The Kooks

On 18 June 2026, The Kooks bring their guitar-led indie pop to Scarborough Open Air Theatre. Formed in Brighton in 2004 around Luke Pritchard and Hugh Harris, the band came up in the mid-2000s indie wave, blending britpop’s sense of melody with crisp rhythms and concise songwriting. Line-ups have shifted, but the identity stays the same: melodic riffs, tight grooves and choruses made to be sung back.

On stage, they draw across their catalogue: the raw, jangly hooks of Inside In/Inside Out and Konk; the sleeker pop shades of Junk of the Heart; the looser, groove-led turns of Listen; then the synth-tinged colours of Let’s Go Sunshine and 10 Tracks to Echo in the Dark. The set moves between acoustic sway and punchier bursts, keeping space for the tracks that first put them in motion while folding in newer cuts. It’s a show anchored in songs and tempo, built around the interplay between Pritchard’s voice and Harris’s lines, with the band leaning into both their early spark and the more polished textures of their recent records.