The Coral, live at Dingwalls, London – April 2002 –
Somebody I haven’t played in a very long time. The Coral arrived on the scene in 1996, but really emerged in the early 2000s as forerunners of the Guitar Group Revival, as well as avid practitioners of neo-Psychedelia, Psychedelic Folk and Jangle-pop. They’ve been a success from the get-go, with their debut album (The Coral s/t) snagging a nomination for the 2002 Mercury Music Prize and proclaimed fourth best album of the year by NME.
In a March 2012 interview, bassist Paul Duffy reported that a new album was in progress at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bristol, stating that the sound was a lot heavier: “It’s very layered, it’s like you have one thing and you just keep adding things on top, and it just sounds big cause we’ve gone in as a six piece”. In spring 2012 the band announced an indefinite hiatus in order to concentrate on individual projects. Their half-finished seventh album was shelved.
On 24 August 2014, Geoff Barrow announced when standing in for Stuart Maconie on the BBC Radio 6 Music Freak Zone show that the Coral were to release The Curse of Love in September 2014. The album was recorded around the time of The Invisible Invasion, an album produced by the Portishead and Beak man, but was only recently mastered for release on James Skelly’s Skeleton Key label. “Wrapped in Blue” is the first cut from the album, which Barrow played on the show.
On 23 November 2015, the band announced their 2016 return after five-year hiatus. The new studio album, Distance Inbetween was released on 4 March 2016, accompanied by UK and European tours in Spring 2016. Guitarist Paul Molloy joined the band during the recording of the album,[19] replacing Lee Southall who had chosen to take a break from the band in order to focus on his personal life and solo project. In late 2016, the band was joined by Jack Prince as tour percussionist.
In April 2018, the band announced their ninth studio album, Move through the Dawn, which was then released on 10 August 2018. It was recorded at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studios and was produced by the band and Rich Turvey.
On 28 January 2021, The Coral debuted a single, “Faceless Angel”, from their fairground-inspired double album Coral Island, which was released on 30 April.
Pretty good for first-timers in 2002. And 12 albums later, they’re still doing quite well. A few personnel shakeups here and there, but The Coral have stayed pretty much intact.
2002 was a big year for them, and this club date at Dingwalls in London on April of that year gives some idea what the fuss was all about.
Play loud and come back tomorrow – you just never know what you’ll find.
