1. LUCY GOES THROUGH THE WARDROBE

CS LEWIS’S children’s’ book The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe introduced to me the notion of finding other worlds, other realities. It was Shakespeare’s “more things under heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy” in a form that could reach a child. The moment Lucy took those thrilling steps into the wardrobe and found the crunch of snow under her feet would be replayed in my own life myriad times as the world showed me other ways of seeing and being.

2. THE JUMPING JACK FLASH PROMO FILM

THE Rolling Stones “promo” for Jumping Jack Flash was shown on the 1968 Christmas edition of Top Of The Pops. You all know the film: claustrophobic, dark-lit, band in face paint, Jagger leering, Keef with bug-eye shades tattooing his image on our minds for all eternity, Brian weird, Bill dodgy and Charlie, rest his immortal soul, a deadpan zombie, the flicker of a smile telling us he took none of it seriously. It’s still the most exciting piece of rock and roll film I’ve ever seen and the signpost of my professional life.

3. THE CLASH PLAY AT CLOUDS DISCO

I SAW The Stones in ‘73 at Glasgow Apollo and they were great, but punk took rock and roll to a different energy level.

In ‘77 I went to see US punk originator Richard Hell open for The Clash at Clouds Discotheque, a sleazy joint in Edinburgh. Richard played a decent set but then The Clash came on and blew him, me and the whole world away.

A four-man army, visceral, feral, dangerous, led by the greatest rock’n’roller of all time, Killer Joe, Mr Strummer himself. They have never been bettered, never equalled.

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4. MEETING PATTI SMITH

SHE was in London for shows in 1978 and I took a chance and phoned her hotel from my home in Scotland. They put me through! I told her I wrote a fanzine and, bemused, she said I should come to London, see her show and write about it. I took the midnight train from Ayr Station and turned up next morning. She was gracious, gentle, sat at the top of the stairs whispering in her nightdress as she held my hand, got me a room, delegated a band member, Lenny Kaye, to look after me. At the show she was inspirational, wild. Afterwards, high on adrenalin and power, she was haughty and intimidating. How could one person be all those things? It was the education of a lifetime, an initiation into the world of performance I would soon inhabit myself.

5. I BUY A STEVE REICH ALBUM BY ACCIDENT

On her first album Patti had a song called Birdland, inspired by Book Of Dreams, a memoir by Peter Reich about his father, the famous psychologist Wilhelm.

In those pre-internet days it was hard to find rare books and many were the shops in which I sought and did not find this volume.

But one day, perusing records in a store on Times Square, I came upon an album called Tehillim by someone called Steve Reich, who, in my befuddlement, I mistook for Peter. I bought the record, thinking I’d found an amazing artefact. It was the wrong Reich and the wrong artefact, but it was amazing.

Tehillim introduced me to the modern classical form known as minimalist/systems music; it contained luminous teeming rivers of melodious sound played by violins, flutes, percussion and the female voice. I became a Steve Reich aficionado

and his music influenced The Waterboys breakthrough album This Is The Sea.

6. STEVE WICKHAM TURNS UP AT MY FLAT

It was the summer of 1985. I was living near Ladbroke Grove, West London. He came to play on a song called The Pan Within and ended up joining my band, changing the way we played music, and calling me over to Ireland where I made my home. He’s the funniest man in the world, both intentionally and accidentally, and my musical soul brother.

7. FOOD AT THE FINDHORN FOUNDATION

My last meat meal was a splendidly greasy sausage-and-egg fry-up at Inverness Railway Station in December 1992 en route to the Findhorn Foundation. After ten days eating only vegetarian food at the FF - all the stuff I’d successfully avoided all my adult life like rice and salads - I felt completely different in my body: lighter, more free. I could feel my feelings more clearly; there was less interference. I never ate meat again.

8. THE THREE-POINT TURN

I’m not interested in cars. All that hard work, gear sticks, petrol and maintenance. Nope. Not for me. But in 1994, living in Findhorn, I was in the mood for doing something different and surprised myself by enrolling for driving lessons.

A cheery Forresian man took me out and schooled me. I survived three or four lessons and so, to my relief, did he. I was feeling good about the whole thing. Then we tried the three-point turn.

9. I FIND A RECORDING STUDIO IN MY COMPUTER

I upgraded my Mac in 2005 and found something called Garageband in it, which turned out to be Apple’s recording studio program. I thought: “OK. It’ll take me a few weeks to figure this out”.

Wrong. I had it running instantly and have never looked back.

Having a studio in my computer has changed the way I make records. I learned to mix, I don’t have to work through the filter of recording engineers’ tastes and habits – though paradoxically now I appreciate them all the more when I actually work in a real bricks-and-space studio – and my band mates either drop in and lay their parts down as if we’re hanging out together, no clock watching or pressure, or they send me them via email.

The shape, speed and process of creativity are all changed, changed utterly.

READ MORE: Amy Macdonald: The 10 things that changed my life

10. MY KIDS ARE BORN

My daughter was born in 2013 when I was 54, and my son four years later.

The changes their coming has made in my life, as every parent will understand, are countless. My sleep times are changed; I work faster and get more done in previously unthinkably short bursts of work.

I’m a ballet dad, I’m hip to the Gem Sisters and Olivia Rodrigo, I’ve seen every episode of Anpan Man, and 50 years after playgrounds last meant anything to me, I’ve become accustomed to them all over again.

Among the many things my children are teaching me is that in my sixties I can still change.

Mike Scott plays with The Waterboys at Aberdeen Music Hall on Thursday, October 28 and the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow on Friday, October 29 and Saturday, October 30. For more information please visit The Waterboys’ website at www.mikescottwaterboys.com