The Killers Play Only Gig Up North!

Playing their only gig in the north of England at the Macron Stadium in Bolton, The Killers are now a first class stadium group.

Before the band take to the stage XTC, INXS and the like play over the PA, which gives some indication of the groups that influenced them. The Killers probably owe more debt to bands from the UK than their native America.

Bringing the bright glitzy lights of their home town, Las Vegas to Bolton lead singer Brandon Flowers even wears a showman like jacket. It is not lost on him that the gig is near Manchester as he asks the fans "how many of you are from Manchester or Liverpool?"

The set is basically a greatest hits set though withThe Man, the lead single off the last album opening up the gig, before it's back to the older tracks with Somebody Told Me and the confetti cannons are employed to shower the audience.

Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine leads into Smile Like You Mean It. With songs as strong as this it is easy to see why they can play and sell out stadiums.

A lot of acts invite fans to come up on stage to play with them and The Killers are no exception. They choose a bloke called Luke from the audience to play the drums on For Reasons Unknown.

It was a lesson in pure audience interaction that could have gone all wrong, but their new drummer fits in like he has always been in the band. It turns out that he is in a Killers tribute band called The Fillers. He probably never slept all night after that. As he takes a selfie with the rest of the band it showed that however big a band gets they still have that personal touch.

It could have been a double too as The Killers do a version of New Order's True Faith - the legendary Manchester band's lead singer Bernard Sumner is present at the gig. What a double that would have been if he had got on stage to perform the track with them.

By the time the band get to the encores of Human and Mr Brightside, Bolton had witnessed the best gig it will see all year.

Flowers had said earlier that he wanted the gig to be one of the best on the tour - he wasn't far wrong.