THE KOOKS thread

[Cintia_Jenny]

The Kooks will play in Argentina in June and my mother hasn't given me permission to go. =( Now, there aren't tickets! in three days the tickets for the two shows were completely sold!

[marlau_20zr]

Oi! I really hope that they'll come back soon! It's a shame, really! They should really play more gigs and / or bigger venues .

 

 

 

 

 

bigger venuess!

they should play in the "Luna Park" that`s for around 8000 people or more..

 

i like the pics

[Petra]

the kooks will play in argentina in june and my mother hasn't given me permission to go. =( now, there aren't tickets! In three days the tickets for the two shows were completely sold!

****! Omg!

[Petra]

bigger venuess!

they should play in the "Luna Park" that`s for around 8000 people or more..

 

i like the pics

How much are the tickets on ebay and other secondary ticketing sites? When is the gig again? I've experienced that there are ALWAYS tickets at not-faaaaar-too-expensive prices still available SOMEWHERE. Is there a chance that you could go to the venue anyway?

[Petra]

Call me cool. Wait, no, call US cool. Because Ana and I so saw this guy twice and had a very very first row right in front of his very nose. Yes *pbs*. Nat Jenkins rocks.

 

 

(And because it was him and not the Hugh/Luke-duo, we so fricking didnt make it first row for the Kooks that day and missed some perfect opportunities to get first class footage of a hatless Hugh wearing a sexy black shirt. Damn it.)

 

And what the heck has Nat done to his hair? What have both of them done to their hair?

Edited May 5, 2009 by Petra

[marlau_20zr]

Call me cool. Wait, no, call US cool. Because Ana and I so saw this guy twice and had a very very first row right in front of his very nose. Yes *pbs*. Nat Jenkins rocks.

 

 

(And because it was him and not the Hugh/Luke-duo, we so fricking didnt make it first row for the Kooks that day and missed some perfect opportunities to get first class footage of a hatless Hugh wearing a sexy black shirt. Damn it.)

 

there`s no chance

i mean.. i can`t pay $250 for a ticket..

i don`t know when they are coming back again..

[Petra]

there`s no chance

i mean.. i can`t pay $250 for a ticket..

i don`t know when they are coming back again..

I went to Robbie Williams in, uhm, 2003? (No idea.) Tickets sold out within hours (for TWO gigs à 60,000 tickets) and I was lucky and got two for my friend and me (and each person was also just allowed to buy two). I paid 70€ for each ticket and in the days and weeks after that there were literally hundreds of tickets on eBay and people tried to sell them at unbelievable prices. However, a few weeks before the gig there were a lot of people that had hoped that they would get more money for the tickets later - and they were utterly wrong because they couldnt get rid of them. Ok, of course the RW gig was MONTHS after the ticket went on sale. When we went to the concert then, there were oh SO MANY sellers that simply tred to get rid of their tickets at normal prices (smply to get rid of them). Isn't that worth a try? I don't know where you are located but if there is no need to travel for hours to get to the venue anyway - I dont know. I've never done it like that. All I can say is that I know that, at the gigs I've been to so far (a lot of sold out gigs), there was ALWAYS the chance to get a spare tivket from someone. And sometimes there are even sold out gigs where people that happen to have spare tickets don't get rid of them. I had two spare tickets for Mika in Düsseödorf and didnt get rid of the last one and I finally paid 65€ to see the Kaiser Chiefs because nobody wanted to have my friking ticket (and I wasnt the only one that had a spare one (and I would have just given it to the person anyway)).

[~Ana~]

I SO AGREE! Mar I think you should just go to the venue anyway, to see if you can a get a spare ticket, estoy segura de que va a haber revendedores! en todos lados los hay, no me cabe duda, estás ahí en Buenos Aires, no pierdes nada.

I mean I remember seeing this bunch of old guys outside a tube station trying to sale kaiser chiefs tickets and they were so annoyed because nobody would buy them and they were the Kaiser Chiefs!!! hello?! they had so many spare kaiser chiefs tickets, I think you can get The Kooks tickets easily.

[~Ana~]

Call me cool. Wait, no, call US cool. Because Ana and I so saw this guy twice and had a very very first row right in front of his very nose. Yes *pbs*. Nat Jenkins rocks.

 

 

(And because it was him and not the Hugh/Luke-duo, we so fricking didnt make it first row for the Kooks that day and missed some perfect opportunities to get first class footage of a hatless Hugh wearing a sexy black shirt. Damn it.)

 

And what the heck has Nat done to his hair? What have both of them done to their hair?

 

OH my!!

 

why do they keep touching their hair? leave THE HAIR () alone.

 

you are cool. I still need to punch the Big bloke along with Tracy.

 

 

I just left my other post in the previous page **** haha.

Edited May 6, 2009 by ~Ana~

[Petra]

OH my!!

 

why do they keep touching their hair? leave THE HAIR () alone.

 

you are cool. I still need to punch the Big bloke along with Tracy.

 

 

I just left my other post on the previous page **** haha.

 

!!!!!!!!!! Oh, the Hair have changed their name btw! They were playing the Cockpit in Leeds and I read that they are now called something with "Club show" in it. Idiots . Awww, the lead singer

 

I SO AGREE! Mar I think you should just go to the venue anyway, to see if you can a get a spare ticket, estoy segura de que va a haber revendedores! en todos lados los hay, no me cabe duda, estás ahí en Buenos Aires, no pierdes nada.

I mean I remember seeing this bunch of old guys outside a tube station trying to sale kaiser chiefs tickets and they were so annoyed because nobody would buy them and they were the Kaiser Chiefs!!! hello?! they had so many spare kaiser chiefs tickets, I think you can get The Kooks tickets easily.

 

I have no ****ing clue what you are saying but I TOTALLY second it!!! It was the CHIEFS!!! Hello??? If there is the chance, then get your bum to the venue!!! You'll SO kick your arse later!!!!

[Petra]

And - I do think that it is necessary that each and EVERYONE here adds Nat Jenkins on MySpace. Not only because he is a friend of the Kooks but also because he is fuvking fantastic (and a friend of the Holloways and Beans on Toast) (Ana, Nat isnt friends with Alfie and the others on FB - how's that?)

 

--> http://www.myspace.com/natjenkins

 

 

And he promised to blog about his tour with the Kooks AGES ago but just addeed a new blog yesterday:

 

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=67383640&blogId=487556620

November US tour with The Kooks - diary extracts

Kooks West Coast Tour.

 

Here are some extracts of my diary I wrote on the road with The Kooks at the end of last year. I’ve sort of compiled them together. Most of it I wrote on the road - some of it once I had got back home. I have no idea if it will be of any interest to anyone. It’s kinda long and rambling but here it is if anyone fancies having a flick through.

 

 

SEATTLE

 

It’s early in the morning - too early. It’s a crisp bright autumn day. I put on my big green jumper and walk from the Best Western Hotel up to the Space Needle. Two old men are sitting silently on a wooden bench. Their eyes follow me cautiously as I pass. I sit down on the grass and spread out a copy of the Seatle Times beneath me to keep my jeans of the wet grass. I’ve been trying to avoid smoking but all that’s running around my head is cigarettes, cigarettes, cigarettes. I light one up and laugh to myself.

 

I’d arrived the evening before. Having lied my way through customs in a nervous smiling stream of bull****.

 

‘ What are you doing in the states buddy ?’

 

‘ visiting friends’

 

‘ How come you got a guitar ?’

 

‘ Cause I play guitar?’

 

‘ Play in a band’

 

‘ nope’

 

‘ playing any shows out here ?”

 

‘ nope’

 

‘ planning on making any money’

 

‘ nope’

 

‘ you look like you play in a band buddy’

 

‘ no sir’.

 

I had tried to catch a bus into town. I didn’t have the right change so the driver kicked me off. In the end I took a thirty dollar taxi, cursing him all the way into town.

 

Approaching Seattle at first all you see is autumnal trees - orange, yellow, pink and brilliant red. Then as you round a sudden curve in the freeway and there is the ocean. Hundreds and hundreds of vast metal shipping crates. Then the skyscrapers appear in the distance, clustered together like giant trees. The little taxi whizzes on along the sea front as vast cranes above turn on their slow axis.

 

I arrive at the hotel and check myself in. There is a key waiting for me at the desk. I throw my bag down on the bed then I jump straight in the shower and wash away all the grime from the long nights flight in.

 

A while later, just as I am sitting down to play a little guitar, Luke shows up at my door. We take a cab two blocks down for two dollars and jump out at the Space Needle. When we get out at the top Luke goes to the bar to get beers. I take a walk out onto the deck and look at the city below me. It feels very unreal - all the million city lights flickering like stars. I try to think myself into the moment but my heads still somewhere back in London or in the commotozed tamarzepan dream of the flight.

 

So here we are with the city spread out beneath us like a carpet at our feet and all the night before us. If truth be told we don’t really know what to do now we’re all the way up here. We drink our beers then get straight back in the elevator, jump lightly into another cab and speed of into the city centre. Orange, yellow lights dance all around us and the bay disappears quickly.

 

 

 

2.

 

When we get to the venue I suddenly feel very beat. Tony the tour manager welcomes me with his usual warmth - ‘ Natster ! how the hell are yer !?’. They are all sitting around in the little blue dressing room above the stage. Hugh looks up sleepily and sort of puts out his hand to me. He asks me how my flight was then he goes back to twanging away on the little antique guitar he bought that day from a music shop by the bay.

 

Tony comes back in with a bottle of Jack. Lukey goes out into the corridor with his little travel guitar to warm up his voice. I go back downstairs and watch the support band from the wings. Im not playing tonight. My first show is tomorow. My eyes begin to droop. My head feels heavy.

 

 

 

 

2.

 

I’m feeling better this morning. I’m feeling pretty damn good in fact. It’s a really fresh crisp day. I haven’t been up at this hour for what feels like years. There are crows and sparrows hopping awkwardly along the fresh cut grass. I’m feeling like maybe there are adventures to be had in this world after all.

 

I get up and walk into a café and get myself a two dollar muffin and a free sample of some sickly sweet cream coffee. After a time I walk back to the hotel and flop down on the bed. I flick through the hundred T.V channels showing adverts for anti - depressive drugs, theme parks, presidential campaigns, moisturiser and prozac.

 

I switch it off and pick up a copy of Gideon’s bible that is sitting in the otherwise empty drawer of my otherwise empty Best Western Hotel room. I flick open to a random page. I end up reading all about Job. Man....God sure put one over on him.

[Petra]

 

PORTLAND

 

I’m sitting by the side of the freeway that runs into Portland. I’m trying to write a few lines to a little poem that’s been forming in my mind all day. It’s sort of twilight. The street lamps are just coming on. The cars that race past beneath me are just starting to flick their headlights on too.

 

Me and Luke had driven in earlier this morning with Tony and his wife. We drove all the way down in one swift air conditioned ride in a big black chaufer driven limo of a jeep watching endless logging trucks fly by under auburn trees in the fresh morning light. Luke had played his new guitar most of the way down and we’d been trying out new songs and swapping riffs. Nobody had spoken much except when we stopped of for big milkshakes and huge greasy sandwhichs in a roadside Dennies, sandwhiched in between big sort of drive in Casinos - themed everything from Wild West to Egyptian Dynasty.

 

A few hours later we’d crossed a big steel suspension bridge and pulled up outside ‘ the Crystal Ballroom’ where the bus stood waiting for us. It’s different from the bus they use in Europe. It’s on one tier instead of two. It’s a sort of undefined beige, yellow, brown color. In the windows are stuck hand drawn pastel pictures of the band that American teenage girls have drawn and sent in.

 

As me and Luke are getting on the bus a grotesque old man in make up and drag walk up and tries to sell us his purse, he breathes foul whiskey breath all of us and makes lurid eyes at the two of us. Just then Hugh comes back from the dry cleaners with his washing getting heckled down the street by two skin heads who are shouting ‘ come back here you ****ing fag !’. Seems like a weird town.

 

The band go in to sound check. I go to get a coffee but when I come back I realsie i’ve forgotten the code to the bus. I bang on the door but no one answers. I figure no ones in or if they are they maybe think I’m some crazy fan. I decide to take a walk around town till they get back.

 

I walk past the front entrance to the ballroom where gangs of girls are already camped out along with weird long haired guys sitting on blankets burning incense. I take a left and head off down the wide avenue to towards downtown. The whole place seems wierdly still and empty.

 

There are a lot of people sleeping out on the streets - young soft blonde hair sticks out of ragged blankets and sleeping bags in big office doorways. Others wheel huge trolleys around piled up meters high with rubbish and trinkets and bags. Some of them stand and hold a sort of quiet conference on the green between the office blocks while young men and women in suits look on from doorways where they are taking their ciagrette breaks.

 

I go sit in a dark , dim lit pool bar next to the venue. It’s pretty much empty apart from the odd couple of kids coming in to eat burgers before the Kooks show. I order a greasy pizza and drink a lot of coffee that the middle aged smiling waitress refills again and again. When I’m done I leave a two dollar tip and head down to the freeway with my little notebook.

 

So here I sit, on the muddy slope that leads down to the road, trying to pen down this poem and nothing much is coming to me. The place I’m sitting in stinks of dog **** so I get up and move to the sidewalk. Just as I do a huge fat bellied rat scuttels past - right where I was sitting. I forget all about the poem I was gonna write. It’s fully dark now. It’s getting pretty cold too. I only have my thin red and black checked shirt. I’m starting to feel a little lonely too.

 

I get up and skulk back to the bus past all the hunched over shivering bundles in the doorways. All the guys are sitting in their drinking bottles of beer and laughing very loudly. Luke gets up and says

 

- ‘ where the hell have you been ?’

 

Tony says

 

- ‘ Natser your on stage in look two miniutes son’.

 

****. I’d completely forgotten. I pick up my guitar and run into the venue - up three flights of stairs. I get followed by security who think im some weird fan. I hurry on up more stairs then straight out beneath the lights into a huge ballroom. The whole room screams and applauds. I wave back then I put my beer bottle at my feet and begin.

 

I start with Life Aint Easy. I can’t seem to get my voice quite in pitch tonight. I think I also started in slightly the wrong rythmn and my fingers keeping missing the frets but the struggle awakens me. By the second or third song I’m in and ive found it.

 

When I play ‘ all About You’ I have them all clapping along - which nearly throws my rythmn off - so I break It down and sing a whole verse accapella. Then I hit back in with the chorus. For Fly Away I stage to use the stage a little more . The crowd responds and now im feeling good. Everyone’s so friendly. Suddenly we’re all singing together. Before I know it its over. Lukey is waiting for me and the stage with his hood up - we walk away together .

 

When we get back to the dressing room. Hugh is playing the violin he bought in Seatle. Luke and - are strumming along on guitars. Nick is making his pre - show High Ball and Tony is sharing some joke with him and helping himself to a large Jack and Coke. I feel exhausted. I sit down on the floor and drink a beer and stare at myself in the mirror.

 

The band go on stage. It’s a great show - but im so beat I have to go back to the dressing room and lie motionless on the armchair and stare at the ceiling. When the band come off we all pile back on the bus. We all have a few drinks but we’re pretty tired tonight. I climb into my bunk somewhat awkwardly. I try to read but don’t have the concentration.

 

I awake once or twice in the night as the bus winds around narrow mountain roads and my ears pop and my head spins. My throat is dry. I get up and get myself some water. Then I lie still in the dark and listen to the rythmic snoring that fills the dark and crowded bus. Outside who knows what glorious scenery flies by.

 

 

 

 

SACRAMENTO

 

When I wake up it’s still pitch black on the bus. I pull back the curtains of my bunk. It’s a beautfiful day. We are in Sacramento.

 

I take a lift up to the hotel room and work on a song ive been writing. Then Paulie rings and tells me he’s got tickets for everyone to go see basketball game. When we get to the stadium we walk up to our seats which are high above the crowd. The game is already in play. The place is ****ing huge. Me and Hugh stand and laugh awhile taking it all in. We do a lot of very English heckling

 

- ‘ Score a goal ! That’s what Im talking about sonny jim ! Score a goal !’.

 

It’s a day off today - we get lost walking round a big wallmart where they sell everything from guns to bugsy bunny dolls. Then we head into ‘ Old Sacremento’ a disney style recreation of a western village where we get drunk on disgusting cocktails and look out at the river with it’s big steam boat moored up under the steel suspension bridge. All is peaceful.

 

 

 

 

SANFRANCISO

 

 

 

 

After a show in Sacramento the following day and a night spent in the hotel bar we head off on the road again .

 

Pulling in to San Fransisco is quite a sight. The bus rolls up the big steel bridge. The bay - beautiful and peaceful, sparkels blue below and distant fishing boats return to shore with a trail white foam frothing behind them. The city skyscrapers stretch up to the sky - directly ahead of us. The whole city awaits.

 

We get off outside the theater which is covered in paintings. We take awhile sort of looking the venue over. It’s a huge musty, red seated old theatre. It’s pretty exciting just standing there in the empty space staring up at the empty seats from the stage. Meanwhile the crew are loading in all their paraphanalia in endless boxes and the drums are being unpacked and assembeled on a platform to the back of the stage. The Whigs are pouring themselves coffee downstairs.

 

A little later we take a cab into Haight Ashbury. The sun is really beaming out. Me and Hugh take a walk to get cigarettes . There are kids sitting in the doorways with no shoes o . They have pieces of cardborad in front of them with signs that read things like ‘ Help man ! Martians stole my money’.

[Petra]

I have to laugh a little at the whole place. It’s like walking back forty years in time. There are Hendrix paintings on houses. People are smoking pot on the balconys above the street. Haight Street’s trees hang low. Ragged girls draw pictures of clouds and rainbows on the street in bright chalk. The old originals - wrinkled and grey walk by in faded tie dye t- shirts and their broad shoulders mingle with the crowds of younger kids and get lost amongst the new hippy paraphanalia and souvenir stores that are popping up on every corner.

 

Then we head down on to the main drag where there are rows and rows of people playing chess to little timers. There are a lot of crack heads arguing . Two Mexican guys on huge harleys pull up at the traffic lights. They drown out the smart little man in the pin strip suit and spats who is preaching against ‘ unlawful sex’ on the corner - he has a huge billboard that reads’ NO SEX’ and ‘ QUIT YOUR WHORING NOW’.

 

Then we take ride on trams down to the bay where seals wallow in the evening light and they sell fresh crab on the street. Once again I nealry forget I have a show to play. We make it in with ten minutes to spare. I have a couple of red bull and whiskeys to try an dwake myself up. I try to find myself a spot in the corridor to tune up and stretch my vocal chords a little but people are bustling around all over the place - carrying things to and fro - checking lists and sheets. I walk out on stage with the house lights still up in full beam. The usual immediate scream goes up from the crowd once I arrive at the mic and they are sure I’m not just a guitar tech. By the second song the lights have gone down and I am in the spotlight. Some of the crowd arent too into it - you can see that . I pick certain kids who are and sing to them - maybe ten or twenty people scattered around the front rows. Tonight I soak in every moment. I enjoy it all. I tell they days story in every song. I savour the powerful lights. I take it all in.

 

When I come off stage The Whigs are waiting in the wings and they pat me on the back as I go. They really are a great band. When I get back to the dressing room Flora is there draped over the sofa drinking a vodka red bull. I have all this energy and adrenaline left over from the show. I go outside and smoke a ciagarete even though I don’t really feel like one.

 

Then I watch the Kooks from the wings. I think they played another great show - but we’re all a little down tonight for some reason. However once we’re back on the bus everyone’s mood picks up and we’re a family again. We sit around. Smoke, laugh, eat pizza and watch crappy films.

 

After a time I swing myself up into the top bunk , trying not to kick the person in the one below, pull the curtains to and flick out the little bulb above my head while the bus lunges and twists into the unseen streets of the night.

 

 

 

 

L.A

 

I hear voices early that morning. It must still be about six. There’s no going back to sleep though. I have to get water. I have no saliva left to swallow. I feel sticky and greasy and my stomach is lurching with last nights beer and pizza. I can feel the thick line of dirt across my forehead. I stumble out of my bunk and start looking for my trousers. Luke pulls back the curtains to his bunk and sees me standing there hoping around with one leg in my jeans, groans and pulls the curtains closed again. Bobble is up as well. He looks he’s feeling it too.

 

I go through to the front of the bus , cursing at those ****ing electric doors that everyone apart from me seems to have no trouble working. It is light outside but only just, that undefined early dawn grey is enveloping the city like a great blanket. I find my shoes and walk outside on to the street. Greg the driver is standing on the side walk looking out at the view across L.A .‘ Just look at that’, he says with a pride ‘ In’t that something ? ’. He’s right it is. The whole vast concrete maze of L.A roof tops stretches as far as the eye can see into the morning mist - the deep city smog, the fumes and gasses of a million cars . Everything is still, quiet, distant. The sun is just starting to peep in from above the highest rooftops. Four cities, five gigs, three thousand miles, seven days and nights. I guess we finally got here. This is it.

 

 

 

 

2.

 

The hotel is right on sunset boulevard. It’s decorated in bright greens and purples. There are swivel chairs in the lounge and low glass tables. There is a broad varnished balcony that looks out onto the pool. Tony, Rob and Luke are sitting out there under the purple umbrellas, sipping gin and tonics and looking out at the pool below where people are moving to and fro in bright green towels. Hugh and Flora are lying in the hot sun, reclining on beach chairs and dragging on Malborough Red ciagerrettes.

 

I wander out to meet the others by the pool. I don’t have any swimming trunks. I really wish I did. I just have this big baggy blue boxer shorts that are proabably gona go very see through, very quickly. Luke and Hugh are horsing around in the water on these big foam beach toys, they are both still wearing there shades. I lie on my back and stare up at the cloudless sky. I put my head under water and try to think myself back into rainy London and my cold empty dusty flat, then I submerge from the water with a rush like a jumping fish, and zap myself back into the Californian sunshine. Soon we are all laughing as we float on our backs , faces up to the sunny blue sky.

 

 

 

 

3.

 

The next few days pass in drunkeness and comical debauchery staged around L.A that I won’t and probably shouldn’t bore you with - but it included a show in disney land where we were hassled by mickey mouse police, a day spent nearly fainting in the heat of Venice beach and evening disgracing ourselves at some s****y hollywood party. In fact I’d be amazed if anyone has even read this far. Bu if you have here is an account of the final show -

 

The next night finds me and Hank, the drummer, sailing down the sunset strip towards The Hollywood Palladium. Guns and Roses are playing on the sterio and we are both laughing are heads off. The big Hollywood sign appears above us in the hills and as we approach the venue we see the line of kids that stretches round the block . We jump out and thank the driver, then we head for the venue. It’s a huge dome of a place - has been around since the twenties but has recently been refurnished. Jay Z re- opened it about a week ago.

 

Hank picks up his little snare case. I throw my jacket over my shoulder and pick up my beaten old guitar case which is still covered in mud from previous travels. We head for the huge front doors, pushing our way through the throngs of people already assembled outside. People carve a sort of natural path for us when they see we are carrying instruments -

 

-‘ Are you guys in The Whigs or something ?’,

 

-‘ Hey wow, **** man, are you guys The Kooks ?’. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

-‘No, no, no, sorry, excuse me, excuse me, look out coming through’.

 

When we get to the front there are these two huge bouncers there towering above us.

 

‘ Hey buddy, what’s going on ?’

 

‘ Er... we’re playing tonight ? We’re on first’.

 

‘ Well.... what you waiting for ? Go on through’.

[Petra]

It’s as easy as that. If you ever wanna get in to a gig for free just turn up with ag uitar and tell them you’re the support. (edit: tell them you are on the guestlist and that you were, oh damn it, just forgotten. worked for me & ana with the Kaiser Chiefs :smth: )

 

We walk through the ticket office and out into the vast hall which is still totally empty. There are vast balconys over hanging the massive floor space and two sperrate galleries at the side on floor level, filled with rows and rows of empty tables. The stage it’s self is looks about as big as the kind of venues me and Hank play back home. ‘ **** me’, says Hank. We suddenly feel very small indeed. ‘ **** me’.

 

I remember that I’m missing two strings on my guitar. I jesus we’re unprepaired.

 

The guys are off doing some sort of promo. We try to get into their locked winibago to get some kind of food, but are unsuccesful so instead stand outside it and chain smoke cigartess.

 

In the end we find a door that has been left open and there is a whole ****ing feast laid out. We help ourselves to roast beef and cheeses. Then we fill up the usual plastic cups with all the alcohol we can find. Five minutes till stage time. We go and sit down behind the stage and listen to the roar and commotion of the crowd out front. I peak out through the curtains. The place has already filled out. Hank is twisting his hair again. Two minutes - ‘ Let’s get going’. We walk around to stage left.. Then the sound man walks up to the huge desk with the hundred dials and gives me an almost imperceptable nod.

 

The walk to the microphone, which is right in the centre of the vast stage, feels like forever. When I arrive there the place hushes to an almost deathly still. I fumble with the lead, trying to find the input. I place my drink down at my feet. I clear my throat and begin. There is a small push of bodies as the crowd moves forwards and faces appear at my feet. I sing a song or two then the lights come up and see the great masses before me. There is another roar and I turn around to see Hank’s little frame strutting across the stage, clutching his little sticks with steady determination he sits down behind the drums.

 

The bass drum thunders behind me . We race through songs - conferring only with sign language on stops and starts and drops - slight waves of the head respond to eyebrows raised in question. I am filled with energy - I think back on the last few weeks as I play and smile and laugh - san francisco with it’s hippies and crack heads, malls, basket ball games, tram rides, drunken taxi cabs, street corners, rivers, bays, bridges stretching into the sun, late night jams in crowded buses. We thunder on and on until finally we finish to a crash of the drums as Hank knocks over a cymbol. I thank the crowd and we are done. All the way through the long walk to exit the stage the crowd chants - a thousand different voices in unison. I take one last look at the crowd then turn off the gangway back into the labrythnt like corridors of the back stage.

 

 

I love that man . Maybe we should al really finish the review we wanted to write ages ago and finally post them / PM them out .

[~Ana~]

!!!!!!!!!! Oh, the Hair have changed their name btw! They were playing the Cockpit in Leeds and I read that they are now called something with "Club show" in it. Idiots lmfao:. Awww, the lead singer naughty:

 

Oh! that's so stupid!! The Hair is like so commercial (?)

 

hahahah the lead singer

 

I have no ****ing clue what you are saying but I TOTALLY second it!!! It was the CHIEFS!!! Hello??? If there is the chance, then get your bum to the venue!!! You'll SO kick your arse later!!!!

 

yeah!

 

And - I do think that it is necessary that each and EVERYONE here adds Nat Jenkins on MySpace. Not only because he is a friend of the Kooks but also because he is fuvking fantastic (and a friend of the Holloways and Beans on Toast) (Ana, Nat isnt friends with Alfie and the others on FB - how's that?)

 

:naughty --> http://www.myspace.com/natjenkins

 

 

And he promised to blog about his tour with the Kooks AGES ago but just addeed a new blog yesterday:

 

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=67383640&blogId=487556620

November US tour with The Kooks - diary extracts

Kooks West Coast Tour.

 

Here are some extracts of my diary I wrote on the road with The Kooks at the end of last year. I’ve sort of compiled them together. Most of it I wrote on the road - some of it once I had got back home. I have no idea if it will be of any interest to anyone. It’s kinda long and rambling but here it is if anyone fancies having a flick through.

 

 

I love that man :lmfao. Maybe we should al really finish the review we wanted to write ages ago and finally post them / PM them out fisch:.

 

BEANS ON TOAST!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE BEANS ON TOAST!

Maybe Nat is not really friends friends with the holloways das: or maybe the holloways really do have private private facebook profiles...

I've realized I don't have Nat jenkins on myspace *adds*

 

He's an artist!!, I love it, I love his diary.

 

you and your reviews.

[Petra]

BEANS ON TOAST!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE BEANS ON TOAST!

 

He rocks big time!!!!

 

For all others:

 

http://www.myspace.com/sexdrugspolitics

 

 

Maybe Nat is not really friends friends with the holloways das: or maybe the holloways really do have private private facebook profiles...

I've realized I don't have Nat jenkins on myspace *adds*

 

Naaaaaaa................. no idea actually.

Awww, Nat

 

*goes to facebook to post pictures of Nat here*

 

He's an artist!!, I love it, I love his diary.

 

He's such a fangirl . Awwwwwwwwwww!

 

you and your reviews.

 

I swear you'll get it one day

[Petra]

Tell me, why THE FU CK aren't we in London??!!

 

 

New bulletin from Nat on MySpace:

08 May 2009, 12:47

Subject: nat jenkins and luke pritchard at troy bar, soho, tonight.

 

Body: both myself and luke will be playing house of the holy - my weekly soho residency . tonight. ten till late.

 

free as free can be.

 

x

[~Ana~]

I swear you'll get it one day

 

 

Tell me, why THE FU CK aren't we in London??!!

 

 

New bulletin from Nat on MySpace:

08 May 2009, 12:47

Subject: nat jenkins and luke pritchard at troy bar, soho, tonight.

 

Body: both myself and luke will be playing house of the holy - my weekly soho residency . tonight. ten till late.

 

free as free can be.

 

x

 

I swear that when we live in GB we're going to go to every single gig possible to keep up on all the months we missed. One final day.

[England]

Tell me, why THE FU CK aren't we in London??!!

 

 

New bulletin from Nat on MySpace:

08 May 2009, 12:47

Subject: nat jenkins and luke pritchard at troy bar, soho, tonight.

 

Body: both myself and luke will be playing house of the holy - my weekly soho residency . tonight. ten till late.

 

free as free can be.

 

x

 

ahhhhhhhh:boxed:

 

I want to be in london too:wub2:

[~Ana~]

BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Oakie Doke]

BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Quite ridiculous, really

[Petra]

:lmfao: I'm glad he signed my vinyl with his proper name. Goodness .

[Petra]

Caution, content is hot

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Petra]

 

 

[Petra]