In the wake of any band that enjoys, as this DVD clich�dly says, “a meteoric rise to fame” there will follow a shoal of opportunists writing instant biographies, printing bootleg T-shirts and, indeed, putting together shonky documentaries. However, although this film, as the titles declare, “is not authroized [sic] by The Killers” and contains none of their music, its makers have, to be fair, hunted down an impressive array of friends, former bandmates/ flatmates/tutors, local radio DJs and promoters from the band’s hometown.
The Killers’ absence probably makes little difference: in contrast to their high-thrills hits, their lacklustre stage presence is matched only by their scintillating interview repartee. The interviewees that are here, though, could have been used better. You gain a context of the difficulties of an dandyish, Anglophile indie band in an entertainment-saturated city infested with nu-metal and screamo, but little sense of them as people. Some more imaginative editing would help, too: re-using the same BBC and MTV clips over and over gets a bit dull. Extras include a decent discography, and a quiz somewhere on a par with noughts-and-crosses for entertainment value. “Certain to become the standard work on this magnificent band,” states the blurb on the back: well, yes, but only until someone makes a different one…
