The Kooks‘ Luke Pritchard has reflected on a row he once had with Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner.
Back in 2008, Pritchard spoke about a feud he once had with the singer which resulted in him kicking Turner in the face.
He said at the time: “We have had a weird relationship with the Arctics since we first met. I had to kick Alex in the face after he tried to pull the leads out of my guitar pedals while we were on stage.
“I tried to patch things up with Alex but he just turned his back and walked away. I suppose they are quite arrogant.”
Arctic Monkeys fans at the time hit out at Pritchard’s comments as a “desperate attempt to get some publicity”.
Both bands released their debut albums on the same day in January 2006 with the Sheffield band’s ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not‘ becoming the fastest selling debut album in British music history, while The Kooks’ ‘Inside In/Inside Out’ went in at Number Nine and peaked at Number Two in the UK albums chart.
At the time, The Kooks praised the Sheffield band for helping make their debut become one of the most successful albums of that year.
Now, in a new interview with the Daily Mail, Pritchard has played down their feud. “From our point of view, it just happened that our [debut] albums came out the same day, we were the same age, and we had similar influences,” he said.
“On a personal level, there’s never been a rivalry. But I respect them, and I think they respect us. We come across them quite a bit, and it’s always fine.”
He added: “There was the ‘kick in the head’ – we were meant to tour with them around our first album, and it didn’t happen. They came down to our gig, and there was a bit of an incident. But again, it was all fun. It was crazy times, man.”
Pritchard also previously praised Arctic Monkeys’ “development” over the years in a separate, more recent interview.
He added: “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.
Pritchard went on to explain how he no longer really feels connected to some of the lyrics and emotion from The Kooks’ earlier work. “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,” he said.
The Kooks are due to release their new album ‘Never/Know’ on May 9.
Of the new record, the frontman recently told NME: “I didn’t overthink it. It wasn’t necessarily strictly a stream of consciousness, but there was this vibe I was getting when I played it to my wife or my friends. It felt there was maybe a debut-ism to it… trying to get into flow state and let it ride – let it roll.”
He also recently commented about the current state of indie and how much like The Last Dinner Party‘s Abigail Morris, Pritchard was also criticised for being privately educated.
“We had it with going to BRIT School. We thought we should make t-shirts saying, ‘The Kooks Stage School’… now, that has changed a lot, where people aren’t so much like that. I respect anyone who can get on stage and play, and someone who can write music,” Pritchard added.
“You don’t know what they’ve been through in their life. But we also do live in an age where [cancel culture] is really common, and it’s being talked about, how people can anonymously say these things. I don’t think anyone feels that way in the industry, so they’ve got a lot of support from people like ourselves.”
Check out The Kooks’ full 2025 UK dates below and visit here for tickets and information.
JULY
11 – TRNSMT Festival, Glasgow
AUGUST
22 – Reading Festival, Richfield Avenue
23 – Leeds Festival, Bramham Park
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