Band Details

From the Promoter

In support of their greatest hits and box set, XX, and in celebration of their 20th Anniversary, Great Big Sea, with very special guests The Waterboys, have announced that they will perform at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre this July.

20 years is a long time in anyone’s life.

Few bands last more than an album or two — a few tours, a song played on the radio, and then they are quickly forgotten. Alan Doyle, Sean McCann and Bob Hallett have somehow managed to keep the dysfunctional-family-bar-room-brawl-student-art-project-musical-pirate-crew known as Great Big Sea going for two decades. And more often than not, they have done it with more than a bit of flair.

For the hundreds of thousands of fans who sang, danced and celebrated with the band, Great Big Sea has been a constant factor in their own lives. While musical fashions have come and gone, Great Big Sea has maintained an unswerving commitment to their original ideals — a belief that a marriage of their own creativity and the joyous folk music of their home in Newfoundland would be an unbeatable combination.

Compiled by the band members themselves, XX is a special two-disc set which captures the many highs in a recording career that has produced ten full-length CDs and two DVDs. In order to express the band’s two sides, one disc covers the biggest hits from their more pop-oriented repertoire, while the other contains some of their most loved traditional and folk songs. To balance out the discs, the band recorded six new songs — almost a new album in itself — which run the gamut of their varied stylistic approach. Beyond the two-disc greatest hits collection, XX includes another disc that contains some of the band’s lesser known excursions and experiments.

The Waterboys have been added as the supporting act for the Great Big Sea concert in Toronto.

For over 25 years The Waterboys have carved out a unique place in the music scene. Guided by lead singer and songwriter Mike Scott, the band burst out of Scotland in the early 80s, building on the wellspring of punk that inspired bands like the Clash, U2 and The Alarm. In the early 90s Scott moved to Ireland, where he came to embrace Celtic traditional music in all its forms. This marriage was a fruitful one, leading to the classic ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ album, one of the most perfect unions of folk and rock and roll ever created. In the years since, The Waterboys have continued to record and tour, built and rebuilt around Scott’s skillful songwriting and heartfelt performances.

Promoter