The Killers

Arguably the coolest band in the world today, Brandon Flowers and the gang have been scoring big worldwide hits for the past decade, and recently released a compilation, Killer Hits, to show it. Here's a few of those gems:

Somebody Told Me

Mr Brightside

When You Were Young

Spaceman

Just Another Girl

 

The Killers: Live at the Royal Albert Hall
One thing I always learn from shows like this is what songs are considered by the band or the fans as their big closers; in this case 'When We Were Young', surprisingly.

MTV World Stage: The Killers
From the Oxegen Festival, 2009, a reliable run-through of his from Brandon & the gang. They ended, unsurprisingly, on 'When We Were Young'.

Live From The Artist's Den: The Killers
A new performance series, seemingly culled from random gigs. This was at the Capitale, New York City, taped July 24, 2012. Between songs was some backstage chat with Brandon about the usual stuff. They started with 'Spaceman' and finished with a song I couldn't be sure of (is a budget for OSG really too much?)

T in the Park 2013: The Killers
Arguably the coolest band in the world today, they did a solid hour or more, running through their hits, with the odd cover amongst (I Think We're Alone Now!), and some between-song banter from Brandon. They closed on 'All These Things That I've Done'.

Live From Abbey Road - Classics : The Killers
Originally recorded back in November 2006, this short set from Studio 2 saw the lads doing When You Were Young, Sam's Town and a cover of Romeo And Juliet (the latter two turning up on their Sawdust compilation which I picked up last year, having not previously realised it even existed). Brandon cited the Cars and the Smiths as initial influences, not catching on to Bowie until he was 20. They are wary of hype, since 6 million bought their 1st album. He was bemused that Dire Straits were English, feeling their songs embody the wide open deserts of Australia (!?)

The Killers at Glastonbury 2017
They were a "surprise" inclusion on the John Peel Stage on the Sunday night, and ran through a fairly safe but appreciated set, which included their new single "The Man". Be good to have them back.

Their new album "Wonderful Wonderful" is out this week, and while The Man was disappointingly not a hit, I would guess that their new single

Run For Cover

won't be either.

The album entered at #1, causing The Man to re-enter the singles chart at a new peak of, er, #63, whilst RFC entered at #100. Hmm...

misery guts wrote:Live From Abbey Road - Classics : The Killers
Originally recorded back in November 2006, this short set from Studio 2 saw the lads doing When You Were Young, Sam's Town and a cover of Romeo And Juliet (the latter two turning up on their Sawdust compilation which I picked up last year, having not previously realised it even existed). Brandon cited the Cars and the Smiths as initial influences, not catching on to Bowie until he was 20.  They are wary of hype, since 6 million bought their 1st album. He was bemused that Dire Straits were English, feeling their songs embody the wide open deserts of Australia (!?)

Live From Abbey Road - Classics : The Killers
Another set, this time shot in February 2009 in Studio 2, after their 3rd LP. This time they did A Dustland Fairytale, Read My Mind and Human. They felt they were becoming a better live band, found it fun to do covers, and valued catchiness of simplicity.
The Fray were unwelcome support.

Isle of Wight Festival: The Killers
There was much fuss again about them being headliners, and yet coverage only ran to a handful of hits (I was pleased that The Man, from the recent album, was one of them).

Announced as one of the headline acts at this year's Glastonbury, along with the Cure and Stormzy 

Glastonbury 2019: The Killers
Saturday night's headline show, the lads did quite a lengthy show, with encores including the Pet Shop Boys (yay) and separately Johnny Marr (also yay). This involved some give & take, covering Always on My Mind (!) and This Charming Man. Apparently their previous headline spot suffered from bad sound, that didn't seem an issue here. Brandon especially was in a damn good mood. Other acts featured in this spot were Hot Chip, Jungle and Liam Gallagher.

They're back with a decent little new single:

Caution

Recent shock allegations over tour improprieties back in 2009 have now been shot down after investigation 

Their new album Imploding the Mirage is out next week.

misery guts wrote:Their new album Imploding the Mirage is out next week.

It entered the chart at #1! 

Radio 2 Live at Home - The Killers
From the roof of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Brandon and the lads ran through a decent set with a few old favourites, and a couple from the current hit album.

Reading & Leeds '23: The Killers
They were headlining for a 2nd time, and Brandon was in spirited form, emphasising that the festival was once known as "Reading Rock", and that they were indeed a rock band. They did new and old material, marking 20 years of All These Things That I've Done, amongst others. Very entertaining.

Their new-ish album, Rebel Diamonds, has gone to #1 in the UK 

Radio 2 In Concert: The Killers
A gig from Cardiff back in 2007, which went down well, and emphasised just how many big numbers they scored off even their debut album.

Also, they received a surprising accolade recently, in that Mr Brightside has become the biggest selling UK single never to reach #1:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68920975

The top 5 (highest chart position in brackets)


01 MR BRIGHTSIDE The Killers (10)
02 WONDERWALL Oasis (2)
03 ALL OF ME John Legend (2)
04 TAKE ME TO CHURCH Hozier (2)
05 FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK The Pogues ft Kirsty MacColl (2)