The Coral have announced their first UK and Ireland tour in nearly three years, with support coming from Dave McCabe, The Mary Wallopers and more. Find ticket information and a full list of new dates below.
The new tour dates are announced today (Monday June 29) and come in celebration of the indie icons surprise releasing new album ‘388’ last month.
The 11-track LP was inspired by their formative years, recorded to an original 1970’s Tascam 388 tape recorder, and captured frontman James Skelly and co. in their rawest form – keeping the analogue sound from the studio and subtle mistakes made along the way.
It was released with a no-fuss approach, stocked unannounced at independent record shops shelves in just one standard black vinyl format.
Now, to celebrate the new album, The Coral are embarking on their first headline UK tour in almost three years.
Dates kick off in Sheffield on October 2, and continue with stops in Newcastle, Leeds, London, Brighton, Manchester and Birmingham throughout the month. Dates wrap up with shows at Dublin’s 3Arena and Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on December 10 and 18 respectively.
Support comes from The Zutons‘ Dave McCabe, Mozart Estate and The Mary Wallopers, and tickets go on sale on Friday (July 3) at 9:30am local time. Visit here for tickets.
The Coral’s ‘388’ UK tour dates are:
OCTOBER
2 – Sheffield, Foundry*
9– Newcastle, Boiler Shop**
10 – Leeds, Project House**
16 – London, KOKO**
17 – Brighton, Centre***
23 – Manchester, Albert Hall**
24 – Birmingham, O2 Institute 2**
DECEMBER
10 – Dublin, 3Arena***
18 – Glasgow, Ovo Hydro***
* supported by Dave McCabe
** supported by Mozart Estate
*** with The Mary Wallopers
The Coral have been regularly playing at festivals since they dropped their last album ‘Sea Of Mirrors’ in 2024, but these are their first headline tour dates since December that year.
As well as announcing the new live shows, James Skelly and co. have also released a new music video for the optimistic single ‘Leave It In The Past’, which is directed by James Slater and finds them in Birkenhead Market.
“Ian [Skelly, drummer] and I used to live above a pub in Charing Cross, Birkenhead and wander round the market at weekends,” said the frontman about the choice of location.
“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.”
Shortly after ‘388’ arrived in record stores without prior warning, the five-piece spoke to NME about why they wanted to surprise fans with a new full-length effort.
“Releasing an album this way keeps us interested and keeps the fans interested too,” said the singer. “The idea was to release it how records used to be released: people can just have it for a couple of weeks, and it isn’t explained to anyone.”
Keyboardist Nick Power added: “Half the idea was that people would see it and think that, because we hadn’t announced anything, that ‘388’ might be a bootleg. We wanted people to wonder: ‘What is this?’ Not saying anything about it since it’s been out has been the hardest aspect.”