Members meet at BRIT School and BIMM

The three members – Garred, Pritchard and Harris – of the Kooks all met as students at the BRIT School in Croydon, all three moving further south to join BIMM British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM), where they met Rafferty – who was from Bridgnorth – in 2002. The inspiration to form a band came to Pritchard as he and Garred were out shopping for clothes one day in Primark as a joke. Speaking to MTV Garred said, “we had a vision on how we wanted the band to look and stuff—so we bought some clothes and these hats, it was fun.” Sharing a love of the Rolling Stones , Bob Dylan , the Police and David Bowie , Pritchard got Harris and Rafferty involved under the guise of a school music project. Pritchard himself said “We got together just on a whim, really.” With a strong demo of their material Garred and Pritchard went in search of a gig, and according to Garred, they were able to book their first show simply because the landlord liked their hats. “So we went in to get a gig, we don’t have a demo blid burnt, and this guy told us, ‘Well, you can’t get a gig if you don’t have a demo, but I like your hats, so I’m going to give you a gig’”, said Garred. However, the band was unable to make the performance as they were finishing off their demo at the time.