Paul Weller, The Waterboys
Inevitably it was down to the recognition factor and the biggest hits went down the best but in the end you couldn't help feeling a tad cheated.
Colm O Hare
There’s something almost unforgivable about an artist appearing to disown his or her past. The fact that Paul Weller choose to ignore his entire Jam and Style Council songbook at his first ever Irish festival headliner speaks volumes about his attitude. It also might explain the relatively small crowd who turned up on what was one of the balmiest evenings all summer.
In fact, given the reaction they received it was clear that a sizeable proportion were here to see The Waterboys who were, incidentally, superb. Not that they had any problems revisiting some of their finest moments. Mike Scott was in fine voice and violinist Steve Wickham was particularly magnificent, highlights including, ‘A Bang On The Ear’ and an epic version of ‘The Pan Within’.
But back to Weller. The bulk of his set-list was culled from more recent albums Wild Wood and Stanley Road with numbers like ‘Sunflower’, ‘The Changing Man’ and ‘Can You Heal Us Holy Man?’ all delivered with the requisite fiery passion by a band who appeared to be Ocean Colour Scene. Inevitably it was down to the recognition factor and the biggest hits, ‘You Do Something To Me’, and ‘Wildwood’, went down the best but in the end you couldn’t help feeling a tad cheated.
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