Waterboys back on tour and returning to Gateshead ahead of archive box set release

The band, formed in Edinburgh in 1983, are returning to the Sage Gateshead for their sixth show there following previous visits in 2006, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2019, plus a solo set by frontman Mike Scott, accompanied by violinist Steve Wickham, also in 2012.

They’ve got no new album to promote this time round, their 14th and latest latest LP, Good Luck, Seeker, a No 14 hit, having been released in August last year.

Their 15th, titled All Souls Hill, is due to follow in spring next year, though, and in the meantime they’ve got a six-disc box set coming out in December featuring almost 90 hitherto-unreleased tracks from 1989 and 1990.

Titled The Magnificent Seven: The Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues/Room to Roam Band, 1989-1990, it’s released by Chrysalis on Friday, December 3, and is made up of five CDs and a DVD, with a vinyl version also available.

Tickets for tonight’s show cost £43.50. For details, go to https://sagegateshead.com/ or https://www.mikescottwaterboys.com/

Good Luck, Seeker is one of seven Waterboys albums to have reached the top 20, the others being Out of All This Blue, a No 8 in 2017; Modern Blues, a No 14 in 2015; 1990’s Room to Roam and 1993’s Dream Harder, both No 5s; the compilation The Best of the Waterboys 81–90, a No 2 in 1991, and Fisherman’s Blues, a No 13 in 1988.

Their second last album, Where the Action is, just missed out, peaking at No 21 in 2019.

The band also have four top 40 singles on their CV – the title track of Fisherman’s Blues, a No 32 in 1988; Glastonbury Song, a No 29, and The Return of Pan, a No 24, both in 1993; and The Whole of the Moon, a No 26 in 1985 and a No 3 when reissued in 1991.

After tonight, their tour continues to Aberdeen tomorrow and Glasgow on Friday and Saturday.