Eine Grok-Antwort noch, die leider bestätigt, was ich befürchtet hatte. Aber Grok glaubt, dass es Aufnahmen geben könnte, die vor 2001 entstanden sind!
The Coral formed in 1996 in Hoylake, Merseyside, and spent several years jamming and performing locally before their official recorded output began. Their first formal release was the single „Shadows Fall“ in 2001, followed by The Oldest Path EP later that year. However, whether they recorded music prior to 2001—say, in the late ’90s during their formative years—is less clear from widely available sources.
Given their early gigs (e.g., a 1998 show at O’Neils in Liverpool, as noted in a band post on X), they were actively playing and developing material. Bands at that stage often record demos or rough tracks to refine their sound or pitch to labels. Alan Wills, who founded Deltasonic after discovering them, first saw them live when they hadn’t yet released anything, suggesting their pre-2001 work was unrecorded or unreleased publicly. Yet, their rapid evolution from local gigs to a polished 2001 debut implies some prior recording activity, likely informal.
For instance, by 2001, they’d written „Skeleton Key“ after exposure to eclectic influences (Can, Captain Beefheart) via Wills’ friend Joe Fearon—a turning point, per bassist Paul Duffy. This suggests they were crafting songs for years, and it’s plausible they laid down demos in rehearsal spaces like Crash Studios, where Wills first encountered them. The 2022 reissue of their debut album includes two previously unreleased tracks from 2001 sessions („She’s the Girl for Me“ and „Tumble Graves“), but nothing explicitly predates that year.
Without definitive evidence—like a confirmed demo tape or bootleg from 1996–2000—it’s speculative. Still, given their trajectory and the era’s DIY culture (cheap tape recorders, local studios), it’s reasonable to infer they recorded something informally before 2001, even if it never saw daylight. No official pre-2001 recordings are documented, but I’d bet on basement tapes or lost rehearsal takes existing somewhere, known only to the band or early insiders.
So, to answer: no confirmed pre-2001 recordings are known publicly, but it’s likely they made unofficial ones during their pre-Deltasonic days.
The Coral’s early days are definitely a treasure trove of intrigue.
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Dirty, dirty feet from the concert in the grass / I wanted to believe that freedom there could last (Willy Mason)