Blossoms / The Coral / Cabbage / The Blinders / Fuzzy Sun - Stockport Edgeley Park - 22nd June 2019

To play the football stadium in your hometown has to be one of the crowning achievements for any band growing up. Blossoms achieved that on Saturday night with a 15,000 gig at Stockport County's Edgeley Park, which sold out in hours, testament to the rise of a band who got their name from a pub just the other side of the railway lines from the proud imposing over a century old ground.

Cotton Clouds Festival (PINS / The Coral / The G-O-D / The Blinders / The Whip / TEAR / The Sundowners / Ethan And The Reformation / Darling Club / Stillia / Proletariat) - 12th August 2017

The first Cotton Clouds Festival took place on Saturday in the picturesque setting of Saddleworth Cricket Club in Greenfield. A packed line-up of great bands across three stages, from national names to local up-and-coming bands and a raft of child-friendly activities meant that there was something for almost everyone.

Blossoms / The Coral / Rory Wynne / Touts - Manchester Castlefield Bowl - 8th July 2017

There has always been a sense of inevitability in the last three years that Blossoms' path would this summer lead them to Castlefield Bowl. Having supported both James and The Charlatans here in previous years and a year on from their number one debut album, it's a fitting way to bring to a close the first phase of their journey to be mentioned in the same breath as those aforementioned legends of the local music scene.

EVEN THE STARS ALBUMS OF 2016 - TWENTY TO SIXTEEN

Our end of year album poll starts with a look at the records we placed at twenty to sixteen in the list. We'll continue our countdown five albums a day until Friday when we reveal our top five.

Viola Beach / Craig Tarry Tribute - Warrington Parr Hall - 2nd April 2016 (The Coral, Courteeners, The Kooks, Blossoms, Eliza And The Bear, Hidden Charms, The Vryll Society)

In the early hours of February 13, five young men, doing what they loved most, met with a tragic end in a car accident in Sweden after playing their first gig outside the UK. Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe and Jack Dakin were Viola Beach, Craig Tarry was their manager. There was an outpouring of grief at the loss of the one of the country's finest most promising young bands and one of the most dedicated managers you'll ever meet that cumulated in their debut single Swings & Waterslides hitting the top twenty and this concert in the 1,000 capacity Parr Hall in their hometown of Warrington bringing together some of the biggest and breaking bands to celebrate their lives.

The Coral / The Sundowners / Rory Wynne - Manchester Albert Hall - 12th March 2016

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. After five years away The Coral have returned with Distance Inbetween, which we think is their best album yet, and a series of sold-out live shows. We caught up with them at the Albert Hall in Manchester to witness a heady mix of the old and new supported by The Sundowners and local lad Rory Wynne.

The Coral - Distance Inbetween

Distance Inbetween is the first album by The Coral for six years and it's possibly their finest to date. It's an album with a timeless feel to it and one whose immediacy has you hooked from the minute The Connector's looping guitar leeches into your conscience and doesn't let go until the weirdness of the instrumental outro End Credits releases you from its grasp.