The Killers talk ahead of Birmingham gig

The Las Vegas rockers will be kicking off their month-long UK tour in Birmingham on Monday at the city’s Genting Arena. The shows follow the release of the band’s fifth album, Wonderful Wonderful and a sold out show in Hyde Park in July.

The new tour announcement also followed on from a spectacular, hit-laden surprise set at Glastonbury, which saw the band return to the festival for the first time since their 2007 Pyramid Stage headline show.

Fans are in for a treat as recent Killers setlists have featured: The Man, Spaceman, Somebody Told Me, The Way It Was, Smile Like You Mean It, Bones, Bling (Confession of a King), Shadowplay (Joy Division cover), Human, Run for Cover, For Reasons Unknown, Life to Come, Read My Mind, Runaways and All These Things That I’ve Done followed by an encore of This Is Your Life, When You Were Young and Mr Brightside.

Wonderful Wonderful is The Killers’ first album since 2012’s chart-topping Battle Born. Recorded with the producer Jacknife Lee during album sessions in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the album is the band’s most sonically-adventurous and forward-thinking record yet.

It’s bursting with all of the blazing choruses and arena-filling anthems that make The Killers one of the world’s biggest and most beloved rock bands.

Frontman Brandon Flowers says life in one of the world’s best bands doesn’t get easier over time because there’s the constant pressure to surpass what’s gone before. In a recent interview, he said: “The dynamic has changed. When we used to start writing, anything was possible. Now, there’s a weight and something looming over us – what we’ve done, if we can do it again. Those things creep into your mind.”

The band’s line-up has also changed in recent times after bassist Mark Stoermer decided he wanted to write and record with the band but not go on the road because the schedule was too punishing. Brandon adds: “He’s still in the band, he still helps write. He’s just not going to be playing many shows. It’s a hurdle, but we’ve got the legs to jump it.”

The Killers have followed in the slipstream of U2 and Brandon is pals with frontman Bono. He famously said at the start of his career that he wanted his band to follow in their footsteps. And though The Killers’ second album Sam’s Town was more Bruce Springsteen than U2, Brandon’s band have kept the pace with Ireland’s finest.

Brandon’s focus has moved on and these days he’s more concerned with quality than out-selling other successful groups.

“I wouldn’t feel this excited if the songs weren’t true. We’ve been hearing a lot of false music out there – music designed for the nondiscerning listener. It’s always good when you have that satiated feeling, the desire that’s quenched, when you have substance behind it. That’s when you know you have something.”

Sam’s Town is an important pointer to the quality of Wonderful Wonderful. They marked the 10th anniversary of Sam’s Town in 2016 with two shows – and they helped inspire the band’s latest record.

“Playing those gigs, I realized how cohesive an idea Sam’s Town was,” Brandon says.