The Waterboys « Fisherman's Blues Revue »

The Waterboys bring their Fisherman’s Blues Revue to The O2, London, on 12 September 2026, revisiting the songs and spirit of the band’s folk-rock turn at the end of the 1980s. Led since the start by Scottish singer and songwriter Mike Scott, the group first emerged from London in 1983 with expansive, melodic rock before shifting course after the arrival of violinist Steve Wickham and a period rooted in Ireland. That phase shaped Fisherman’s Blues and Room to Roam, where acoustic songwriting, Celtic influences and a touch of rural blues reshaped the band’s sound.

On stage, this Revue focuses on that songbook: warm, rough-edged guitars, fiddle lines up front, and storytelling that moves between rambling folk, slow-burning ballads and lively country-blues. The lineup around Scott stays flexible, keeping the arrangements loose enough for dynamics and improvisation without losing the core of the melodies. Expect the set to lean into the feel of those records while opening windows to the wider Waterboys catalogue, connecting the early widescreen rock, the Celtic-inflected years and the later soul-tinted ballads into a single, living thread.