The Kooks – A Review

It was a cold evening in Blackpool but hundreds of music fans were waiting outside in a queue that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

The people joining the growing crowd were arriving unusually early on 8 December for a gig they had clearly been looking forward to for months – The Kooks.

Walking into Winter Gardens, on Church Street, and seeing singer-song writer Kid Harpoon, it felt like there was already a headline act on stage.

“First we’ll take Manhattan”, he shouted before pausing for a second, “and then we’ll take Berlin” and he launched back into the verse. It was a song the crowd soon picked up and were shouting back.

And warm up acts do not come much better than what followed – Mystery Jets.

The almost tribal chanting of “Zoo time! Zoo time!” symbolised a frantic yet amazing set from the London five-piece.

So when The Kooks launched into their first song “Always Where I Need to Be”, fans were already geared up for what was to be a sensational gig.

The four-piece from Brighton played most of their classics from their first album “Inside In Inside Out”. And just as many from their second, “Konk”.

The crowd went berserk during “Matchbox” and sang along to “Ooh La” and “She Moves in Her Own Way”. But they were even more stunned when “Naïve” began and an echo of every lyric could be heard throughout the room.

“Mr Maker” also stood out as the riff captivated a danced-out audience

The Kooks’ mix of catchy tunes and lyrics, which has given them hit after hit, kept the crowd chanting all the way through.

“This is an amazing crowd – and we’ve been all over the world!” exclaimed lead singer Luke Pritchard as he returned on stage to play “Seaside” in an acoustic encore.

The Kooks ended on “Sofa Song” after an hour-and-a-half and over 20 songs – leaving fans tired and sweaty, but incredibly satisfied.

The phenomenon of meaningless comedy

There is a growing trend of jokes on TV these days, aimed at teenagers and young adults, that seem to have no relevance to anything – they are just crazy.

Yet everyone seems to find them utterly remarkable.

Many people, myself included, find themselves laughing out loud at these immature ramblings without quite knowing why.

The classic example is the BBC 3 series The Mighty Boosh which seems to have brought it to a new level.

Many others have followed or have been running for longer.

In Britain there is the Channel 4 series The IT Crowd and Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.

The ‘voice of E4′ is utterly ridiculous, but we just cannot stop ourselves laughing at such lines as ‘big shiny films in your dinky little home’.

Abroad, there is Flight of the Conchords, which I must admit, I am getting very addicted to.

There is also the American string of ‘adult cartoons’ such as Family Guy and Futurama which have so much influence worldwide.

This morning I was listening to the Mighty Boosh Radio Show on my iPod. I drew everyone’s attention on the train by laughing out loud.

The line which caused the outburst was “I’m a chinese dancing horse, look at my hooves of cress”.

Why do we find these jokes so amusing, when, in actual fact, they have no meaning or link to anything? They are the sort of things we used to say in the playground as children.

My colleague suggested today that these programmes ’dare to lack wit’.

The reason they are so appealing, he says, is because they are satirical of modern comedy.

Maybe the fact that it makes no sense is, in itself, funny.

But the more logical explanation is that we see in these comedys something in ourselves that we miss – something we were when we were younger.

This kind of comedy is what I wanted when I was 12. Apparently, nothing has changed.