Johnny Marr covers The Smiths with The Killers in Edinburgh
During their headline show at the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh, The Killers were joined by Johnny Marr to perform ‘When You Were Young’ and to cover The Smiths’ ‘This Charming Man’.
Marr was the support act at the concert, and during the encore of The Killers’ performance, he joined them to perform the two songs. The former Smiths guitarist previously supported the band across the United States last year, and also joined them to perform ‘This Charming Man’ during their headline show at Glastonbury in 2019.
Discussing his love of The Smiths, The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers told The Guardian in 2012: “When you’re young you want pop music that is catchy – not many pre-teens are into death metal – and when I heard ‘Panic’, at 12, it made me feel immensely happy. It certainly didn’t make me want to wear black and be alone in a corner of the room,” he reflected to The Guardian in 2012 about the moment he fell in love with pop music.”
The singer continued: “And nobody in Nephi, Utah had heard of the Smiths then and I doubt they have heard of them now, which made them something special. Everyone was listening to grunge and here was this song saying ‘burn down the disco … because the music they constantly play says nothing to me about my life.’ Morrissey was speaking directly to me!”
Meanwhile, Flowers recently revealed The Killers cancelled production halfway through making what should have been their new album. “Halfway through recording I realised, ‘I can’t do this,’” Flowers told The Times. “I don’t think you’ll see us making this type of music any more.”
Last week, ahead of their headline set at Reading & Leeds Festival, the Nevada natives shared their synth-heavy new single ‘Your Side of Town’.
Watch footage of The Killers performing ‘This Charming Man’ with Johnny Marr below.
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