The Great British Heatwave Of 2018 now seems like a distant memory – with temperatures rising to the mid-30s. (Yes, we know that 35°C in most other countries is deemed “spring” or “autumn”, but if you’ve even been to Britain in the summer months you’ll know how unprecedented this was.)

Seizing the moment, The Kooks used this hot spell as the hook to promote their fifth album. The appositely named Let’s Go Sunshine came out at the end of August, but in the lead up, the band set up a dedicated website to piggyback on the sharp uptick in Vitamin D levels in the UK and to tap into the dramatic change in the national mood by offering a series of prizes tied to how long the good weather lasted. This move “to celebrate the finest summer in living memory” with a giveaway included tickets to the Reading Festival on the last public holiday weekend of the year, where the winners got to meet the band and stand side of stage when they played, plus meet-and-greets on their tour and signed albums. The mechanic was very simple but no less effective for that. You registered (with the site asking to check your location to ensure you were in the UK) and returned to the site every day that it was sunny to collect a stamp on your Sunny Day Reward card. Once you collected eight stamps, you were entered into the prize draw. It was all terrifically British to obsess over the weather, but they missed a trick by not having random grievances pop up on the site (“It’s just too hot to sleep”, “It’s good for drying clothes, but the garden looks like the Gobi Desert now” etc.). If there is one thing the British are more obsessed with than the weather it’s complaining. Maybe they can try this during the next UK heatwave…