bosh with ‘Medicine bow’ (Wickham
and organist Richard Naiff donning masks from a
Venetian souvenir shop for a very self-indulgent
bit of musical sparring) and ‘Pan within’,
and then rowdy encores ‘Be my enemy’
and finally ‘Fisherman’s blues’.
|
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The
fans are ecstatic – it’s quite a sight
to see this place full with everyone on their feet
applauding ¬ – more photographs, more
exchanged digits and e-mail addresses. Objectively
you have to wonder how long Scott can carry on producing
this new stuff, how long his prodigious back-catalogue
will continue to sound fresh and relevant, and how
long before this informed and sometimes inspired
“public amusement” loses its edge. But
at the moment it seems to be working to everyone’s
satisfaction even, I’ve no doubt, rocking
Lord Derby, who in case you didn’t know had
a group called the Derby Dilly and played at the
Concert of Europe. Fact. - Nick Morgan (concert
photographs by Kate) |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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