After a five-year hiatus The Coral return in 2016 with their eighth studio album, Distance In between, out March 4th on Ignition Records. To coincide with the release the influential five-piece will head out on a UK tour, including a show at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 16th March. The band will then tour Europe in April before returning to their hometown to headline Liverpool Sound City Festival on 29th May.

Distance Inbetween is The Coral’s first album of original material since 2010’s Butterfly House, a gap punctuated by last year’s surprise release of their lost album, The Curse of Love.

Recorded at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studio with co-producer Richard Turvey, Distance Inbetween was recorded live and mostly in just one take.”Before we started making the album we had discussed that we wanted it to be more minimal and rhythmical,” explains James Skelly (vocals, guitars). “We thought ‘if you’ve got a rhythm section that’s been playing together for almost twenty years, why not make that the centre of the songs?’”

On the album James, Ian Skelly (drums/percussion/vocals), Nick Power (keyboard/vocals), and Paul Duffy (bass/keyboards/vocals) are joined by Coral newbie, guitarist Paul Molloy, formerly of The Zutons.

“Paul was playing with Ian in their band, Serpent Power, and we’d all been mates with him for years,” says James. “We already had a couple of tunes recorded and Ian suggested Paul add some guitar. His parts really enhanced the tracks; he understood where he needed to leave space. From that point we didn’t look back. We had a full line-up and were confident we could make an album that would stand next to the others.”

On Distance Inbetween listeners are invited into The Coral’s world of Richard Yates’ books, Alan Moore comics, 1980’s toys, the sound of krautrock compilations and Muddy Waters’ Electric Mud, and Gregory Crewdson’s darkly beautiful photography.

The album is dedicated to Alan Wills, The Coral’s early mentor and Deltasonic label boss who tragically lost his life in 2014.

The Coral Distance Inbetween, track listing:

1. Connector
2. White Bird
3. Chasing The Tail Of A Dream
4. Distance Inbetween
5. Million Eyes
6. Miss Fortune
7. Beyond The Sun
8. It’s You
9. Holy Revelation
10. She Runs The River
11. Fear Machine
12. End Credits

The Coral UK & European Tour 2016:

Fri 4th March Newcastle Riverside
Sat 5th March Glasgow O2 ABC
Mon 7th March Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Tues 8th March Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Thurs 10th March Birmingham O2 Institute2
Fri 11th March Sheffield Leadmill
Sat 12th March Manchester Albert Hall
Tues 15th March Oxford O2 Academy 2
Wed 16th March London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Fri 8th April Amsterdam Melkweg
Sat 9th April Cologne Luxor
Sun 10th April Hamburg Knust
Tues 12th April Berlin Lido

Sun 29th May Liverpool Sound City – Headline show