Mike Scott on The  Waterboys' tribute to Dennis Hopper, and being visited by Springsteen 

Mike Scott has never been predictable, not least when he's themed The Waterboys' impressive new album around the late Hollywood star. He'll be playing tracks from it at the band's gigs in Cork and other venues 

Mike Scott of The Waterboys; and the cover of the band's new Dennis Hopper-themed album.

In the mid-1980s, there seemed a more than decent possibility that The Waterboys might become as big as U2. Mike Scott’s band had just achieved their most substantial hit to date with The Whole of the Moon, a cloud-capped power-ballad which, with its soaring chorus and stadium rock inclinations, was bang on trend in an era when rock music was shooting for the stars. After The Whole of the Moon, the sky appeared to be the limit. Or at least it did until Scott sketched out a different vision for the group’s future when setting sail for unknown waters with 1988’s folk-influenced Fisherman’s Blues.

“I’m happy if more people are hearing Waterboys records. I could see in the 1980s that we had the same agents as U2, a company called Wasted Talent in London. They were pushing us in the same way,” says Scott. “They thought we were the next big thing who would follow that path. It wouldn’t work for us because I wanted the music to change. I wasn’t happy making the same music. Now, I’m not saying U2 made the same music. But their changes were more incremental. My changes were sharp, 180-degree turns."