Mike Scott’s gang of rock ‘n’ roll urchins returned to York Barbican last Thursday evening.

★★★★☆ (4/5)

**THE WATERBOYS PERFORMING AT YORK’S BARBICAN CENTRE**
**PHOTOCREDIT: JOHN HAYHURST**

The uncompromising singer and songwriter has fronted the band since 1983. Although he recorded a couple of (very good) solo albums, Scott knows the brand name / band name pulls in the punters, and the ‘band’ have released 16 albums, although the line-up has varied widely.

Scott is the man in charge, and won’t tolerate any deviation from that rule. Tonight, Scott, who is 66, looks older – wispy hair going grey, jowls slackening, but seemed relaxed – he talked more than I remember him doing previously, with a nice story about getting his first guitar but hoping for another (which he got hold of many years later, still feeling the emotions that stirred in him as a kid.)

The opening salvo of tracks is absolutely sublime – vintage Waterboys, with A Pagan Place, Medicine Bow and the inspired This Is The Sea among the cuts. Scott’s songs have a soulfulness and artistry to them that puts him a peg above a lot of more banal songwriters – one album was inspired by the poetry of W B Yeats. Tonight, the main second third of the set is drawn from a new album, ‘Life, Death and Dennis Hopper’, celebrating the famous actor.

Hopper had an interesting life – five wives, was a pal of Andy Warhol, and had a habit at turning up at key moments in American culture. He starred in Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Cool Hand Luke and Rebel Without A Cause, to name a few. (Easy Rider’s scriptwriter never got the cash he was due, prompting the song Blues for Terry Southern on the new album.)

The stage had a cinematic feel, with four large ‘studio’ lights at each corner, and a vast screen behind the band, used to project visuals during the Dennis Hopper songs. The visual element was so affecting – including a clip of Scott at Hopper’s grave in New Mexico – that it won against the songs, which were less than Scott’s best.

The singer may have been aware of this when he demurely said, at the end of the twelve-song Hopper section, ‘thanks for listening’. Then we got into the good stuff – Don’t Bang The Drum, The Pan Within, Whole Of The Moon (one of THE great songs from the mid 1980s) and the exhilarating Fisherman’s Blues.

The band included mostly Celtic musicians – James Hallawell on keys and guitar, ‘Brother’ Paul Brown on organ, Aongus Ralston on bass and Aemon Ferris on drums – were tight and well drilled, and support act Zervas and Pepper added to the vocals. Brown, with his purple suit, long hair and enigmatic smile, got a big cheer when he walked on stage at the start. I’ve seen Scott in action plenty of times over the years, but The Waterboys never fail to inject energy and soul into life. Tremendous.