NICK Power says the biggest thing he has learned in The Coral’s decade and a half on the road is not to take LSD while on tour.

“I probably enjoy touring more now than I did when we started,” says the keyboard player. “You sort of learn how to be on the road, when you are younger it is just all over the place.

“You do not eat, you do not wash, and you are screwed by the third or fourth gig. You get the best out of it if you look after yourself.”

It was more than five years between the Merseyside psychedelia peddlers’ most recent offering Distance Inbetween, released in March, and their previous record Butterfly House, but now they are back – a little wiser and re-energised.

Having completed the first leg of their UK tour the band have a stopover in Brighton before heading off into Europe.

“It is on the way,” Nick jokes. “We have not been there in years.

“We have always loved heading down and spending the day but we kind of just stopped getting booked there.

“It has been a long time, I live right next to a place called New Brighton, we just like hanging round the piers, the arcades and that. It is where we feel at home.”

But before the five-piece visit Concorde 2 they will be making a sombre stop at the Parr Hall in Warrington to perform at the tribute concert to tragic band Viola Beach, who were killed in a car crash in Stockholm earlier this year.

They will be appearing alongside acts such as Liam Fray, frontman of The Courteeners, and The Kooks.

“I am not sure if any of us knew them personally but it does not really make a difference,” says Power. “I just want to pay my respects.”

In the gap between their last two records the band members have been in and out with various projects and solo albums, including the release of previously unheard Coral record The Curse of Love, which had been recorded nearly 10 years prior.

“It was just down to feeling like we needed to stop doing Coral projects, learn some new things and experiment a bit.” says Power. “We were then able to use these new experiences and put it back into the Coral stuff.”

“The way you write solo is very different so trying new things really sort of took away all boundaries. If you keep doing the same things you just keep building them up and its good to just smash them away.

“When you are out there playing solo stuff as well there is less pressure, almost liberating. The small gigs have a bit less riding on them and no one gives a damn if your delay peddle is broken.” 

For the latest record and tour the band have been joined by Paul Molloy from The Zutons who Power, along with James Skelley and Paul Duffy, had performed with as part of Serpent Power, the backing band for drummer Ian Skelley’s solo project.

“It has been really good and its felt like a real comeback,” says Power. “It has been really positive and it almost felt like a new band.

He goes on; “In a way it is good to be back out working again. We were in a bit of a routine where we were going in and out studios, so to be actually out there doing a bit of graft is welcome.”

THE CORAL- Concorde 2, Madeira Drive, Brighton, Tuesday, April 5
Doors 7.30pm.
Tickets £22, call  01273 673311