Luke Pritchard on The Kooks & Arctic Monkeys sharing debut album anniversary: "We didn't feel in competition"

23 January 2026, 17:21

The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard and Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner circa 2006. Picture: Jo Hale/Brill/ullstein bild via Getty Images

By Jenny Mensah

We caught up with The Kooks frontman this week to discuss the milestone anniversary of the band's debut album Inside In/Inside Out as well as Arctic Monkeys debut.

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Luke Pritchard has reflected on The Kooks sharing the same debut album anniversary as Arctic Monkeys.

The band's Inside In/Inside Out album was released on 23rd January 2006 - the very same day as Monkeys' seminal debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.

Arctic Monkeys record came in at a UK number one, with The Kooks just behind in at number two, but Pritchard insists there was no competition because the bands were very different.

"I didn't really think too much about it because The Kooks weren't really meant to be as big as we were," he told Radio X. "Like, we had a very small record deal. Everyone was talking about the Arctic Monkeys, like, no one really was talking about us, so we didn't really feel particularly in competition."

Instead Pritchard remembers a sort of mutual appreciation between the two bands, adding: "They'd come to our gigs and we'd go to their gigs. We kind of knew them."

He went on: "It's funny now with the lens, you see it. It's quite a similar scene, but I felt like we were so different. Like, at the time we were in such a different kind of space.

"Like, to me, it was almost like they were doing, like, rap music. It was like rock and roll rap, you know, and it was, like, very tough and, like, almost like industrial. Like, the record was really mixed, so industrial, that first one... and we were more warm."

Despite the band's vast differences, the 40-year-old rocker is "proud" to share the milestone and be part of that time.

"Now I look back at it and I feel really proud that we were, like, at the same time as them. It was a really great time for music. And I loved that record then. I love that record now. And it got loads of kids into guitar music at that time and still now.

"So I felt like a good kind of... like a brotherhood with them, you know. It's amazing to be part of that pantheon, really..."

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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..."