By David Pollock

Published 5th Oct 2023, 13:45 BST

Music review: The Waterboys, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ****

There were people in the hall for this show, it seemed clear from the response, who were essentially here to experience the classic 1985 Waterboys track The Whole of the Moon being played live. In which case, they had a lot of waiting to do, because Mike Scott and his band put in a good shift before rounding their show off with the big one. Across two sets of more than an hour each, with a 25-minute break in the middle, they toured through the diverse and unexpected alleyways of his 15-album Waterboys career.

In cowboy hat, denims and flares, Scott looked like Neil Young or a solo-flying Byrd, flanked by endlessly performative duelling keyboard duo Brother Paul and James Hallawell. This is the Sea and Easy Rider were pure country-rock, The Lake Isle of Innisfree was gritty, old-school blues. Meanwhile, The Pan Within – framed by a stunning take on Springsteen and Smith’s Because the Night – and a performed reading of Kenneth Grahame’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn from The Wind in the Willows strayed into pure psych-rock whimsy.

Scott seemed unconcerned that his greatest hit overshadowed most of the rest of the set; after all, it’s probably the key element which has allowed him to sustain such an eclectic career. Earlier in the show he had preceded Fisherman’s Blues, itself a reasonably-sized classic, with a deep breath and a “hokay…!”, a little psyche-up for the wave of affection which was about to hit the stage.

Again, before The Whole of the Moon – and immediately after And a Bang On the Ear, another hit whose “it started out in Fife” line got its own cheer – he paused for a moment or two, getting ready to savour the moment. Then the song itself was masterfully recreated as an arena rock epic which retained every ounce of the original’s charm, its “too high, too far, too soon” line becoming a masterful call-and-response segment. The fans who came for one thing got so much more besides.