Brighton date as ex-Waterboys Steve Wickham hits the road

SussexWorld

Steve Wickham (The Waterboys/No Crows) teams up with No Crows bandmate Ray Coen for a date at The Brunswick, Holland Road, Brighton, BN3 1JF on Friday, August 1 at 7:30pm. Steve is also playing Grayshott Village Hall on Saturday, August 2 and the Wickham Festival on Sunday, August 3.

Transcript

00:00good morning my name is phil hewitt group arts editor with sussex newspapers really

00:05lovely this morning to speak to steve wickham of fame with the water boys and other bands

00:10and just having worked with so many people through a long and hugely successful career

00:15great steve that you are heading to brighton with your old mate ray cohen you will be in brighton on

00:21august the 1st and you and ray go back a long while and i guess that's going to show in the

00:26music you make isn't it oh yeah and the love we have for similar kind of music fiddle playing

00:31songs and uh you know stories and our milieu here in the west of ireland and how did you meet ray

00:39um that's a very good question i actually can't remember but uh he he probably played in one of

00:47the bars in town uh there's kind of very vibrant local folks in here in sligo and i i've been living

00:53here about 30 years so as soon as i moved down here i i started playing with all the sessions so

00:58it's a kind of you know in if you've been to ireland you'll know that you know irish music

01:04sessions can pop up anywhere and everywhere and i probably met ray there in one of those sessions

01:08absolutely and you're in a new and interesting chapter in your career aren't you post pandemic

01:13you left the water boys and you're kind of going back to where you started aren't you

01:18really that's true i'm back in in folk land and and little clubs and playing singing songwriters i'm

01:26enjoying singing and playing my own songs as well as rays obviously and um playing tunes and we're all

01:33doing original stuff you know when it i think when i started out i was probably aping my heroes and now

01:40after 40 years of that now i'm just not worried with that i'm just saying what comes to my brain and

01:47put the music to it really interestingly you were saying that it's probably more terrifying to be in

01:51a small club with 50 people than it is to look out at a sea of 5 000 faces yeah that's true yeah you're

01:57very exposed one is very exposed as they say yeah and talking about exposure you're saying that was

02:04one of the key things that made your your former colleague and friend sinead o'connor so remarkable

02:10the degree of exposure that she opened herself up to and the degree of honesty in her music

02:15that's great yeah she she was um fantastic spirit and i was lucky to meet her when she was so young

02:22she was about 15 or 16 and she came to sing with my band into anua and had written her own song

02:29called uh take my hand and she came in she's about 15 years of age she had her her school bag with her

02:35with all her school books and uh her names of her idols were written in biro on her school bag kate bush

02:42and the eurythmics and uh of course kate bush never sang with the eurythmics but we know that

02:48uh anyway uh so she was wonderful and with the voice of an angel and uh yes i was sad to see my

02:54friend pass away but uh she died of a broken heart but i'm sure we'll meet again somewhere

03:01left behind as astonishing yeah absolutely wow well fantastic memories steve really lovely to speak

03:07to you have a great time in brighton with ray cone and you're playing brighton it's brunswick isn't it

03:13on august the first august the first and then we're up to hind head in the second and the wicom

03:20festival as we just started in hampshire on the third yeah brilliant yeah really lovely to speak

03:26to you thanks phil cheers you too man bye

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