Colour Test

Demon Music kick off an Ocean Colour Scene reissue campaign with Yesterday Today 1992-2018, a massive 15CD box set. The large format package Includes all 10 of their studio albums. They are: Ocean Colour Scene (1992), Moseley Shoals (1996), Marchin’ Already (1997), One For The Modern (1999) , Mechanical Wonder (2001), North Atlantic Drift (2003), A Hyperactive Workout For The Flying Squad (2005), On The Leyline (2007), Saturday (2010), and Painting (2013). Additionally, there’s five bonus discs featuring a very large selection of B-sides and rarities including the Free inspired ‘So Sad’ and ‘Men Of Such Opinion’, ‘Huckleberry Grove’ featuring the Jamaican ska legend Rico Rodriguez, and the more sedate ballads ‘Robin Hood’, ‘I Need A Love Song’ and ‘Mrs Jones’ and a cover of ‘Day Tripper’, featuring Noel and Liam Gallagher. The package offers 230 tracks in total.

Falling between the energetic pop/rock of mod revival and the psychedelic experimentations of Traffic, Ocean Colour Scene came to be one of the leading bands of the traditionalist, post-Oasis British rock of the mid-'90s. Although they had formed in the late '80s and had several hits during the height of Madchester in the early '90s, the band didn't earn a large following until 1996, when their second album, Moseley Shoals, became a multi-platinum success story in the U.K. Their ascent was greatly aided by Paul Weller and Oasis' Noel Gallagher, who both publicly praised Ocean Colour Scene for keeping the flame of real rock & roll burning during the '90s.

Rounding up all the B-sides, demos and rarities Ocean Colour Scene released over the course of 1996, when the band was riding the crest of their popularity, B-Sides: Seasides & Freerides, for all its inconsistency, illustrates the depth of their ambition, as well as their flaws. Primarily comprised of acoustic material, including a demo of "The Circle" and a fine, stripped-down version of "The Day We Caught the Train," the 16 tracks on B-Sides can tend to sound a little samey, but when the group branches out to the neo-prog-rock of the very English "Huckleberry Grove" or to the funky instrumental "Chicken Bones and Stones," they sound better than ever, and a couple of early songs by the pre-Ocean Colour Scene band the Fanatics are interesting.

In the early 1970s the island of Jamaica, and in particular its reggae musicians, developed a love affair with small Japanese motor bikes. Honda bikes were eulogised in Big Youth’s ‘S90 Skank’ and Dillinger’s ‘CB200’, whilst their rival was lauded on Shorty The President’s ‘Yamaha Skank’, to name the most obvious examples. The plot of the film ‘Rockers’ revolved around how transformative a motorbike could be, providing a livelihood whilst projecting an image of success in the ghetto. Vivian ‘Yabby You’ Jackson had been fiercely independent as a singer and producer, and the success of his early self-pressed productions, mostly on the Prophets or Vivian Jackson labels, had given him a sense of hard earned autonomy.

ANOTHER SPLASH OF COLOUR is the first compilation to document the Psychedelic Revival which hit the British music scene in the first half of the Eighties. This 3-CD set expands upon an original V/A LP, A Splash Of Colour, issued by WEA at the start of 1982 and including many of the Nu Psych scene’s major players: Mood Six, High Tide, Miles Over Matter, The Barracudas and The Times. All the musical tracks from this landmark album now appear on CD for the very first time!

Chaos & Colour, the energetic and triumphant 25th studio album from British hard rock legends and progenators Uriah Heep, bristles with explosive classic rock guitars, supreme harmonies, and Heep's famously generous keyboard foundation. This deluxe edition includes a demo version of 'Save Me Tonight' as a bonus track. Led by founding member Mick Box, it is no surprise that themes of light, love and, ultimately, positivity are constant through the eleven tracks. Opener "Save Me Tonight" shows the band's weighty yet blistering chops, whilst "One Nation, One Sun" is a journey of soaring balladic contemplation.