The Coral

• Rating

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall July 15th: From 1st song "More Than A Lover" to 19th and last "North Parade" we sat in our front row seats hoping this was a night that would never end.The summery wistfulness and spaced out whimsy of these tunes gave us a feeling of floating on a rose tinged breeze,particularly James' solo,the melting "Falling All Around You" off the new album.The band took us on a journey on a Paisley print Superlambanana from 60's Merseybeat to America's West Coast via the house of Shack on The Streets of Kenny whilst picking up some Russian Cossacks on their way to a Mariachi festival on a planet far far away where nobody else has ever set foot.Only The Coral.And when gravity finally brought us prematurely back to Earth,we didn't care that the rain was falling as the wind off The Mersey propelled us home,because we knew that we'd just witnessed a masterclass from a band at the top of their game.With a back catalogue to die for and a new album that is destined to rocket into an awful lot of discerning music lovers'"Top Ten Ever" albums lists,tonights perfect blend of both truly did make this one of those nights to say "I was there".