The Kooks praise Arctic Monkeys for their "development" and not looking back

13 December 2023, 10:29

The Kooks and Arctic Monkeys — The Kooks' Luke Pritchard has praised Arctic Monkeys. Picture: 1. Press 2. Zackery Michael

By Jenny Mensah

Luke Pritchard has spoken about the need for music fans to give their favourite artists time and space to grow like the Sheffield band.

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The Kooks Luke Pitchard has commended Arctic Monkeys for their development as a band.

The Naïve singer spoke to Radio X's Dan O'Connell about the band's homecoming show at On The Beach, Brighton next year, and talked soon turned to the fact their debut album Inside In/Inside Out was released at the same time as the Sheffield band's seminal debut.

Quizzed if it was difficult to have everything compared to the success of their debut, Pritchard mused: "Yeah. I've ruminated on that a lot. I mean, it was always a bit of an albatross, because when the first thing you do is so commercially successful, what it does is bring craziness and of course being so young as well [...], but I think the key to that is making sure you take risks and you do try different things and we've done that. We've had some amazing creative fazes."

Speaking about Arctic Monkeys, he added: "They're a great example. It's amazing their development and how they've managed to not look back. I think it's a well trodden path and I think that people have to give a bit of time and space to artists."

The Ooh La singer also identified with not feeling connected to some of the lyrics and emotions from their earlier material, explaining: "The thing with Arctic Monkeys where they are very similar to us as well is that we're the same age. Again, we were the next gen from the indie bands at the time, so we were very young. When we look back to our songs from those days, you're talking about when you were a teenager. You're talking about emotions you're having when you're a kid and that's quite strange as well, because it's like a diary that everyone has of yours."

The band are set to play their epic homecoming date at On The Beach Brighton on Sunday 21st July 2024, where they'll be joined on the day by special guests Sea Girls, Maximo Park and Kate Nash. Opening the day are Fred Roberts, Brooke Combe and Nieve Ella – three up and coming artists, each with a unique style.

"I kind of feel like the band owes everything to Brighton," Pritchard told Dan O'Connell. "It's really where I grew up, so it is a homecoming."

"We weren't like the kings of Brighton, we were like the princes of Brighton, if you know what I mean. We were like the young ones - all the other bands would take us under their wing. We were like the little cousins of The Libertines or The Strokes, or whatever."

"We're very excited about this show - it's been a long time coming. We're on the pebbles, it's gonna be beautiful. I can't believe we've never played the beach before!"