Ocean Colour Scene's ninth studio album may not be out until February but fans desperate to hear the new material need not wait that long.

Frontman Simon Fowler and drummer Oscar Harrison will be giving a sneak preview of tracks from Saturday in an acoustic gig at the Halfmoon next Tuesday, arranged to show their support for the venue threatened with closure next month.

Saturday, which had the working title of Blue Sky Drinking, was finished as long ago as July at the Rockfield studios in South Wales with producer Gavin Monaghan (Editors/the Twang), and Fowler admitted he was eager to get it out to the public.

"The album seems to have been incubating for about 18 months," he said.

"We finished in July and it's been hanging around since then so we are looking forward to getting it out there.

"To that end myself and Oscar will be playing five or six songs from it at the Halfmoon and giving them a bit of a showcase. "I don't really know how to describe it.

"The only premise we had was we wanted to be able to play half the album live because it's important to keep on topping up what we can play live otherwise you just end up playing the same stuff.

"It is like all our albums and goes from folk songs to rock music and everything in between."

The three year gap since their last album, On The Leyline, marked a change from the bands usual two year break between albums which they have operated since the release of third offering Marchin' Already in 1997.

"Apart from the very first album when there was a hiatus and we were on the dole we tend to have released something every two years," says Simon.

"That's what you do though when you are in a band.

"You record albums, then release them, then tour them."

Fowler has often considered releasing his own solo album and was close to starting work on it last year with John McCusker.

"I have been planning that for years," he says.

"I wanted to do it last year with John, a fiddle player and all round fantastic musician.

"We were starting to get ideas together and then he got a call from Mark Knopfler asking him if he wanted to go on a world tour with him so that was that.

"Next year is Ocean Colour Scene's 21st anniversary so whether that will be an impetus for us to start work on another record straight away or to take some time off to do our own stuff we do not know yet."

Simon Fowler and Oscar Harrison, Halfmoon, Lower Richmond Road, December 22, 8.30pm, £15 (£12 adv). Call 020 8780 9383 or visit halfmoon.co.uk.