Feel Good Festival 2019: The Coral

Music lovers rocked out to a headline set by indie-pop band The Coral for the annual Feel Good Festival on Saturday (10 August), packing out Rochdale’s Town Hall Square.

The Coral, fronted by lead singer James Skelly, emerged during the early 2000s with their debut self-titled album, making number five in the charts and immediately earning them a Mercury Music Prize nomination.

Since then they’ve sold well over one million albums, accumulating six top 10 hits including 2003’s chart topping ‘Magic and Medicine’. They’ve amassed eight top 40 singles, plus one platinum and two gold albums.

With a string of well-known hits, including ‘Dreaming of You’, ‘Pass it On’, ‘In the Morning’, The Coral were hailed as the first English band of the 21st century’s guitar group revival.

Speaking to Rochdale Online before their headlining slot, James said: “It’s going great. We’ve never been to Rochdale before. We’re really looking forward to the whole gig, and putting on a good show for the crowd.

“’Goodbye’ has a good jam, and the crowd really likes ‘Dreaming of You’. Stick through the weather; it’ll be worth it.”

 

 

The band have played sold-out tours and the main stage at some of the UK’s biggest festivals including the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, as well as supporting acts including Oasis, The Manic Street Preachers and Blur, with their upbeat indie rock hits resonating across the generations. 

James cites influences from Fleetwood Mac to the Beach Boys and the Beatles, “old-school live bands”, and advises any budding musicians to “do your own thing.”

Their most recent critically acclaimed album ‘Move Through The Dawn’ hit the top 20 last year and they followed up their sell-out UK tour with a stunning televised set at the BBC 6 Music Festival in their home city of Liverpool.

Their most recent single, ‘Eyes Like Pearls’, was released in 2018 with a new album in the works for 2020.

They will be performing arena tours throughout the UK in November 2019, supporting singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist Gerry Cinnamon.

Photos by SKW Events, Joe Jones and Mark Pollitt.