73. The Kills

21^st Century Appearances: 2011 NME Stage, 2008 Festival Republic Headliner, 2005 NME Stage, 2004 Carling Stage Headliner, 2003 Radio One Stage, 2002 Carling Stage

The Defining Reading Moment: Returning for the third year on the trot, dirtier, filthier and more primal than ever to headline the Carling Tent in 2004.

The Kills have been around for a good ten years, highly influenced by their love of The Velvet Underground they decided to make a go of it. Four albums later and they just keep getting better and better. Stripping back the lo-fi charm each time, creating a different unique sound that can only be described as “their sound”: sex, dark, gender-relationship-twisting, while presenting obsessive and bluesy lyrics.

The Kills don’t feel like a band, more like a collaboration of all of the above. Their sound just seems to work. To this day I have never come across any other artists that sound like Alison and Jamie. Live they work very well together, one off chemistry that still, after all these years, they still have captured. Alison running feisty wild across the stage while Jamie plays his off the radar gritty rock n roll guitar. They even get away with using a drumming machine, even if at times Jamie has said ‘it would be easier to get a drummer, but..’ It makes The Kills who they are.

The Kills are The Kills. Simone F