Oscar Lloyd Harrison (born 18 April 1965 in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
) is a British musician who currently plays drums with Birmingham-based
Ocean Colour Scene
Ocean Colour Scene (often abbreviated to OCS) are an English rock band formed in Solihull in 1989. They have had five top 10 albums including a number one in 1997. They have also achieved seventeen top 40 singles and six top 10 singles to dat ...
and the British ska band
The Beat. He also plays piano and bass guitar, and occasionally sings lead vocals.
Life and career
Early days
Harrison's first musical career began with an eleven-piece reggae band called Echo Base. Harrison had stated that he knew he wanted to be a musician from the moment he watched ''
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...
'', an English performance chart show, and that he always admired reggae giant
Burning Spear
Winston Rodney OD (born 1 March 1945), better known by the stage name Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, vocalist and musician. Burning Spear is a Rastafarian and one of the most influential and long-standing roots ...
.
Echo Base were signed to the same label as fellow Birmingham band
UB40
UB40 are an English reggae and pop band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the ...
and, despite releasing an album, disbanded after disagreements.
After talking to Echo Base's manager, Harrison met and joined a band called 'The Fanatics', where he played alongside future friend
Simon Fowler
Simon Geoffrey Fowler (born 25 May 1965 in Meriden, Warwickshire) is an English singer and acoustic guitarist, best known as the frontman of Ocean Colour Scene.
The Fanatics
Simon Fowler commenced his music career as the lead singer and songwr ...
. He had replaced Caroline Bullock, who angrily responded by "outing" homosexual Fowler to British tabloid paper ''
The Sun'' a few years later.
After playing together for a while, The Fanatics too disbanded, along with another Birmingham rock band called 'The Boys'.
Ocean Colour Scene
After the disbanding of The Boys and the Fanatics, Fowler and Harrison were part of another, new band called
Ocean Colour Scene
Ocean Colour Scene (often abbreviated to OCS) are an English rock band formed in Solihull in 1989. They have had five top 10 albums including a number one in 1997. They have also achieved seventeen top 40 singles and six top 10 singles to dat ...
. This band featured Simon Fowler on lead vocals and acoustic guitar and Oscar Harrison on the drums, with the addition of lead guitar player
Steve Cradock and bassist Damon Minchella.
Ocean Colour Scene were hugely successful during the
Britpop
Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...
era. They were signed with record label Phfftt, who were later bought out by larger label
Phonogram
Phonogram may refer to:
* A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention
* ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
* Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phone ...
, before signing with other labels such as
Island Records and eventually creating their own label,
Moseley Shoals Records.
Harrison played the drums with Ocean Colour Scene as they played alongside artists such as
Oasis,
Paul Weller
Paul John Weller (born John William Weller; 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/ new wave/mod revival band the Jam (1972–1982). He had further success with the blue-eyed soul mu ...
and others. Harrison himself said that he looked up to
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
's drummer,
Keith Moon.
Harrison has also played a lot of acoustic sessions; playing the piano with vocalist Fowler, as well as singing and playing the guitar for songs such as "Profit in Peace". Harrison composed and arranged all the parts of song "Don't Play", and programmed the instruments onto a
Korg
, founded as Keio Electronic Laboratories, is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners. Under the Vox brand name, th ...
synthesizer.
Harrison first sang lead vocals for Ocean Colour Scene on a cover of the
Bob Andy song, "My Time".
In 2016, Harrison joined the lineup of
Ranking Roger
Roger Charlery (21 February 1963 – 26 March 2019), known professionally as Ranking Roger,Strong, Martin C. (2002) ''The Great Rock Discography, 6th Edition'', Canongate, , p. 72Huey, Steve " Ranking Roger Biography, Allmusic, retrieved 17 Febru ...
's
The Beat as drummer.
Personal life
Harrison was born to Isaac and Susan Harrison. He is the eldest of four children alongside his siblings Rose, Peter and Paul Harrison. Harrison currently resides with a girlfriend in
Edgbaston
Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre.
In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...
. He has five sons, Leon (percussionist and Drummer of Midlands band Marquis Drive) and Damon, Louie, Isaac and Theo. Three daughters Cherelle, Fern and Ruby.
Harrison said that his biggest ambition is to live on a house boat and he is obsessed with gadgets. He is an
Aston Villa football fan and a regular golfer.
See also
*
List of reggae musicians
This is a list of reggae musicians. This includes artists who have either been very important to the genre or have had a considerable amount of exposure (such as in the case of one that has been on a major label). Bands are listed by the first lett ...
*
List of stage names
This list of stages lists names used by those in the entertainment industry, alphabetically by their stage name's surname, followed by their birth name. Individuals who dropped their last name and substituted their middle name as their last nam ...
*
Britpop
Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Oscar
1965 births
Living people
English rock drummers
Ocean Colour Scene members
Black British rock musicians
People from Birmingham, West Midlands
Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands
Britpop musicians