The Kooks' Luke Pritchard talks "nuts" 20th anniversary of their Inside In/Inside Out album

23 January 2026, 16:54 | Updated: 23 January 2026, 17:02

The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard with the band's Inside In/Inside Out album inset. Picture: Venla Shalin/Redferns/Getty, Press

By Jenny Mensah

We caught up with The Kooks frontman this week to discuss the milestone anniversary of the band's debut album.

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Luke Pritchard "can't quite believe" it's been 20 years since Inside In/Inside Out was released.

Asked about the huge anniversary of The Kooks' debut album this week, the frontman told Radio X: "I can't quite believe it. I mean, 20 years is nuts, but I'm so thankful it happened."

"I mean, so many reasons why it almost shouldn't have happened," he went on. "You know, we were four very different people that didn't know each other very well and had this amazing musical chemistry.

"I think the greatest thing about it, 20 years on is, like, all the success you can have in all different ways is that the young kids dig it. And I find that amazing. I can't believe it."

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The indie rocker attended a photo exhibition and Q&A of The Cure at London's Iconic Images Gallery in celebration of the band's upcoming headline set at Isle Of Wight Festival 2026 and he remarked on how The Kooks are also beginning to appeal to different generations.

"It's kind of what they're saying about The Cure on a much bigger scale of, like, the different generations," he mused. "When you get that turnover, 20 years, it's that kind of bookmark and I feel like there are kids that really are getting inspired by our music still. And that, to me, is, like, the greatest thing."

The impact of Inside In/Inside Out also extends to his fellow musicians, with the Naïve singer revealing: "The young artists that I meet, whether they just say it to me because they're meeting me, but they say that the music got in some place, and that's brilliant."

He added: "It's a time capsule. It captures, like, a perfect moment in time, but also, people listen to it back. They can actually get a freshness from it."

The Kooks' Luke Pritchard attends The Cure photo exhibition and Q&A in celebration of the band's upcoming set at Isle Of Wight Festival 2026 — The Kooks' Luke Pritchard attends The Cure photo exhibition and Q&A in celebration of the band's upcoming headline set at Isle Of Wight Festival 2026. Picture: Press

The Kooks are also set to hit the Isle Of Wight festival stage this year, where they will also celebrate the album's two decade anniversary.

Asked how it will feel to play those tracks for new audiences, he said: "I mean, in a way, you're bringing that collective energy to new people and they're getting an insight into those times through that music.

"And they'll hear their dad or their, you know, their older brother, older sister, saying, like, that time was like this. And I remember that song being played at uni or whatever and that's what it was."

Looking back on the '00s indie scene, the 40-year-old musician recalled: "It was a quite hyper time. The world was very stable, but we were all, like, all the indie guys.

"We were all kind of inspired by the kind of, decadent and more like, darker things of the 60s and 70s. And it was all very hypo and a bit crazy, and it was all very loose. And what was celebrated in some ways was imperfection..."