The Kooks give surprise performance in London
The Kooks celebrated their new album with a surprise performance in Camden in north London on Monday (12.05.25).
The Kooks celebrated their new album with a surprise performance in London on Monday (12.05.25).
The group have just released latest record ‘Never/Know’ and to mark the occasion, frontman Luke Pritchard and Hugh Harris treated fans to a brief acoustic set in Camden.
Standing against a backdrop of a billboard advertising the record and a series of red roses, the duo performed latest single ‘Sunny Baby’ and 2006 megahit ‘Naïve’ on acoustic guitars as the crowd sang and danced along in the sun.
WATCH: @thekooksmusic's #LukePritchard and #HughHarris performed their new single, Sunny Baby, as they busked in #London, #Camden on May 12 to celebrate the launch of their new album, Never / Know.@hughsaan#ContactMusic #TheKooks pic.twitter.com/Y3Pz2rdncE
— Contactmusic.com (@Contactmusic) May 12, 2025
Between tracks, Luke and Hugh joked about their early days busking, prompting the guitarist to jokingly put his hat on the floor to collect spare change.
At the end of the brief set, the pair handed out roses – a nod to the ‘Never/Know’ artwork – and posed for photos with the cheering fans.
Luke recently told how he believes that the 2000s era of British indie rock music is finally getting the recognition it deserves as an era of rock 'n' roll in its own right.
In an interview with ContactMusic.com, he said: "There’s a huge appreciation of it now.
"What we’re seeing as The Kooks – I can’t speak for other bands of our generation – is the young people now, the teenagers, are getting into our music, which is crazy. I guess that shows the appreciation of what it was and the carrying on of guitar music, rock ‘n’ roll, which is more of a kind of mentality than anything.
After Britpop you had a lot of garage and stuff like that. Then White Stripes and The Strokes came along and we as Brits answered it."
Luke - who along with Hugh is heading out on a UK arena tour later this year - also gets told by younger fans that their music was popular with their parents when they were growing up.
He added: "The thing that I hear a lot about The Kooks, which is maybe a unique-ish thing to us, I always hear the same thing, which is, ‘I used to listen to The Kooks in the car with my parents and my younger brother.’ It’s always an intergenerational thing. Their parents would get us because they would hear The Kinks and The Beatles and Bob Dylan and the kids liked us, too."
