I’ll be honest, it would have been poetic if The Sunshine Underground christmas gig in Wakefield had been final gig of the year. However, as Mr Pritchard’s runny nose had cleared up from earlier in the year, the rescheduled Kooks gig was to be my last of 2011. Ne’mind.

You may detect my cynical tone, and this is thoroughly justified. I used to really like The Kooks – there were a handful of tracks on their debut album that had real signs of promise. Naive, for example, is a bit of anthem. However Pritchard and co have gradually spiralled in my estimations with every flacid radio-2 geared effort ever since.

On arrival at the venue, there was a new addition that instantly drew the attention of the photographers in attendance – a two foot high walkway running along the front stage. Now at the best of times Leeds Academy isn’t the easiest place to shoot due to the fairly high stage, but when you stick an extra two-foot on to that in the name of (to be fair) vanity, you know it’s going to be a tough night. I’ve only seen said vanity-platform used once before – the ego that is Jared Leto from 30 Seconds to Mars. No surprises.

Thankfully the gig was fairly well lit, and with Luke constantly playing up to the front row of screaming 15 year old girls it made for a fairly good gig to shoot. Unfortunately the platform made it difficult to shoot any other member of the band, but I imagine Mr Pritchard won’t mind that too much.

Well that’s me done for another year.