LIVE REVIEW: Ocean Colour Scene (Edinburgh Summer Sessions), Royal Highland Centre, Ingleston, 17/08/2024

The annual Edinburgh Summer Sessions opened with Ocean Colour Scene headlining what could be considered a one-day festival with no less than six bands taking to the stage today: Republica, Reverend and the Makers, Alabama 3, Embrace, The View and the headline act OCS offering great value for money for the many thousands that had a ticket. We arrived at the impressive stage setup just as Republica were taking to the stage at 3pm, we have been waiting nearly thirty years to see this band live and today was the day, they didn’t disappoint … Vocalist Saffron (Samantha Marie Sprackling) still has the stage presence that she developed in the early 90s with dance band N-Joi before forming alternative rock band Republica in 1994. Saffron’s voice and pink streak are still going strong as they worked through a half-hour set with songs from debut album Republica, the set opens with Bloke from that very album, the sound quality is top class, the crowd are arriving slowly but all those here are appreciating the set from Republica. Saffron asks the crowd “Are there any Acid House fans here today” … the answer was a resounding yes! They then play a dance track Out Of The Darkness, one of their more upbeat numbers, the crowd were lapping this up as the set continued with Drop Dead Gorgeous, one of the bands biggest songs. Picture Me is next up, they are playing all the classics from that 1994 album here. New York is a relatively new song and was good to hear, the final song of the set could only be … Ready To Go, the crowd reaction to this one was special ending a  set filled with wonder and great memories. We hope to see Republica touring at some point. 10/10

After a half hour turn around it was time for Jon ‘Rev’ McClure and his band Reverend and the Makers to entertain the crowd and that they did, big time! Here is a band that only got back together in 2022 releasing an album Heatwave In The Cold North in April 2023, they have a UK tour later in the year, which we’re looking forward to. McClure is known as ‘The Rev’ due to “Me being a big mouth and always running on at people”, it wasn’t long until he was doing just that telling all those at the back to “get to the fucking front”. Bassline is a great start to get the crowd worked up, there are definitely a lot of Rev fans down the front including myself as the set continued with Desperate Times and Shine The Light is sounding as good as it did on the LP, makes us look forward to the upcoming SWG3 date already. Heavyweight Champion Of The World is by far this bands biggest song and is the best of the set today, it gets a wild reaction from the fans as everyone down the front seems to be singing along to this one, considering it’s still early the energy is high as McClure sings the classic lines “And so he gave up, on his black belt and first dan/As near as he got to China was a week in Camber Sands”. Heatwave In The Cold North is still quite new and had a quiet response from the crowd but that was soon dispelled as they played Out Of The Shadows, a very energetic dance track that gets the crowd moving once again, great scenes here. The set ends with Silence Is Talking as Jon’s wife and keyboard player Laura McClure gets the trumpet out, which is definitely over too soon for us. Bring on the tour! 10/10

Brixton band Alabama 3 were next on the stage just after 5pm, forming in 1995 and are best known for their track Woke Up This Morning, used in the USA TV show The Sopranos opening credits that helped shoot the band to fame. Its hard to define the genre of Alabama 3, a mixture of acid house electronic or hip hop wouldn’t be far wrong. The set opens with Hello … I’m Johnny Cash getting the crowd involved straight away, to be honest it took us a while to get into the bands vibe but when they played The Old Purple Tin (9% Of Pure Heaven) the smiles all around from the quirky lyrics of the send up of the Prince song Purple Rain were infectious with happy vibes all around us. Vocalist Rob Spragg aka. Larry Love asks if anyone ever went to T in the Park? A few shouts of yes led him into a story telling us about how Tennents super lager (the purple tin) got them into a lot of bother! Last song Hypo Full Of Love (The 12 Step Plan) had the crowd singing back the lyrics to the stage, there were more than a few Alabama 3 fans down the front enjoying every moment of this performance, they did grow on us as the set progressed but it wasn’t the most enjoyable set of our day. 7/10

After a quick refuel it was time for Embrace to take to the stage as brothers Danny & Richard McNamara and band brought more than a few fans into Ingleston today, this was forty-five minutes of pure indie-rock as the two brothers were joined by Steve Firth (bass), Mike Heaton (drums) and Mickey Dale (keyboards). While watching this performance memories came flooding back to the last time we saw Embrace live at the O2 Academy in Glasgow in March 2020, the last gig in Scotland for almost eighteen months due to the Covid pandemic. All You Good Good People is the first of a nine-track set, a nice energetic start to the set, singer Danny then asks who has a copy of their debut album The Good Will Out before pushing into Coming Back To What You Know. Actually the first three tracks today are from that debut album as One Big Family is next up, and that’s exactly what this crowd feels like today: one big family. It was so good to hear Nature’s Law live again and we can confirm that it is sounding as good as it did when released in 2006, taken from the This New Day album, one of the key moments of the set with guitarist Richard McNamara joining his brother on vocals for this one. Danny then leaves the stage allowing Richard to sing the next one – Refugees – and is another special moment in the set, this is a five-minute epic sang perfectly. Richard has been recently touring with a side project as part of EEVAH who we had the chance to see live a few months ago, The set closes with the excellent Gravity and Ashes, the latter reverberates around the arena as everyone joins in with one last singalong “Now watch me rise up and leave/All the ashes you made out of me/When you said that we were wrong, life goes on/Just look at how long I’ve agreed”. We can’t wait for the September tour now! 10/10

The View are the only Scottish band on the bill today and they didn’t disappoint, we reckon busloads must have come down to Edinburgh from Dundee to see their local heroes play live today judging by the noisy atmosphere next to us down the front. We were lucky enough to catch them play at Y Not Festival recently so knew it was going to be a high-energy performance. The View only got back together in 2023 after a five-year hiatus, releasing the Exorcism of Youth album in August 2023, followed by a successful tour they looked like they have never been away. The band’s line up has remained almost consistent since they formed in Dundee in 2005 with Kyle Falconer, Kieran Webster and Pete Reilly still the mainstay of the band, only the drummer Steven Morrison is a newer face. The indie rockers worked through twelve songs during their set including three from the 2007 debut album Hats Off To The Buskers, Same Jeans gets the best reaction from the crowd as they enthusiastically joined in with Falconer with the instantly recognisable lyrics “I’ve had the same jeans on for four days now/I’m gonna go to a disco in the middle of town/Everybody’s dressing up, I’m dressing down”. Superstar Tradesman and Wasted Little DJ were the other tracks from that album that were highlights, surprisingly they didn’t play any tracks from Exorcism of Youth. 8/10

Now to tonight’s headliners and the main reason we are all gathered here, Ocean Colour Scene took to the stage at 9pm, the crowd were right up for this one tightly packed in down the front, Its hard to believe OCS have been going since 1989, that’s 35 years ago and making me feel old! The set began with The Riverboat Song as guitarist Steve Cradock played the opening riff, instantly recognisable from the 1990s TV show TFI Friday and Simon Fowler singing the first lyrics of the set “I see double up ahead/Where the riverboat swayed beneath the sun/Is where the river runs red”. The fan reaction sets the scene for a great night of music as the darkness began to fall Better Day keeps the energy high, Fowler comments on It’s My Shadow that “he stayed up all night writing this song”. Before we knew it they were playing Profit In Peace, a song as relevant now as it have ever been since it was written all those years ago, Fowler again comments “Tell the arseholes that run the world that we hate them”, no holding back then.

A lovely cover of Beatles song Day Tripper is given a warm response from all around us, Fowler asking did we pass the test? Yes was the answer to that one. Steve Cradock was his usual self, quietly ripping away at the guitar in his own wee music world, some of his guitar work was outstanding as usual. Robin Hood is played by Fowler as an acoustic number, the imagery on the screen behind the band was well put together, during Travellers Tune they showed some old video clips of the 1970s Northern Soul days as well as the band performances back in the day. Cradock’s son Casius was on backing guitar and keyboards tonight and was introduced to cheers from the crowd. The seventeen track set ended with The Day We Caught The Train, smiles and singing all around ended a great day of music. To end can we use some words from another classis song “Its such a perfect day, I’m glad I spent it with you”, thank you to OCS and DF Concerts for putting on such an amazing event. 10/10

Written by: Alan Brown