ShareOcean Colour Scene with special guests Kula Shaker performing at Rock City Nottingham on Sunday 13th April 2025.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
Kula Shaker and Ocean Colour Scene probably make for strange bedfellows. The former are flamboyant, extroverted and a tad camp and the latter are more straight ahead, sensible and unassuming. But on Sunday night at Rock City, a packed crowd delivered a hearty welcome to both bands.
From the moment the stage went black and mystical music swirled throughout the venue, the eerie hypnotic prelude to Radhe Radhe, raised the crowd’s anticipation. And when the four piece band fronted by Crispian Mills, unexpectedly launched into the galvanising classic, 303, the crowd were immediately under their spell.
Delivering a set that was rich in songs from their 1996 classic album, K, they also delivered some surprises. Two brand new songs, Charge Of The Light Brigade and Broke As Folk, added credence and authenticity to the band’s soulful, raw and hazy rock and roll whilst Jerry Was There and Hey Dude showcased the mystic Psychedelia that they are known for.
A highlight was their soulful take on Python Lee Jackson’s In A Broken Dream with its brooding 60s psych-rock shimmer, and their cover of Hush with its squealing guitar solos, juddering keyboards and stomping drums which went down a storm, before finishing with Govinda, a song sung entirely in Sanskrit which included Indian influences and tambura and tabla instrumentation.
As the lights dimmed and the strains of Booker T & The MG’s Green Onions died down, the iconic figures of Brummie band Ocean Colour Scene emerged to thunderous applause and as they opened with one of their classic hits, The Circle, they immediately established a connection with the packed crowd that intensified throughout their set.
Having formed in 1989, the line up has been consistent. Guitarist Steve Cradock demonstrated the dependable musicianship that has made him a long time collaborator with Paul Weller. Front man Simon Fowler’s vocals were as powerful and soulful as ever, effortlessly carrying the weight of the bands extensive catalogue. Oscar Harrison kept it all together with his excellent drumming and Raymond Meade completed the line-up. For this tour Cradock’s son Cas joins the band and it is though he has been there from the beginning.
They delighted with You’ve Got It Bad, One For The Road and Fleeting Mind, lesser known songs from their breakthrough 1996 album, Moseley Shoals, which demonstrated the band’s cohesion and experience. The set list was a journey through the decades blending well loved favourites like July, Profit In Peace, and Mrs Jones which gained a raucous reaction from the crowd.
The momentum surged as they powered into the explosive Hundred Mile High City with its infectious guitar work and the set really came alive as they romped through the second half with classics like Travellers Tune and at the first chords to The Riverboat Song, the crowd went wild.
Fowler later paid tribute to Sandy Denny with a heartfelt dedication of the lovely melodic She’s Been Writing and he sparked a wave of nostalgia with a few lines of Oasis’ Live Forever at the close of Get Away.
For the encore Fowler delivered the opening lyrics to Robin Hood and then stepped back to let the crowd sing the rest back to him, before leaving Nottingham on an incredible high note with a fabulously rousing rendition of The Day We Caught The Train and as the crowd left Rock City their collective chants of ‘Oh-oh La-la’ rang joyously into the night.
