By Richard Derbyshire

THE LAST night of The Kooks’ latest UK tour was the first big show of the year in Southampton.

The Brighton indie- stars staged an epic performance at the O2 Guildhall marking more than 10 years together at the top.

Bounding on stage in front of four giant illuminated colour screens, the band played for a full 90 minutes, possibly with some added extra time.

After the first couple of songs lead singer Luke Pritchard paused to say hello to the Southampton crowd. They enthusiastically returned the welcome with many fans having been with the band from the early days.

The festival favourites’ energetic set was packed full of hits.

Frontman Luke, guitarist and keys player Hugh Harris, bassist Peter Denton and drummer Alexis Nunez raced through songs from all four of their albums including their smash debut Inside In/ Inside Out and number one follow-up Konk.

Luke bounced around with his trademark acoustic guitar on songs like Shine On and Ooh La, while the sound was excitingly rockier on numbers like Down and West Side.

Later he took to the piano, initially unaccompanied, on a tremendously powerful version of See Me Now, a song from the band’s latest album Listen.

Ultimate song Naïve was a belter of a tune that finished off a fantastic triple encore and a full twenty-one song set.

Earlier in the evening London band Bones got things off to a terrific start. Expect to hear more from them soon.

Along with Artic Monkeys and The Libertines, The Kooks were at the forefront of the indie resurgence of 2005-2006. It’s great news that they are still going strong today. They are still a band to be reckoned with. The Kooks latest album, Listen, is out now.