Las Vegas, that neon oasis in the nevada desert, was a barren spot for rock'n'roll, until a former bellhop and his mates hooked up, suited up and offered up one of the best debut albums of the past few years. Brandon Flowers, the killers' frontman, tells Kevin Courtney what all the hot fuss is about.
Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man. Wise words from those old desert rats ZZ Top, but you didn't see many bands taking their advice back then. Faded denims, threadbare T-shirts and scraggly beards were de rigueur at rock festivals past, and the only besuited person you'd be likely to see was probably the band's lawyer or coke dealer. These days it's all dressy-uppy: bands such as Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Maximo Park, Strokes and Scissor Sisters wouldn't be caught dead on stage without their arty shirts, skinny ties or disco dungarees. As the world reels from the shock revelation that U2 had a stylist during their Rattle & Hum period, and that Keane had to get a megastar makeover, only The Magic Numbers seem to be still holding out against the tide of tidiness sweeping like mothballs through the rock'n'roll wardrobe.
Brandon Flowers knows all about dressing for success. As a former bellhop at the Gold Coast Hotel in his native Las Vegas, the Killers singer learned that hotel guests ain't too crazy 'bout a shoddily dressed servant - he had to look the part to get the tips. These days, he doesn't have to carry anybody's bags, and when he arrives at a hotel, the guests are usually running after him looking for an autograph. His dad, who still works as a bellman, enjoys telling guests that his son is in a famous band - that'll get you a good tip.
With The Killers hitting the bigtime, Flowers has swapped the bellhop uniform for what looks like a maitre d' outfit - snappy white suit and dicky bow. When I catch him on his cellphone, the band are en route to Glastonbury. The festival's legendary mud has already arrived ahead of them, but Flowers is not worried about getting any on his nice white suit - after all, he can well afford the laundry bills.
"All these festivals that we're doing over here, they're not just another gig. People have been looking forward to them all year, and we're happy to be the entertainment," he says.
On Sunday, The Killers arrive at Punchestown for the second day of the sold-out Oxegen festival. They played last year in one of the smaller tents, but, following the massive success of their Hot Fuss album and single Somebody Told Me, the band have been bumped up to the main stage, just third on the bill behind Keane and Foo Fighters. "We've played only twice in Ireland, and I can remember both shows vividly. The crowd was so amazing, and we're really looking forward to playing Oxegen again."
The sharp-dressed man from Vegas is the first to acknowledge that the odds were stacked against The Killers. Vegas may be famous for its casinos, cheesy cabaret extravaganzas and Elvis impersonators, but the Nevada town has been pretty barren ground for rock'n'roll talent. Only one hit single, Mickey by Toni Basil, has broken the dustbowl city's duck, and even the most hard-boiled gambler would hesitate to put money down on an Eighties-influenced quartet who freely admit to liking U2 and Oasis, and who knock off such lines as, "Somebody told me, that you had a boyfriend/who looked like a girlfriend/that I had in February of last year".
"It's a one-in-a-million-type thing, really, to get to the place where we've gotten, to do it and not be in the mainstream, but actually be a real band and have an effect on people. I mean we're just on cloud nine." Even more incredible is that The Killers are replicating their UK and European success in their home country, usually a safe haven for such dull, post-Hootie bands as 3 Doors Down or such bubblegum goths as AFI. In the macho American rock world, there's often zero tolerance for besuited, synth-playing metrosexuals.
"It's not the record buyers' fault, it's the record companies who shove it down their throats," laments Flowers. "Americans love what is fed to them on MTV and that - it justifies it to them. That's why they buy it, 'cos everybody buys it. But there's a change happening. People are seeing through the muscle shirts from Creed and bands like that. People have always wanted to see how much they can rock, shake their heads and wave their hair, ever since Black Sabbath came out. But now it's coming back to people want old-fashioned music. They want songs. A good song will never go away. No matter how camp Neil Tennant is, nobody remembers that. But everyone remembers West End Girls. That's never gonna go away."
It's a cyclical thing. Twenty years ago, Simon Le Bon's yacht landed on US shores, and a flock of foppish bands with synths, eye shadow and catchy songs invaded the US, threatening the dominance of such testosterone merchants as Van Halen and Ted Nugent. Today, another wave of floppy-fringed bands is challenging the status quo. Will the record industry jump on the bandwagon and fashion their own facsimile of The Killers?
"There's always a danger of that - that's how the business is run," says Flowers. "It happened with grunge, and then they got everybody with long hair and plaid shirts. It's gonna happen, there's gonna be some bands that are signed, and just like grunge, there'll be just a few bands that will make it out alive. There'll be a few bands out of this that will make it, that can actually cut it. And I think we'll be one of them."
Just recently, Flowers got into a very public slanging match with another Eighties-driven combo, The Bravery, accusing them of being "fake". Flowers is out to prove his outfit is "4 real", and hopes the second album will push them to a different level right up there with their heroes U2 and Oasis.
"Absolutely. We wanna grow. We're not gonna drastically change, but I'm a big fan of David Bowie, how he was able to write Hunky Dory and then Ziggy Stardust right after, and then go to Let's Dance and Scary Monsters. It's unbelievable the changes, and that's why people even love Madonna. And I think U2 did it nicely. They're special. They're so human. Their songs, y'know, they just reach into your heart and grab you. I'd really love to have the material to one day to get up there and sell that many tickets and touch that many people. That's the best thing about them, is what they make people feel."
The Killers began when Flowers got kicked out of a local synth-pop band, and answered a small ad posted by guitarist Dave Keuning. Within hours of meeting, the pair had written Mr Brightside, which became the band's debut hit. Against all odds, their chosen name - taken from a fictional band in a New Order video - had not been snapped up by another band, and so The Killers were born. They found drummer Ronnie Vannucci taking photographs at the Little Chapel of Flowers, and bassist Mark Stoermer toting bags of blood and vital organs from one hospital to another. They signed to London's Lizard King label, and released Hot Fuss just over a year ago. The album shot into the UK Top Ten and has steadfastly refused to leave the Top 30 since then.
But now that they've arrived, The Killers are not about to let their guard down - after all, rock history is littered with the corpses of bands who thought they were gonna live forever, but ended up dead as a dodo when the next big thing came along.
"You can be forgotten very easily. It all goes back to the songs again. It's not so much about getting into people's faces as it is about the songs. If you have really great songs, that's gonna do it. I still remember listening to All These Things That I've Done. After it was mixed, I remember taking it right off the mixing board and putting it on a CD and playing it over and over, and I was just thinking, people have to like this. It wasn't a cocky thing, it was just I liked it, and I wanted to listen to it, and I was so proud of it. The songs themselves were more of a surprise than the success, because the songs were obviously gonna be successful. The surprise was that we wrote them."
Flowers is topping off his whirlwind year with probably the biggest event of his life - his own wedding. He'll be marrying his girlfriend Tana, but probably not in the Little Chapel of Flowers. For all of The Killers, success has necessitated a little adjustment, but Flowers feels that they're well up to the task and well able to take things to the next level.
"I think we've taken some chances, whether it's in the way we perform or with the videos, or even with just the lyrics on Somebody Told Me, those were definitely big gambles. And usually the big payoffs come from that. That's something that Bowie has always done. He's done some crazy things. Sometimes it's been really shitty, but when it works you get Heroes or Ziggy Stardust." And when it doesn't, of course, you get Tin Machine, four blokes who also dressed impeccably, but whose songs were the aural equivalent of a smelly tramp pushing a shopping trolley full of old toasters. But if The Killers can match the songwriting standards they set on Somebody Told Me, All These Things that I've Done and Mr Brightside, there's no danger of them being lumped in with Mr Bowie's ill-fated side-project. For The Killers, the only way is up, and when the new album is released next March, they'll be all dressed up and ready go on their next killing spree.
"We're all growing up, and getting lives, and learning more about ourselves and about people, and the human spirit all around. I think our songs are gonna be . . . we're still gonna have fun, but I think we're definitely gonna be more in touch with our feelings and with others' feelings. I wanna write songs for everyone. When we're writing songs and I'm writing lyrics, I'm thinking about everyone. I want people to identify with the songs, and if they do get it, that means that we've made a connection. It can be a sweet moment."
The Killers play the main stage at Oxegen on Sunday
EDITORS
These four guys met on a music technology course in Staffordshire University, but decided it was a bit too nerdy and formed a rock'n'roll band instead. Being the proto-boffins they are, however, Editors like to lace their rock with lashings of white noise and dreamy soundscapes. They've been hailed as the next nervy band to follow Bloc Party. New Band stage, Sunday. Odds: 10-1
NINE BLACK ALPS
They're from Manchester, but their style is closer to the NY noise of Sonic Youth, the Village folk of Elliot Smith or (gasp) the Puget sound of Seattle grunge. They got their name from a line in a Sylvia Plath poem, but singer/guitarist Sam Forrest professes to hate anything that seems "too learned, too perfect, too worked out". Ticket stage, Saturday. Odds: 7-1
THE GO TEAM
This three-boy/three-girl gang have been blowing audiences away with their mix of fuzzed-up rock and discordant disco. Leaving aside their penchant for sporting T-Shirts that spell out their name, making them look like summer camp supervisors, The Go Team guarantee an entertaining mix of sounds, from 1970s cop show themes and Bollywood movie soundtracks to old-skool hip-hop and vintage guitar noise. New Band stage, Saturday. Odds: 5-1
THE MAGIC NUMBERS
Unless aliens destroy the earth between now and next summer, it's an absolute certainty that this double brother-sister act will be headlining major festivals, or at least upstaging the headliner. If aliens do invade earth, The Magic Numbers' mix of summery melodies and joyous jangle will probably charm the critters into submission. New Band stage, Sunday. Odds: 2-1 favourites.
MAXIMO PARK
Could these dapper dans from Newcastle-on-Tyne be next year's Kaiser Chiefs? They're certainly dab hands at spiky, spiced-up New Wave pop, and - like the Chiefs - can come up with a catchy chorus that has absolutely no relation to the verse which came before. Singer Paul Smith may look and dress like a sales rep - but at least he's got some killer tunes in his attache case. Ticket stage, Sunday. Odds: 7-2
