“Didn’t fancy Weston-super-Mare this bank holiday then?” asked Waterboy-in-chief Mike Scott.

Temperatures may have been soaring outdoors, but inside the (mercifully well air conditioned) New Theatre, this audience’s bank holiday treat was to see one of the busiest and best rock bands going.

They didn’t disappoint, skilfully weaving the fresh with the familiar, opening loud and proud with Medicine Bow from 1986’s This Is The Sea, and closing, about two hours later, with perennial favourite The Whole Of The Moon from the same album.

In between there was plenty from the last two albums, Modern Blues and Out Of All This Blue, with the stand out being the Jack Kerouac-inspired Long Strange Golden Road from the former, a rousing performance that finally got people out of their seats.

Scott always tries to inject some theatrics into his shows and there was some visual fun for We Will Not Be Lovers when fiddler Steve Wickham performed a mischievous masque with backing singers Jess and Zeenie, to say nothing of keyboard player Brother Paul bouncing about like Tigger on heat for the entire show.

There may have been a few raised eyebrows that the band didn’t play one of their best known songs, Fisherman’s Blues, but it didn’t really matter – there was a lot of quality on stage, with excellent musicians performing excellent songs written by one of this country’s most under-rated songwriters.

The Waterboys have been going for well over 30 years now and under Scott’s careful direction have got this live stuff down to perfection, and we left this show exhilarated and exhausted.

Can the same be said of Weston-super-Mare? - Stephen Webb