WHEN Birmingham mod-revivalists Ocean Colour Scene knocked Oasis off the top of the album charts, even the cocksure Mancunians were forced to acknowledge they were up against a truly great band.

Noel Gallagher famously went as far as to send the band a plaque engraved with the inscription: ‘To The Second Best Band In Britain’.

That was 13 years ago. And while the rock landscape continues to change, OCS are as passionate as ever. Now in their 21st year, the band are back with their ninth studio album, Saturday, as well as a string of solo projects.

So what gives the band their staying power?

“We’ve always been the sort of band who like to share our ideas,” explains frontman Steve Fowler – who also plays guitar in Jam legend Paul Weller’s band, appearing with ‘The Modfather’ on stage and on all his solo albums.

“I remember Ian Brown saying that what spoiled it for him with The Stone Roses was that John Squire would bring songs in fully formed. It keeps things exciting knowing that everybody is bringing something to the table. That working relationship gels a band together; it’s a collaborative spirit.”

Saturday finds the band at their tuneful best. Recorded with producer Gavin Monaghan at South Wales’s Rockfield studios, it’s a return to the barnstorming OCS whose epic breakthrough second album Moseley Shoals caught the nation’s imagination, hogging the charts for 18 months, back in 1996, with anthems The Riverboat Song and The Day We Caught The Train.

“Gavin was keen to make a classic OCS record,” says Solihull-born guitarist Steve Cradock. “That gave us a direction for where we wanted the album to go.”

The album has the stamp of Simon’s observational lyrics, his background as a newspaper reporter in Birmingham clearly leaving him with an eye for detail.

“I live in a small village in the Cotswolds which has a few local pubs, a village green and an acupuncturist – there’s even a Maypole,” he laughs.

“I tend to write the lyrics while out walking, so you take in what’s around you.”

Musically, the album is diverse, drawing from rock strands going back decades, but it is also unmistakably OCS. “I had a little battery operated record player in my room while we were recording,” says Steve. “I’d listen to everything from classical stuff to Eastern European folk music. Then I’d go into the studio in a drunken stupor and play a punk song like Postal.”

Their enthusiasm is contagious and perhaps more redolent of a band just starting out – rather than one which has been up and down the M6 as many times as they have.

“We’re not getting any younger,” admits Simon, 44, “but that enthusiasm will never leave us, I don’t think. Me and Steve are very different in many respects, but we do both like laughing a lot, and that’s what keeps us having fun.”

l Supporting Moseley’s finest are a band who are getting astronomical reviews of their own. They’re called The Moons.

Fronted by Paul Weller’s keyboard player Andy Crofts, and featuring Chris Ketley previously of The Rakes, the band craft soulful slices of classic English pop, taking a traditional 60s sound and weaving in influences as diverse as XTC and The Specials.

The tour comes as lads release single Nightmare Day, ahead of debut album Life On Earth.

Ocean Colour Scene play the O2 Academy on Tuesday. Tickets are £22.50 from ticketweb.co.uk Album Saturday is out on, err... Monday, on the Cooking Vinyl label.