Almost two decades on from their debut album’s release, The Kooks’ Luke Pritchard admitted sometimes he ‘tries to avoid’ playing certain cheekier tracks.
We can’t blame him either; forever singing a song written by your 16-year-old self about erectile dysfunction must get old.
Yes, Eddie’s Gun, a track infamously about impotence, was on The Kooks’ no-play list for a while, but he told Metro he ‘can’t avoid it anymore’.
Along with the racy record, lead singer Luke revealed that 2011’s How’d You Like That is also a total ‘avoid’ for the Naive hitmakers.
No matter how much fans beg, it won’t be on the setlist when he and his bandmate Hugh Harris play Reading and Leeds Festival this year.
Despite his previous reservations, Eddie’s Gun does stand a chance of being mixed in with some brand new songs from their upcoming album, Never/Know.
The suggestive track featured on The Kooks’ debut album, released in 2006, and now has over 15million streams on Spotify alone.
For those unfamiliar, the chorus goes: ‘I tried to love her back/And then I shrunk back into my wrap/And in the barrel of my gun/I hope I’m not the only one.’
It’s classic Kooks tongue-in-cheek humour, and was widely misunderstood and reported to be about unrequited love for an ex upon its initial release.
‘You’ve got to remember, I wrote it when I was, like, 16, and you just have this in your head like “I actually can’t”,’ he laughed. ‘Sometimes, just in the lyrics, you’ll be like chuckling to yourself …. because you wrote it as a 16-year-old.’
While it’s not tipped over the 700,000,000 mark like Naive, it has become a fan favourite for the setlists and after a ‘short period of avoidance’ and they ‘love playing it now.’
His favourite festival songs are those that the crowd just ‘gravitates towards’ because they elevate the energy in the room.
‘Naive is in the contract,’ Luke joked, poking fun at the runaway popularity of the 00s track which got a Lily Allen makeover for the soundtrack of a classic British romcom.
The Ooh La La hitmaker reassured us that he has seen the iconic film Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging, albeit ‘very recently’.
Luke, who rocks dark curly hair, declared he looks ‘just like’ star Alan Davies before praising Lily, 39, for her rendition of his track.
Metro asked if fans ever think it’s the Not Fair icon’s own song, to which he said: ‘I have heard that you know. Especially in the States, I’ve heard that quite a bit.
‘Maybe she was just more known over there, which is cool. That’s kind of the job of a cover. On the new album, we did a cover of Wings [by Birdy] and I’m fascinated how many people go through that and discover it’s actually not our song.’
After 20 years in the business (and three previous rounds at Reading and Leeds, specifically) Luke is rarely worried about putting together a festival-friendly setlist.
Apparently, one concern artists should have is getting ‘kicked out’ of their own gig after crowd surfing too far from the stage — which really happened to Luke.
He recalled: ‘The first time playing Reading Festival, I got in the crowd to sing and everyone was crowd surfing. Then someone pulled me in and I got stuck in the crowd.’
‘I had to walk around outside the tent. I didn’t have my pass and I went up to the security and said “I need to get on stage”. And they’re like, “No, no, you’re not in The Kooks”. So had to wait, the guys were on stage for 10 minutes without me.’
Nowadays, the band’s main priority at a festival is locating the best coffee — of which Reading ranks rather high — and catching up with old friends.
‘It’s always a different experience and you do get to catch other artists, which is cool,’ the She Moves In Her Own Way icon shared, adding he was excited to see ex-girlfriend Suki Waterhouse performing this year.
‘You’re catching up with pals, and then probably avoiding a band that you used to have some kind of …. It’s a little “I think we’re alright, but we haven’t spoken in 15 years. Do they still think about what they said about me?”
‘There’s a funny excitement anxiety in the backstage, because everyone’s on top of each other.’
Some of his favourite festival memories include doing a ‘spiritual dance’ with a pyjama-clad Flea (of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame) which he confessed he hasn’t done since.
Luke apologised for name-dropping Post Malone, who apparently ‘loves British indie music’, as well as Mick Jagger and Ray Davies of The Kinks.
‘I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of my idols,’ he said before humbly sharing how when he met Sir Paul McCartney, the Beatles legend thought they had met before.
‘Doesn’t get bigger than that does it? He thought he knew me, I think he meant the band but I was so nervous I just said: “I think I’d know if I met you, Mr McCartney.”‘
After 20 years and reaching dizzying heights, for the latest album, Luke wanted to reconnect with his roots for Never/Know and felt like he had ‘been hit by lightning’ when he started writing.
‘Not to get too deep,’ he explained. ‘But my son was turning three, and my dad died when I was three, so I had this quite emotional response. In a great way as well as, obviously, slightly painful.
‘I just really remembered the reason why I started making music is because my dad left the guitar and some records [to me]. I just started listening to a lot of those records that I grew up with, and they informed The Kooks in the beginning.
He called Never/Know a ‘real, firm recap’ of The Kooks’ identity, promising nostalgia nods for those who loved that first album.
Luke teased that the ‘humour’ that is in the DNA of those early albums is back for their seventh record. Move over Eddie’s Gun, we guess.
The Kooks will be playing Reading and Leeds Festival this year and album Never/Know is out on May 9.
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