Mike Scott and Anthony Thistlethwaite (the Waterboys)
with some Fleadh Cowboys and James Fearnley (Pogues)
"Back of a lorry",
Town Square
Kenmare, Ireland
1987 May 31

Taper: unknown

Lineage:
unknown > CDR's from a trade > EAC > FLAC

Uploaded on Dime by willemaalten

01 - On My Way To Heaven
02 - Maggie's Farm
03 - Girl From The North Country
04 - Can't Feel At Home In This World Anymore
05 - Tangled Up In Blue
XX - Cock in my Pocket (NOT RECORDED?)
XX - Lost Highway (NOT RECORDED?)


Mike Scott writes about this gig in his "Adventures of a Waterboy":

There were concerts and events all over town, in school halls, hotels, even
churches, and B.P. quickly vanished in persuit of some scene or other. Anto
and I rambled around the town square and somebody told us that a band we
knew, a Dublin country rock combo called the Fleadh Cowboys, were playing
right now in a hotel on the outskirts of town. I had my guitar and Anto had his
sax, so as we walked to the gig through the cheerful streets we started playing.
A small crowd gathered and we made our procession through town. Finding
myself in the role of Pied Piper, I made a medley of songs last for the twenty
minutes of our march while the Human Saxophone blew loud solos that rever-
berated off the stone fronts of the houses. Finally we came to the edge of town
where the stately pile of the Park Hotel stood amid trees and meadows. There
we found the Fleadh Cowboys, smoking and talking on a patio outside the ball-
room, their performance just finished. The Cowboys were led by two stetson-
wearing Dublin characters, Pete Cummins and Frank Lane. We'd guested
with them a few times before and they invited us to form a one-off band to play
that evening on the truck I'd noticed in the town square. Bingo! We'd scored
ourselves a gig in paradise.

Down at the square an hour or so later word has spread and a rowdy audi-
ence was gathered. We climbed onto the truck and soundchecked in twenty
seconds flat. B.P. Fellon appeared bang on cue with the Pogues' accordion
player James Fearnley who was quickly hauled up to join us. We struck up
a boxcar-train groove and lit into a set of country songs, all rettling Ten-
nessee Three drums and slide-guitar licks punctuated by Anto's rasping sax
breaks, while I traded lead vocals with the two stetsoned Cowboys. Between
numbers I heard the unmistakeable sound of someone shouting for 'Red Army
Bluuuuuues'. This plaintive holler, a plea for the least-played, most-requested
Waterboys song, our own personal 'Freeeeeebiiiiiird', had followed us on
tour from LA to Tel Aviv and someone was even shouting for it in this mad
Irish mountain fastness. Halfway through the gig I noticed Liam O'Maonlai
in the crowd, the young singer from the Hothouse Flowers. I loved his bluesy
swagger and deep voice, and with his froppy fringe and piano antics he was like
an Irish Jerry Lee Lewis. I reached down and pulled him up from the crowd
and asked if he'd sing a song I'd heard him do a couple of times. He agreed,
I gave the band a signal, and we smashed into Iggy Pop's mighty 'Cock in
My Pocket', with its all-time great lyric, 'I got my cock in my pocket and I'm
reelin' down the old highway!'