The Killers

The Killers’ coffee table book (or as some would say picture book for grownups) is a huge, beautiful and heavy hardcover that portrays the band’s 2013 world tour for Battle Born in black and white picture form. Only available from the band’s official store, the book has an almost mythical status amongst fans. When the band re-released it last year in support for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting, I bought it. When I received it, I completely understood why the shipping fee was what it was. This book is huge! It’s also very heavy, which is good in several ways: you’re never going to use it to swat a fly and you’ll be forced to take breaks while reading to prevent your legs going numb.

The book is about 99% pictures – large, lavish pictures all in black and white. It’s not just pictures of the band but pictures of Las Vegas, Wembley stadium, scenery and downtown street shots. To someone who doesn’t live in America, I was wondering if I should be familiar with these and found myself Googling street and record store names. I can tell you that there is a handy caption list at the end of the book which will tell you where each photograph was taken with details of the people. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover that until the end of the book, which meant I had to read it again. Sigh. Such a hardship.

A lovely thing about the photographs being so big is that you can examine lots of details. So I could look at the books on the shelf of Stuart Price’s studio and read the spines (Murakami!). I could also get the guitar tabs for Lou Reed’s Pale Blue Eyes as someone (likely Dave) practised using a handwritten lyric/chord sheet.

As a fan, I really appreciated these details. I liked to examine the guitars the guys were holding, read the Wi-Fi passwords and get an insight into life off stage without feeling that I was intruding. Would I have liked more words? Sure, I’m a greedy fan. However, I think it’s great that you can look at the photographs and add your own imagination. It’s a beautiful book, well executed and an insight into life on the road for a touring band.

I’d love to see something similar from the 2017/2018 Wonderful Wonderful tour in colour (because how else will we do justice to those gorgeous, often sparkly jackets of Brandon’s?).

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