Iconic Las Vegas pub helped launch Killers anthem

Crown & Anchor British Pub is forever the “where” of The Killers’ epic rock anthem “Mr. Brightside.”

The 30-year tavern favored by locals has announced it has closed. Crown & Anchor was a favorite of ale-swilling football/soccer fans for decades. The place at 1350 E. Tropicana Ave. is also prominent in rock history, as the spot where Brandon Flowers discovered some debauchery in his personal life. The episode led to the story told in “Mr. Brightside.”

Flowers was a 20-year-old Vegas musician and bellman at Gold Coast when he found his girlfriend cheating on him at Crown & Anchor. Emotionally inspired, he went to work on finishing the song.

Recounted in September in the Independent UK, Flowers already recorded Dave Keuning’s famous intro guitar riff. The singer also had a verse he’d been holding since his days at Chaparral High School. Flowers then added the stark descriptions of infidelity for the song’s next rehearsal.

“Mr. Brightside” was the first song the band ever wrote, and of course it has taken off. It is The Killers’ best-selling song, celebrated internationally as the top-selling single ever in the U.K. that has not reached No. 1. The single overtook Oasis’s “Wonderwall” in May for that honor.

“Brightside” has also been in the top 100 of the U.K.’s Official Charts listings for 20 years. The song peaked at No. 10 in May 2004. It is also the third-greatest-selling song ever in the U.K. when sales and streams are combined.

It has also surfaced, randomly, as the unofficial fight song for Michigan’s football team.

“Brightside” is planned for the band’s residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which revisits “Hot Fuss” in its entirety. The series runs Aug. 14-30.

Flowers is amazed at what the Crown & Anchor moment helped hatch.

“It’s funny, I almost don’t feel so much a part of it anymore,” the frontman said last month in an interview with Official Charts Company, the U.K.’s leading music-ranking service. “It just exists in the world. It’s amazing that I had something to do with it. I almost feel removed from it, because it’s so big.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.