The Kooks

Background information
Origin	Brighton, England
Genre(s)	Indie rock
Years active	2004–present
Label(s)	Virgin Records
Website	www.thekooks.co.uk
Members
Luke Pritchard Hugh Harris Max Rafferty Paul Garred

The Kooks are an English indie rock band.

History

The band formed at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, where they were all students. Lead singer and rhythm guitarist Luke Pritchard got bassist Max Rafferty involved in a college project, which formed the base of the band. After getting lead guitarist Hugh Harris and drummer Paul Garred involved, they chose a band name from the 1971 David Bowie album Hunky Dory, entitled "Kooks". It should be noted that when Virgin tried to trademark the name, they found that in the late/mid 1990s a Swedish band by the same name released a single in Sweden called "Too Much of Nothing".^[1]

The Kooks released a debut EP and played Brighton's Free Butt festival, and were instantly signed to Virgin Records. Pritchard has claimed he wrote The Kooks' hit song "Naïve" when he was only sixteen years old, which after release catapulted the debut album, Inside In/Inside Out in the charts for more than half of 2006 in the UK Top 20, has sold more than million copies and attained triple platinum status. During a promo tour, the band refused to be interviewed on Channel 4's Popworld after presenter Simon Amstell made repeated references to Pritchard's ex-girlfriend, Katie Melua.^[2]

The group released Inside In/Inside Out and went on their first US tour in October 2006, selling out shows both in New York and Los Angeles.^[3]. They also played at the Reading/Leeds festivals in the NME/Radio 1 Tent to a huge crowd; the crowd was so big they were forced to stop playing at one point so that security could tell people to move back as people were being crushed.

Among the band's honours are a nomination for Best New Act at the 2006 Q Awards and the award for Best UK and Ireland Act at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards and had one nomination at The BRIT Awards and a shortlist nomination.

On August 24 2007 The Kooks announced through their mailing list that they are heading into the studio with Tony Hoffer to work on tracks for the next record.

On October 8 2007 The Kooks announced through their mailing list that they are now working hard on recording their second album. Tony Hoffer has joined them in the studio and The Kooks say they think their new songs sound great.

Members

• Luke Pritchard — vocals and guitar
• Hugh Harris — backup vocals and guitar
• Max Rafferty — bass
• Paul Garred — drums

Notable performances

• Supported The Rolling Stones on their A Bigger Bang Tour at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
• After touring America the band went back to London and played a secret gig at Proud Gallery, Camden.
• Performed on the Album Chart Show at midinght on Saturday 18th March 2006.
• Played at Radio 1's Big Weekend, Europe's largest free festival in Dundee on 15th March 2006.
• Performed "Ooh La", "Naive" and "She Moves In Her Own Way" at the "Jools Holland Annual Hootenanny 2006".
• Recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live From Abbey Road in August 2006.
• Played at the Glastonbury festival in June 2007.
• Played on the Main Stage at OXEGEN 2007 in July.
• Played on the Channel 4 stage at the V Festival in August 2007.
• Played at the Doncaster Dome in August 2007, playing some of their new songs.

Discography

Albums

Inside In/Inside Out (23 January, 2006) Virgin Records #2 UK 4x Platinum , #164 US , #4 BEL , #32 NZ , #107 FRA

Singles

Music Videos

• You Don't Love Me
• Ooh La
• She Moves In Her Own Way
• Naive

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Luke Pritchard announced in an interview on a French TV show that he attended the same school as Lily Allen.
• The Most Annoying Pop Moments on BBC Three accused the Kooks of being "The most fake band ever" due to the fact that lead singer Luke Pritchard, despite having gone to public school, puts on an accent while singing.
• According to the website of sponsors NME, The Kooks gathered the lowest-ever crowd for an NME stage headliner at T in the Park. This is thought to be heavily attributable to their being placed as headliner on the bill, above the more popular My Chemical Romance.

See also

• Virgin Records - the band's record label.
• The Kooks - the band's official webpage

References

• "The Kooks - All Hunky Dory" by Jeremy Lloyd, musicOMH.com, October, 2005, retrieved November 19, 2006.
• "Meet the Kooks!" music.com, November 15, 2006, retrieved January 18, 2007.
• "Loveline" retrieved April 5 2007

External links

• The Kooks official website
• The Kooks at MySpace
• The Kooks Fan Site

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