British indie heroes The Kooks played a career-best concert at the O2 Arena tonight.
The band took over the famous London venue with a hit-heavy set of indie anthems including ‘Naive’, ‘Ooh La’, ‘Seaside’ and more.
Introducing recent single ‘Sunny Baby’, frontman Luke Pritchard told the crowd: “So listen, it’s crazy times and there’s a lot of hurt and a lot of crazy going on. You know, music is the healer. Music is the thing that can heal us. It’s amazing we’re all here.”
The 20,000-strong crowd sang along to song after song, including deep cuts which have found a second life on TikTok – ‘Taking Pictures of You’ and ’Gap’ – before a communal encore, taking in ‘Ooh La’ and ‘Naive’.
The Kooks’ seventh studio album, ‘Never/Know’, dropped on May 9th, following the release of their feel-good, springtime anthem, ‘Sunny Baby’. The track was featured in The Times‘ Best New Songs and premiered on BBC Radio 2 with Jo Whiley. ‘Never/Know’ shot to Top 5 in the UK album charts, becoming their highest charting album since 2008.
The Kooks stunned fans and lit up the internet at Reading Festival in the summer with a euphoric mainstage set that featured an unlikely surprise: A-list Hollywood star Rebel Wilson joined them on stage for a raucous cover of the 1995 rap classic ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ by Coolio feat L.V.
Main support for the tour comes from Merseyside four-piece, The K’s, who were named ‘Breakthrough Act of the Year’ at the Northern Music Awards in 2024. Their second album, ‘Pretty On The Internet’ was released June 2025.
The Kooks played:
Intro
Sofa song
Always Where I need to Be
Eddie’s Gun
Stormy Weather
She Moves in Her Own Way
Bad Habit
Westside
Sweet emotion
Sunny Baby
Junk of the Heart
See Me Now
Jacky Big Tits
If They Could Only Know
Seaside
Sway
Shine On
Connection
Taking Pictures of You
Gap
Down
See the World
Matchbox
Do You Wanna
You Don’t Love Me
——
Ooh la
Naive
Time above the earth