PHOTO: Kev Power
The Coral announce UK headline tour and share new video for "Leave It In The Past"
Merseyside rock band The Coral have confirmed a run of six headline dates for October, alongside three arena supports with The Mary Wallopers, following the low-key release of their thirteenth album 388 last month.
The Coral will kick off their UK headline tour in Sheffield on 2 October, with further stops in Newcastle, Leeds, London, Brighton, and Manchester. The band will also play arena support slots with The Mary Wallopers in Dublin and Glasgow in December.
The announcement coincides with a new video for album track “Leave It In The Past”, directed by James Slater and filmed at the historic Birkenhead Market. Singer and songwriter James Skelly explained the location’s significance: “Ian and I used to live above a pub in Charing Cross, Birkenhead and wander round the market at weekends. It was a magical place to us. The atmosphere of the place, and the characters you still find there, reflect the ethos of 388. It’s simultaneously of today and another time entirely.”
The eleven-track 388 arrived at the end of May with little advance warning, initially appearing unannounced on independent record shop shelves in a single black vinyl pressing. The band pursued what they describe as a deliberately low-key release strategy, inspired by the taped compilations they shared in their early days, as well as early Wailers recordings, rocksteady, and 1960s girl groups.
Recorded to a 1970s Tascam 388 tape machine at Liverpool’s Kempston Street Studios with long-time co-producer Chris Taylor, the album retains a deliberately raw, analogue sound, with mistakes left in. The band have said the record acknowledges not only the music they love but also “the break-ups and break downs” and “the tours, the drugs, the births, the deaths” of the past thirty years.
The new album follows a prolific period for the group, who released the double album Coral Island in 2021 and the soundtrack-style Sea Of Mirrors in 2024. They have continued to play festivals and select shows since their last headline run, but this October marks their return to a full tour of their own.
Support on the headline dates will come from Mozart Estate – the project of Lawrence, formerly of Denim and Felt – and Dave McCabe, frontman of The Zutons, on different legs of the tour.
Tickets go on sale on 3 July at 9.30am via the band’s website.
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