Bassist Paul Duffy has been at the heart of production, using the miniBit platform to reinvent their legendary tracks that pushed the album to number 5 on the Official Album Charts. The band have shared their reworking of hit song ‘Shadows Fall’ on Soundcloud, which was reuploaded by fans on YouTube. The haunting, electronic rock song makes a fresh transition to 8-bit, bringing out the jovial sonic breaks in its original release.

Duffy explained how the concept came to be in an interview with NME. He said, “We were in the process of filming the documentary and James asked Nick Power (keyboards) if anyone could make an 8-bit version of ‘Shadows Fall’ for a short scene in which we were depicted as pixel characters.”

The band loved this reworking of the track and Power said, “I’ve always been a bit of a gamer, so it was perfect for me. Everyone loved it so much that they said do the whole first album in 8-bit. Now it’s featured throughout the documentary.”

The documentary in question is another massive project the band have recently worked on. The Dreaming Of You film premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest on 21 June, sharing the story of the musicians’ rise to fame in the early 2000s Bandwagon club scene. Directed by James Slater, the film was described as “a nostalgic, immersive coming-of-age documentary charting the rise of The Coral, six childhood mates from the Wirral who turned suburban misfit energy into musical magic.”

We can expect the film’s namesake ‘Dreaming Of You’ to feature on ‘The Coral Caves Of Illusion– Debut Album Celebration’, a well-anticipated re-release considering its addictive, jumpy rock beat. 

The Coral have been playing some huge shows this summer supporting Elbow, Blossoms, Kaiser Chiefs and Supergrass across the UK. They’ll be continuing their rock-filled summer with gigs in London and Liverpool as well as a slot at this year’s Lazydays Festival. Find tickets and updates on the band’s official website and pre-order their upcoming album here.

Tickets for the general public are currently on sale here, with a variety of ticket options available, including single-night camping, day passes, weekend passes, and family packages. The introduction of a Family One ticket provides families with one child a discounted rate on individual ticket prices. Ticket purchasers also have the option to pay off the balance in installments.

Deva Fest has gained popularity for its diverse lineup, bringing together a mix of established and emerging artists. Acts slated to appear alongside the headliners include Rebecca Ferguson, Toyah Wilcox & Robert Fripp, East 17, Sleeper, and Symphonic Ibiza.

Founder Phil Marston expressed excitement about the festival’s return to Cholmondeley Castle, stating, “After the huge success last year, we didn’t think we’d be able to top it, but we’re confident this is our best lineup yet. We’re delighted to have already sold thousands of tickets in our pre-sale and it’s great to see so many people will be returning to the festival for the fourth time. Deva Fest aims to bring you a festival that has top quality musicians and comedians, fantastic street food and drink from local vendors, and entertainment the whole family can enjoy together.”

Deva Fest attracted 15,000 visitors over the course of the three-day weekend event in 2023. Consequently, this year, organisers have introduced a fourth night on Thursday, August 8, featuring performances on the Heart and Soul Stage, including pop singer and songwriter Tom Speight.

The festival’s diverse lineup spans multiple genres, with Friday featuring rising Country star Harleymoon Kemp, electronic duo Utah Saints, and the return of Symphonic Ibiza. The Coral are set to headline Friday’s events.

Saturday’s lineup includes tribute bands Oasis Ltd and The Amy Winehouse Band, as well as performances by British legends East 17 and Rebecca Ferguson. The Human League will close the Saturday night lineup.

Sunday will see the return of festival favourite tribute band Foo Fighterz, blues and roots rock duo When Rivers Meet, Brit Pop legends Sleeper, and Toyah Willcox & Robert Fripp. Ocean Colour Scene are set to close the festival with their ’90s hits.

Organisers promise more artist announcements and features in the coming months, stay tuned for more updates on what looks to be an exciting addition to the British festival calendar.

‘Vacancy’ is the latest track to be taken from our forthcoming album ‘Coral Island’ released on 30.04.21. Pre-order the album now (including signed prints) on double CD, heavyweight coloured double vinyl, cassette + listen to ‘Vacancy’ now https://t.co/282caIwsd6 pic.twitter.com/JrrT9mFa8m

— The Coral (@thecoralband) April 15, 2021

The Coral was formed back in 1996 in Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula. The band emerged during the early 2000s with their 2002 debut album The Coral which was nominated for the Mercury Prize. The new psychedelic pop track ‘Vacancy’ is led by hypnotic organs which evoke the nostalgia of an old carousel at a fairground. This woozy riff is partnered with James Skelly’s honest vocals in a swinging tune that shows promise for the bands upcoming LP.

Watch the lyric video for ‘Vacancy’ below.

The band has previously been known for its fusion of genres ranging from traditional folk to pop and beyond. The Coral’s new album promises to be a grand affair. The double concept album will be split into two parts ‘Welcome to Coral Island’ and ‘The Ghost of Coral Island’). It will feature 24 tracks and several spoken-word interludes. The album is set to be inspired by the seaside memories of band members James Skelly (guitar, vocals), Paul Duffy (bass), Ian Skelly (drums), Nick Power (keyboards), and Paul Molloy (guitar). James Skelly commented on ‘Vacancy’ stating: “We boarded a ghost train with T. S. Eliot, The Kinks and Karloff and we came out the other side with this baroque’n’roll organ riff ringing in our ears.”

‘Coral Island’, The Coral’s fairground-inspired double album will be released on April 30^th.

Pre Order ‘Coral Island’ here.

‘Coral Island’ tracklist:

1 Welcome To Coral Island
2 Lover Undiscovered
3 Change Your Mind
4 Mist On The River
5 Pavillions Of The Mind
6 Vacancy
7 My Best Friend
8 Arcade Hallucinations
9 The Game She Play
10 Autumn Has Come
11 The End Of The Pier
12 The Ghost Of Coral Island
13 Golden Age
14 Faceless Angel
15 The Great Lafayette
16 Strange Illusions
17 Summertime
18 Telepathic Waltz
19 Old Photographs
20 Watch You Disappear
21 Late Nights At The Borders
22 Land Of The Lost
23 The Calico Girl
24 The Last Entertainer

In a two-and-a-half minute preview unveiled on the band’s YouTube account this week we see Murray in full flow; delivering a spectral monologue that somehow both revels in and deconstructs nostalgia for “a distant glory era” of post-war British culture with “…people walking round here like they’re carrying the past on their shoulders.”

Murray’s frequent eerie allusions to the fading appeal of the English seaside fairground also chime with some of the album’s central motifs. In an interview with NME this week, frontman James Skelly highlighted the important supporting role his grandfather plays on the record. He said “‘Coral Island’ is a world of end-of-the-pier day drinkers, kids who get where they shouldn’t, pre-rock and roll macabre jukebox pop and long nights of risky fun by the pitch black sea. It seemed to call for a tour guide of some kind. We thought of a few ideas and then Ian said: ‘I’m gonna record grandad doing it and see what happens’. He just did it and it sounded really good.”

Keyboard player Nick Power added “He’s a poetic guy from Runcorn and I wrote out the monologues that go in between the songs and recorded them with him. He’s a natural story-teller. Whenever you see him, he’ll just go straight into a war-time story for about 45 minutes in the middle of the street, and you’ll be engrossed in it…He did a great job! I had to buy him a meal afterwards and he drank me under the table, but it was worth it.”

Last month the group unveiled Coral Island‘s lead single – Faceless Angel - a typically psychedelic Coral number which sets James Skelly’s soulful vocal against a 1950s skiffle-influenced rhythm. There are also otherworldly echoes from an electronic wurtlizer organ that seem to the hearken back to the days of the British dance hall, or even a haunted Blackpool Tower Ballroom. The track was accompanied by a surrealist, nightmarish promo video directed by South Wales-based Edwin Burdis – a former artist-in-residence for Domino Records’ – who has previously worked with the Arctic Monkeys.

Coral Island is the Wirral outfit’s first LP since 2018’s Move Through The Dawn, which The Guardian‘s Dave Simpson hailed as a collection of “vintage songs of sad euphoria“. The record topped the UK Independent Albums Chart and featured on Gigwise and Louder Than War‘s end-of-year best albums lists for 2018.

The new LP is the group’s tenth studio album; coming nineteen years on from their eponymous, Mercury Prize-nominated debut The Coral. That record spawned the band’s breakthrough number in the hummable ska-pop number Dreaming Of You; a precursor to further hit singles over the years that followed including Don’t Think You’re The First; Pass It On and In The Morning.

Over 30 acts are set to take the stage at the Somerset extravaganza, which festival organisers have promised will be “a long-weekend escape of music and mayhem“. The running order has yet to be finalised, but attendees can expect sets from much-loved Newport rap iconoclasts Goldie Lookin’ Chain; Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook with his band The Light; Liverpool outfit Cast; Leeds indie five-piece The Pigeon Detectives; Hounslow Britpoppers The Bluetones; and shoegaze favourites The Boo Radleys (performing as Sice Boo and the Radleys).

The Boo Radleys will effectively be reuniting for the gig – albeit without original guitarist and songwriter Martin Carr – having split in 1999. The Wirral band, whose third LP Wake Up! topped the UK albums charts in 1995, will be led under their new moniker by singer Simon ‘Sice’ Rowbottom.

Goldie Lookin Chain (GLC)’s appearance will follow the Welsh hip-hop troupe’s delayed 20th anniversary tour, which finishes with a homecoming gig at Newport Centre on Saturday 21st June 2021. The group have kept busy during lockdown, recently recording a pandemic-related Christmas song and taking aim at conspiracists who deny the existence of the virus with the Green Day-inspired diss track Covidiot.

In an unexpected turn, GLC stalwart Adam Hussain is also taking on judging duties for Gwent’s Got Talent, an online talent competition in aid of St David’s Hospice. Speaking about his new role to the South Wales Argus, Hussain took a light-hearted swipe at another well-known talent show judge, saying:  “I’m always interested in what local talent we have in Gwent and believe in supporting our home-grown future stars. Amanda Holden does it regularly and I don’t really know what she did to qualify for the position apart from going out with Les Dennis.”

GLC’s compatriots Feeder will also be relishing an opportunity to return to the stage in 2021, having been forced to postpone the remaining tour dates to showcase their acclaimed 2019 album Tallulah. During the lockdown the band released a new video to accompany the now-iconic homemade promo for their 2001 hit Just A Day; with Just A Day 2 raising funds for PPE equipment for the NHS.

Fellow Shiine On headliners Glasvegas’ set should feature songs from their upcoming fourth album Godspeed, which is due out next April. Band frontman James Allan has suggested that the new record, their first in seven years, follows a narrative outline.

He recently told NME “The picture I imagined was that all the songs were set on one night. I wrote a couple of songs and then thought that’s maybe the way this album is supposed to be. The character basically leaves the house at the beginning of the album and starts to drive somewhere. The character’s always inside the car but there’s parts of that drive that are like a daydream, not reminiscent but the way you are when you’re out driving somewhere, your thoughts can jump from one place to the next, and then you’ll maybe notice something that has a memory in real time.”

Tickets for the 2021 Shiiine On Weekender are available now on the festival website.

The band first announced this album would be released on their social media pages and it was released only a few hours later. The album also features a cover of the Oasis song ‘Married with Children’.

The Coral – ‘Lockdown Sessions’ – out at midnight tonight. Featuring all of the lockdown tracks I did from the last couple of months. Stream & download the album from midnight at https://t.co/BiGPfjPyZl#lockdownsessions#thecoralpic.twitter.com/Y5MUtG0pGq

— James Skelly (@JamesSkellyBand) May 28, 2020

More recently, lead singer James Skelly has found himself on the other side of the board acting as a producer for Blossoms new album ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’. This was released to both critical and chart success.

The Coral emerged in the early 2000’s with their eponymous debut album debuting at number 5 in the charts. The popular single ‘Dreaming of you’ was also featured on the album. 

They have been ever present in the UK indie scene and with 10 albums already released, they have shown almost no sign of slowing up. In the early years of the band, they had already shown their songwriting ability and they had caught the eye of famous bands such as Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys.

Watch as James Skelly teams up with Blossoms to play ‘Dreaming of you’;

Being made up of two brothers, Ian and James Skelly, the band has hit considerable heights in their time with a lot in front of them and still to come from them. They have already gone down as cult heroes, by the time they are done they will no doubt be legends.

This comes as their second collaboration as Skelly produced their most recent album ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’. Being released on Twitter, the song was recorded in isolation with all the members recording their parts separately. Check it out below;

Dreaming Of You – Blossoms and @JamesSkellyBand (@thecoralband) in Isolation Xxx pic.twitter.com/HEpWHKhBFe

— B L O S S O M S (@BlossomsBand) May 1, 2020

The crossover has sent waves through social media as fans of both bands have reacted to this with overwhelming support. Famous faces such as Liam Fray, The Sherlocks and even celebrity chef Simon Rimmer giving their support.

This is the most recent in their series of covers the band have released. The first two being a cover of The Beatles Paperback writer and Tame Impala’s The Less I Know The Better. Watch the latter below;

Fresh off the back of their third album, ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’ which to be managed their second number one album, the band have been one of the many acts to postpone their tour due to the rapid outbreak of the virus. This tour was due to include a huge gig at Manchester Arena.

The most recent album was seen as a return to form for them following the lukewarm response to their sophomore album ‘Cool Like You’. But that lukewarm response still led to a fourth place chart. If that’s lukewarm, I’d happily take it.

The band have been keeping fans happy releasing these covers which, no doubt, have kept them with something to look forward to. With all these covers being extremely fun and all sticking to Blossoms sound, all we can do now is wait to see what the cover next. Not as if we’ve got anything better to do is it?

Recognised as the key figure in founding a number of Liverpudlian bands including The Zutons, The Coral and multiple Miles Kane projects, Wills died last night after suffering severe head injuries as a result of a road incident that occurred on Thursday evening.

The founder of Deltasonic Records, Wills had first made his name as the drummer in Shack and Top before going to set up his own, Liverpool-based record company. Having worked with plenty of musicians on the Liverpool scene since setting up the label in a venture with Sony, Wills helped bring some of Liverpool’s finest young musicians into the wider consciousness and made The Coral into such a high profile band.

Wills was involved in a road crash on Thursday at approximately 8.30pm on East Prescot Road in the Page Moss area of Liverpool and passed away from the injuries suffered on the evening of Sunday 11th May.

Police are are appealing to anyone with information on the crash to come forward and contact them. Those with information can call Merseyside Police on 0151 777 5747 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.