Kula Shaker are loving going back to the past on their current tour – even though it’s leaving them knackered.

The Britpop act are marking the 20th anniversary of their debut album K by playing it in full on a run of special shows, including at the O2 ABC this Sunday.

It comes in the same year that they released their fifth album, K2.0, but singer Crispian Mills has found going back to their early days an enjoyable experience.

“Anybody who has kids know that they can be exhausting to look after, and going back to these songs is like looking after your kids,” he laughs.

“You’ve got to keep up with them! When you’re young you want to be racing, and then later on you want to control the tempo of the track, but songs like Hey Dude and Hush are about losing control, so you have to go to a place that’s absolutely exhausting.”

It’s not just the physical side of the old songs that Crispian has found interesting. Although K was a massive hit, the group never settled for just churning out similar songs, and instead veered off in different directions.

Going back to their earliest tunes means the singer is looking at them with a different perspective.

“It’s interesting when you play music that you wrote as a kid,” says the 42-year-old.

“You revisit who you were were, and you uncover this other layer of meaning to the experiences that you were going through. There is a freshness you discover, and it was so close to your heart because the end of your teenage years is a very intense time.

“There is so much wisdom in innocence and inexperience that you can appreciate. As you struggle through the adult world it can be easy to lose sight of your core principles and values and hopes, so something like this is like connecting with a part of you that’s still very magical.”

K was the fastest selling debut album since Definitely Maybe, shifting over 250,000 copies in its first week. The band’s career never hit those heights again, being derailed by a media storm over Crispian’s comments regarding the traditional usage of swastikas, various disagreements with management and delays to their second album, which eventually emerged in 1999.

The band then broke up, but reformed in 2006, building their fanbase back up. A cynic would suggest that returning to their most popular album is a way of trying to lure lost fans back, but Crispian is adamant the band are focused on the future as much as past glories.

“We made sure we did a whole year of touring the new record before this one,” he says.

“K 2.0 was the completion of a circle, in some ways. In 2006, when we started making music again after a long break, that was us starting from scratch.

“We started our own record company and rebuilt the band as a creative entity, as well as re-connecting with the fans. That was a long time, it wasn’t a quick process, but we’re happy to be here now, and any reservations I had about doing K again have evaporated in the heat of the moment, because it was an album that meant to be listened to in sequence and it is great to perform it like that.”

The singer believes it is now live gigs that are crucial to the band’s identity.

“We were always very keen on bands like the Grateful Dead and Hawkwind, who existed outside the system, for want of a better word,” he argues.

“They were bands that you would only really understand if you saw them live, and that was the main aspect of their identity – I think we have become one of those bands in a way.”

As for those days of Britpop, Crispian reckons that the biggest difference between now and then is bands getting the chance to hone their skills playing live.

“Our drummer summed up Britpop for me by saying it was an accident of chronology that we were there for it,” he adds.

“What united a lot of bands was that we were all wanting to be great live bands, but we were all very different from Oasis or Blur. What is hard for bands now is that they don’t have the chance to play live all the time and become a great band, or have time to gel and find that magic.”

Kula Shaker, O2 ABC, Sunday, £22.50, 7pm

Jonathan Geddes