Conference marvin::uk_music

    MIke Scott has just finished the new lp. Well, according to the
    music press he 'has just finished' for the last 12 months!

    Any chance of it coming out though, Mike!
    

    It would be nice wouldn't it!!???
    
    I've read at least 3 release dates for it, all of which have come
    and gone. Its been nearly 3 years since This is the sea, it really
    is about time he put something out. I've heard a few new songs on
    tape, including Fishermans Blues - which just knocks anything else
    he's ever done into a cocked hat.
    
    Anyone else out there know anything??
                               
    Mike

    October 17th - The lp is called Fishermans Blues. I hope the studio
    version of the title track is as good as the various live versions.
      
      Mike

    Yes yesterday was the release date for 'Fishermans Blues'
    (well at least in Ireland anyways)...the DJ's on Radio 2
    have being playing tracks of this album all last week.
    Let me tell you that it might have been a 3-year wait BUT
    it was well worth it...the LP is a KILLER....nuff said.!!!
    
    BTW I managed to get a listen to some of the 'studio-takes'
    during the recording of this album(in the know with Vincent
    Killduff!!!) including the tracks that didn't make it onto
    vinyl...and its amazing. I didn't envy the person that had
    the task of deciding what got released and what didn't!!!
    
    - Dave K.

    Yep, just picked up the lp today. Hope the lp version of Fishermans
    Blues lives up to the live version. Any idea why stuff like Meet
    you at the station isn't on it, and have you any idea if there are
    any tapes of studio outtakes doing the rounds?
    I'll write tomorrow after I've had a chance to play it.
    Mike

    What's the matter, Mike?
    
    No opinion?
    
    Susan
    

    I saw the waterboys in birmingham at the humming bird
    and it had to go down as one of the.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    worst gigs ive ever been to in my whole life i  went
    expecting to see a good band and they were total rubbish
    for want of a better word which i cant use....jon

    I saw them at the National Ballroom in London last week and yes
    they were awful. Music for sixth-formers!
    
    Mike O'

    What is music for sixth formers???? 8^)
    
    When I was 17 I liked Stray, Faust and Stackridge......
    
    Bob

    re last few...very interesting comments!!! I saw the Waterboys
    here in Galway just before christmas and they went down very
    well...the audience response had a lot to do with it. This begs
    the question/statement I've been meaning to raise for a long 
    time now(maybe a new note I'm off rat-holes for lent!!!)....
    
    ....why(why not is the easy answer) should there be differences
    in *music tastes* between American and UK audiences or Continental
    ones for that matter? The Irish audience has a different *taste*
    again...for example many Country/Rockish groups make it big here
    before in the UK ie Nancy Griffith,Chris Rea. Also many groups
    with say roots/traditional influence go down well in the States
    ie The Waterboys but not so well in the UK!!! U2 were very popular
    this side...but the States really made them MEGA(hate that word)
    
    Re the Continent...why is it that I get the impression that the
    only music eminating from there is the La La La trash you hear in
    the Disco when you are on your two weeks holiday to the sun?
    
    Before you start quoting specific examples for or against(which
    is fine) remember there are exceptions to every rule!!!
    
    Fingers on the buttons,
    
    - Dave K.

    I was at the second Waterboys' gig in Galway on the week before
    Christmas and it was the best gig I was ever at. The recitation
    of Yeats' "Stolen Child" by Tom�s McKeown was, for me, the highlight
    of the concert. As for it being music for sixth formers...I don't
    know -- we don't have sixth-forms here in Ireland :-) Seriously,
    I suppose one man's meat is another man's poison.
    
    Jimmy 

      I caought the Waterboys twice in London last week, and I thought
    they were wonderfull.  The slightly new approach incorporatin
    traditional music really hits the spot.  Mckeown was in London also,
    but the highlight has to be a full blown version of Whole of the
    Moon, inc. trumpet and bakup vox. I know they have lost a lot of
    fans with the latest lp, moving away from the more pompous stadium
    style rantings of old.  How can anyone fail to be moved by Fishermans
    Blues?
    
    Mike

    
    If anyone out there prefers the older Waterboys stuff (This is the
    Sea, Girl called Johnny, etc.) then check out the new album by the
    Zulus - "Down on the Floor", IMO this sound very similar to the
    Waterboys of old ... in truth I've still not heard Fishermans Blues
    yet!

    Hmmm... mixed reviews ... still, I'm not put off.  I've got
    my tickets.  
    
    It's interesting what Dave K said about different tastes of 
    different audiences and traditional music doing well, at least 
    here in the Boston area, if not the whole US.  The Waterboys 
    added a second show when their first sold out so quickly.
    
    I'm curious never having seen them before and looking forward
    to it.  

    Tonight's the night..(I'd love to hear how they did last night).
    
    All they have to play is Church Not Made With Hands and they'll
    have made my night!

    You're seeing The Waterboys in concert tonight ????

    Lucky you !!!

    I saw them last Christmas in Galway and they were excellent.

    I'd love a full match-report. Hope you enjoy it.

    - Tim
    

Yeah, don't forget the review. I've got tix to see them at The Barrowlands in 
Glasgow on the 30th of December. The one time I have managed to see them was
at this years Glastonbury festival. It seemed like the whole of the Glastonbury
crowd was there to see them because as soon as they had finished about 80% of
the crowd went home. Admittedly it was Sunday and the only three other bands
to come were African - not my cup of tea.

We are all looking forward to hearing how it goes....and if you meet a Mr Magda.

Cheers
Tommy

    well....has anyone heardthe new lp?  I'm still a bit undecided about 
    it. Some of the tracks I think are fantastic, quite
    mellow/nostalgic/wistfull in feeling.  But  some tracks just seem like
    throwaway things, not really worth being on the lp.  I dunno, I think
    the production should be livened up  bit too. I think Mike Scott is
    still capable of producing brilliant music, bit maybe he needs someone
    to discipline him a little, sharpen him up perhaps.
    
    Anyone else heard it yet?
    
    Mikef
    
    (Wish I could see them on the current tour.  Are these the only dates
    they are doing, or are there other 'unpublicised' dates?).

Whatever happened to Mike Scott? Well I saw the man and his cap on 
T.V. at the weekend, featured in a series dedicated to Irish music. 
The Scot(t) waffled on about Spiddal, and how great it is, especially
Spiddal House, scene, in my view, of the worst Waterboys' recordings.
They even had Mike and gang go all trad and diddly on us at which 
point I gave up and wept.

Preceeding the once Great Scot(t) was a few seconds of Thomas McKeown, 
fiddler and narrator on "The Stolen Child". Ha! Remember that gem?
One of the most cringe-inducing slabs of prententious drivel ever 
commited to vinyl. Yeats may well be turning in his grave but I 
suspect he'll be greeting Mikey Boy at the pearly gates with a
warm welcome and a sawn off double barrel. 

I read something interesting, a while back, concerning Mr Scott's 
musical escapades around Irish public houses. Seems that old Mikey Boy 
and devotees would of an evening jump in the 'ol minibus and go in 
search of some diddly music. On finding a pub our Fisherman's friend  
would stand outside, instrument in hand (Fnaar!!), try and pick up the 
key a song was being played in and then make his entrance playing his
thang; his raggle taggle stormtroopers in tow. What a twerp eh? 

Still, there may be some hope for the man and us after all. His 
contract with Ensign expired earlier in the year I take it, hence the
premature "Best of". With a new contract and a few words of advice
like "get back to playing the Big music", then he might well turn his
career around instead of producing one jig after another. Mike Scott
was better when he was painting bigger pictures with broader 
sentiments. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.


Lester Wangs.

    <<<Note 199.21 by BEEJ::UKOZTOUR>
    Trad and diddy are ,I suppose, words in which to describe some of the
    tracks on the most recent album, Room to Roam but let's face it, at
    least they offer us a mixed bag - unlike some bands ,who, over the years
    have provided us with about as much variety as Benny Hill - and how
    bored did you get with that repeatative dross ?!?!  There is ,I agree,
    a huge difference between This is the sea and Room to Roam but surely
    that's what it's all about eh? I for one, am certainly interested to
    see what they're gonna come up with next!
    
    
    
    
    

       
    
    
    a little useless information.......Anto Thistletwaite is now included
    in The Sawdoctors line-up ,playing mandolin and Sax,....whether he's a
    permanent replacement for John "Turps" Burke or not I don't know!!
    
    
    M.J.

    Other notes in this conference seem to give the new album the thumbs
    down - "Dream Harder" was given 8/10 in NME and claims that "half a
    dozen songs are stupendous". Anyone bought it?
    
    andy

    re .that new single
    
    From Trad diddly to diddly squat....to be perfectly honest. Mike's
    still down at the bottom of the garden with the fairies but this
    time he's taken the record company execs who've air-brushed him into
    AOR fodder. Is the rest of the album like that?
    
    barry. 

    Supposed to have seen Mike Scott at Shepherds Bush at the weekend.
    Only trouble was that on the train into London on Sunday we looked
    at the tickets and realised they were for Saturday. Happy days.
    
    Andy

    Major bummer...I have nightmares about that sort of thing (except that
    I'm usually naked also...).
    
    Mikef

    Andy, at least you were only a day out. I remember turning up to see
    U2 at Hammersmith Palais with my mates (on the off chance that there 
    were tickets) a good week before they were due to play. Laugh?
    We did after about 7 pints in The Brittania. 
    
    Barry.

    
    look on the bright side, in fifty years time those unused tickets might
    be worth what you paid for them !
    
    I had a similar nightmarish experience about ten years ago; at the
    local 'heavy Rock' hangout on a friday night, things seemed unusually
    quiet... it was only when I asked the DJ to play a track off the new
    Hawkwind album and he asked why I hadn't gone to see them that the
    penny dropped - the gig was on Friday, not Saturday as I and my mates
    thought - to make matters worse, I had all the tickets so it was my
    fault !
    
    I finished up driving us to Nottingham for the next gig and buying
    tickets for the four of us on the door %^/
    
    G.