The Coral @ Middlesbrough Empire

The Coral are one of my most watched bands. This was my 6th gig of theirs, which is the 8th most. Probably a surprise, but they are a great live proposition.  This is the second review on this blog – the first was Chase Park Festival.  This showing came about through my brother’s prompting. Hometown gig for him, so I said “why not”. A Friday night would normally have meant a few drinks, but I had an early start the next day, so offered my taxi services. The Empire, as it turns out, had an appalling selection of booze, so it didn’t make much difference. Mike ended up drinking Guinness (cans with one of those vibrating platform things) & I had one lager of some description.

The place was pretty quiet when we arrived, but we decided to go upstairs to the balcony anyway. We got ourselves a spot in the middle at the front and took root, despite many attempts from others to muscle in as it got busier.  Having settled on Guinness, Mike was troubled to note that the cans of Guinness weren’t available upstairs, so he had to take on a limeless corona which was poured into a plastic pint-pot.  I took pity on him and went to the downstairs bar for the next one.

The guy next to us started chatting to me. His opening gambit was to ask “are you Coral fans?”. It seemed a bit of a redundant question, so in initially took my usual  social approach of one word answers and general body language which indicated that I wasn’t the type of person who enjoys pre-gig conversation with a stranger (unless I’ve had a few, of course).  He persisted a little and I warmed to him. It turns out the he was the Dad if the guitarist and lead singer of the support act. He asked me and my brother to let us know our thoughts. He was clearly an immensely proud dad and it couldn’t help but make me more receptive to the Cut Glass Kings who were about to take the stage.  I’ll be honest and say I genuinely thought they were excellent. A two piece in the vein of Royal Blood, they produced a loud sound with just a guitar and drums. I wasn’t bored at all in their 30 minute set, despite never hearing anything before. I’ve now got several tunes firmly planted in various Spotify playlists and will be looking out for their debut album.

The Coral took the stage at about 9pm and breezed through a tidy 1 hour 15 minute set.  The crowd was buoyant throughout. Mike and I were bang in the middle of the age demographic, but there were a surprising amount of young uns watching a band that started in the early 2000’s.  Their most recent album, Move Through The Dawn, was good enough to make my top 20 of 2018 and they drew 6 songs from it during the course of the night. 3 tunes from Distance Inbetween and 2 from each of 5 other albums (nothing from 2014’s The Curse Of Love or 2004’s Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker…probably not a surprise for the latter) made up the rest of the performance. 

Everything from the latest album sounded fresh, and as my brother pointed out, heavily influenced by Jeff Lynne (he suggested ELO, but I think more The Traveling Wilburys).  Chasing The Tail Of A Dream (probably my favourite Coral tune) sounded as powerful as always. Jacqueline, Pass It On and In The Morning were all very well received. The crowd were singing and chanting to everything and the mosh pit was active at numerous points of the gig. Showers of beer rained down, people were getting bashed and pushed but not a care was given as the The Coral were clearly loving it, feeding of it and giving the crowd more energy.  We were glad to be upstairs though!  The two classic singles from their eponymous debut were saved for a triumphant encore; Goodbye & Dreaming Of You. 

Went to see The Coral tonight at the Empire in Middlesbrough. The opening act were really impressive too. Cut Glass Kings sounded great – in the vein of Royal Blood. Well worth a listen. We stood next to the guitarists Dad, who was very proud! #agigamonth2019 with @tastyparmo pic.twitter.com/RZZ3Kk6fHc

— Chris Williams (@cwblueroom) March 8, 2019

 

Went to see The Coral with @tastyparmo tonight. A quality set was delivered in a cool 1hr15. The band sounded vibrant and enthused & the songs sound timeless regardless of being from the first album or most recent. Great stuff. #agigamonth2019 #thecoral pic.twitter.com/3zkCqhVh6E

— Chris Williams (@cwblueroom) March 8, 2019

 

Are all Middlesborough crowds that up for it?

Fuck me

Unbelievable 🔥

— The Coral (@thecoralband) March 8, 2019

 

YES BORO https://t.co/DbiwzawQQM

— Cut Glass Kings (@cutglasskings) March 8, 2019

 

Chase Park Festival @ Saltwell Park, Gateshead

The Chase Park Festival is a one day accessible festival that I’ve now been to twice.  This year it relocated from Chase Park to Saltwell Park, retaining the Chase Park name and brand.  The Saltwell Park site was a perfect enclosed setting in the afternoon and early evening sunshine.

You can read all about this festival on their website.  I can’t recommend it highly enough, especially if you have a family (the kids loved the goodie bags from sponsors; Voyage Care & Honda and the free face painting).  The tickets were an absolute steal at less than £35 for a family of 4 (when we went in 2015 it was an astonishing £10 for a family of 4!).  If you are lucky enough to be a fan of any of the acts playing, then it’s incredible value, but if you aren’t, for that price it’s worth a punt regardless.  Two of the acts playing yesterday are two of my current favourite bands and I was able to reacquaint myself with a band I was a big fan of in the 2000’s.

The accessible aspect of the festival is what makes this unique.  There’s a huge mix of people of different abilities in a superbly organised, inclusive arena.  A second stage (band stand) demonstrated an outstanding array of talents from those who unfortunately don’t get many opportunities like this.

The pace of the music didn’t let up until the final three acts on the main stage.  Until that point, the acts on both stages alternated with barely a pause for breath, so there was no time for restlessness.

We missed the first act (Fiona King) on the second stage.  All (Percy Hedley, White Dove, The Twist) were entertaining, but the final act, The Soundbeam Band, were the pick of them for me, despite some unfortunate power cuts.

Present: I was there with my wife, Clare and our two girls; Lana & Erin.  Andrew was there with his daughter.  My brother, Mike, was there with his wife and two girls.  We set up for the afternoon and enjoyed a picnic in the sun while enjoying the music.

My daughter, Erin, has become a bit of a poster girl for the Festival’s press since we attended in 2015, with the following picture attached to virtually every article that pops up on social media feeds (just search chase park festival on google images and you’ll see):

Drinks: Wylam Brewery provided an excellent bar and I enjoyed several Galatia during the afternoon.  My brother sampled each of their real ale offerings.  The only complaint about the bar was how busy it got after 5pm, but it’s always a tricky balance to know how busy it will be.

The bands…

James Leonard Hewitson opened the main stage with a thoroughly enjoyable set.  This was soon followed by Vito playing some good indie rock.  Alex Francis then slowed things down with a fabulous acoustic chilled out set in the blazing sunshine.  I’ll be adding Alex to my spotify playlist.  Boy Jumps Ship then turned up the volume and our kids went to the front and really enjoyed themselves (Andrew & I went for a bit of a trek to the nearest cashpoint for most of this set).

James Leonard Hewitson

Vito

Alex Francis

Alex Francis

Rock!

Boy Jumps Ship

Boy Jumps Ship

Cattle & Cane

One of my current favourite bands took the stage at around 5pm.  This is the 4th time I’ve seen them in the last 12 months and they never disappoint.  Both Lana & Erin declared them as their favourite of the day and you can’t fail to see why.  There’s a slight possibility of bias from my kids after we spotted Helen and Joe on site earlier in the day and they were kind enough to do some signings for all of our kids.  They are a band from teesside who deserve more recognition than they get.  The Poacher is always a set highlight for me, but Saviour wasn’t far behind.

Little Comets

I’ve seen Little Comets 3 times now and they seem to be getting better each time.  I think this set just edged it as my favourite on the day.  The band seemed to be really enjoying themselves and that always seems to add something to the show.  There were loads of highlights form this set; Bridge Burn (Lana’s favourite), The Man Who Wrote Thriller, Joanna, A bientot, Dancing Song to name a few.  Another band that deserve more recognition (latest album, Worhead, deserved a higher chart placing than 83), but I’m glad I was introduced to them back in 2015.

The Coral

Headliners on the day were The Coral.  I’ve caught The Coral 5 times now, but most of these were in the early 2000’s.  I became less familiar with their albums after 4th album, Roots & Echoes, but I plan to get reacquainted after this excellent headline slot.  It was really only the middle of the set that I was unfamiliar with, but it was a good career spanning retrospective.  There were some incredible guitar solos on show here, and the crowd were heavily involved on the way to a crowd-pleasing end with Dreaming Of You.

If you’ve never been to the Chase Park Festival or have never heard of it, then it would be well worth keeping an eye out for their offering next year (fingers crossed there is one) as it’s sure to be something special.