Luke Pritchard - Solo show
So whatever your opinions are on The Kooks front man, Luke Pritchard, I find it hard to deny that the Brighton resident is an iconic image in music today.
Over the past few months Luke has been playing small pub based shows in Brighton. Simple turning up with an acoustic guitar and a handful of new songs, the Kooks front man is proving to the dedicated Kooks followers that he is still very much a man of the people.
The Prince Albert in Brighton can’t hold more than seventy people and as the hooded figure clambers his way to the stage the girls try to catch a glimpse of the pin-up and the boys stare aimlessly as they dream of being in a band with such presence as The Kooks.
Now un-hooded and centre stage the sound of the crowd begins to fade, and suddenly everybody is the owner of a camera phone and the focus is on Luke. “Love it all” was the first treat of the evening. This relatively new song is epically distinctive in sizable proportions. There is a hint of “Knocking on heavens door” and a dabble of what can be expected from “Konk“, the long awaited second album. Despite his lovable in-tone mumble and recognizable voice I am still astounded at how I cannot take my eyes from Luke. Mothers want to mother him, girls want to go out with him and boys just want something of that unexplainable rock and roll elegance that he posses.
“Always where I need to be” and “Mr Maker” creep in between some old favourites such as “She moves in her own way” and “Naïve”. But as I stand there for my sixteenth Kooks show I begin to notice a slight shift in the audience.
Now although this is as cliché and cynical as it comes I had noticed that since the bands success from the first album and hits like “Naïve” the crowds began to fertilise into those pop loving moguls who think Hard-Fi are rock and roll and are fans for the sake of being fans. At a number of Kooks shows I had been confronted by laddish behaviour that induced into beer throwing and unnecessary “moshing”. But here is was different. There was an aroma of love and dedication, and I believe that given free reigns on their second album the Kooks are going to produce something that is all together a bit different from their first. From recordings of the new songs that I have heard I can hear influences such as the Stones, Neil Young and even a little Dylan in some of the acoustic numbers. This pleases me no end!
And to be even more shallow minded and selfish, I hope that by going in the direction that the Kooks want to go the Radio One whores who sleep with NME under their pillows will realise that the Kooks are purely about the music and that shouting and screaming your drunken head of at a show is not going to win you the respect of anyone.
I am aware that this article can be interpreted in a really negative way. I am not saying the Kooks have sold out, whatever that means anyway, and I am not saying that success is a bad thing, I think it is brilliant. But I see this as more of an opportunity to express my anger and rage at some of the people who attend shows and ruin them for other people because they thinking that by smoking a fag and throwing a pint is rock and roll. If anything this rant isn’t about the Kooks at all, it’s about every band. End.
“Mrs Thompson” is a simple new tale with a potentially colossal chorus of depth and loss. Eyes barely wandered from Luke throughout the whole half an hour set. He buckles under the pressure of an incessant chant to play “Naïve” and willingly agrees after the treat of “California”, the b-side from the first single “Eddies gun”.
The Kooks new album is being released April time, and after hearing some of it tonight I feel that The Kooks are heading in a much more diverse direction, but one they are comfortable in, and this makes me comfortable. Songs like “Oil” and “Disappear” are all going to blow the cobwebs from your stereo and shake the skin on your bones. I am waiting in sheer anticipation.