Dreaming of You is described as “a nostalgic, immersive coming-of-age documentary charting the rise of The Coral, six childhood mates from the Wirral who turned suburban misfit energy into musical magic.”

Narrated by the band, the film is an immersive experience that creatively combines reconstruction, archive footage, and animation to capture the early 2000s era through the eyes of six northern teenagers, who together created their own strange, endlessly creative escapist universe

Formed in 1996, The Coral, who were all attending Hilbre High School at the time, coalesced around drummer Ian Skelly and bassist Paul Duffy when they began jamming together in the basement of Flat Foot Sams pub in Hoylake.

Over the following months they were joined by Bill Ryder-Jones on lead guitar, Ian’s older brother James Skelly on vocals and main songwriting duties, and then Lee Southall on rhythm guitar. The line-up was completed with the addition of Nick Power, who joined as keyboard player in 1998.

The band quickly came to the attention of Alan Wills who formed the Deltasonic record label to release their early tracks which led to their eponymous debut album, released in 2002, reaching number five on the UK Albums Chart and being nominated for the Mercury Prize.

It was around this time that filmmaker James Slater was introduced The Coral beginning a creative partnership that saw him direct a number of videos for the band before going on to to do the same with the likes of Blossoms, Kaiser Chiefs, Yad Act and The Wombats. 

“I was working in pizza restaurants and whatnot and trying to make videos for local bands and was about to pack it in really,” said James.

“Alan came by one day and said the band were wanting to make music videos that were a little bit more like the home movies that they were making.

“So when it came to the second album we made the videos for Pass It On and In The Morning and I just developed this really good relationship with them. 

“I went from pretty much packing it in and having this really big rethink on what I was going to do in my career to being in Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert filming Pass it On.

 “Since then I’ve done hundreds of videos and you know most of those connections that I’ve made workwise, I can somehow trace it all back to The Coral.”

 

(Image: James Slater)

James’ first impressions of the band were positive and they instantly hit it off, bonding over a love of film and music. 

 

“They were a very insular gang,” he said. “The film really highlights that the band were like this really, really tight unit.

 

“They’re almost like the Goonies, in a way – they had this sort of internal language that it was quite hard to kind of understand but if you could they accepted you and we had a lot in common with the films and music but also the sense of humour.

 

“They’re still great now of course but just at that time they were a real force and it was just so exciting to be around.

 

The initial inspiration for turning the story of The Coral’s early years into a film came around the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut album with James soon realising the potential of something much deeper – as Nick from the band says in the film: “If you’re going to tell the story of The Coral, then it would be about growing up. An adventure that led to an album.” 

 

“I felt there was a really good coming of age story there,” James said. “About childhood and friendship and being eight-years-old and meeting at school and and then having that bond and going on this creative journey.

 

“Then there was the decisions that they took as a band, what kind of band that they wanted to be and where they wanted to fit in with the mainstream.

 

“I felt I could look at them though this lens of growing up in the late 90s in a suburban town.

 

“Musically too it was an interesting time and that post-Britpop era has been a bit forgotten about – The Coral emerged at the same time as a lot of other things and it wasn’t just The Strokes or The White Stripes but it was also people like The Streets and more angular stuff.”

 

That suburban town was of course Hoylake and James was keen that the band’s home had a starring role in the film. 

 

“It’s a cliché but the Wirral is a big character in the movie,” he said. “This world of West Kirby and Hoylake and how you’ve got Liverpool on one side and North Wales on the other.

 

“I wanted Dreaming of You to be an immersive experience—one that transports us back to Northwest England in the late ’90s and early 2000s.”

 

And as for The Coral themselves what did they think of seeing themselves on the big screen?

 

“They’re really happy with it,” added James. “I think it just sort of passes the cringe test for them!”

 

Dreaming of You – The Making of The Coral will be screened at New Brighton’s Light Cinema on September 5 and The Picturehouse in Liverpool on September 6 featuring a Q&A with both the director and the band. The film will then be screened at various cinemas across the country. For more details and tickets go here: www.dreaming-of-you.co.uk