Simon Fowler

Can you kind of remember the turning point for Ocean Colour Scene, when you kind of knew that you were on the verge of the break, or when you thought...

Maybe it was a particular venue that you played, and you thought, "Yeah, this is it."

Well, we, we, we were, um, we were signed when we became Ocean Colour Scene.

We were signed to, uh, to Fit Records, who then did a license with Fontana.

Fit was run by a guy called John Mostyn, who was Mr. Birmingham, really, music-wise.

He was, he was Alison Moyet's manager.

He'd started Go! Beat Records, who managed The Beat and the Fine Young Cannibals.

Uh, and, uh, so we went down to do the album, went down to Wellers Studio.

That's how we got to know Paul better, um, with a guy called Jimmy Miller, who was the Rolling Stones producer.

Wow.

Who was one of the most extraordinary...

Of course, we were blown away by this.

Yeah.

[laughs]

This great big American guy.

"Hi, Simon." Uh, it was, it was like living a rock and roll dream, but it, it all went wrong, really.

Jimmy was, uh, Jimmy was an alcoholic, and his wife was dying of cancer, and he used to take, uh, morphine tablets and, uh...

So poor Jimmy died not long afterwards.

So, um, and that, that album was just done o- over and over again, and by the time it came out, no one gave a toss about it, and everyone, everyone had turned to Nirvana.

Yeah.

[laughs]

So the next two years, we, we, we, we left Fontana.

Yep.

Um, and so the next three years, we were just holed up in, in Kings Heath, which is the next village on from Moseley.

Right.