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Rebel Wilson joins The Kooks for Gangsta’s Paradise cover at Reading Festival

Rebel Wilson joined The Kooks on stage during their set at Reading Festival.

The Bridesmaids actress was welcomed on stage by the She Moves in Her Own Way band on Friday (22.08.25) as they performed a cover of Coolio’s hit Gangsta’s Paradise.

Frontman Luke Pritchard said: “We’d like to film a scene of a movie with you… so we’d like to welcome to the stage the incredible, the unbelievable, the hugely successful, famous, beautiful pop star, Tazzie Young… otherwise known as Rebel Wilson!”

Rebel, 45, said: “What’s up Reading? Seeing as I’m out here, I thought I should sing a classic Kooks song… so I don’t know about you guys, but I was thinking about Gangsta’s Paradise.”

Pritchard revealed that they performed the Coolio track together as it is the only song that the Australian actress “knows all the words to”.

Explaining how The Kooks and Rebel joined forces, he said: “We’re huge fans of Rebel.

“She got in touch saying she wanted to come and watch us. Immediately I invited her to join us on stage.

“We asked her which song she wanted to sing, expecting her to pick one of ours. She said the only song she knows all the words to is Gangsta’s Paradise… so Gangsta’s Paradise it was!”

The Kooks – who were formed in Brighton back in 2004 – released their seventh album Never/Know earlier this year and Luke explained how he wrote the record in extremely quick time.

He told the Daily Mail: “I wrote it at home with my kids running around. Having come from heaven, through hell and back with Hugh (Harris) and the band, we’ve been through such a journey.

“It’s got quite shoegaze in the indie scene, which I love, but it’s quite gloomy. We are just consumed by being told all the time that everything’s so bad.

“And this one, it just flew out of me. I don’t know if that will happen again, but it was wild. It was like five days, and I had 10 songs.”

Pritchard added: “Music is really important, and I feel like people will gravitate more towards the arts and things when things are tricky, because it gives you hope.”

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