We hope you're enjoying the album, those of you who have bought it so far, cheers! If you haven't bought both CD's yet - then do not delay; you've got until Sunday for it to count towards our chart position! We are currently just outside the Top 10 in the album charts, but we would very much like to be well inside it!!

It was great to see lots of you at the signings in London, and today in Glasgow - and we'll look forward to the Birmingham signing on Thursday.
 
The lads would like to thank you all again for your fantastic support, and you're rewarded with a live appearance from us on TOTP this Friday!

Cheers!

Chris

You fantastic lot have made an old man and four lads extremely happy! If I had the chance then I'd like to thank you all personally, because of the chart position and everything else is down to you lot! Our chart entry of no.13 at least got us one play on Radio One!

Hope you all can arrange to get the album tomorrow and play it all day as oppose to eating it as suggested by the reviewer in Saturday's Daily Express. I did try to eat it but like all good food's it gave me indigestion!!

You'll know by now we are on TOTP this Friday (July 11th) and once again we'll be the only band playing our music live! We all hope to see as many of you as possible this week in London (Monday), Glasgow (Tuesday) and Birmingham (Thursday) where we will thank you all personally!

Cheers Again!!

Simon, Steve, Damon, Oscar and Chris

I'm lost for words! Ocean Colour Scene must have the best fans of any band in the world. You've stuck with us through thick and thin, and your efforts on buying the single on the first day of release have given us a very good chart position, and as I said its all due to yourselves. Give yourselves a pat on the back, bless everyone of you!

However, don't give up just yet, keep going, there's a long way to go this week, so if you haven't bought the single yet go and get it - do your best for today, tomorrow and the next day. We just have to try and maintain this chart position as high as we can to achieve programs like TOTP!

Having spoken to the lads, they're over the moon with you're efforts and all of them will be in the 'Chat Room' as soon as they get some free time from promoting the album which as you know comes out Monday.

In buying this new single you've made everybody's ears prick up in the music business again - Ocean Colour Scene are back and "the Phoenix is rising from the ashes!"

Cheers!

Chris

By now you should have all heard the new album, North Atlantic Drift. Hope you all like it and have decided on your favourite tracks. For me it's the best overall album the lads have ever recorded, full of possible singles and just as important at least 9 tracks that can be played life. I will let you decide what tracks will not be included.
 
Whilst on the subject of "live", the ticket sales are going really fast, so much so that we have included two further dates in Scotland which have been mentioned on the site. There are another two dates to be added in England; they have already been held and we will let you know where they are very soon.
 
Also on the live side, I am being inundated with e-mails regarding the sound checks, so I will clear this up now.  Anyone who has seen the lads on tour before will know that if you are outside the venue when we turn up for sound check are welcome in to come and watch, so we thought it would be a good idea for us to get nearer to the fans to expand this and advertise the fact.  Basically, if you are there at about 4.00p.m.,which is the normal time the lads arrive, you can come into the venue,have a listen and after the lads will sign whatever you bring and have a quick word with you all.
 
Although you are all welcome we will have to restrict numbers due to venue safety and all that crap, but what we particularly want to see is the younger fans who maybe cannot get to the venue for any reason (age limit, parents not letting you whatever reason), so let's see plenty of 12 -14 year olds there, and you will see the best guitar band in action, and be able to speak to them. There will be more about this later.
 
As I said in my last message, radio and the press are being very flaky on playing and reporting on the single and album.  So what's new? Having said that, Virgin have been great - the single is now on the B list, which helps. Even Music Week anticipate that we will get the usual slagging from the press.
 
So really it's down to all you great fans out there, to help us get as high in the charts as possible. I know the album is the important thing you want to get, but this single is very important, and could give the lads the credit I know they deserve. So buy as many copies as you can afford! Bonus points for remortgaging your house!
 
Thanks for all the entries for the t shirt designs.  We will be checking them in the near future and will be picking a winner. The other comp has baffled you all, quite a few have got the first part right but not the second. I think we might have to give you a clue (give me a call on this).
 
The lads are to do a signing of the new album at Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street at 6.00p.m. Hopefully see as many as possible there. It's my birthday too!!
 
Back to the single, we will be getting a mid week chart position on Wednesday so I will let you know where we are just in case we need a boost.
 
Finally I just want to thank everyone of you for sticking with us through thick and thin, and this is from all five of us, you have been fantastic, the word loyalty is not strong enough.
 
Best of luck to all of you, try and buy as many singles as you want and make the old man happy.
 
Cheers,
 
Chris

CD:UK will NOT be playing the video to 'I Just Need Myself' on their show tomorrow as the single is set to enter the official chart just outside the Top 10.
Our fantastic fans have brought us the success of TOTP and we thankyou for that. OCS have the best fans in the world, and you deserve to have your band back!
With one more day left to buy the single, lets make Saturday an OCS single day and hold on to this chart position!

Chris

All these messages are from Chris Cradock or the Band - reproduced with permission from Chris Cradock

We'd very much like to send out a big "Thankyou" to all the lads and lasses that have bought our new single! It's very important to us, to hold on to this high chart entry which you've given us. Don't let it slip, keep going and going until Sunday! Let's make it even higher!!

All four of us are looking forward to seeing you all next week in London, Birmingham and Glasgow for the 'Instore Signings' where we will thank you all personally!
See you soon!

Cheers

Simon, Steve, Damon and Oscar

Thanks again to all the fans that turned up to the signings in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh - it was great to see you all, and the lads really enjoyed it! We can't wait for the tour to begin in September!

We recorded our TOTP's performance on Wednesday, it's a belter!! Anybody that sees this Friday night will know Ocean Colour Scene are back!

We're going to try and get Simon and Oscar in the Chat Room at the later part of next week, but this could turn into the week after as they are very busy with interviews about the album! Keep checking on this website and we'll let you know the exact dates in the future.

One last piece of news to note, is that Steve Cradock is producing the next Blazin' Squad single - which turns out to be a poem wriiten by Bob Dylan that Steve has always liked.

We'd very much like to thank all of the fans for buying the album, we hope you like it!

At the moment we're preparing the second single, which is currently being changed so it sounds very different from the album version - a lot more heavier, we will announce this to you all soon.

Again, we hope to release this on 2 CDs as we already have the b-sides recorded. The plan is to get this single as much airplay as possible so we can get on TOTP again! The single entering at no.13 was a great boost for us especially with little airplay, so again this was down to you lot for buying it!.

We are currently trying to sort out the competitions that ran on the Microsite, watch this space…

Cheers!

Simon, Steve, Damon, Oscar and Chris

Hello all,
We'll let you know the confirmed support bands for Scotland, Ireland and UK tour dates this week. Watch this space…

We're actually in Ireland at the moment, as myself, Simon and Oscar are plugging the new album. We've been at two Radio stations today in Dublin and Galway doing interviews, and we've got four more tomorrow. Hectic days.

We're going to have a Tour Programme in September and we would like you to send in your best
live action photo's of the whole band and we may include them if we like them enough! We shall give you the email address for this soon.

We're also going to have another 'Microsite' to promote our new single! After the success of the first one, we're going to let you listen to the revamped track on it, as well as a gallery, competition and the video!

Lastly, on a footballing note, I was just wondering if there are any Notts County football fans out there?! Let us know by leaving a message on the board on this site! (Official Site)

All the Best,

Chris Cradock

We can now officially announce that our brand new single will be 'Make the Deal'and is to be released on the 25th August. The beginning of the track has been reworked from the album version for the radio edit and is far heavier!

The band are in the studio this week recording b-sides for the single. 'Perfect Stranger' and 'St Celia' are set to be the b-sides which Simon and Oscar are very keen on amongst other tracks which may will be considered, that include a re-mixed 'Fat Boy Slim' edit!

We will also be launching an exclusive 'Make The Deal' Microsite to promote the new single!
On Monday the single will be presented to national and regional Radio stations. We hope that Virgin will promote the single as well as they did 'I Just Need Myself' which entered the charts at no. 13. We are also hoping that Radio 2 will play the song as they plugged 'North Atlantic Drift' as album of the week. We hope we can achieve yet another TOTP performance, but this time inside the top ten!

Once again its a special thanks to Mark and Tom for designing yet another great microsite for the new single, “MAKE THE DEAL”.

As with the last single, our radio pluggers have been struggling for any form of radio play nationally, although Radio 2 have “C” listed the track together with London Live, but all others including Virgin do not appear interested in playing it at all. However the majority of Scottish stations have either “A” or “B” listed the track together with Northern Ireland.

So as usual we have got to get on with it and hopefully prove another point to those who doubt us and more importantly are showing no respect to yourselves, loyal fans who have achieved so much by getting the last single to Number 13 in the charts.

Thats our aim with “MAKE THE DEAL”, I know we are asking a hell of a lot from you, but your fantastic support is needed once again. If you can manage to buy that extra copy and show the media what you are made of. Also the fans who live outside the UK, if you want you could buy the single through the mail order website of HMV or Amazon. I am told by our record label that this form of sale is accepted towards the charts.

We are at present rehearsing for the next two weeks for the forthcoming tour, it seems a lifetime since we arranged a tour of this length, cant wait.

Thats about it, hope you like the single and the “B” sides. ALl the best and respect to everyone of you.

Simon, Steve, Oscar, Damon and Chris.

There are about 200 tickets available for this Saturday's acoustic set at the Edinburgh Fringe. Steve and Simon will be performing a 40 minute set, starting at 1pm. To get tickets you'll have to listen to 'Forth Radio' in the Edinburgh District tomorrow and Friday to win! However there will be a some tickets available on the door.

The new single 'Make The Deal' is now on the Radio 2 "B" list. Go to our new Microsite to hear this and the great new b-sides! The track 'Perfect Strangers' was in our thoughts to be on the album but we went for 'She's Been Writing' as the only real slow track on the album.

The lads have been rehearsing all this week for the tour and its going great. Infact in the words of Steve "This is going to be one hell of a F**kin' tour!" The band have been playing the new stuff from 'North Atlantic Drift' all this week and will spend a couple of days next week going through the old material and working out 3-4 setlists for the tour.

Having listened to the 'Anthology' in full the other day, I will be putting together a message for this website over the weekend for all you fans.
All the best,

Chris

As you are all probably aware, the lads have been rehearsing over the past week for the forthcoming UK tour, and I have got to tell you it is sounding fantastic. They have rehearsed all 11
tracks on the album, and could be playing as many as 8 or 9 in the set. They took a break this weekend for promotion in Scotland, I hope all of you who managed to get tickets from Forth Radio enjoyed the acoustic session at the Underbelly, Simon and Steve thought it was fantastic.
Also the live performance on Clyde was a great way of trying out the new material, I know a lot of you listened to the show through Internet, hope you enjoyed it. For those who didn't, you will probably get a copy on Camden Market over the next few days.

Anyway it is back to rehearsals today, Steve and Simon have a break on Wednesday, as they are rehearsing with Paul (Weller) for his PA in Oxford Street on Wednesday evening.
Hope the B-sides to MAKE THE DEAL, have wetted your appetite, for the new single, by the way it is out today. Hope you can give us the support you all gave us with the last single, you were fantastic, lets try and do even better this time, and prove a point to those flaky pratts at various radio stations.
 
Talking of releases, I have just heard all tracks from the ANTHOLOGY album, being releases on Monday, 1st, September by Universal/Island, (that's the only bad language I will use in this message). I have got to admit they have done a good job, for once. They have included 3 CD's for the first 15,000 copies, making a total of 50 tracks, so if you want all three you will have to be quick.
 
When I heard the whole package, I was fuming that the lads can never seem to get the credit they deserve from the f*****g media.
 
Lastly, Sanctuary have a publishing company and want to publish a book on the lads, which we have agreed to, I'll let you know more about that soon, I might have a go at it myself, warts and all.
 
All the best to you, and thanks for being there, do not forget the single, OUT THIS WEEK.
 
Chris

A massive Thank you to all of you that have been at the gigs so far in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle - the gig the other night at the Glasgow Academy was the best I have seen in 13 years of watching the band, it was unbelievable!! The crowd that night were fantastic, even before the lads got on the stage there was a real "buzz" about the place. We're in Hull at the moment as you know, tonight's gig has 'sold out' today, so I suggest you get some tickets for the York gig on Friday, as there are still some tickets left. The new songs are going down really well, 'Golden Gate Bridge' seems to be a favourite at the moment. Keep your reviews coming in aswell,
good to hear from the fans and what you think of the new songs on this tour.

Later on in the week we will let you know the European dates plus some other plans we have for later on in the year.

All the Best

SEE YOU AT THE GIGS!

Simon, Steve, Oscar, Damon and Chris.

Just a quick message to thank all you fantastic fans out there that have been to the gigs so far and supported the lads with an almost fanatical response, brilliant, you all deserve the applause
as much as the lads. Without doubt this is the best tour I have been on in 13 years, some great highlights amongst them the Glasgow Academy gig, and Simon diving into the audience at
Dublin Olympia on Tuesday night, thank you to the fans who helped him back on stage, I don't think he will be doing that again in a hurry.
 
We have not fully decided on the next single yet, it is due out on either the 10th or 17th November, we have been looking at your response to the 8 tracks the lads play from NAD, I'll let you know.
There are not many tickets left for the latter part of the tour so get in quick, that is apart from Plymouth come on West Country, Devon and Cornwall, lets see you at Plymouth.
 
And finally thanks to all the fans who have turned up at sound checks, hope you enjoyed yourselves, and all your reviews of the gigs, keep them coming.
All the best,

Chris

After serious thought, our record label Sanctuary Records have decided they not want to overload the 'OCS market' with a new DVD this year - after Universal put out the DVD in May and also the recent Anthology. There is nothing we can do about this, however there will be a DVD from us released next year and it will be far better than what we could have put out this year as it will
include footage from the build-up to the next album and also a live gig!!

Also, a massive 'thankyou' to all of you that have been to our gigs in the past weeks, the response has been superb - keep it up! The last three in Cambridge, London and Southampton were fantastic! It will be interesting to see what the reviews are like for the London gig as that was top notch. Last night in Southampton we added 'Up On The Downside' to the set to vary it a little.
See you all in Margate!

Simon, Steve, Damon, Oscar and Chris.

We'd like to apologise to all of you who had tickets to come to the Bradford gig, unfortunately the gig was cancelled by the venue due to cracks in the ceiling. We do know that the venue is
refunding tickets, go to the website for further information.
What I suggest you also can do, is get a ticket to come and watch Ocean Colour Scene at the Sheffield gig which is fast approaching (Oct 9th) as there are a few tickets left for that one.
We will be announcing details of our new single in due course!
All the best.

Chris Cradock

What a brilliant tour, we all think its the best so far, none of us wanted it to come to an end, we'll have to get Chris to arrange a longer one next time.
A big thanks goes out to all of you who came to the gigs and gave us such a fantastic response to the songs especially the new ones from NAD, that's what it's all about for us, playing to real responsive fans.
It was also great to see you all at the sound checks, hope you all enjoyed it. Just to let you know, we record all the live gigs we do, and we are going to put some of the older tracks we played on this tour as "B" sides on the next single "GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE" due for release on 29th December, we will let you know very soon what tracks they will be.
Anyway, thanks again for the support you all gave us on the tour, without doubt you are the best fans any band could wish for.

Simon, Steve, Damon and Oscar.

The gig in Dublin this evening was rocking! Tickets to see OCS tonight, were the hottest property in town, as they were being exchanged for £100 each.
Speaking to manager Chris Cradock while the gig was underway, he said the crowd were "unbelievable" and the noise was deafening.
This tour in Ireland had been amazing, the reception and support has been overwhelming for the lads. Unfortunately, Damon's illness meant he was unable to perform in the last few gigs on the tour. We can only apologise for this and we hope he is well again soon.

Thanks for all your photographs and messages you have all sent in to the Website, keep them coming. Simon will be performing a special solo gig on Thursday as you know, ALL tickets have now been sold.

Thanks for your support

Firstly I want to thank all of you who came to the gigs during the UK tour in September/October, what a great tour, best I have been on.  Also the acoustic dates in Scotland and Ireland were great.
Which brings me on to the main reason for this message. As some of you are aware, for the last four gigs in Ireland, Damon was missing from the line up, the reason being that after the gig at
Castlebar he decided that he no longer wanted to be part of Ocean Colour Scene, evidently this was not a hasty decision but something he had been considering for some time.
He returned home the next day, and the lads continued the tour without him.
Fourteen years is a long time, but OCS goes "Marching On", As you know we are supporting Steriophonics at Cardiff Millenium Stadium on 20th December and  Mani from Primal Scream has
agreed to replace Damon for this gig, that will be one to see.
The long term replacement has yet to be decided, but we will let you know as soon as a decision has been reached.
The third single from NAD still goes out on 29th December, namely "Golden Gate Bridge", with all live b sides from the last tour, I know Mark has listed them for you on the site. Its a great package.
The single is at present being plugged at radio stations, at present Virgin have placed it on the C list, lets hope we get better response from other stations with is one. I will let you know what stations have listed the track as and when.
Before the gig on the 20th, Oscar will be coming on the chat room, so get your questions ready, I will let you know what date a.s.a.p.

Thanks once again for your fantastic support. All the best.

Hello all,
Thanks once again to Mark for designing another great micro-site for the next single, "Golden Gate Bridge", its a great track, together with the band"s first DVD single. I hope you have all received your e card reminder, which also enables you to order direct from HMV.
As usual, the response from National Radio has been crap, maybe a few e mail requests to Radio 2, Virgin and other stations may change their minds.
So, once again, its up to you fans who have stuck with us through thick and thin, to make sure the track enters the charts as high as possible, and change the minds of doubters. We really do need your support with this one.
I hope all of you who were at Cardiff on Saturday enjoyed the gig. Mani did a fantastic job at such short notice.

The chat room was a bit lively on Monday night, Oscar and myself really enjoyed, there were some good questions, hope the answers matched up. I must thank Tom (Broughton) for being with us, he is a lot quicker on the keyboard than us.
Obviously there were some questions concerning the departure of Damon. As Oscar said, we were all very disappointed, 14 years is a long time. The only communication Damon has had with the lads since  he left, is one fax message and a text message to Simon, not one telephone call has been made to any of us, and we did hold the olive branch out for a long time.
I really think the matter should rest there, and lets get on with the future, as I know Damon wants to with "The Players". So Marie Kennedy, mind your own business and get on with your life.

Lastly Simon, Steve, Oscar and myself wish you all the best for Xmas, have a great one and a very happy and successful New Year to you all. Thanks for all the support you have given us throughout this year, as always you are rthe most fantastic fans any band could wish for.

Build and buy as many "Golden Gate Bridges" as you can, all the best,

Chris

Hi to all,
We hope some of you had a listen to Foxy on the Jonathan Ross show this morning - he performed an acoustic version of 'North Atlantic Drift' which sounded fantastic, and Radio 2 spun the 'Golden Gate Bridge' single.
Simon did mention possibly playing at Kate Rusby's gig at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, on January the 28th. Please note his slot is NOT confirmed at the moment. If he does play the gig, he will do a couple OCS songs and provide a few backing vocals for Kate. If he is playing the gig, we will let you know asap.We have noticed a lot of negativity & worrying on the message-board lately, about promotion of the lads and rumours of Foxy going solo. The lads have no intention of splitting. Without Damon, the last acoustic shows in Ireland were hard work, but the one thing that came out of it was a massive sense of unity between Foxy, Oscar and Steve, that only serves to spur them on even more. OCS have new PR on board who are working very hard and getting good results; slowly but surely, the press are starting to come back to OCS and give them a second listen. Things are beginning to change. Once the press start to listen, radio listens. Recent changes have marked a new beginning, not the end of OCS.

The lads are getting together on Monday to begin forming ideas and start writing for the next album. They are signed to release two more albums on the Sanctuary label, and then they may well do an album without a label, something a bit different. They also want to do some intimate smaller gigs this year before the next album comes out. Keep an eye on the site for gig dates.
Onwards and upwards!

Chris Cradock/Louise Jones

As some of you will be aware, I performed a solo acoustic performance, last Wednesday 1st December, at the New Variety Club, Keighley.

I wish to make a formal apology to the fans that were there for my poor performance.

There is no excuse for this performance other than the fact that I have been on medication for the past few weeks, and was advised by my doctor not to consume any alcohol whilst on the medication.
Unfortunately I did not heed his advise, which resulted in the disastrous effects at Keighley.
 
I strongly feel this apology is necessary, because our fans over the years have been the best any band could wish for. You have all been fantastic, always loyal, supporting us through all the good and bad times.
 
My apologies also go to Steve, Oscar and Chris who I have let down so badly.
 
Quite understandably, some of the fans have requested their money to be returned. At present, Chris is trying to sort this out and will be contacting those concerned as soon a possible.
 
Once again, I apologise to all concerned.

Simon

"Merry Christmas to you all!!"
We'd like to start by saying what a terrific year it's been for us!
It started off quite hard as we found ourselves without Damon, but we went up to Scotland in March and spent a lot of time on the new record, which will be out in mid March. (7th or 14th, we will confirm the date later). Steve and Oscar shared the bass duties between them on the new record, and clips of the new songs will be on the website Jan/Feb time. Talking about the new record, Paul Weller (guitar), Jools Holland (piano) and Carleen Anderson (b.v's) have performed on some tracks. We have been in touch with two other good friends of ours so watch this space. We're finalising the tracklist at the moment so once we know the order we will let you know. The artwork we have shown you!
Thanks to one and all that turned up at our acoustic gigs over the past couple of weeks in Ireland and Scotland and of course the Birmingham Academy Xmas show, which we all enjoyed! The response to the new material was fantastic, particularly the new song 'Drive Away'. Midway through the song, the audiences took to it - so who knows, we could have a possible single on our hands
there. Our first single though could well be 'Free my Name' which we opened with at the Academy. Again we'll confirm more details nearer the time, but the plan is to release this one week before the
album. A video for the single is looking likely to be filmed in January time.
Once again, many thanks from all of us go to Mark for maintaining and improving the Website. He's done a really impressive job on it since the last one and has kept you lot up-to-date with what we've
been doing since he took over the site early 2003.
 
..AND THANKS TO OUR FANTASTIC CREW AND OF COURSE THE FANS!!

Lastly, have yourselves the best Christmas you've ever had and we will see you in the New Year!!

All the Best,

Simon, Steve, Oscar, Chris. Andy and Dan

We are currently deciding on the artwork for the first single at the moment, so when that is finalised we will post it here. The first single will be the first track on the album, the lively and radio friendly 'Free My Name'. The single might be released as '2 Cds' - we will confirm this as and when.

One future b-side to look out for, is a track called 'Better Than Before' which almost made it onto the album and it's a bit of a catchy Reggae number.
The video for 'Free My Name' will be shot in January which Mark has told you about. He should be joining us to take some 'behind the scenes' photographs for the website so you'll be able to see what went on.

Look out for the album microsite. We will be putting up clips of each song every few days as we have done in the past. We will also have some comments from the lads about each track.

Steve is recording with Weller tomorrow, for possible demo's ahead of PW's new album. Steve has been posting a few messages on the Forum, you may have seen his comments about our artwork for the album. He does read the messages on there when he gets the chance. We are going to put up a page explaining the reasoning behind the artwork and a note from the designer about it shortly.

That's all for now folks.

All the best, Chris

Mark Joseph, has confirmed to us he will play on the first 11 dates on the tour which kicks off in April. If you aren't familiar with Mark, he recently had his single on Radio 2 as 'Single of the week'. A track called 'Lady Lady’. He has also contributed to the Mod Aid recording which our Steve is on. We are waiting for the second support band to confirm, we’ll let you know.

You’ll have read that the video for ‘Free My Name’ has been selected by various music channels. You may be aware that such channels play the videos on a vote poll, where by you have to phone in to watch the video. So we’re asking you lot to get phoning in and get it played as many times as you can before its released, as this way other music channels start to pick up on this and play it too. The more publicity the better!!

I’m told some of you asked on the message board about the recording of the live acoustic version of ‘Another Time To Stay’. The track was recorded at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen, December 30th. So there you go.

The tour is selling very well indeed, so do not delay if you want a ticket.

We aim to get the video on the website soon, in the meantime get phoning those music channels!!

All the best,

Chris Cradock

At last, here we are. Seven months after recording this new album we have a single for you all. Radio play, has been reasonable this time around - our best promotion since Profit in Peace. We hope you have managed to hear us on the radio of late, whether it's been on your local station or on prime time Radio 2 shows like Jonathon Ross yesterday.

Hope you all caught Simon's acoustic session with Johnnie Walker on Thursday - good wasn't it? We had some great feedback from that and Simon has been booked for interviews next week in London, one of which is with the radio station Talk-Sport. Hope you received the E-card we sent out, and to repeat the single is in the shops first thing tomorrow. As usual we need your support to get this single has high as possible in the charts to encourage other Radio stations and TV to jump on board.

Although our TV plugger has had good success with the video on various Sky channels, actual live performances of the single have not happened. Every band at the current time is in the same position as us, trying to put out a record and get as much exposure as possible. Having said all that, if this single does chart high then programmes like TOTP and the Jonathon Ross show would follow, and of course it is down to you the fans to help this all happen.

Free My Name (CD2) is a cracking package. Five tracks in total on there, including the U-myx facility. The lads want to hear your mixes, you can send them to the address at the bottom of this page.
Those of you who collect vinyl, 2,000 will be in the shops tomorrow. 90% of these will be found in Independent record shops due to main outlets being unable to rack it. Anybody having difficulty buying the single, email info@ocsmusic.com and let us know what store has run out of copies. I will endeavour to get these stores re-stocked.

Whatever we are going to achieve chart sales wise will be down to the fan base, so will be let you know the midweek chart position. On to the second single. Many of you have discussed this on the
Message Board, and it is a choice between track one on the album and track four (Everything Comes At the Right Time and Drive Away).

Let us know on the tour what you think. Talking of which, the lads start rehearsing on March 21st, the day the album is out. Mark will be down with us and will let you know how they are going and what old classics we will be putting into the set for this tour as well as a number of new songs. Just to let you know, Oscar WILL be performing his song My Time on the tour, he doesn't have a choice on
this one since he was informed of the demand on the Message Board! Watch out for that one in the acoustic part of the set.

As you know, Steve spends time reading the Message Board and has posted on there. Simon and Oscar will be involved with all of that before the album is out, we'll let you know about that later. Will be interesting to see if Simon can actually turn on a computer, let alone type.

Tomorrow I will be confirming the second support band for the tour, so we will save that one for now. Regards to the tour, get yourselves to the venues for 4pm to hear the sound check and of course the lads will be happy to sign anything you bring along. We look forward to seeing you on the tour. Get your tickets for the gigs quickly, a number of venues have sold and others are well on the way. Glasgow, Aberdeen are sold out, and Leeds and Liverpool amongst others are almost sold. A possible warm-up gig may be on the cards, we will let you know via the website as usual.

In the summer, gigs in Holland, Spain, Germany are on the cards as well as Japan. I must say, we have been receiving a lot of Radio play in Holland which has been good. We want to come to Australia at some point, so spread the word over there. Those of you in Canada and America, we are currently sorting out the album to be put out over there, and again we would love to tour the U.S. Watch this space.

The gigs in Ireland I can now confirm:
May 5th - Dublin Whelans
May 6th - Dublin Village
May 7th - Dublin Ambassador
May 8th - Dublin Olympia

As ever, we look forward to seeing you in Dublin, some great times have been had there over the years. On one final note, we have one more album left on the contract with Sanctuary. Internationally we are selling more records then ever, finally countries abroad have got a grip on OCS! A bright future is ahead. Lastly a quote from Friday's Sun: "OCS continue to churn out records and keep the mod masses happy."

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

Simon, Steve, Oscar and Chris

P.S Send your U-myx mix to:    ocsu-myx@hotmail.com 

The lads are out in Spain at the moment playing the Festivals, while I’m at home celebrating my Birthday on me own! I’ve had to take 2 weeks off due to being unwell. My heart is ok, but I was bitten out in Spain a couple of weeks ago and have since been in Hospital but am on the mend now.

We’ve just announced two UK dates, have a look in the Tour Section to see where they are! The gigs in Aberdeen and Blackpool are likely to be our last for a while. We may have a Christmas-do, like last year but at the moment after these summer gigs, we need to all sit down as a band and work out what we are going to do with the label, as none of us are to pleased with the single or album sales. We need to spent a lot of time writing for a new album, so that we can record 18-20 tracks and release a 12 song album and make the other 6 or 7 available for download on the website - which you fans won’t be able to get anywhere else.

Thanks to one and all for your support as always. While the lads are out in Spain pissin’ it up I’m sat writing a message for the website... and before anyone asks, I’m 62 today.

Best Regards

Chris Cradock - Manager

Welcome to the new official OCS website which has been designed by our very own Mark Birtwistle and Clevercherry’s Mark Ferguson. Hope you find this site easier to access, should you feel there is room for alteration on any of the pages, please let us know and Mark and the band may alter it accordingly. A new Diary section has been added which will be regularly updated with messages from the lads, where they will inform you fans of developments and our new record label ‘Moseley Shoals Records’.

As you are all aware, from January next year, the new record label takes effect. The reason for this is we feel we can achieve more both at home and internationally, and so that we can remain in closer contact with you, as without your support we wouldn’t still be around.

The initial idea with the label is to release a new studio album in September 2006. We will also be working on recording extra tracks for download purposes available through the website. However we intend to release an acoustic album, possibly the latter part of March, early April, with some new acoustic material. The idea is to arrange a gig at an as yet undecided venue and record it there. The exact date will be worked out during the next few days. Fans of this website will be first to know of the small venue we will do the gig at for the album. Tickets details will be on the website asap.

As you are aware as of today, we are doing six dates in Dublin, Scotland, Birmingham and London. These Xmas shows seem to be an annual event for us these days and we are looking to expand on this next year. All the fans signed to Mailing List will be contacted shortly with an email to see if you wish to be on our register next week. This is an area where the website will expand on, and we will endeavour to interact with the fans regularly on a Q&A basis where our Mark will put your questions to the lads like he did once or twice this year.

We also have a new Message Board, the posts were transfered across from the old Forum last weekend so there will be a few days worth of posts missing.

That’s all really folks. If you are coming to the gigs this week, get to the venue early, around 4pm time for the sound check. You don’t need a ticket for this, as with all our gigs, come and watch the lads sound check, the lads really enjoy it.

Thanks for your amazing support, what a great fan-base you really are. Have yourselves a great Xmas and New Year…and if you see any of us walking around at the gigs, don’t be afraid to say “Hello”.

We hope you enjoy the new website, and once again, an extra special thanks to Mark Birtwistle who has spent many hours putting this fantastic site together and seeing the project through from start to finish!

All the best.

Simon, Steve, Oscar & Chris

I'm sitting in the dressing room at the Shepherds Bush Empire pondering Tours past & future but the best part of Christmas is the present.

Oscar and I enjoyed our Folk Faced Tour tremendously and, as usual with us, we played places lesser and better Bands dared not.

Frankly we've never heard of Whitehaven but we have now after being received with wonderful zest and enthusiasm.

Another surprise was Peterborough where we payed a type of "hushed" venue we love remembering the Roisin Dove in Galway.

Other towns and Cities taken in were Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Oxford, Portsmouth, Nottingham, the home town of Robin Hood (& Chris), Preston home of Sir Tom Finney, Edinburgh and Sheffield.

It was the 3rd Tour like this we have done and are now planning to play acoustically in the Spring with the full OCS line-up and we promise a half dozen or so new songs.

Enough of the Bull, back to the Bush! This week we've already played 2 gigs in Dublin, firmly one of our favourite places. We love starting off slowly and building to a Climax! Everyone should try that!

Before Christmas Eve we'll play Birmingham nervously and Glasgow triumphantly. Happy Christmas to All and genuine thanks from us all for past loyalty, present support and now lets drink to the future.

All the best

Simon

What a home coming! Fantastic gig and reaction to every song played, and the main thing was all the new young faces in the front row, a new generation of fans. Always one of our favourite and toughest places to play is Birmingham as we feel we have something to prove as we love playing infront of our home crowd. We’ll be looking to use Russ Winstanley again at future gigs after the crowd reaction and the way he introduced the audience to new music.

Another great reaction at the London gig. A lot of bands find London a tough venue to play, but we’ve never found this and its great that we can still get the same fantastic crowd reaction. We might include this venue on an Xmas mini-tour next year. Noticeable in the crowd was model Jodie Marsh who we are told is a big fan of ours!

See you in Glasgow,

Oscar

I’ve been asked to write a few paragraphs about the 2 Scottish gigs for the site. I first logged on to see what others thought first, and its quite a mixed response. The first night was marred with technical problems and that did make us take our eyes off the ball, but I don’t think it was as bad as some of you are saying but that isn't good enough either as I think the second gig was. The crowd were great, both nights we were a on great one. But I think the second ABC show was something I or maybe all of us dream of and experience once in a while.

I think Simon starting with Robin Hood is great, a bona fide folk song. Playing the organ on it made me think of the Albert Hall gig. Profit in Peace is another moment, when a crowd sings like that they remind me they own it in a way. Get Blown Away is a track we never really dug and how fucking wrong were we. I like to hear Oscar singing at last, a great tune. Its like a new band for us and we're getting better, at that second ABC show I thought we were all closer to God or Allah or Buddha like I’d found the strength of my nation. The DJ Russ Winstanley was good also.

Next year is going to be great for all, Happy Christmas,

love Steve Cradock.

Once again thanks to you fantastic set of fans that have yet again supported us through a difficult year Record label wise, and without your support we wouldn’t have had the strength to build our new label ‘Moseley Shoals Records’.

Long may your support continue.

Next year we plan three tours, April/May, October and December. The early part of 2006 will be where we record the the live acoustic album featuring new tracks. The venue and date of this gig will be on the site soon, and we will be touring with this album late April / May time. Its planned the main album will be released in September with the obvious singles also released from this.

We’d provisionally booked three venues in January for the recording of the live album, one of which was the Jam House in Birmingham which we know has been mentioned on our Message Board. We didn’t ever confirm this (More Bullshit from Chris Cradock, he should know better at his age - Steve Cradock confirmed this Live on Radio 2, Venue confirmed this, Tickets were on Sale - ed) or release ticket details on the site, infact we never even got round to setting the prices. So yet again the message from us is - don’t believe the make believe bullshit you read on any other website except this one, this is the reason why we don’t put fan sites on our links pages these days.

Happy Christmas to everyone single one of you, we look forward to seeing you on tour in the New Year,

Simon, Steve, Oscar & Chris

On February 16, we played at The Jam House, St Paul's Square, Birmingham. After a weeks rehearsal with the help of percussionist Tim Jaques (of The Elements) we had a set of 25 songs.

We wanted to play tunes we had rarely performed before, as well as four new songs. The gig was as top as the B.T. Tower and as round as The Rotunda.

We mixed the album at Woodbine Studios, Leamington Spa, and added the voice of Carleen Anderson, the fiddle of John McCusker and Michael McGoldrick’s pipes and flute. They proved to be wonderfully soulful folk.

We hope to release the album at the end of April, before we begin a tour in May. Looking forward to seeing you. Album tracklist below:

THE JAM HOUSE
01 Second Hand Car
02 She's Been Writing
03 The Word
04 This Day Should Last Forever
05 It’s A Beautiful Thing
06 I Won't Get Grazed
07 Great Man In Waiting
08 Here In My Heart
09 Matildas England
10 Gods World
11 Foxy’s Folk Faced
12 Make The Deal
13 Still Trying
14 My Time
15 Fleeting Mind


All the best,

Simon

Yep the diary contributions have been slack of late, no excuses other then the workload has been greater than great. Spent time with Weller rehearsing for the Brits. We did a nifty warm up gig at the 100 club in London. The Brits was cool, Weller deserved the outstanding achievement award by far.

The following night me and the OCS lads played the Jam House in Brum and recorded it for the live acoustic album which will be released beginning of May on our new label Moseley Shoals Records. I left the gig that night and went straight to Janice Long at Radio 2 with a copy of "The Word" - a new song and taken from the sound board, which she then played on her show, this I think’s gonna be a single. I've just been in Amsterdam with Weller recording a new single "For Dancers Only".

I'm now back in Brum and the next few weeks will be spent with Fox and Oscar recording new tracks for our Rock Album due for Sept.

I'll try and catch up with you all soon."The Word" will be delivered to Radio and Press in the next week or so, if you hear, keep us posted as to what you think.

Love Peace and Understanding,
Steve

Top

Forgot to mention some info for the Diary…

I didn't mention spending a week at the beginning of the year in Town House Studios in London producing 3 tracks with a band called Hung Over Stunt Men. Four lads from Newcastle, who supported Weller last year in Newcastle. I've not produced a guitar band before bar our own stuff, so it was quite a challenge but it was tops and I think the guys took away 3 great tracks, Roger Daltrey came down to have a listen one night, and gave it the thumbs up. I felt humbled. You can here them on their website here and on myspace.com/hungoverstuntmen

Just one other thing before I sign off, last year on tour in the states with Weller, I was rooting through some record shops as you do looking for rare vinyl and found a bootleg of an old Jam demo, I was blown away by a track on there called "Left Right and Centre" I mentioned it to the great D.J.Russ Winstanley and he suggested getting Dean Parish to do a version. At the same time I had a call from Eddie Pillar from Acid Jazz saying he had the sameidea. Happy daze. Its been done and sounds terrific. To have a song that Paul wrote at 15 sung by the man who sang "I'm on my way" is TOP! Paul said he wrote it in his Otis Redding phase but it sounds like he's copying Paul copying Otis.

Also written a tune with Paul called 'Small Personal Fortune' NICE.
Thats enough for now. Please keep me posted with your thoughts, they are deeply valued!

WORD!
Steve

Tour review:

I'm sitting at home waiting for Steve and Oscar. When they get here we're going to start recording the next album.

Actually, when they get here we'll probably go down the pub, then start recording the next album.

It's a good time to start recording having just come off a great tour. It was a pleasure to play to great crowds whilst sitting down and just strumming away.

After Ireland and a near fog-bound Shetlands we arrived in Glasgow to play one of the best gigs we've ever played. We'll always remember The Royal Concert Hall.

We played 15 nights in all, culminating in our home town. I would just point out to Brummies who want to get on stage, that the panto season starts in December!

Thank you to all the fans in all the towns. And now to something new..............

Simon

Hi All,

Again heavy schedules delay me from updating the diary, but better late than never.

First off a massive thanks to everyone who bought a copy of 'I Told You So' and of coarse the album 'On The Leyline'.

Although we picked up some Radio play, as usual it was never enough to keep the single in the charts or indeed the Album. But I'm always grateful for what we were given.

As you know the second single release is 'I Just Got Over You', but again we have been dismissed from all the national stations, so it would take a miracle for this track to even enter the Top 40. Hey Thats Life!

It was great to see some of the old faces on the last tour and a warm welcome to all you newies. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did, We'll be out on the road again hopefully November early December, but if you did miss the out, we’re playing at the V’s , T In The Park, Oxygen, and a few warm up gigs before. (check here for dates)

We've just signed a deal in Japan, and going out to play Fuji Rock Festival. And hopefully signing a deal with the USA, and Australia.

I've just finished rehearsals with the old Weller Feller and next week we Play 3 gigs to warm up before Glastonbury, may see some of you there?

I'm working on some new tunes of my own in between all this, so will at some point I will add them to my Myspace, although the Steve Cradock Myspace that’s there, was not set up by myself, so if any one knows who did I need the password to enter my tunes, can anyone add light to this? Other wise it looks like I have to use another name, bummer, any suggestions?

There's no video for 'I Just Got Over You' as there didn't seem any point after we were refused playlist at Radio 2, Radio 1, Virgin, Capital, and god knows who else. Sorry, BIG thanks to XFM as they are coming on board!!!

Paul and I will be out on the road again in September. Europe first then hopefully UK Nov, Dec. Always a pleasure for me, I love working with him!

Signing off now. But again thanks for sticking by us. Keep the Faith.

Love Peace and Understanding

Steve xx

Hello folks, I arrived home from the States to a winter wonder land, a picturesque home coming of snow snow and more snow. New York gigs with Paul were really amazing the first gig we played a few Jam numbers, so for me, a real treat, second night a few Style council songs and the third a mish mash of Pauls library. Then on to LA for more of the same in between the gigs plenty of Radio and instore sessions and TV shows none stop, but always a real pleasure to work on that level with Paul.

Its great to be home!!!

OCS are off and running, we made the decision to put our new Album 'On The Leyline' out on our own label Moseley Shoals Records, with the backing of a well driven and established distribution and marketing team . Their promotional campaign feels good for us. The new single 'I Told You So' is due for release mid April (16th hopefully), The Album will follow a couple of weeks later, set for the 30th. The tours in place, and I know we're missing the odd county and there's a few disappointed folks out there but theres no need to be, as were back on tour at the end of the year hopefully in all the places we've miss out. We're still waiting on confirmation for some of the summer festivals, soon as we know you will.

In the mean time were performing two gigs for Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Trust at the Hard Rock Cafe in Birmingham 4th March, Hard Rock Cafe in London 5th March all for charity, not sure when the tickets will go on sale probably through local Radio Stations, BRMB for Brum, Virgin Radio for London. Keep listening! There will be a London gig at the end of our tour in April not sure which venue yet. For those asking if theres a video there is, directed by our man Tony Briggs real low budget thing, I'm not partial to doing Videos, miming to a backing tracks does'nt seem right some how, but needed for promo, although somehow competing with million dollar glossy vids seems unrealistic.

The Fox, Oscar and I are going back into the studio as soon as we can to lay some new tunes down, on to the next album already. Look forward to feedback from you all, especially from the Album. We'll keep you in the loop as and when.

Happy times to everyone
Steve and Sally Cradock

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