BN/DeStem

By Marjo Peppelaar
Who: Erwin Rademaker (50)
Where: Breda
What: wrote the book A Letter to Mr Scott

“It was 17 March 2012. My pal Martin took me as a birthday present to a gig of The Waterboys. The Waterboys are Mike Scott, although he has played with more than seventy band members. In Utrecht something really special happened: I was completely blown away. All other music disappeared from my iPod and I only wanted to listen to The Waterboys after that gig.
I visited numerous Waterboys gigs after Utrecht. But I didn’t understand why that music had such an impact on me. Was it due Mike Scott, who is a genius in my opinion? Or was it the music itself? After I visited Ireland to photo shoot a festival, I decided to lock myself away to listen to the complete works of the band. I listened to their 25th album on The Great Wall when I visited China on a business trip as for the Port of Rotterdam. After that the book A Letter To Mr Scott was written: it contains all my thoughts and memories that popped in when I listened to the songs and lyrics. It also contains a fairy tale and lyrics that are translated in Gaeilge. And I even made a little verse with the 25 most used words within all the lyrics of all songs. That verse ends with The ‘I’ is love. That’s remarkably spot on for what this music means to me.
The book has an unique format: it’s a letter adressed to Mike Scott. But in fact it’s a letter to a dear friend who has no address at all: the music of The Waterboys. Music evokes emotiones and memories to happiness, love and sadness. The core emotions that makes you feel alive. I also recognise that when listening to Mozart’s Requiem, looking at the paintings of Carravaggio or even watch Marco van Basten play soccer. The music of The Waterboys has the same effect on me of an intense amorousness: it stimulates all my senses.
I published the book in a small print, but it was sold out in a only few days. The proceeds go to an Irish foundation: Strange Boat Donor Foundation.
Film director Robert-Jan Westdijk, who made the Dutch award winning movie Phileine zegt sorry, is currently working on a movie and the music of The Waterboys plays a central part in that as well. I played as an extra during recordings for that movie in Paradiso. When I met him there, he told me he visirted a gig in Utrecht of The Waterboys back in 2012 and that he was completely blown away by it. The same gig! Isn’t that amazing? It inspired him to make a movie, and me to write a book.”