Join us for a very special live episode to mark the release of Dreaming Of You - The Making of the Coral - the new documentary available now to rent or buy.

Our starting point is the faded seaside town of Hoylake, on the Wirral Peninsula near Liverpool, where The Coral meet & come together to form the band.

Before music James & Ian Skelly live in a fantasy world of Ghostbusters, Transformers, Thundercats & Turtles - aided partly by their Dad’s market stall selling toys in Liverpool.

Its drummer Ian Skelly & bassist Paul Duffy who start the band with singer James Skelly eventually joins them & guitarists Bill Ryder-Jones & Lee Southall follow.

Nick Power completes the lineup & James stumbles on the name The Coral & it sticks.

Early influences include Captain Beefheart, Pink Floyd, The La’s, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, The Beach Boys, Dr. Dre, Peter Green & Oasis. In time this morphs into a love for The Beta Band, Super Furry Animals & Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.

A scene develops in Liverpool around The Zanzibar & The Bandwagon involving Tramp Attack, The Skylarks, The Bandits & The Zutons.

The Coral begin to play regularly at The Cavern, entertaining Beatles tourists in a regular Sunday afternoon slot.

The band are introduced to Deltasonic founder Alan Wills & not long after release debut single Shadows Fall.

Shortly after the band sign to Sony after a gig at Night & Day in Manchester.

Ian Broudie comes in as producer for what becomes the debut album which reaches 5 in the charts when released in July 2002.

Hit single Dreaming Of You almost doesn’t appear on the album when the band are reluctant to include it, but ultimately have a change of heart.

2nd single Goodbye gets the band on Top Of The Pops & also gives the band the chance to build a full size Wicker Man for the accompanying video.

A large headline gig takes place in a big top in New Brighton dubbed A Midsummer Nights Scream with The Libertines, The Bees, The Zutons, The Thrills & The Basements & makes the end of the first chapter of The Coral.

It takes anything from 5 to 40 hours to prepare each episode of Music Maps - if you’d like to make a contribution to help us cover the costs & time of producing these episodes for you, you can do so at this link: ko-fi.com/musicmaps

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Hosted, Produced & Edited by Simon Cardwell

Music by Andy Maxwell116 - The Coral with James Skelly, Nick Power & James Slater (Hoylake)

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