8 posts tagged “the coral”

I head across London to see The Coral at the Cobden Club.  I get into the venue; it is a Jamesons Irish Whiskey promotion for St Patrick’s Day.    The girl who is organising it takes me up the back stairs to avoid the crowds pushing up the main stairs as soon as the Coral come on.   I run into Florence on the stairs, she was performing earlier.   Her face is covered in glitter like Natasha from Bat For Lashes.   She is friendly, keen to talk, tells me she has finally found a sound.   The top room is packed out.   It is an acoustic set up which The Coral are particularly adapt at.    Their sound is fabulous.   They still bring out Ian Broudie to play guitar on a couple of numbers.   James seems happier than I have seen him in a long time.  They play a couple of new songs “Green Was the Colour of her Eyes” and another, more electric number .    They play Bobby Darrin’s “dream Lover” and the Beverley’s “Bye Bye Love” which everyone goes crazy for and which feel quite timeless.

Saturday afternoon and beneath skies the colour of chicken cupasoup I am driving down the M11 to The V Festival in Chelmsford. I park up and make my way through the crowds to The Sessions tent to see The New York Fund. Chris McCormack tipped me off about them, I think they might be Scottish, hard to place that accent, might be connected to that night he runs up there. The singer is a troubadour, good looks behind the waistcoat, beard and harmonica brace. The music is pretty trad but it has charisma, bit parts of Neil Young, The Fan Club, even Dire Straits. Not fashionable for sure but there is a good crowd in here, so much so the singer is asking if it has started raining outside the tent.
I walk back out through all the Snow Patrol fans over to the Virgin Mobile Union tent where Mumm Ra are leaping enthusiasticly around. Nu's snake hips are more than a match for anything Jarvis shook in the 1990s and he has a tent packed full of enthusiastic supporters who are lapping up their very English melodies. "She's Got You High" is a song that should have been number one forever and the tents sings it back like maybe it was.
Back out through a crowd that sports red necks and shades despite the drizzle. Over in the Sessions tent The Ting Tings are taking to the stage. Its great to see how easily they adjust to a big festival stage after the small performing space in their mill.   Katie is charging round the stage, alternating between playing Rhythm on her telecaster, being te mike controller and dropping her rhymes on the beats to banging out the beats on the huge drum at the back of the stage.   They only play a handful of songs but it is so exciting.   I can't wait to get them out around the country with New Young Pony Club and Reverend and the Makers this autumn.

   I head over to the Channel 4 stage to see The Coral.   They feel like such a classic timeless band now, like we are gathering to see The Byrds or Arthur Lee and Love.   Their songs seem to have been around forever even though none of the band can be older than 25.   it is great to see the crowd react so well to songs from the new album such as "Who's Gonna Find Me" and the next single Jacqueline" as well as classics such as "Dreaming of You".   it is an exceptional set though, a real greatest hits collection.

   I make my way over to the main stage as night falls.   I climb up onto the stage just as The Foo Fighters are opening their set with "Everlong"   The roar from the crowd is staggering.   The whole field as far as we can see is jammed with people.   I pity the Kooks going up against the Foos, even the rain is not dislodging one member of the crowd.   It is suck a privillage to watch the band up close like this.   Taylor is such a machine, the heart of every great rock band is the drummer and The Foo Fighters are blessed with two of the very best.   But everyone gives their all, no one is ever short changed at a Foo Fighters show and it is electric tonight.   they tear through their very best songs, throw in a couple from the new record.  "Pretender" already feels like a classic.   This is the opening salvo of an incredible journey over the next twelve months, I am so excited to be here to see it unfold.

We head over to see The Coral open up as special guest for Noel Gallagher at The Royal Albert Hall.   it is part of his Teenage Cancer Trust series of gigs which run all week, Noel having taken over the curator ship from Roger Daltrey.   The Coral are performing an acoustic set , all of them perched on stools.   Their music lends itself particularly well to this kind of treatment and they deliver a seamless progression of greatest hits.   The woman next to me keeps bellowing for "Dreaming of You" and is up dancing when they play their breakthrough hit.   It is only one of so many highlights though, when there are songs as beautiful as "Pass it On" being performed.   It is great to see how well the new tunes such as "Who's Gonna Find Me" and "Put The Sun Back" fit into the set.   The latter boasts a particularly beguiling guitar solo.   They finish with The Everly's "Bye Bye Love" which is an opportunity for James to remind us that he is one of the finest singers to have hit the stage with a guitar band since Steve Marriott