The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard has admitted that the band found it hard to break into the American market initially.

“It took ages for us to get a record deal out there because Virgin US just like sort of turned their nose up at it,” he said.

“They’ve got kind of, I think it’s mainly sort of R and B stuff and it’s probably much better for us that we work with Astral Works now."

Despite their slow start, The Kooks have enjoyed continued success in America over recent months, with their second album ‘Konk’ reaching number 41 on the Billboard chart this week.

Speaking to the BBC, Pritchard said that the band’s efforts in America were “going really well”.

“Y’know, we sold out like 5,000 tickets in New York which is like unbelievable,” Pritchard said. “We haven’t sold loads of records but its early days.”

‘Konk’ reached number one in the UK charts when it was released in April.

(by Jason Gregory)