What does Simon Fowler associate with Dundee? Girls with rough hands.
At least, that’s what his dad remembered.
“My dad was in the RAF before I was born, and he was stationed in Dundee back in the day,” recalls the Ocean Colour Scene frontman.
“He used to tell me about the street with two football grounds either end of one road.
“And he remembered dancing with the girls who worked in the jute factories; said they had rough hands!
“Then when I was growing up, he was a policeman,” Simon, 59, continues.
“I remember once he was out on the drive at our house in Birmingham in his police outfit. And this American tourist pulled up and said: ‘Do you know the way to Dundee?’
“My dad told him exactly how to get to Dundee, down to the street he wanted to go to.
“And I was left with this great vision of this American guy thinking: Wow, their coppers are amazing!”
Why are Scottish fans so loyal to OCS?
This is the way Simon tells all his stories – succinct, witty, and convincingly off-the-cuff.
It’s easy to see, just two minutes into our conversation, how he’s commanded stages up and down the country for 35 years with Ocean Colour Scene.
But one thing he hasn’t worked out in that time is just why Scottish audiences in particular have remained so steadfast in their loyalty and enthusiasm for the mod rockers, who sell out multiple gigs across the country every year.
“I honestly don’t know, I get asked this a lot and I haven’t got an answer,” the Better Day hitmaker admits. “Partly, it’s probably because we played Scotland a hell of a lot early on.
“And one of the main reasons for this was because we never got on with our record label in London. So we thought: Where is the furthest away we can go to get away from them?”
Stirling Castle 1998 was fateful gig for band
In fact, it was at a Scottish gig – one of the band’s multiple Stirling Castle appearances – that OCS bass player Ray Meade first saw the band he would later join in 2016.
“Stirling is really written into the concrete of Ocean Colour Scene history because of the Stirling Castle gigs,” Simon recalls. “We did three night at the castle in…blimey, 1998? And that’s when our bass player Ray, who’s from Glasgow, first saw us.
“And he ended up in the band!”
Despite feigning shock at the stack of years passed since those fateful gigs, Simon says he can tell his audience is aging along with him.
Mainly because he can now play the Barrowlands in Glasgow “without getting soaked”.
“They’ve stopped throwing beer at us!” he laughs. “Which is really nice, because at one point – we must have played there close to 60 times – you almost had to take umbrellas on stage.
“Then a couple of years ago we came off stage dry. And we realised our fans are all grown up! They’re as old as we are.”
Band member’s son keeping the beat going
That loyal fanbase has transformed into a community which holds classics – like Robin Hood and The Circle – close to their hearts.
I should know, I’ve been raised by two of the biggest OCS fans Scotland has ever seen.
But the band are all about embracing the new as well as the tried and tested. Two decades ago, when lead guitarist Steve Cradock began touring with Paul Weller, Simon and drummer Oscar Harrison decided to team up and do acoustic gigs in his absence.
And Simon is proud that duo has grown to include the next generation of Ocean Colour Scene – literally.
“When myself and Oscar (Harrison, drummer) tour just the two of us, which we’ve been doing for about 20 years whenever Steve (Craddock) is off touring with Paul Weller, Oscar plays piano and bass with me. He doesn’t play the drums,” explains Simon.
“Instead, on percussion we’ve got Oscar’s son Leon. He does some vocals too. So now ‘Simon & Oscar’ is very much a three-piece.”
For live shows, this allows the stripped-back line-up to keep the energetic, raucous sound alive that OCS fans know and love, while also having slower contemplative moments.
“There’s a temptation, when you’re playing acoustic, to be often quite slow and reflective. But with Leon, we can do a whole range of our music.
“That said, I really do like the version of The Circle that we do at the acoustic shows, because we do it totally differently. It’s just me and Oscar – he plays piano and I sing. And it’s beautiful, I really like it.”
How does Simon Fowler write his songs?
Ultimately, it’s storytelling and songwriting which have been at the heart of Ocean Colour Scene’s success.
But with such a massive back-catalogue (10 studio albums), which they can rotate endlessly at live shows, does Simon feel the need to write any more?
“I’m meant to be writing right now!” he chuckles. “Yes definitely, the idea is for sure to try and record an album. We’re hoping for next year, but I’m not sure.
“We haven’t had an album out for about 12 years. I think it’s time we did something new.”
I ask him how he’ll write it, in this brave new world of ChatGPT and a reunited Oasis.
“I’ve got an acoustic guitar,” he says, “and an old fashioned cassette player. I just put the cassette on to record and see what happens.
“Sometimes you’ll have an hour of utter nonsense, and sometimes a song just comes in a flash.
“I don’t know how that happens, but I don’t know any other way.”
Could pup Cooper inspire new release?
Outside of music and touring, Simon’s life revolves around his partner Robert and their cockapoo Cooper.
“I live in a little village, Stratford-upon-Avon, and I’ve got a dog who’s been very ill this past week,” says Simon. “He’s cost us the price of a second-hand car but he’s worth it.
“He’s got his own table down the pub, they’ve made a sign for him and everything: ‘Cooper’s Corner’.”
I ask which pub, and the wry former journalist in Simon pops out: “I couldn’t possibly tell you that!”
Then, after a beat: “Actually – that’s quite a good album name, isn’t it? Cooper’s Corner.”
Cooper barks faintly in the background, ears burning. Simon turns to the wee dog.
“I’m gonna make you famous in Scotland, lad!”
You heard it here first.
Simon & Oscar (Ocean Colour Scene) play Dundee’s Whitehall Theatre on Thursday November 7 and Stirling’s Albert Halls on Friday November 8. See Ents24 online for more details.
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