Indie-rock legends Ocean Colour Scene have announced a major UK tour for 2026, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their classic album Moseley Shoals.
The 13-date tour will start at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on 21st November and include further arena dates at Manchester’s AO Arena (28th Nov), the Utilita Arena Cardiff (4th Dec) and The O2, London (9th Dec), before a final night hometown show at Birmingham’s bp pulse LIVE (12th Dec).
Joining Ocean Colour Scene as the tour’s very special guests will be The Enemy.
An artist pre-sale will begin at 9.00am on Wednesday 15th October, followed by a venue pre-sale from 9.00am on Thursday 16th, before tickets go on general sale at 9.00am on Friday 17th October, available from the venues and via www.oceancolourscene.com.
Released in April 1996, at the height of the Britpop era, Moseley Shoals was Ocean Colour Scene’s second album, and immediately became a huge success.
Reaching number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, Moseley Shoals featured the massive hit singles ‘The Riverboat Song’, ‘You’ve Got It Bad’, ‘The Day We Caught The Train’ and ‘The Circle’, and was certified as triple-platinum after spending an incredible 92 weeks on the chart.
In August that year, Oasis invited Ocean Colour Scene to be their special guests at one of their historic concerts held at Knebworth. Performing a blistering set in front of 125000 people, Ocean Colour Scene firmly cemented their status as one of Britain’s biggest bands.
For the Moseley Shoals 30th anniversary tour, in addition to playing all the highlights from Moseley Shoals, Ocean Colour Scene will play a career-spanning set to include all of their other hits and fan favourites, such as ‘Hundred Mile High City’, ‘Travellers Tune’, ‘Better Day and ‘Profit In Peace’, amongst many others.
Ocean Colour Scene’s lead singer Simon Fowler said, “It’s hard to believe that Moseley Shoals turns 30 in 2026. We owe so much to that album, so it’s exciting to be able to look forward this very special anniversary and celebrate with our amazing fans at some of the UK’s most prestigious venues.”
Guitarist Steve Cradock said, “As a thirty-year celebration of Moseley Shoals, we will be playing many of the songs from this great album. They will be part of a set and show that will be special, and a peak for us as a group. Thanks for the support. See you all in 2026.”
Drummer Oscar Harrison said, “Our 2026 UK tour is something we are going to celebrate in a very big way. As with our sold-out tour this year, these dates will be all the more special for having my boy Leon on percussion and Steve’s son, Cass, on keys and guitar, enabling us to deliver the full Ocean Colour Scene sound for our fans. This one’s for them.”
Ocean Colour Scene’s manager Alan McGee added, “Ocean Colour Scene released Moseley Shoals at the epicentre of an incredible time for music: 1996. When I was asked to manage them four years ago we set out on a journey to celebrate their unique sound and deliver it back to the masses. This tour is their biggest in 30 years and puts them in their rightful place as one of the truly great bands their generation.”
Formed in Birmingham in 1989, Ocean Colour Scene began crafting songs in the spirit of the soul, folk and blues greats who inspired them, with words and melodies that would soon chime with the hearts and minds of the group’s fiercely loyal fanbase.
After a few years honing their sound, Ocean Colour Scene became a household name with the release of ‘Moseley Shoals’, which was quickly followed by the Top 10 albums ‘Marchin’ Already’ (1997), ‘One From The Modern’ (1999) and ‘Mechanical Drift’ (2001).
Enjoying an incredible run of seventeen Top 40 singles – which included nine successive Top 20 singles – Ocean Colour Scene are not only one of the UK’s most successful groups, they are also renowned as one of the country’s very best live bands.
The tour’s very special guests The Enemy formed in Coventry in 2006, and saw their debut album ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’ go straight to number one in the UK Albums Chart in 2007. The album also included the hit singles ‘Away From Here’, ‘Had Enough’ and ‘You’re Not Alone’, in addition to the album’s title track.
This was followed by 2009’s ‘Music for The People’, which reached number 2 on the UK albums chart, and 2012’s ‘Streets In The Sky’, which climbed to number 4.
Looking ahead to the tour, The Enemy’s lead singer Tom Clarke said, “I still have my first guitar, and the first song I learned to play on it was ‘The Day We Caught The Train’ by Ocean Colour Scene. On the headstock is Simon Fowler’s signature. In twenty years of touring with other artists, I’ve never asked for another musician’s signature. That’s the only one I needed. Every time we share a stage with them it’s a childhood dream come true. They’re still the greatest band I’ve seen live, and they’ve got more hit songs than most bands have had hot dinners. So yeah, I’m looking forward to supporting OCS at some of the biggest room in the UK. It’ll be amazing to play songs from the new record we’re currently recording, as well as all the old favourites.”
The full list of dates for Ocean Colour Scene’s UK tour in 2026 is as follows:
21 November – Glasgow OVO Hydro
27 November – Bradford Live
28 November – Manchester AO Arena
30 November – Newcastle O2 City Hall
01 December – Derby Vaillant Live
03 December – Swansea Building Society Arena
04 December – Cardiff Utilita Arena
05 December – Bournemouth International Centre
07 December – Plymouth Pavilions
08 December – Brighton Centre
09 December – London, The O2
11 December – Bristol Prospect Building
12 December – Birmingham bp pulse LIVE
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