The Coral

The Coral
The Coral performing at the 2003 V Festival L to R: James Skelly, Ian Skelly and Paul Duffy
Background information
Origin	Birkenhead, Merseyside, England
Genres	Indie rock, psychedelic folk, neo-psychedelia, jangle pop
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Deltasonic, Skeleton Key
Associated acts	Serpent Power, James Skelly & the Intenders, The Viper Kings, The Sundowners
Website	www.thecoral.co.uk
Members	James Skelly Paul Duffy Nick Power Ian Skelly Paul Molloy
Past members	Bill Ryder-Jones Lee Southall

The Coral are an English rock band, formed in 1996 in Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside. The band first emerged during the early 2000s and found success with their debut album The Coral (2002) and follow up Magic and Medicine (2003). Their self-titled debut album was nominated for the 2002 Mercury Music Prize and later voted the fourth best album of the year by NME Magazine.

In 2008 guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones left the band. However, the Coral continued as a five-piece. Their seventh album Distance Inbetween was released in 2016.

In 1996, schoolfriends Ian Skelly and Paul Duffy began jamming together in the basement of Flat Foot Sams pub in Hoylake. Over the following months they were joined by Bill Ryder-Jones on lead guitar, Ian's older brother James Skelly on vocals and main songwriting duties, and then Lee Southall on rhythm guitar. The band were known briefly as Hive before choosing the name "The Coral", and the line-up was completed with the addition of Nick Power, who joined as keyboard player in 1998.

According to Deltasonic head Alan Wills, he first encountered the band from a gig poster they had made of their 'granddads head exploding', and decided to go and see them live. At that point the band hadn't released any records. When Wills discovered the band he had already started to think about starting a label but had yet to do so, and the Coral gave Wills the impetus to start Deltasonic. Wills told HitQuarters that: "It was always the aim to release them through Deltasonic, and it was always their aim to be on Deltasonic ... Most people wouldn’t have understood the Coral at that point." Wills also assumed responsibility for managing the band, albeit reluctantly as he was unable to find anyone else to take on the role.

Hailed as the first English band of the "guitar group revival", the band's first release was the single "Shadows Fall" (2001), which was followed by two EPs The Oldest Path EP (2001) and Skeleton Key EP (2002). Their eponymous debut album The Coral, released in 2002, reached number five on the UK Albums Chart and was nominated for the Mercury Prize the day after its release. A successful UK tour and festival slots followed along with the singles "Goodbye" reaching number twenty-one in the UK Singles Chart and "Dreaming of You" reaching number thirteen. The single "Dreaming of You" was included in the United States sitcom "Scrubs" episode My Monster. The Coral also performed "Dreaming of You" live on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.