Simon "Foxy" Fowler, Ocean Colour Scene's frontman, is at home giving it a bit of DIY with the electric sander when the Hot Press phone call comes. "Oh, hello there," he says somewhat surprised at this intrusion. "Hang on a second, I'll switch it off."
So apart from being a million selling rock star he's also a bit of a handyman around the house then, is he?
"No. I hate doing this sort of thing, but you just can't get anyone in to do it these days," he says, "Come to think of it we used to get you [Irish] guys to do it for us but you don't seem to be around anymore . . . sorry about that," he quickly adds, spotting a potential national stereotype insult/gaff in the making. "I didn't mean that to come out the way it did. Actually, the Portuguese have taken over from you in that department. But you can't get hold of one of those either!"
Fowler is taking time out from his home improvement duties to talk about Ocean Colour Scene's brand new album, One From The Modern, and the band's impending 10th Anniversary tour which brings them to a handful of "their favourite cities" including a date in Dublin's Point in October.
"To be honest I didn't think there'd be a fifth anniversary, never mind a tenth, he concedes. "But now I think there'll probably be a fifteenth. The one thing I've learned where Ocean Colour Scene is concerned, is not to predict the future. Moseley Shoals was originally recorded for a Japanese record label and we thought we'd shift about 15,000 copies, if we were lucky. Within about a month or two it had taken off, and it eventually sold 1.2 million copies."
Containing 12 collectively penned tracks, One From The Modern reveals little departure from the band's familiar 1960's-rooted musical agenda. With a mix of riff-heavy R&B workouts and epic balladry it's a stronger and less overtly derivative set of tunes than their last long player, Marchin' Already. The current single 'Profit In Peace' is an instantly familiar OCS style anthem with a blunt anti-war message.
"I don't want to sound preachy about it," Fowler says. "It was a reaction to the continual bombardment around in the world. It's a multi-million pound industry this war business and we're simply stating a fact here, that there's no profit in peace."
OCS long-time friend and mentor Paul Weller supplies backing vocals to the Beatlesque 'No One At All', another potential future single, while UB40 sax-man Brian Travers appears on the syncopated stomper 'Soul Driver'. The only significant difference with this album compared to previous efforts, according to Fowler, is that most of the songs hadn't been aired in front of an audience before they entered the studio.
"I think it gives it a more spontaneous feel," he points out. "As a collection of songs, it runs together more honestly than anything we've ever done. They are songs that only we could have written, but at the end of the day it's just us playing with Max [Hayes, engineer], and Brendan [Lynch, producer] behind the desk. I would like our next album to be more simple and straightforward and I want a brass section on it."
Formed in 1989 by Fowler, Steve Craddock (guitar) Damon Minchela (bass) and Oscar Harrison (drums), the history of OCS is quite definitely a game of two halves, with the first five or six years an unholy mess of record company machinations, naivete on the band's part and plain bad luck.
Managed by Steve Craddock's father Chris, the band released their debut single, 'Sway', on the Birmingham independent label Phffft at the end of 1990. An appearance on the first edition of Channel Four's controversial "youth" show, The Word, won them notoriety and a deal with Phonogram Records who signed the band to its Fontana label. Legendary Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller (now deceased) was drafted in to produce their debut album, for which sessions began in the summer of 1991. However, chaos in the studio ensued, Phonogram were unimpressed with the initial tapes and Miller was sacked. He was replaced by Hugh Nicholson (Primal Scream, etc.) who in turn was replaced by Tim Palmer. The debut album, with backing vocals from Alison Moyet, finally came out in May 1992.
"I haven't even got a copy of it, but the last time I heard it, it sounded like it had been recorded in the Grand Canyon there was so much reverb on it," Fowler muses. "It was a bizarre situation. It wasn't a recording session in the normal sense. It was just a big fucking party and we went haywire. Primal Scream had been down in the studios at the time so you can imagine what it was like.
"Once you get to London it all goes mad anyway," he confesses. "We used to have recording sessions with thirty people in the room hanging around. There'd be people from Oasis popping in and out and bloody supermodels all over the place . I remember once later on when we played at the Electric Ballroom and Liam and Noel sang backing vocals with us. Back in the dressing room was mayhem afterwards; there was Kate Moss, Johnny Depp, Stella McCartney there's wasn't even a seat left for me to sit down on!
"The most important thing about it is that we never did it that way again. When we did Moseley Shoals we were much more disciplined about it. We recorded and wrote every day, without the madness that went on with the first one."
By the time the ill-fated debut album came out, momentum had been lost and the band were unable to convince the label that they had the songs for a follow-up. Extracting themselves from their contract they concentrated on building up a live following playing wherever and whenever they could. Steve Craddock and, later, Minchela, moonlighted in Paul Weller's backing band during this time, pumping their wages back into OCS. Weller, enjoying his Wild Wood resurgence, made no secret of his affection for the group, describing them as "English 90s R&B". They had also come to the attention of one Noel Gallagher, with whom they'd toured previously. Impressed when he overheard a tape of 'The Riverboat Song' in the Creation Offices, Gallagher invited the band to support Oasis on the Live Forever tour further boosting their credibility.
Freshly rejuvenated and with a bunch of new songs and some equipment donated by Go! Discs Andy McDonald, OCS set about recording what would become Moseley Shoals in an industrial unit in the centre of their Birmingham. MCA picked up the band in the summer of 1995, and their comeback single, the aforementioned 'Riverboat Song', entered the charts at number 15, due in no small part to the patronage of Chris Evans, who played the track endlessly on his breakfast show, later adopting it as the theme for TFI Friday. The rest, as they say, is history.
Despite their enormous popularity and impressive record sales, it hasn't been all plain sailing for the band who continue to worship at the shrine of The Small Faces. Their unswerving loyalty to all things Mod has earned them the derision of the hipper sections of the music press, who've accused them of being terminally retro and unashamedly rooted in the past. While not denying the band's musical allegiances, Fowler, a former journalist himself, is scornful of the treatment the band has received.
"We've had incredible press and dreadful press, sometimes from the same sources," he says. "The NME said we were 'everything the Beatles nearly were', which I thought was a load of bollox at the time, but it was still flattering to be mentioned in the same sentence as the Beatles. Of course, the following week they were saying we were a bunch of cunts.
"The thing that really annoys me is that the press give us a lot of grief and then they want to talk about it all the time. They ask us questions like 'how do we feel about the coverage we get', because they want to talk about what they do, not about what we do.
"OK, so our music does come from the past," he continues. "What's the big deal about that? Most dance and electronic music sounds like bad Kraftwerk to me. I'm 34 and if you grew up in England when I did and you weren't in love with the Beatles by the time you were five then you must have been on another planet. I'm glad that I wasn't born in 1979, that's for sure. The thing with the London-based music press is if its post-Johnny Rotten they think it's cool. Anything that came before that they don't like. The Clash are getting the royal treatment right now. Personally, I think The Clash were the most overrated band in Britain."
Given the title alone One From The Modern the new album certainly cocks two fingers at those who think they should jettison their mod leanings.
"We don't need the press as much as they think we do, Fowler states matter of factly. "On the whole we just tend to talk to people we like these days. We don't need to talk to the NME or the Melody Maker. It's simple mathematics, we go on TV and we play to 7 million people. They're hard pressed to sell 50,000 copies."
Fowler has more personal reasons for resenting the press. Last year he was "outed" by a UK tabloid who revealed the hitherto unknown fact that he was gay.
"They basically forced me to come out," he says. "I had no choice in the matter. It was a crucial turning point in my life, but in retrospect it's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. It came at just the right time, too. I wanted to buy a house and live with Robert, my partner, so realistically it would have been difficult to square that with my parents. My brother told my mum and dad which was weird. But it's worked out well and I'm happy about things now.
How did he feel about the similar treatment meted out to Boyzone's Stephen Gately a few months ago?
"I had a lot of sympathy for him," he replies quietly. "I saw him at the bar in the Chelsea Conrad last week but I didn't speak to him. I was going to but I didn't. There was an article in an Irish paper, where there was something with me saying 'Hey Stephen if you're reading this don't worry, it'll work out fine in the end'. I didn't say that but in my case it was true. I remember reading that Stephen was saying 'I hope the front row isn't full of moustaches'. It was exactly the same for me. But I didn't have to worry. The next time we played the front row was still full of screaming girls."
Finally, any DIY tips for the discerning homeowner?
"Absolutely. Get a man in!" n

Ocean Colour Scene's new album One From The Modern is released on 13th September 1999. The band plays The Point, Dublin on October 30th.

Simons Top 10
1. White Album: The Beatles
2. Decade: Neil Young
3. Beggars Banquet: Rolling Stones
4. Bootleg Series: Bob Dylan
5. Banana Album: Velvet Underground
6. Space Oddity: David Bowie
7. Green Circles: Small Faces
8. Who Sell Out: The Who
9. Watch Your Step: Ted Hawkins
10. Ladies of the Canyon: Joni Mitchell