Mike Scott

Mike Scott is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist from Edinburgh, born in 1958. He is best known as the founding member, lead singer and chief songwriter of the rock band The Waterboys, a group he describes as his own project with changing personnel over time. Across his releases he also plays a wide range of instruments, including bouzouki, drums and Hammond organ.

The Waterboys

Scott begins making music seriously after moving to Ayr as a child, learning guitar at twelve and playing in school bands the following year. He forms his first groups, Karma and then The Bootlegs, before joining with John Caldwell and others in Another Pretty Face in 1978. That band gains attention with its first single, which is named Single of the Week by New Musical Express, signs to Virgin Records, appears on the cover of Sounds and tours with Stiff Little Fingers. After the band becomes Funhouse, Scott becomes dissatisfied with its direction and starts developing solo songs that lead to The Waterboys.

The Waterboys begin with a Redshop Studios session in December 1981. Their first single, “A Girl Called Johnny”, appears in 1983, followed by the debut album later that year. The next two albums, A Pagan Place and This Is the Sea, come out in 1984 and 1985 and are largely written by Scott; together they define the band’s “Big Music” period. After Steve Wickham joins officially and the group moves to Ireland, Fisherman’s Blues and Room to Roam shift towards Irish music-inspired folk-rock. Scott then records Dream Harder under The Waterboys name without other members, making a hard rock album that is the last release under that name until 2000. Later Waterboys albums include A Rock in the Weary Land, which Scott describes as “Sonic rock”, Universal Hall, a return to folk-rock, and Karma to Burn, the group’s first official live album.

Among the musicians associated with The Waterboys are Anthony Thistlethwaite, Karl Wallinger, Kevin Wilkinson and Steve Wickham, all of whom make major contributions at different stages.

Solo work and collaborations

Scott releases two solo albums in the 1990s: Bring ’em All In in 1995 and Still Burning in 1997. Bring ’em All In is recorded at the Findhorn Foundation in north Scotland, with Scott playing all instruments himself. Still Burning features session musicians including Pino Palladino and Jim Keltner, with guest vocals from Ian McNabb. Songs from both albums later appear on the compilation The Whole of the Moon: The Music of Mike Scott and The Waterboys.

Scott creates his own label, Puck Records, in 2003, and it releases Universal Hall. It also releases Karma to Burn in 2005, which includes tracks from Scott’s solo career performed by the then-current Waterboys line-up.

Other musical activity

Scott also records as a solo artist outside The Waterboys name through fan-club releases such as Lion of Love and Sunflowers. He is married and lives in Dublin.

Other artists with the same name

Other musicians share the name Mike Scott, including a vocalist with Lay It On The Line, a rap artist, a Christian artist, and a folk artist from Bristol. Another Mike Scott plays bass with the underground melodic hardcore band Phinius Gage from 2003 to 2007 and then focuses on acoustic punk rock, releasing Saturation Point and the compilation (Almost) Everything Else, as well as splits with Kevin Seconds and Flav Giorgini.