The Killers make their Middle East début at the Emirates Palace on 8th December, promising an epic rock set featuring heady guitar riffs, faultless synth anthems, and killer vocals. The Killers put on one heck of a live show, too. This will be a night to remember

So what can we expect? Well, The Killers' next album could be a covers set featuring songs by Tom Waits, Genesis and Rod Stewart, according to frontman Brandon Flowers speaking to Q magazine earlier this year. This won’t be the first time the band has toyed with reinterpretations; a more-or-less-unplugged live session at Abbey Road Studios a couple of years ago included a rather good rendition of the Dire Straits hit‘Romeo and Juliet’. That’s on the 2007 albumof B-sides and rarities, which also has songs like ‘Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town’ (yep,it’s a cover of the Kenny Rogers and The First Edition hit).

Earlier this year a Latin-tinged cover of 'Hotel California', originally done by The Eagles in 1977, appeared on the Rhythms del Mundo Classics album – a collaboration between Afro-Cuban musicians Rhythms Del Mundo and various big-name stars that issold in aid of the Artists Project Earth (APE) climate change charity. It's available in the iTunes store and on Last.fm. Their own songs are pretty good, too. The Killers owe a lot to music styles of the 1980s,especially British post-punk – the bandformed in Las Vegas when Brandon Flowers responded to an ad posted by Dave Keuning which cited Oasis, The Cure, The Beatles andU2 as influences.

The Killers first signed to Kindie label Lizard King, Zane Lowe championed the band on BBC Radio One, and in August2003 the band toured Britain with major success (particularly at festivals). The first album Hot Fuss was released the following year and was full of dancefloor-friendly anthemic pop, featuring washes of synth with banging guitar riffs and Brandon Flowers’ rich baritone. If we don’t get to hear ‘Mr Brightside’, ‘All These Things That I've Done’ (sing along now: “I've got soul but I'm not a soldier”) and ‘Somebody Told Me’, the Abu Dhabi Week massive will be seriously disappointed ...The Killers haven’t been prolific in the studio.

The second album, Sam's Town, was released in autumn 2006 to a mixed response from critics and fans. It replaced the group's New Wave sensibilities in favour of something more akin to the heartland rock of Bruce Springsteen or the cod Americana of U2 around Rattle and Hum time. But it still hadsome great tunes, and overall it’s an effectiveslow burner – remember ‘When You WereYoung’, ‘Bones’ and ‘Read My Mind’? Their third studio album, Day & Age, wassomething of a triumphant return to theoriginal Killers sound, thanks in no small partto production by Stuart Price – aka ThinWhite Duke (and many other monikers), he had already done terrific remixes of ‘Mr Brightside’ and ‘When You Were Young’.

The first single from Day & Age was ‘Human’, astadium-rocking stunner that should featurein the Abu Dhabi set. Another to listen out for is ‘A White Demon Love Song’, originally recorded forDay and Age but in fact available only on the soundtrack for vampire romance movie ‘TheTwilight Saga: New Moon’. It starts off withmulti-tracked monotone vocals, ends up witha classic-rock guitar solo plus Beatles-styleoff-kilter orchestration, and along the waycomes across as a suitably dark lounge song.In the early days, The Killers wanted to playat being rock stars – their heroes for life onthe road were reportedly Led Zeppelin and Ziggy-Stardust era Bowie – but these daysit’s all class and professionalism. “When we got away from clichés, our shows started really getting better,” observed Flowers. “You become mindful that people are coming to seea band that's well-rehearsed," said drummer Ronnie Vannucci. "Burning the candle at both ends could hinder performance."Take this summer’s impressive livealbum, The Killers: Live From The Royal Albert Hall, a CD/DVD set that also includes performances at the Oxygen and V Festivals as well as a Hyde Park concert.

The production values are excellent, both in terms of the sound and the staging. If the Emirates Palace show has a hint of the pizzazz, exotic finery and good-natured bombast, it will be a night to reminder. Even if Flowers doesn't have a clear direction for the band – “every day, I change. One day, I want to be deadly serious, and the next, I just want to write great pop songs and have fun” – he’s in no doubt about what kind of future The Killers will have. “U2 are unbelievable but they're getting old," he’ssaid in interview. "I think it's time. ”Beg pardon? Yes, he thinks it’s time: The Killers is ready to take over as the world's biggest band.

Go to page 26 for a chance to wintickets to The Killers’ gig.

Killer Fact

The name ‘The Killers’ comes from a video for New Order’s song ‘Crystal’,which features a band with that name on their bass drum.