Ocean Colour Scene/ Kula Shaker – Manchester Apollo 12/4/25

It had been a long time since I had ventured across The Pennines to visit Manchester Apollo, a legendary venue in the North West of England, similar to  Hammersmith Odeon or Brixton Academy would be in our capital. With this bill though, I would have travelled much further. When I was the Stage Manager at The Splash Club (at The Water Rats in Kings Cross) these two bands were frequent visitors and both having residencies at the club along with likes of Skunk Anansie and Feeder… so yes, we have a bit of history.

Kula Shaker take to the stage first, and what is evident is the length that this tour has gone to in regard to it’s production. There is an amazing psychedelic backdrop projection that is being brought courtesy of Californian’s The Alchemist, which is absolutely stunning and really brings something special to the show. The band kick off with two tracks from their “K” album from 1996, namely 303 and Grateful When You’re Dead (the band play 5 tracks from that record tonight) and surely Jerry Garcia himself will be looking down from above with a smile on his face seeing the wonderful reaction the band get tonight. Crispian Mills is one incredible performer, throwing shapes and jumping about while either singing or playing solos on guitar. Myself and Mr Mills are of a similar age and I was tired just watching their glorious set from the balcony, let alone putting on a show like he did.

Highlights from the set include both new song Charge Of The Light Brigade and Shower Your Love. They then dust off their cover of Hush by Billy Joe Royal, which was also a hit for Deep Purple in the mid 80s, I hadn’t realized that it was not their song, but whoever did it originally….it is a cracker of a song! With the scent of josh sticks in the air we are treated to Govinda in all of it’s Eastern Influenced beauty. At the end, Mills asks if we have felt better having had a Soul Spiritual Detox, well I feel wonderful and am looking forward to my next Kula Shaker trip!

Ocean Colour Scene take the stage next and take us on a trip through their wonderful back catalogue and although some of these tunes are 30 years old, they sound as fresh as they did when we first heard them. There is a timeless aspect to OCS too which sets them apart from many other bands that came to prominence in the mid 90’s. From opener, The Circle we get treated to classics such as You’ve Got It Bad which are both complemented by the amazing backdrop of their videos for these hits. Yes, we are all a bit older and maybe I am happier sitting in my front row balcony seat these days but these songs sound immense, passionate and beautifully crafted.  Fleeting Mind from their seminal Mosely Shoals album sounds  as wonderful as when I first heard them in the back room of a Kings Cross pub.

Things get rockier with a blistering July and I am reminded of just how amazing OCS guitarist Steve Craddock is. Craddock really is a quite astonishing guitarist, whether it is playing with OCS or as a long standing sidekick to the Modfather himself, Paul Weller. He is one of my favourite players and it seems to be that he is just getting better and better as the years go by. Frontman Simon Fowler has a voice that has both power and soul and this is never more the case than in Profit In Peace which with the current state of the world is probably the song of the night!

The Riverboat Song (a tune that takes me back to the mid 90’s in a similar way that Oasis’ Wonderwall or Blur’s Parklife do) sounds epic with the wonderful rhythms of OCS drummer Oscar Harrison, then OCS do their own Psychedelic trips with Get Blown Away which could have been on The Beatles’ Revolver album. Get Away ends the nineteen song set and it sounds epic as the crowd sing every single word and as it builds I am thinking of The Who, The Rolling Stones or even Led Zeppelin . We get two encores with Robin Hood and The Day We Caught The Train which contains one of my favourite lyrics, “Sips another rum and coke, tells a dirty joke, walking like Groucho sucking on a Number 10” and I am having all these memories of people, gigs, festivals and of hot, long summer days. Only music can make memories that come flooding back like this!