The Kooks have undoubtedly been one of the biggest success stories of 2006, with huge chart slaying singles and a platinum debut album that has been in the UK top ten for most of the year.
 | | The Kooks at the Academy |
Tonight, they play to a sold out Birmingham Academy crowd made up from people of all ages and styles including young swooning girls, indie obsessives, mature business workers, and even a few chavs. It seems that nobody wants to miss The Kooks, and as the band stroll onstage, it is easy to see why this is the case. Lead singer Luke Pritchard opens the set with a brilliant acoustic rendition of ‘Seaside’ which has the whole crowd moving as one and singing along to every word. This is followed by brilliant full band renditions of ‘See The World’ and debut single ‘Eddie’s Gun’ which see Luke charging around the stage like a man possessed. Singles ‘She Moves In Her Own Way’ and ‘Ooh La’ were also stand-out tracks, with the audience going absolutely crazy every time a track started or finished. The biggest crowd pleaser was the anthem ‘Naïve’ in which the band simply stood back letting the audience could scream the lyrics to the first verse.
 | | The Kooks at the Academy |
This was followed by a triumphant ‘Sofa Song’ allowing the band to leave the stage on a triumphant high before the inevitable encore. Pritchard strolls back onto the stage, again armed with only an acoustic guitar, and proceeded to play a stunning version of album favourite ‘Jackie Big Tits’ before a lesser known b-side was introduced with the full band back onstage.
 | | The Kooks at the Academy |
‘You Don’t Love Me’ was then played to the delight of the whole crowd, who proceeded to bounce around crazily until the song finished. The band then wished us goodnight, and played a slow new track to bring everyone back down to planet earth. Tonight, The Kooks really did show why they are becoming so popular, and in lead singer Luke Pritchard they have a talented and charismatic frontman capable of even greater things. | 
