Cassette tapes have been used and abused for decades, being used to compile collections of saccharine love songs by unwanted admirers and tunes chopped abruptly before a radio DJ cuts in. The Coral have followed up details of their first album and tour in five years by announcing a national Cassette Tape Amnesty, liberating mistreated cassettes from their owners and promising to return them with a clean bill of health.
The influential five-piece are asking music lovers to admit to their mistakes and send them their old compilations in an anonymous amnesty. The fifty most offensive cassettes will be ‘cleansed’ by the band, with the old tracks recorded over and replaced with their new album; Distance Inbetween (released March 4th on Ignition Records). The reformed cassettes will then be returned to their owners.
“Home taping didn’t exactly kill music, but we know it caused some horrible collections of music to be compiled, so it’s time for an amnesty,” explains James Skelly (vocals/guitars). “Now is the time to dig into drawers, cupboards and boxes and admit to cassette crimes, or offer up the bad decisions of friends, relatives and lovers who made tapes that should never, ever be heard again.
“Distance Inbetween is being released on cassette and we’re heavily influenced by our own rediscovery of the unique sound of old tapes, so the format is growing closer to our hearts. The format has an underrated life all of its own, so we’re doing our bit to restore its respectability.”
Full details of how The Coral intend to give cassettes a new lease of life are available on their website at www.thecoral.co.uk. The band has asked for fans to send their cassette, full name and contact details including a UK return address, plus a short description of the tape in question to the address below by the album’s release date in March:
The Coral, PO Box 29479, NW1 6GG
The fifty selected by the band will be recorded over with the all songs from Distance Inbetween, where possible. In the event that the condition of the cassette is deemed unsuitable, the band will replace it with a fresh cassette copy of the new album. Cassettes not selected for re-taping or replacement cannot be returned to their owners, so senders must be sure they’re happy to say goodbye to them.
It was December when The Coral announced their return with an eighth studio album. On Boxing Day they released to fans a free MP3 and video of Chasing The Tail Of A Dream, with a limited edition, signed 7” version made exclusively available via the band’s online store.
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. Since their debut EP release in 2001 the band has sold over a million UK albums, with five reaching the Top 10 including 2003’s chart-topping Magic and Medicine. Their eight Top 40 singles include Dreaming Of You, In The Morning, Pass It On, and Don’t Think You’re The First.
Recorded at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studio with co-producer Richard Turvey, Distance Inbetween was recorded live and mostly in just one take. The seams of each of the album’s 12-tracks are purposely rough-hewn and pave the way for a new visceral sound from a totally reenergised band.
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.
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