Signed with Virgin Records

Taking their name from the David Bowie song with the same title , Pritchard said the first song they played as a group was a cover version of the Strokes ‘ ” Reptilia “. The Kooks recorded an EP demo, sending it out in search of gigs; they instead received offers from managers and record companies. The band had only been together as a group for four months when they signed with Virgin Records , after being spotted by several label scouts at the Brighton Free Butt Festival in 2005. In an interview with musicOMH , Pritchard revealed “It was really quick how it all happened, we did a demo with a mate of ours in London, which we sent off to one guy to get some gigs, and he turned out to be a manager. He rung us up and it kind of went from there.” The members of the band have since revealed that they felt they weren’t ready at the time, “We were way too early to sign a record deal … We were really young, we’d been together like two or three months, so we really didn’t want to sign. But then we thought it’s a really good opportunity and Virgin seemed like really cool people – they just seemed to really understand where we were coming from”, said Pritchard, who has also complimented the space the record label allowed for the band to grow: “They were patient with us and let us develop our style, whatever it was.”