In celebration of its 15th anniversary, The Kooks reveal dates for the long-awaited UK TOUR, celebrating their seminal debut album ‘Inside in/Inside Out’.

I guess it’s officially the 16th anniversary since the release of the album but owing to the tour being rescheduled (pesky COVID), it’s easier to leave it as it was originally to avoid posters being re-printed!

I think most people will have heard of The Kooks but if not, here’s a quick run through of the band….

The Kooks began their career with a bang in 2004 and have continued to go from strength to strength ever since. With five incredible studio albums plus a ‘Best of’ under their belts, the band have acquired over 1 billion streams worldwide (that’s 1000 million…think about it!).

They’ve embarked on and sold out several massive world tours, have won awards and gained critical acclaim whilst maintaining a steady ascent to the top, constantly growing in popularity with legions of new fans discovering the band through streaming in recent years. Now, they announce a string of live dates to celebrate the anniversary of one of their most beloved albums: Inside In/Inside Out’.

Originally released in 2006, the quadruple-platinum-selling album spawns timeless hits including BRIT nominated ‘She Moves In Her Own Way’, ‘Seaside’ and the band’s top five single ‘Naive’. With over 1.3 billion streams on Spotify to date, the unstoppable ‘Inside in / Inside Out’ is a record that fizzes with the exuberance of youth and a certified staple of British indie which continues to win over new fans as its remarkable streaming figures prove. ‘Inside In/Inside Out’ became an essential classic and remains so today.  

Now, to commemorate the re-release of the iconic record, The Kooks will also be performing Inside In/Inside Out in its entirety and in a way that it has never been performed live before. Taking place from the end of January 2022 onwards, the tour includes dates all across the UK, finishing with two performances at London’s O2 Brixton Academy in February.

We were fortunate to be presented with a couple of press passes for the Plymouth show on 1st February, this was just the second date of the tour so we expected fresh faced band members with an eager to please attitude, read on to see if that’s what we got….

Well, my lift (and photographer for the evening) was meant to pick me up at 6pm sharp, 6:10pm came and went and by 6:20pm, I was peering out of the front door wondering where he’d got to. I saw a stream of white lights running the length of or small country lane and realised that something was wrong! After a chat with a disgruntled delivery driver, I found out that there had been a lorry fire on the main A38 road to Plymouth and that it had been closed (both ways) to avoid any further casualties. After a few calls to Julian, I decided to walk the mile to the main road and as I arrived, the road had been cleared and traffic was once again moving. We arrived at the venues, grabbed our passes and ran to the side of the stage just as The Snuts were about to take to the stage, talk about a close shave!

The Snuts are a band that I should know more about, I think they played at Boardmasters Festival in 2021 but I was literally tied to the press tent all weekend knocking out interview after interview with any band that decided to stop by so I missed their set completely.

From what I have read about The Snuts, they delivered their debut album W.L. in 2021 to much ado amongst their solid fanbase, many likening the mayhem around the release to that of Arctic Monkeys when they launched their incredible debut back in the mid-noughties.

I was eager to see what the fuss was about and from the get go, I was transfixed. Their sound is nothing too different, a solid slab of purebred indie pop/rock which hit every note, their commitment and drive was easy to read on their faces as well as a great chemistry that so many bands just don’t have these days.

They looked perfectly at home on the stage in front of 3500 people and there were many singing along as if these were the headline act. The sound of tight melodic bass, fuzzy guitars and driving drums filled the room as the vocals soured above the heads of everyone in attendance, this really was a masterclass in how to get it right and boy did the crowd know it.

The Snuts managed to squeeze out 8 tracks during their set but to me, it would have been nice to have them on stage for another 4 at least, I’m sure that the rest of the audience would agree! If you haven’t already checked out their debut album, go and stream it now and then go and buy it from their website or via any online home shopping site (that’ll be Amazon then) where you can pick up the deluxe version of their album for less than £20 delivered to your door the very next day (Amazon Prime customers only!)

One thing that did get my goat at tonight’s show was that The Snuts were playing in front of a smaller backdrop advertising something from The Kooks, I thought this was a tad greedy as they had their own backdrop ready to go and I would have liked to see them allowing their support act to display their own backdrop as they performed, rant over, just made me a little grumpy!

After a brief shuffle around on stage and the removal of the sub-backdrop with the dirty great QR Code on it, the bar emptied, the room filled and at 9pm sharp, the lights dipped for the main act of the evening.

I said earlier that The Kooks were celebrating 15 years (actually 16) since their debut ‘Inside In/Inside Out’ landed in 2006 and they were to play the album in its entirety as well as some other classics from later releases. My one question was “will they play it in the order that the album was recorded?” - My money was on the fact that they would play every track from the album but dipping in and out as the set progressed as we all know, their one ‘big hit’ would probably get left until the end when they would have the crowd eating out of their hands…..only time would tell!

Luke Pritchard took to the stage solo , armed just with an acoustic guitar and produced a beautiful version of ‘Seaside’ which saw the entire room in full on sing-a-long mode as he hit the chorus. The rest of the band joined him as the track come to a close and joined him in kicking into a much more upbeat offering of ‘See the World’, by the time ‘Sofa Song’ came around, i was excited, maybe they WERE playing the album in the right order, maybe, we would get the heavy hitters earlier than planned, leaving the band to decide what to do for the encore….

By the 7th track ‘She Moves in Her Own Way’, it was clear that we were in for a treat, just 'Matchbox’ to go before the incredible ‘Naive’ would echo it’s amazing tones around the room, but then something happened…. instead of ‘Matchbox’, they veered off on a tangent and came out with ‘Bad Habit’, followed by ‘Connection’ and then ‘Shine On’, what I thought would be THE ultimate run through of their classic debut was left in tatters as they had ventured away from the track list in favour of later tracks to fill the time ahead of the most popular offering from the album.

In a way, this put a dampener on the evening, well, for me it did anyway, looking around the room from the balcony, it was clear that 99% of the room really didn’t care, they were having the time of their lives and I guess it was me just being a little bit anal.

As the set wore on, the beers seemed to be getting thrown around a little more so on the ground floor making me glad that I had de-camped to the balcony where you never see any of these events occuring!

The set came to a close with ‘Got No Love’, ‘Time Awaits’ and ‘Junk of the Heart’ before the band bid us good night and left the stage. We were still owed ‘Naive’ and this crowd were adamant that they would play it before they could safely call it a night!

As the band took to the stage a second time, the atmosphere in the pavilions was electric, so many people had missed live music and it was clear to see that despite restrictions only recently being relaxed, everyone was out for a good night and they were willing to risk things for this one night of pleasure.

The band launched into ‘Matchbox’ to a huge reception from the capacity crowd, this was followed by ‘No Pressure’ and when this came to a close, Luke said that they had one last track to play. When they finally launched into the opening bars of ‘Naive’, i thought that the Plymouth audience were having a fit, the place exploded and the band rode the wave of adoration right until the final closing tones had been wrung out of the guitars.

After 90 minutes of live music, a complete run through (nearly in order) of their classic debut album Inside In/Inside Out, it was time to bid The Kooks a fond farewell and wish them every success for the rest of their UK tour that would see them all over the country, culminating in two dates at the Brixton Academy on 18th and 19th February.

It was great to see the band in such good form, their songs still sounded as fresh today as they did 16 years ago and how the hell does Luke Pritchard manage to look so young, I demand to know his secret!

Tickets for the remaining dates of the tour are on sale via The Kooks website.

UK TOUR DATES 2022
JAN 31st 2022: O2 City Hall – Newcastle
FEB 01st 2022: Plymouth Pavilions – Plymouth
FEB 03rd 2022: O2 Academy Birmingham
FEB 04th 2022: O2 Academy Birmingham
FEB 05th 2022: Brighton Centre
FEB 07th 2022: O2 Academy Glasgow
FEB 08th 2022: O2 Academy Glasgow
FEB 10th 2022: O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
FEB 11th 2022: O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
FEB 12th 2022: Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
FEB 14th 2022: O2 Academy Leeds, Leeds
FEB 15th 2022: O2 Academy Leeds, Leeds
FEB 17th 2022: O2 Academy Brixton
FEB 18th 2022: O2 Academy Brixton, London
FEB 19th 2022: O2 Academy Brixton, London

Review by Steve Muscutt

Photography by Julian Baird (all images are © Julian Baird Photography)