Ocean Colour Scene mark thirty years of Moseley Shoals, the triple-platinum Britpop record that carried a Birmingham band from the dole to Knebworth, at The O2 arena.
Ocean Colour Scene, the Birmingham band behind the triple-platinum Moseley Shoals, mark the album’s 30th anniversary at The O2 arena in North Greenwich on Wednesday 9 December 2026.
The band formed in Moseley in 1989, with Simon Fowler singing, Steve Cradock on guitar and Oscar Harrison on drums. Their debut stalled amid a label dispute and left them on unemployment benefit.
Paul Weller took them on tour in 1993 and put Fowler’s voice on Wild Wood. A demo then reached Noel Gallagher, who invited them onto the Oasis tour of 1995.
Moseley Shoals arrived in April 1996 at the height of Britpop and reached number two on the strength of “The Riverboat Song”. That August they supported Oasis at Knebworth.
The anniversary set pairs the album’s songs with “Hundred Mile High City” and others from the five top ten albums that followed. For a reader who grew up on Britpop, it is the record played by the band that made it, thirty years on.
The sound is filled out by a second generation: Harrison’s son Leon on percussion and Cradock’s son Cass on keys and guitar.