Ocean Colour Scene kick off their 25-date tour at Fat Sam’s in Dundee on April 29.
But frontman Simon Fowler reckons it’s “not a great idea to be starting in Scotland!”
Laughing, he says: “It’s a bit like climbing Everest in reverse because Scotland is so great for us. It should be the pinnacle of any tour we do, so to start off with the best… we’re going to be spoiled from the beginning.”
A massive fan of Scottish crowds – “we always have a great time in Scotland” – Simon admits he can’t quite remember if the band have performed in Dundee before, but says “we probably have”, adding: “We’ve played so many places in Scotland that quite frankly they go into the memory bank and get lost.”
Despite the fact he’s been gigging for decades, Simon’s feeling slightly apprehensive about the tour.
“We haven’t done a 25-date tour for a long time so I’ve knocked smoking on the head,” he says.
“That’s always my chief concern – looking after my voice on tour. I’m a very gregarious person so I end up talking. You hear about these opera singers who aren’t allowed to speak a syllable but, God, that must be purgatory.”
Stripped-back tour
Billed as An Evening With Simon and Oscar of Ocean Colour Scene, the tour will see Simon and drummer cum-bass-player and pianist Oscar Harrison playing stripped-back sets in relatively intimate spaces, creating the perfect stages for acoustic performances of their big hits, including The Riverboat Song, The Circle, Traveller’s Tune, Hundred Mile High City and The Day We Caught The Train.
Simon describes the acoustic shows as: “a real tonic – a great chance to look the audience in the eye and interact with them on a more personal basis than ever.
“I play guitar, Oscar plays piano and bass and a bit of percussion. Sometimes people expect to see a drumkit on stage but there won’t be. We’re not the acoustic White Stripes.
“The shows really represent how I would’ve written the songs – I write them with an acoustic guitar and one of those old-fashioned tape players that you’d get for Christmas in 1972. I still do. I’ve never used a computer in my life.”
Remarkable career
The shows are the latest chapter in a remarkable career that’s seen Ocean Colour Scene rise from Breton shirt-wearing Stone Roses disciples to one of Britpop’s biggest bands.
Forming 33 years ago, they spent seven years fine-tuning their sound before lighting up the Britpop party with three top five albums; 1996’s Moseley Shoals, 1997’s Marchin’ Already and 1999’s One From The Modern.
The band also achieved 17 top 40 singles, including a staggering run of nine successive top 20 singles and a mantelpiece full of awards.
No-one championed them more than Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher was another fan, with Ocean Colour Scene supporting Oasis on their first proper UK tour.
They were grateful for the exposure but, if they could thank one person more than anyone for putting them firmly on the map, it’s Chris Evans.
He made Riverboat Song record of the week on his Radio 1 breakfast show two weeks in a row and used it to introduce guests on TFI Friday. And before they knew it, the band were on Top of the Pops.
Tour inspiration
The inspiration for the tour? To mark the 20th anniversary of the album, Live on the Riverboat, that the band recorded on Glasgow’s Renfrew Ferry in 2002.
“We’re re-releasing it on Record Store Day on April 23, and it’s got a couple of extra tracks we recorded on it with Ray Mead, our bass player from Glasgow,” explains Simon.
Looking back on the decades that have passed since the band’s breakthrough, Simon says there’s been a clear progression in their music.
“It’s 33 years since we started – in October 1989. The first album was released in 1991, through to Moseley Shoals in 1996 and we became a much better band. I’m a much better singer as well. My range is better.
“But we certainly were popstars overnight after seven years and it was unbelievable. It was everything you could imagine it to be – a lot of misbehaving.”
Profit in Peace
Sadly, the band’s 1999 single Profit in Peace resonates strongly “with every tour we do”, says Simon.
A lot of people have suggested they re-release it for Ukraine. But, he says, he has no idea how singles work these days. “There aren’t singles, are there? They’re streamed. I’ve never streamed anything in my life!
“But yeah, I wrote it when the first Gulf War was on. You could almost rewrite it every couple of years. It’s very frightened and sad. Ukraine’s not such an affluent country as us but their lives were like our lives and now they’ve been destroyed, for no apparent reason apart from megalomania and to recreate the greater Russia which only one person in the world wants to do.”
So what can fans expect of the Dundee gig? “We have to play certain tracks, don’t we?” says Simon. “But there’ll be some songs we haven’t played for a while. We’ll tell some stories – we’ll keep it clean – and there’ll be songs they’ll remember from the past and a few singalongs. That’s kind of our style and I think why Scottish people like it so much.
“We get all ages coming along to gigs. We get the children of the fans from the 90s! The front row gets younger and the third, fourth and fifth rows just start losing their hair. They’ve brought their children up on us, Weller and Oasis.”
- For tickets and information see ticketmaster.co.uk
