Published: Thursday, 11th December, 2008 12:15pm

Band relish coming back to home away from home

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OCEAN Colour Scene frontman Simon Fowler says he can"t wait to play in front of a Scottish crowd again, as they prepare for their gig at Dunfermline"s Alhambra on Sunday.

'The Scottish crowds have always been the best for us, definitely,' the band"s singer and main songwriter told the Press.

'I think if you ask most bands their favourite venue, the Glasgow Barrowlands is usually up there. That"s the same for us and not just because it"s £1 a pint in the pubs around there.

'From what I hear, we can expect the same kind of atmosphere in Dunfermline and the Scottish crowds are always there to have a good time.'

The Birmingham band were one of the biggest names in Britpop in the late 1990s.

They had a string of chart hits such "The Riverboat Song", "Hundred Mile High City" and "The Day We Caught The Train".

They appeared at Britain"s biggest ever open air gigs in front of 250,000 over two days at Knebworth supporting their mates Oasis.

In Scotland, they sold out three successive nights at Stirling Castle, have made appearances at T in the Park and more recently played the Loch Lomond festival during the summer.

However, rumours that the band"s next album – which they will start recording in January – will be their last are well wide of the mark.

'Yeah, I"d heard there was something on a website about that but it"s absolute nonsense,' said Simon. 'We"ve only been together for 20 years so we"re only starting out.

'We always like to have a tour at Christmas and once you get on the tour bus it"s great. You have a great time.

'Steve (Cradock) has been working on his new album, which is coming out soon and I"ve been writing new stuff.

'The band have not had much time to work on new material and so on this tour we"ll be playing our hits, which I"m sure will go down well.

'When people go along to a concert they want to hear the stuff they know.

'We"ve played huge gigs and it was amazing in front of 125,000 each day at Knebworth and we also play small acoustic gigs. Personally, I love playing in front of a big noisy crowd.'

Does Simon believe the band can recapture the chart popularity they achieved in the late "90s?

'Well, it would be nice but we"ve maybe had our time for that and there have been hundreds of bands come along since then. Our fans have always stayed loyal to us no matter what and that"s what matters.'

In his younger days, Simon worked as a journalist in Birmingham.

'That was way back in the "80s in the days of typewriters. I got into it because I wanted to be a football commentator,' he said.

When his band hit the big time, he got involved in the sport but in a different role, recording the England World Cup song with the Spice Girls and he is still a big Birmingham City fan.

'We"re the sleeping giants of English football. Are Dunfermline much cop? We sometimes get to matches when we"re touring.

'I remember up in Scotland some of the guys were at an Aberdeen-Celtic match one time and they came back like blocks of ice.'

l After Sunday"s gig, Steve Cradock will be performing a DJ set at Velocity. The concert had originally been scheduled for there but was switched to the Alhambra because of its bigger capacity.