Razorlight is an Anglo-Swedish band
formed in 2002
by singer-songwriter Johnny
Borrell.
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Contents
- 1 History
- 1.1 Up
All Night
- 1.2 War
Child
- 1.3 Razorlight
- 1.4 Funeral
Blues
- 2 Discography
- 3 Trivia
- 4 References
- 5 External
links
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History
At the start of their career Johnny Borrell's new outfit began
by supporting The Libertines at various
venues (including 333 in Old Street) where a young A&R scout,
Justin Cross, found them and with his own money put them in Toerag
Studios where he produced, alongside Liam
Watson, the tracks "Rip It Up", "Rock 'n' Roll
Lies" and "In The City". Off the back of these tracks the band (now
named Razorlight) began getting serious A&R heat due to the
songs success on radio stations such as John Kennedy.
The band became very popular on the London music
scene. Large demand caused the band to play extra shows, including a
7,000+ capacity gig at Alexandra Palace. The album was
heavily marketed in the UK.
Up All Night was re-issued in April 2005, including the
previously unreleased single "Somewhere Else", which peaked at Number 2.
In July
2005, the band performed at Hyde Park, London as part of the Live 8 series of
concerts. However, the band came under fire for being the only band
that did not donate their extra revenue to charity. The band
subsequently claimed that due to their "fledgling status", they were
unable to make such a commitment.
Razorlight supported Queen + Paul Rodgers
on July
15, in front of 60,000 people. This gig had been rescheduled following
the July 2005 London bombings.
In December of the same year, they supported Oasis,
at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. They also
supported The Rolling Stones at
their gigs in Cologne and Paris.
During the Christmas season the band played an intimate show
at the Railway Inn in Winchester. They were supported by up and coming
London band Captain Phoenix, who are fronted by
drummer Andy Burrows' younger brother Ben.
The band played their biggest tour to date in October-November
2006 and also supported Richard Ashcroft in his
homecoming gig at the Lancashire County
Cricket Club on June
17.
In November 2006 the band had to be hospitalised after traces
of radioactive poisoning was detected on their plane. Their British
Airways return flight from Moscow was a scheduled route used by Russian
ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.
In 2007, Razorlight were nominated for two BRIT
Awards - one for 'Best British Band' and the other for 'Best Song',
"America". They were also nominated for two NME Brit Awards for 'Best Band' and 'Best Album'.
On March 19th 2007, the band were confirmed to be headlining
the Reading and Leeds
Festivals in August 2007. They will play Reading on Friday 24th, and
Leeds on Saturday 25th. They also played the Main Stage on Saturday
19th May in Preston for Radio 1's Big weekend along side bands such as Kasabian
and the Kaiser Chiefs.
On July
7, 2007,
Razorlight performed at both the UK leg of Live Earth
at Wembley Stadium, London, and T in
the Park in Balado,
Scotland.
Up All Night
Razorlight's debut album, Up All Night,
was released on June
28, 2004,
reaching number 3 in the UK album charts.
The critical reception was generally good, receiving good reviews from NME,
Q
magazine and Billboard,
although they were also accused of lack of imagination and
unoriginality for allegedly borrowing ideas from other influential
bands such as The Strokes.
War Child
Razorlight contributed the song "Kirby's House" to the War
Child charity album Help-A Day in the Life.
Razorlight
Continuing their association with The Who
which started at the Live 8 gig, Razorlight debuted some of new
songs from their forthcoming second album live on March 30, 2006, in one of a
chain of Teenage Cancer Trust concerts,
organised by Roger Daltrey. Later that
year, on July
2, they played to a sellout Hyde Park Calling gig,
where they were preceded by The Zutons, and opened for The
Who. The band went on to play on the beach opposite Brighton's West Pier on
July 12
in a free concert as part of a Vodafone TBA event broadcast on Channel 4.
Razorlight released their second album Razorlight
on July
17, 2006, in
the United Kingdom and it debuted at #1 in the UK
Albums Chart a week later. It received mixed reviews, Q magazine
giving it a rare 5/5 rating, whilst Pitchfork Media gave it 2.8/10. The
leading single from the album, "In the Morning" was released as a
single on July
3, 2006,
which peaked at #3 in the UK Singles Chart. To date, it is
their third biggest single after "Somewhere Else", which peaked at #2,
and "America", which peaked at #1. It also reached #2 on iTunes'
top songs chart.
Funeral Blues
Razorlight's latest song, Funeral Blues was recorded in
support of The Big Ask, Friends of the Earth's climate campaign. The
song was recorded at The Premises in East London - Europe's first
solar-powered recording studio. It can be downloaded for free from http://www.foe.co.uk/.
Discography
Albums
- Up All Night
(28
June 2004) Vertigo
#3 UK(2x Platinum)
- Razorlight
(17
July 2006) Vertigo
#1 UK (4x Platinum), #180 US
Singles
| Year |
Title |
Chart Positions |
Album |
| UK
Singles Chart |
UK
Download Chart |
Irish Singles
Chart |
US Modern Rock. |
| 2003 |
Rock ‘N’ Roll Lies |
56 |
- |
- |
- |
Up All Night |
| Rip It Up |
42 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2004 |
Stumble and Fall |
27 |
- |
- |
- |
| Golden Touch |
9 |
3 |
- |
32 |
| Vice |
18 |
- |
- |
- |
| Rip It Up (re-release) |
20 |
- |
- |
- |
| 2005 |
Somewhere Else |
2 |
2 |
- |
36 |
| 2006 |
In The Morning |
3 |
5 |
- |
- |
Razorlight |
| America |
1 |
1 |
6 |
- |
| Before I Fall to Pieces |
17 |
17 |
37 |
- |
| 2007 |
I Can't Stop This
Feeling I've Got |
44 |
- |
- |
- |
| Hold On |
80 |
- |
- |
- |
Trivia
- On Up All Night, Johnny
Borrell recorded a phone number into the track "Vice", which was
rumoured to be his personal phone number.
- Famous fans of the band include, Bobcat
Goldthwait, Colleen Shannon, Dolph
Lundgren, Jenny McCarthy, Jamie
Gillis, Corey
Haim and Doug Bradley. McCarthy stated, in a
recent interview with The Toronto Star, "I try and see them every time
they come and play in Los Angeles. They really are better than The
Beatles."
- The band appeared as themselves on The
Mighty Boosh, in the series two episode, "The Priest and the Beast".
- Andy Burrows wrote the song 'America', and is widely
assumed to be a vain attempt to help the band crack the lucrative US
market - though it's focus is (ironically) mediocrity in the UK media.
- Razorlight's 'Somewhere Else' was recently
voted the third worst lyric in pop by listeners of Marc Riley's Music
Show on BBC6 BBC NEWS Article
- They have appeared at Live8 and Live
Earth. At the latter Johnny Borrell appeared without his trademark
white jeans and t-shirt, replacing them with black ones.
- Razorlight (minus Johnny Borrell) recorded a
song to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The
Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band, "With A Little Help From My Friends". This
featured Andy Burrows on vocals, mirroring the way Ringo Starr sung
vocals on The Beatles' original.
References
External links
| v • d • e Razorlight |
| Johnny Borrell | Björn
Ågren | Carl
Dalemo | Andy Burrows |
| Discography |
| Albums: Up All Night
| Razorlight |
Singles: "Rock
‘N’ Roll Lies" | "Rip It Up" | "Stumble
and Fall" | "Golden Touch" | "Vice" | "Somewhere
Else"
"In
the Morning" | "America" | "Before I Fall to Pieces" | "I Can't Stop This
Feeling I've Got" | "Hold On" |
