Ongoing History Daily: The Killers and New Order

All the guys in The Killers are fans of groups from the 80s, especially those who were able to fuse alt-rock with dance beats and synthesizers. A particular inspiration was mid-period New Order and their 2001 album, Get Ready.

Just as The Killers were getting it together and trying to find a name, the guys became fixated on the music video for the song “Crystal.” That video features a fictional band pretending to be a young New Order. On the front of the bass drum was this fake band’s name: The Killers. That settled it and that became the new group’s name.

But you’d think that someone might have used that name in the past, right? The closest was Killers (no “The”), a band headed by former Iron Maiden Paul Di’Anno but they never released any official music. The name “The Killers” was strangely still up for grabs.