The Kooks’ frontman Luke Pritchard has revealed that the band haven’t spoken to their former bassist Max Rafferty since he quit the band in January.

The singer said that he thought Rafferty “should be left to get on with things” in his own time.

Rafferty rejoined the band last year following time out to recover from personal issues.

However, he quit the group for the final time at the start of the year with no public explanation.

"I don’t want to go into what the difficulties were [with Max]. It's all too fresh for us, and it is hard for Max, way more than it is for us,” Pritchard told the Sun.

Pritchard also said that the group, who release their second album ‘Konk’ on April 14th, had considered splitting following Rafferty’s exit.

"Splitting does go through your mind. It's hard to let go of something you care about so much. We have fans to think of,” he said.

(by Jason Gregory)