A 00s indie musician has set the record straight on a long-standing feud with the Arctic Monkeys.
In 2008, Luke Pritchard, 40, revealed he and his band The Kooks had a ‘weird relationship’ with the Do I Wanna Know hitmakers.
He explained he ‘kicked’ frontman Alex Turner, 39, ‘in the face’ as he tried to sabotage one of his performances by tampering with the equipment.
After the incident, Luke bumped into Alex in a studio and attempted to ‘patch things up’ but said he ‘just turned his back and walked away.’
The Naive singer added at the time: ‘I suppose they are quite arrogant – but who can blame them. They’ve got a lot going for them.’
Now, though, Luke has rubbished claims of a ‘rivalry’ and said there is mutual respect between the bands.
The Seaside musician told MailOnline: ‘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.
‘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.’
The first hint of tension between The Kooks and the Arctic Monkeys was when Luke told The Mirror in 2008: ‘We’ve had a weird relationship with the Arctics since we first met.
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‘I had to kick Alex in the face because he was trying to pull the leads out of my guitar pedals while we were on stage.
‘We had done so many shows back to back with them, and it just escalated.
He added: ‘I saw them recently in a studio and tried to patch things up. I asked Alex if he wanted to have a bit of a jam in the studio, but he just turned his back and walked away.’
The Kooks are not the only band the Arctic Monkeys have had friction with.
In 2007, after Take That reunited and they won the Brit Award for Best British Single for Patience, Alex branded their music as ‘a load of old b*****ks.’
Four years later, however, Alex apologised for lashing out at the Rule the World group in an interview with NME.
He said: ‘We love Gary Barlow. I think I really offended him a few years ago though, which I’m sorry about.
‘I didn’t understand it then. Didn’t know what was going on, trying to ruffle some feathers.’
Arctic Monkeys shot to fame in 2006 when their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not became the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history.
To date, the group has released seven studio albums, with the most recent being 2022’s The Car, the only Arctic Monkeys album not to reach number one on the UK charts.
Their hit records include I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Do I Wanna Know?, I Wanna Be Yours and 505.
The Kooks’ debut album Inside In/Outside Out hit the charts on the same day as the Arctic Monkeys’, peaking at number two. It produced singles including Naive, You Don’t Love Me, She Moves in Her Own Way and Ooh La.
They are due to release their seventh studio album, Never/Know, on May 9.
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