ShareThe Waterboys performing their Life, Death and Dennis Hopper Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Wednesday 7th May 2025.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
On Wednesday night at Rock City it was easy to see how Mike Scott and his band have honed such a loyal and enthusiastic fan base who keep coming out to see The Waterboys year after year.
Their line-up has never been fixed in stone and Scott likes to claim that there have been more members than any other band, upwards of 80 over their 42 year career. With Scott being the one and only constant in the group, Wednesday’s line up included Memphis keyboard player ‘Brother’ Paul Brown, drummer Eamon Ferris and Irish bass player Aongus Ralston who all belted out the magical and capturing rhythms.
Scott strode onto the stage with his acoustic guitar to start the set with his 1984 song A Pagan Place, which saw the other band members filing out one by one to add their own flavours to the building sound, to an audience that was ready, lively and at times loud.
Launching into Glastonbury Song, Scott showed that he is still a sensational guitarist with a voice that was absolutely flawless live. A fan favourite How Long Will I Love You? was simply beautiful, a song covered by the likes of Ellie Goulding but hearing it live by Scott who wrote it was brilliant.
After charging through four of their most beloved anthems they introduced a selection of new songs from their latest release which is a double concept album, a biographical about a late American movie star called Life, Death And Dennis Hopper. Songs like Live In The Moment Baby, The Tourist, Andy and Hooper’s On Top simply mesmerised the crowd, whilst A Girl Called Johnny and the stunning This Is The Sea encouraged a sing along which had the crowd swaying along.
The final encore included the thrilling Don’t Bang The Drum, a rousing The Whole Of The Moon and an absolutely wild The Pan Within before an absolutely storming romp through Fishermen’s Blues brought to an end a show that was undoubtedly a master class in musicianship.
