Who knew that The Kooks are one of Britain’s best-loved bands?
Several years after their commercial peak, the indie rock survivors packed out Wembley on the final night of an arena tour promoting their greatest hits.
The unlikely revival seems to be down to a second life on Spotify for their debut album. Fans who were at school when it was released 12 years ago screamed as if The Kooks were a pop sensation headlining Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball.
Foppish guitarist Hugh Harris’s grin suggested he couldn’t quite believe his luck, though frontman Luke Pritchard performed each song as if it were firmly established in the rock canon. His confidence wasn’t always misplaced, especially during strumming singalong Ooh La, the loveable Britpop of She Moves in Her Own Way and the scratchy riffs of Matchbox.
At 32, Pritchard remains a puppyish group leader with a mop of curls and the hip-wiggling moves of a young Mick Jagger. Plenty of bands become insufferably pretentious by their fifth record but Pritchard was endearingly silly as he posed on stage, skipped along his ego ramp and climbed into the audience, who he addressed as “beautiful creatures” and “my darlings”.
While he fully embraced the hits, The Kooks also had an experimental side and brought out a choir for songs from 2014 album Listen. The clattering groove of Down was a bona fide arena tune, though even this beery crowd failed to appreciate the unspeakable funk of Forgive & Forget. The Kooks were on firmer ground with acoustic ballad Seaside and the three-minute perfection of Naive, which fans chanted with a fervency normally reserved for anthems from a Gallagher brother.
“We’ve had quite a journey as a band,” said Pritchard. A burst of nostalgia may yet help The Kooks become bigger than ever.
