Live Review: The Kooks – 11th October 2025 – The O2 Arena, London
3 min read
Yesterday evening we caught the final night of The Kook’s UK tour at what can only be described as their biggest and arguably best show in their career; a night at the O2 in London. Due to some troublesome technicalities at the guest list line, we unfortunately missed Aussie rockers Day We Ran, but were able to catch the final half of Merseyside four-piece The K’s. Their trashing riffs and boisterous vocals captivated the room, ending their set with their cheeky reimagining of classic Dirty Old Town (Dirty Earlestown) before finishing on big hit Sarajevo.
Sweet Caroline got the crowd thoroughly pumped up before the lights went down and The Kooks made their entrance. With not so much as a hello to the crowd, they launched into back-to-back bangers. Sofa Song, Always Where I Need To Be, and Eddie’s Gun called back to the groups legendary debut, while Stormy Weather reminded everyone that an entire career’s worth of tunes was yet to come. The lighting swapped between a curved backing screen and a rectangular box light surrounding the stage from above, both excellently showcasing visual clues from their past and bringing their twenty-year journey together visually. “You beautiful people, how we doing?” guitarist and singer Luke Pritchard finally spoke. “We could have the best night of our lives!” The appreciation was also very clear, from his bowing to the audience to the occasional almost exasperated sentence. “It took us twenty years to get here!”
The crowd were more than happy to participate, singing both on command and otherwise. She Moves In Her Own Way got an extra crowd-driven chorus at the end, while the backing woah’s in the Bad Habit intro got beefed up by the audience. Deeper cuts like Westside got an inclusion, as well as new single Sunny Baby, which Luke commented “got me through a lot of hurt”. In a similar vein, ballad See Me Now got its moment in the limelight. Sat at the keys, Luke asked for the room to be lit up with phone torches and he got just that. The gorgeous song, dedicated to his son but written about his father who died when Luke was just three-years-old, was an emotional moment, carried off with gravitas and grace. It was followed by one of the best jokes of the evening. “As you know, we’re very serious about songwriting…” The perfect way to introduce the song Jackie Big Tits.
The rest of the night was a continuation of hit songs and fan favourites, including the recent TikTok viral hits Gap and Taking Pictures Of You. The end of the evening was a largely Inside In/Inside Out affair, with Ooh La and Naive sending the crowd on their way, singing the songs back to the band as they swayed from the auditorium. An emotionally charged and perfectly executed show from the band that keeps on giving.
Set List:
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
Encore:
Ooh la
Naive
Writer and Musician, Ryan Bulbeck has been published with a number of online publications, and has worked with a myriad of great artists, both as a performer, and as a producer. His most recent band The 295 are still active, playing shows around the UK.
