THE Coral may have had a five-year hiatus but vocalist and guitarist James Skelly always foresaw the Hoylake band returning.

"I just didn't know when. It could have been any time really," he says, ahead of Saturday's gig at Fibbers in York. "Just suddenly we had all these songs and we felt ready for it again. There was always meant to be a break.

"Lee (guitarist Lee Southall] decided he had to pursue other things, but we ended up getting back together in instalments and then found we had the songs we needed for an album."

The Coral's eighth studio album, Distance Inbetween, duly arrived on the Ignition Records label in early March, with a new guitarist joining the recording sessions at Liverpool's Parr Street Studio: Paul Molloy, formerly of The Zutons.

"We've never had a formula for how we make an album, but I think this one is most rhythmically driven one we've done. The rhythm is to the fore, when maybe melodies have been in the past," says James.

Newcomer Molloy played his part in that shift of emphasis. "Paul and Ian [drummer Ian Skelly] are in a band called The Serpent Power that play strongly psychedelic stuff. We'd done some stuff in the studio when Ian said Paul should come down and play with us. I've known Paul since he was 18, so he played this 'drone' sound on White Bird and from that moment he stayed with us and he just ended up playing on it all."

The Coral have been on the road through March, April and now into May. "We thought we'd play some gigs and just share them all out around the country and get off to a good start," says James.

"We didn't want to come back and just play the old songs; we wanted to be relevant now, rather than a nostalgia act, and though we still play the old songs, there are a lot of the new songs being played and new twists to how we play the old ones."

Festival dates at Sound City and T in The Park will follow, along with a new single in Million Eyes, probably at the end of the summer, and another tour in December. Welcome back, The Coral.