The Kooks close another fine year of Eden Sessions

It was the final Eden Session of the summer of 2009. I hadn't been to all of them but I have liked what I experienced so far. The venue had already hosted Oasis, Razorlight, Paul Weller and Kasabian and the support acts couldn't have been better; The Maccabees, Florence and The Machine and The Hours. Finally it was The Kooks turn to impress at the wonderful outdoor venue in deepest Cornwall, but in true English fashion July had become a wet one after a rather nice year so far.

Driving down to the venue I found I had to use the wipers more than I cared to contemplate and the gloomy sky made me wonder what kind of night we should be in for. Rain coat and umbrella were at hand but, fortunately, it seemed the moment we entered the site the weather seemed to improve to the point where rain looked like an impossibility. Lucky, lucky Eden Project yet again!

In regard to crowd numbers it wasn't even close to full (what else is there to do in South Cornwall on a grey Saturday evening!?!) but that wasn't going to stop anyone from enjoying the music and it never stopped The Kooks from giving it their all, and when I say The Kooks, I actually mean Luke Pritchard as he seemed the only one really up for it, bouncing onto the stage with youthful enthusiasm alongside his bland band members. They launched into what was to be a 21 song set with Pritchard in his skinny jeans (currently a pre-requisite for all indie bands) and braces (currently a pre-requisite for no-one) mincing around in typical lead singer fashion, much to the delight of the kids in the front row who were only a few years younger than the star they idolized.

The Kooks are good musicians and their songs were tight and slickly played. Pritchard confessed to being 'a little tipsy' but to his credit the drinking didn't affect his singing as he hit most of the notes with the same perfection he did on the albums. His movement rallied the audience as he jumped about the stage with much needed energy to offset the other, inert members of The Kooks. Hugh Harris on lead guitar was evidently from the shoe-gazing class of rock school whose only movement was to adjust his effects pedal, which is more than can be said for Paul Denton on bass who spent almost the entire gig facing the rear to the stage, but that aside, the band all did their jobs musically speaking to the standard they show in the studio.

Naïve was eleventh in the set list and Pritchard just introduced it by saying "You really all better dance to this one." The opening chords sent a cheer into the night air and the jubilant punters sang a notch louder. The Kooks had played their three great singles by half way mark; 'Naïve', 'Ooh La' and 'She Moves in Her Own Way', putting a great deal of faith in their newer material. Some of the songs from 'Konk' had a slightly rawer, rockier edge live but on the whole most Kooks songs sound the same live as on album. Interestingly during the encore Pritchard played a new song called 'Princess in My Mind' acoustically, a passionate piece to give us all an appetite for their future releases.

In addition to a new song the encore also held another surprise for keen fans with the inclusion of 'As the Ships Roll In' a song from Rak, their limited edition album released alongside Konk. The climax of the set started with 'Stormy Weather' and switched to 'Sofa Song', a fine finale. It seemed that all the fans were happy as they began the walk out of the site except for maybe one (drunk) girl who during the last three songs appeared to be far more content to dance to the music on her I-pod providing me with a strange image to mark the last of this years sessions.

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