**The Kooks!**

[andyjean]

http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=540898

 

 

 

 

 

 

FUCK I WANT TO LIVE IN THE UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SO BADLY.

[an_cat]

¡Forward Bumpage!

 

 

 

:laugh4:

[andyjean]

Oh long time without posting on here! I totally understand your DPT etc addiction but share the love! SO not fair for these boys:

[an_cat]

Oh I am quite addicted to the Kooks, but in a strange way. I'm quite obsessional with the music, but I'm less obsessional about the members, just more admiring? If that makes any sense? So I pretty much suck at finding news or traipsing around message boards!

 

I think all my time is taken up by Carlos and the lot!!! :uhoh: :laugh4:

 

I love my Kooks :nice: A lot a lot a lot... They were the first band I saw when I turned 18 at Oxegen, they hold the special place in my heart!

[andyjean]

Absolutely! Now you make me feel like a stupidly obsessed fangirl :lol: But I SWEAR I'm not! It truly is all about the music. I just get bored on this thread at times LOL Not really, I'm a great spammer so I could just post pictures on here forever :uhoh:

Oh and don't worry about their forum, it's probably the WORST around and I really believe that!

 

So it's about time I say it: I really wish I could have been at Oxegen too :cry2: (and yeah, turning 18 there would really be a huge plus!)

 

 

 

:lol::laugh3:

[andyjean]

[andyjean]

could you post a pics of the bass player, maybe I could tell you if it was him or not.

And I worth the 4h trip (the way back too take 2h!) because there were a lot of artist, even the son of John Lennon

Just in case you're still curious, this is Max (the blonde one :wink2:)

 

 

[andyjean]

OLD interview from February, but still worth a look:

The Kooks – Not just a bunch of crazy kids

 

Munching on a doughnut Paul Garred, drummer of The Kooks, welcomes me in the empty Academy 3 where the roadies are setting up for tonight’s gig. “I thought we’d talk in the dressing room. At least it’s not so cold there”, Paul says. “I’m giving the interview today, because Luke (Pritchard) has to rest his voice and Max (Rafferty) isn’t feeling well. We had a good night out yesterday in Nottingham with old friends (We Are Scientists and Arctic Monkeys)”. More than fine with me. Having chatted about the weather and mobile phones, it’s time to ask about their very creative debut album Inside In, Inside Out that entered the charts at number nine. “We were positively surprised. Number 9 is okay. That’s 20,000 copies! You know, our album is sort of a slow burner. It’s important to us that the people discover our music by themselves and not just because we’ve been hyped by the media. When we were recording the album we felt very confident with the music and the whole concept. The album is like our baby and on the publishing day it was hard to let it go, because we were anxious how well it would be received.”

 

Paul tells me that the guys met for the first time in London. “Three of us went to college together, but didn’t know each other. One day we had this idea of ‘why not start a band’ down in Brighton. We didn’t take the whole thing seriously, but rather wanted to have fun and play, which I still think is what we’re about. Every Friday we would meet up between nine and twelve to practice and have a laugh. I guess we were always determined to write good music.”

 

Talking about the whole writing process really opens Paul up. “It’s always a question of how can we make the song perfect for us. We write everything for us and hope that the people like it and can relate to it. When it comes to song writing we are quite prolific, because we usually have one new complete song each week. For our album we had to choose between 100 songs. Every one of us brings in their own compositions or ideas. If the rest of the band thinks it’s worth working on it, we’ll push it. If it’s shit, sack it. Debates are normal at these meetings, but that goes to show how passionate we are about our work.” Paul writes his songs on the keyboard (on drums it would be a bit difficult), which is his companion on the tour bus. “I once listened to Tom Waits’ album Handful Of Saturday Nights a couple of times and wrote seven very bluesy, jazzy songs straight afterwards. Every member brings in all kind of styles from funk and soul to reggae and jazz. A good song can be played or pulled in all kind of directions. The biggest inspiration, however, to our songs is our emotions. The main thing you have to remember is that you shouldn’t copy stuff that’s in the charts. You have to do your own thing, because otherwise it doesn’t pay off for you over a longer period. ”

 

Success has come rather quickly for the youngsters, receiving a lucrative record deal with Virgin very early on. Maybe too early? “No, I don’t think so. Virgin signed us in the view of giving us a year to learn our craft before we recorded anything. I guess the business is getting back to the old school mentality, which means that they want to make sure that singer-songwriter bands like us learn how to play well by doing it. The time we spent touring was important, because we could find ourselves, our own style.”

 

When asked to choose his favourite between recording and playing live, Paul can’t decide. “Both the same, actually. Recording is an art of its own and you have to get familiar with it. Neither we nor the producers knew where we wanted to go with this album… we had big debates with the producers about what songs should go on the record. But after a while you get more comfortable. That’s one of the reasons why I think our future albums will get better and better. I don’t think that we’ll go down with second-album-syndrome as we are constantly writing new songs and therefore will have enough material to choose from.” While only a year ago they played gigs existing of only four songs, where the “crowds went mental”, they are now on their second headliner tour. “It’s very special. You get to know the etiquette of touring and we have the nicest people working for us. Some of the bands we have been supporting in the past didn’t treat us very nice. I mean, rules are fine, but you don’t have to be rude.”

 

I am told they don’t have a proper pre-gig routine. “Everybody does his own “warming up”. Ten minutes before the gig we meet up and just have it. It’s important not to get too pumped up, because you want to enjoy the show.” And which concerts have they enjoyed the most so far? “So far it was when we were supporting The Subways in Portsmouth. The architecture of the venue meant the whole sound was kept in. Great atmosphere. The crowd went ballistic. But on another day almost everything can go wrong. You have to keep your thoughts together. If not, it’s a bit like a footballer having a bad day.”

 

So what will the future bring for the youngsters? “Of course we want to sell more records and tour all over the world. We’re booked to play the Summersonic festival in Japan, which is cool, because we are going there next week anyway for a couple of gigs. But most importantly make people dance and put a smile on every face”, he says grinning himself. “Got to go to the soundcheck now. See you at the show tonight?” A handshake and four hours later I am at the sold out Academy 3 in middle of a very young crowd. The opening act is The Automatic, a young, dynamic four-piece band from the Welsh village Cowbridge. Their short set of powerpop indie leaves you definitively asking for more. At ten The Kooks start off slow with an acoustic version of Seaside, but soon speed up with the following gripping numbers. As the stage dynamic spreads to the crowd almost everybody is dancing, jumping or, referring to the front rows, being pushed around to get closer to the darling of their repertoire Eddie’s Gun. Bursting with energy lead singer Luke is making most of the show by running and jumping around the stage while the others are playing along. It seems as if this band is more mature than their indie colleagues, combined with an unlimited supply of enthusiasm.

 

Including the track Oh Laa and their latest single You Don’t Love Me a flawless, the varied set is presented and rounded up after only an hour by the final number Pull Me In. The Kooks seem to have convinced every last person here of their musical ability and performing quality. So be quick and get your tickets for the upcoming gigs this year, because as Paul says “Music makes the world go round”.

[andyjean]

Another one

On their first rounds of the country supporting The Subways and on the verge of success, the Kooks landed at Norwich Arts Centre in June 2005, just after finishing the debut Inside In/Inside Out. They played their hearts out and in return won ours with their soulful, summery pop ditties. Since then they've played another Subways support slot at the Waterfront and a sell out headline gig at The Arts Centre. After postponing the date, they were back in Norwich for the fourth time, just under a year since we first spoke to them on that glorious June evening. A lot has changed since then so we felt it only fitting that we caught up with guitarist Hugh and drum-stick-wielding Paul to find out just how much...

 

 

You've had such a phenomenal rise since we last spoke, how does it feel?

 

P - Things haven't really changed a lot. We're still doing our thing. I think we've probably just got a bit better at playing maybe, we've played to more people.

 

H - Looking from the outside in it's amazing, like when you hear these things (the tour selling out in an hour and a half for example) and our album's selling really well. But at the moment I just feel really tired and really drained. We've been on tour for a long time, pretty much three years solid

 

 

And you've been playing with the same material too

 

H - We play a new song in the set, we try and chop and change as much as possible. But the set we have works at the moment pretty well.

 

P - But it's the sort of thing you have to do though. Every band's been through it who's released an album, they've been playing that album for so long, and yet just when you're ready to move on everyone's just discovered you so you have to do it for a while longer.

 

 

How do you manage to keep that energy going onstage?

 

P - By writing new songs in between.

 

 

What about when you play the same song you've been doing for three years?

 

H - We have different things that make it different over time really. Different crowds. You feel different each day; sometimes you'll be bored of it. But when it does come to the show, I still get an adrenaline rush and we still get nervous. We enjoy playing with each other, we enjoying playing the songs as well and that will never change. Well, not in the near future.

 

P - Today was nice because we're not really on tour, this is a date we've had to move and we were mainly just sound checking new stuff and jamming really.

 

H - It's going to be good from here on. This it our last tour date, we've just got festivals now, which are the funnest part of all this. Festivals are just the shit.

 

 

Well you've just got back from The Great Escape, how was that?

 

P - Yeah, that was interesting. It wasn't very well organised. I was reading somewhere that there was loads of record company big wigs and people who bought tickets couldn't get into gigs...It was a bit of a shambles really

 

H - It was weird, we played the Astoria the previous night which was about 2,000 capacity right,

 

P - We went from 2,000 to 200!

 

H - Yeah, to a 400 capacity tent and there wasn't even 400 people in there because they didn't let everyone in. It was stupid because it was an industry thing and was just a guest list gig pretty much. The hardcore fans who had been waiting for a long time, some of them couldn't get in which was terrible because it was such a good vibe. I really think it's going to kick off if they rearrange how they do it.

 

 

There's loads of bands coming out from Brighton at the minute, what's your opinion on that?

 

P - What's our opinion on that?

 

 

Yeah

 

P - It's quite a cool thing about Brighton, its different to anywhere else, its quite multicultural so you're going to get loads of different styles of music as apposed to having like two styles and loads of bands copying each other. You end up going to some random shows where its just a guy and a girl playing a xylophone and a kazoo, stuff like that; Here Comes The Darts. Or something really awful like that.

 

H - There are some nutters

 

P - But then you occasionally see the right old gem don't you?

 

H - Monster Bobby

 

P - Monster Bobby! Classic! He forgot the words didn't he?

 

H - I love him

 

P - We played an acoustic gig with a guy called Monster Bobby

 

H - I love him

 

P - And had has this moog thing that he balanced on a bar stool and it fell off halfway through the song!

 

H - He's a bit of a spazzer

 

P - What was the song? It was something like ‘Here comes a car' *trumpet noise*

 

H - Yeah. Brilliant.

 

P - Yeah, so, we came out of that scene.

 

 

Was the Pav Tav a particular favourite whilst in Brighton, especially on a Thursday?

 

H - It's a filthy night

 

P - Thursday night at the Pav Tav! That is...

 

H - It's just a classic

 

P - Pretty classic. It's one of those places students go.

 

H - And get fucked. It's a lot better than London.

 

 

Was there a particular point in your career when you realised you'd gone from being this underground support act to big album-selling band?

 

H - I think when I took the silver disk home to my mum, it was an amazing feeling.

 

P - It was wasn't it? Just walking back when we got them we stopped and had this little sneaky peak because it was in this big cardboard box. 60,00 (albums sold) at the time.

 

H - Honestly I wasn't sure how it was going to do, I was really really nervous about it, and I was like, ‘If we can do 20,000 copies then I will be so happy.' But it's done more than that. And every time it sells more you're always like ‘ I wonder how we do that.' Thing is we don't get carried away with it. We focus on writing new songs and enjoying the fact that it's doing well. But we're always looking towards the future.

 

P - Always.

 

 

The thing about the album is that it opens up so many other leeway's because you don't confine yourselves to one genre

 

P - That's because we didn't really know where we were at the time.

 

 

Do you ever feel restricted about going down any of those leeway's?

 

H - We'll never be restricted. It's part of our ethic. We write songs because we enjoy song writing. We never pigeonhole ourselves because that's what we don't like about other bands, they pigeonhole themselves and they just play the same song over and over again and then their set gets boring. That's not what we're about,

 

P - We've got really short attention spans as well. Even when it comes to songs, we'll play the same part twice and think, ‘Mmm, I'm a bit bored of that. Shall we do something different?'

 

H - It's the lack of being settled, you get bored really easily as musicians.

 

P - In My Opinion is a good one isn't it? It's like this lovely subtle song and then after a while (when playing it live) me and Hugh were like ‘ I'm bored of this, lets do a little 5 second...' No no! It was 1984 wasn't it?

 

H - ...And we did this groove jazz breakdown,

 

P - And just went straight back into the groove again!

 

H - Yeah. Well that's where our style comes from.

 

 

When we first met you had nothing to lose, but now, is there more pressure on you?

 

H - It's more pressure from ourselves I think. We didn't have anything to lose then yeah, and in a way now, we still don't. We're still making music. I feel like it's taken off a bit because when you first start out you really want to prove yourself to a crowd and now because they know your songs you can have some fun with it and play around a bit.

 

P - I agree, you can relax with it and actually fulfil what you think you can do. They always say breaking a band is the hardest part. And now we can chill out and write some songs and enjoy what we're doing, we've got plenty of songs left in us. Completely. We're not like one-album-wonders.

 

H - We hope

 

P - Well, we've got another album coming up haven't we? But there's so many bands who just haven't progressed and that's not what we're about, we're always going to progress. And the day we stop progressing is the day we should stop playing music.

 

H - And go work in Co-op

 

P - Exactly!

 

H - It's so weird talking about yourself like this.

 

 

Has that changed your aspect? Having to explain yourselves so much?

 

H - Yeah totally. You've got to be really careful when talking about yourself and analysing things too much because you get far too into it and you over judge yourself and get worried about it and that destroys yourself creatively. Once you start thinking about things too much you get paranoid, your conscious mind take over your unconscious mind which is where all your creativity comes from. So we try and keep in our own little bubble of music, it's just us, it's quite a sacred thing, quite spiritual.

 

 

Do you stand in a corner and pray before you go onstage?

 

H - Fuck yeah. We pray to Allah. ALLAAAAH ALLAAAAAH.

 

 

What's your favourite song to play live at the moment?

 

P- Matchbox

 

H- Time awaits

 

P - Actually...No, Time Awaits. It's a challenge. There's a couple of songs that are a challenge because you always forget how to play them.

 

 

After three years?

 

H - Yeah!

 

P - Well sometimes you speed up a bit and I'm too slow

 

H - So you improvise a bit...

 

P - Yeah I know. I've been improvising for the last three years! It's just lucky it's been the same every week.

 

 

There was a point from the audience/fan point of view where the future of The Kooks was looking slightly dubious...

 

P - Really? Oh, ok. Max just took a bit of time off. He just wasn't having a good time, but he's got back and we've just carried on. It was never really a question, and we wanted to keep the ball rolling.

 

H - It has been a bit of a rocky road.

 

P - It's been fortunate. But it has been rocky.

 

H - I found it pretty hard when he left the scenes but Pete came along at the perfect time and brightened things up. We're so lucky to be in this position and Pete saw that and brought it home to us a bit more. You get so into it on the tour bus and he brightened it all up a bit, made us really realise why we're doing this.

 

P - Made us realise things ain't so bad and that we should enjoy it.

 

 

Speaking of having a good time and in my defence I did not buy it, it was at the house I stayed at last night...

 

H - Crack?

 

 

Funnily enough no

 

P - NME you're on about aren't you? What is that all about eh? Prefabricated nonsense...

 

 

Yeah, the write up for you video shoot.

 

P - Oh, no, I mean well, that...That was fun. Very very fun...It wasn't completely accurate.

 

H - (whilst raising an eyebrow) Well, what do you want to know...You've thrown something at the table, hit me!

 

P - There were a few embellishments let's say and, half the stuff we didn't even capture! And there were two of us in the Jacuzzi, not one... I think it would have been easy to just do a video like all the others..

 

H - There's a girl,

 

P - And a boy,

 

Both - And a bar,

 

H - At a gig, yeah.

 

P - And it would have been what the song's about because all our songs involve girls, that's where our anger comes from. But for this song we were dead cert on doing something random. A kind of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas style. Which I think we did quite well...We just hadn't had a day off in a while.

 

 

Does it all feel more like a job now?

 

P - There are days when it does feel like a job and that's just part of it.

 

H - It's like, ‘You've got to be up at six in the morning for a photo shoot then you've got an interview, and then and then and then and then oh and by the way, you got a gig.' And you think, aren't we supposed to enjoy ourselves?

 

P - Some days are like that but then there's others when you just get the perks of having fun so it's cool. It works both ways, but to me, nothings better than playing a gig or jamming in the studio. That's the best bit.

 

 

And to wrap things up, how do you feel about llamas?

 

H - they're fake camels man.

 

P - llamas?

 

H - They're just forgeries. Screw ‘em. I don't like llamas man, they're rude. They spit, they think they're cool but they're just trying to be camels, fuck ‘em. They should all burn in zoo hell.

 

In conclusion? The Kooks aren't going to implode into a drunken mess of tangled ego's and self destruction. They've no desire to wear out what they've already written and attack the good public with the same hooks until we become immune to them. In fact they've barely changed. Hugh chain smokes throughout the entire interview and Paul cannot sit still for half of it. They both grin endlessly and are as friendly as if we went back years, to be fair I have spoken to Paul a couple of times since then but Hugh, who I hadn't spoken to since June recognises me within 30 seconds of speaking. Their easy going manner and sense of humour makes a welcome change to the endless amounts of bands who shun you and your attempts to strike up a conversation. I've got a feeling that no matter how many records they sell it's not going to penetrate that bubble. God forbid if it does though.

 

Interview with the Kooks May 22nd @ Norwich Waterfront

[F0X]

thx for the pics, and he wasn't there because there was no blond so...

[andyjean]

Oh well. He's not back with the band then :(

 

 

 

Anyway, good news is 'See the world' got played almost from start to end on the TV show "Close to home" (don't know how many of you out there get it!). But getting played on american TV, now that's just great for the boys, YAY!

[andyjean]

Oh and a bit of news from their forum

This Saturday the Kooks will be joining Dermot O'Leary on his Radio 2 show, which starts at 5 and finishes at 7. I know the kooks will be playing 4 songs throughout the show.

 

They will be giving away some signed CD's so check it out if you want to win some...

[andyjean]

And a wee something I uploaded for anyone who might be interested:

 

 

Across the line session:

 

'Bad Taste In My Mouth'

'Naive'

'Sofa Song'

New Song (!!!)

 

http://rapidshare.de/files/33623111/Across_the_line_session.zip

[andyjean]

Just in case anyone ever comes on here (:\), you need to know the very exciting news :D

 

Yeyyyy video for 'Ooh La' is finished! :dance:dance::thumbup:

I'M SERIOUSLY TOO EXCITED

 

It needs to be said: it's by far their BESTEST video EVER! Hah I bet you can tell how excited I am by now :lol:

 

Anyway, just got the news from the mailing list, so I though I might as well post it on here. For us fans, we can watch the video right now even though it's not released in a while! So, hope these links are working:

 

Hi Real: javascript: ol('http://email-virgin.the-raft.com/a/hBFEru7AQUB0MArwd$7AYeshTKK/link3');

Lo Real: javascript: ol ('http://email-virgin.the-raft.com/a/hBFEru7AQUB0MArwd$7AYeshTKK/link4');

 

Hi Media: javascript: ol('http://email-virgin.the-raft.com/a/hBFEru7AQUB0MArwd$7AYeshTKK/link5');

Lo Real: javascript: ol('http://email-virgin.the-raft.com/a/hBFEru7AQUB0MArwd$7AYeshTKK/link6');

 

WOHOOO I'm so happy right now! Oh and I love B&W SO much! :dance:

 

EDIT: copy and paste the link cause it won't work otherwise, and delete the space between the : and the o (hope that was clear!)

EDIT#2: That's working on explorer but not on Firefox :confused:

Anyway, if you're interested enough log onto their website/myspace thingy and probably find it there :wink2:

[talisman]

the kooks are awesome, i really enjoyed Inside in, Inside out.

 

can anobody tell me when they're planning to release their next album?

[andyjean]

Apparently there's no official dates yet. Their still to release their 6th single (!), and touring on October so I'd say probably planning on record something by the end of the year/early 07. But those are just my guesses.

[busybeeburns]

Online-Exclusive Spun: The Kooks

 

Pop music isn't dead. If you were to poke it with a stick, it would probably retaliate, or give a grunt of acknowledgement at the very least. The Kooks are fully aware of the living, breathing organism that is pop music, and they're here to reacquaint it with those who thought they'd lost their lover. Inside In/Inside Out is a pop record, and the Kooks are proud of it.

 

The album kicks off with the quaint "Seaside," an acoustic tune that could have been borrowed directly from Coldplay's pocket. Immediately following "Seaside" is "See The World," which rocks more like the Strokes than Coldplay.

 

Nearly every song on the album has its own distinct sound, and, ironically, that's why Inside succeeds--it's light, heavy, and freely interchanges between upbeat pop and gritty sounding rock depending on the mood.

 

Inside In/Inside Out is a fantastic pop album filled with many diverse sounds. No need to poke it with a stick.

 

http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/10381

[andyjean]

:D Thanks for that!

Uh lovin' itttttttt :dance:

[julimp92]

^^ Same :nice: thanks !!! :dance:

[andyjean]

So, if anyone was curious enough to try and get those links to work and didn't succeed, here's a youtube very working new link:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxNRf93a2BA

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love that video SO MUCH :dance:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that white coat Luke baby:whip:

[andyjean]

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhh looks like Max is back with the band

 

KOOKS bassist MAX RAFFERTY has vowed to return to the British band after suffering a near breakdown on tour earlier this year (06). The NAIVE bandmember had to leave the successful rock group because he couldn't cope with the constant touring. However, singer LUKE PRITCHARD reveals Rafferty is improving and insists it won't be long before his close friend joins him on stage again. He says, "It wasn't just going out, doing drink and drugs. Touring isn't for everyone. I saw him yesterday and he is coming back, but he went through a real bad time, although he's doing a lot better now." Rafferty is not the only bass player recently to quit because of touring demands - the KOOKS rivals ARCTIC MONKEYS' ANDY NICHOLSON left the band in June (06).

22/09/2006 12:32

 

 

 

Aaand there's a bit of uncertainty about the immediate tour dates as Luke has tonsilitis (what the hell is that anyway?). Get well soon you boy! :kiss:

[zeoir]

Thanks for all the info :nice:

 

The video is pretty cool :cool3:

All of them look good..hot..yummyy

"Wooot??!"

[julimp92]

Thanks for the info !! :dance: Max is backk

[an_cat]

The NAIVE bandmember

 

 

LMFAO. That sounds so strange. Wow. ahaha

 

 

:dance: Cheers for all the stuff, Andy! you're awesome.

[andyjean]

Hey no worries, I'm visiting their forum quite often now to see how the tour goes (no info at all on there, I seriously hate everyone on that board!), so I'm getting well informed :D