Contact Razorlight

Full Name:	Razorlight
Date of Birth:	2002
Place of Birth:	London, England
Claim to Fame:	Their album Up All Night[2004]

• Music to chop curls by - The Guardian (blog)

  The Guardian (blog)

  Music to chop curls by The Guardian (blog) Razorlight? Scissor Sisters? Anything by Shampoo? What would you prefer to listen to while having your locks shorn? Warning ... forcing your hairdresser to ...

• Is British indie guitar music dying out? - Radio 1

  Radio 1

  Is British indie guitar music dying out? Radio 1 The sound of indie bands battling it out in the charts - familiar a few years ago - died down as groups like Razorlight and The Wombats decided not to ... 2009: 'The year British indie guitar music died'Radio 1 all 6 news articles »

• Top bands for the Perfect 5th - Somerset County Gazette

  Top bands for the Perfect 5th Somerset County Gazette With fans including ex-Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows, their hooks should be enough to turn you to their frenetic energy too. Topping the bill are local ... and more »

• Brown named worst-dressed man - The Press Association

  BBC News

  Brown named worst-dressed man The Press Association It is completed by Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan (sixth), the Match Of The Day team (seventh), Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell (ninth) and ... GQ Names Gordon Brown Worst-Dressed ManBanmoco.co.uk (blog) all 462 news articles »

• Gavin Bond: Music: Striking a rock and roll pose - Independent

  Gavin Bond: Music: Striking a rock and roll pose Independent These pictures of everybody from U2 to Kings of Leon and Razorlight's Johnny Borrell ? there's even an unusual studio shot of The Who's Roger Daltrey ...

• Pattinson is best-dressed - iAfrica.com

  RTE.ie

  Pattinson is best-dressed iAfrica.com Comedian Russell Brand ? who is dating Katy Perry ? came second, while Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell was in third place. It's not the first time Robert ... Alex Turner Beaten To Best Dressed Man Title By Robert PattinsonGigwise Robert Pattinson Voted World's Best Dressed Man Ahead Of Daniel Craig, David ...Entertainmentwise Robert Pattinson Would Laugh at GQ Best Dressed HonorTheImproper.com all 326 news articles »

• Danielle Spencer - Mother of a comeback - Independent

  Danielle Spencer - Mother of a comeback Independent Tony Visconti, known for his work with Bolan and Bowie, and latterly Morrissey and Razorlight, seemingly doesn't think twice about jetting from New York to ...

• Bring back the SAS ball - The Cornishman

  Bring back the SAS ball The Cornishman ... which over the years boasted performances by the likes of Faithless, The Darkness, Razorlight, Norman Cook, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Xavier Rudd, ...

• Excellent Visitor Figures, Strong Sales and Positive Feedback at London Art Fair - Art Daily

  Excellent Visitor Figures, Strong Sales and Positive Feedback at London Art Fair Art Daily Celebrities such as Johnny Borrell [Frontman of the rock band Razorlight], Emma Thompson, Damien Lewis, Victoria Wood, Emilia Fox and Bill Bailey also came. ...

• What is Your Album of The Decade? - Musicrooms.net

  What is Your Album of The Decade? Musicrooms.net After thinking long and hard, for me it has to be Up all night by Razorlight. It was an album that I listened to so many time's I had to actually replace my ...

Razorlight extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Razorlight
Razorlight at SXSW, 2009
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Indie rock Post-punk revival Garage rock revival
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Mercury Music/Vertigo Records (UK) (Universal Music Group) Label type: Major
Website	http://www.razorlight.co.uk/
Members
Johnny Borrell Björn Ågren Carl Dalemo David Sullivan-Kaplan
Former members
Christian Smith-Pancorvo Andy Burrows

Razorlight is an English-Swedish indie rock band formed in 2002. They are primarily known in their home countries, having topped the charts with the 2006 single America and its parent self-titled album, their second. The band consists of lead singer and rhythmic guitarist Johnny Borrell, guitarist Björn Ågren, bass guitarist Carl Gustaf Dalemo and drummer David Sullivan-Kaplan ("Skully").

Contents 1 History 1.1 Formation and early years (2002-2003) 1.2 Up All Night and Hyde Park (2004-2005) 1.3 Razorlight (2006-2007) 1.4 Slipway Fires (2008-2009) 1.5 Fourth album (2009-present) 2 Discography 3 References 4 External links

History

Formation and early years (2002-2003)

At the beginning of their career Johnny Borrell's new outfit spent six months rehearsing in a decaying factory space in east London. After his earlier incarnation as a solo acoustic singer songwriter supporting bands like The Libertines Johnny Borrell fashioned Razorlight as an intense electric rock band with hooky songs and took the band out on the road. On 17th September 2002 they played their first show with all four founder members at London Dingwalls, supporting The Von Bondies. Early recordings took place at Liam Watson's Toerag Studios after manager Roger Morton took rehearsal demos into A&Rs at Warner Music Group. The band worked with Watson and early collaborator John Fortis to produce the tracks "Rip It Up", "Rock 'n' Roll Lies" and "In the City". Off the back of these tracks they began getting serious A&R heat due to the songs' success on radio stations such as John Kennedy Show on XFM.

Following a signing race the band finally settled with Mercury Records and then were steered by Richard O'Donovan. The band started to become very popular on the London music scene.

Up All Night and Hyde Park (2004-2005)

Razorlight's debut album, Up All Night, was released on June 28, 2004, reaching number 3 in the UK album charts.¹ 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. Following the release of their successful debut album Up All Night in summer 2004, drummer Christian Smith-Pancorvo left the group and was replaced by Andy Burrows. 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.²

Razorlight contributed the song "Kirby's House" to the War Child charity album Help!: A Day in the Life. The song, which was originally over 4 minutes long, was later cut down almost in half and re-mastered, appearing as the eighth track on the band's second album, Razorlight.

Razorlight (2006-2007)

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. Razorlight is the album by which many of the original Razorlight fans became disinterested with the band, and some accused them of 'selling-out' by diluting their raw, edgy rock sound to cater for a new, radio-friendly mainstream audience. 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. 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'.

Razorlight supported Queen + Paul Rodgers on July 15, in front of 60,000 horses. 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. They played Reading on 24 August, and Leeds on 25 August 2007. They also played the Main Stage on 19 May in Preston for Radio 1's Big Weekend alongside 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. 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.³ The same month they supported the Mando Diao "Ode to Ochrasy Tour" in Germany.

Slipway Fires (2008-2009)

Razorlight was intended to perform for BBC Children in Need 2008, but cancelled due to Borrell reporting vocal problems. The band still made a donation to the charity.

After many months of producing new material, some of which was written on the Isle of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides, Razorlight released their third studio album, Slipway Fires, on November 3, 2008 with the lead single, "Wire To Wire", being released on October 20, 2008. The second single taken from Slipway Fires was Hostage of Love; however, having received little critical or commercial attention, it failed to enter the charts. As a result, a planned release of 'Burberry Blue Eyes', as the album's third single, were dropped.

On 5 March 2009, NME.com confirmed that Andy Burrows had quit the band due to 'personal reasons'. Johnny Borrell was adamant that the band would continue, although he would miss the drummer.⁴ The Winchester born drummer has opted for a quieter life away from the band's hectic touring schedule (although in 2009 he joined American band We Are Scientists). New Yorker David 'Skully' Sullivan-Kaplan took over the drums, initially it was reported he would be in the band as a touring member until the end of 2009, although since then he has become an official member. With a top 5 album and single in Germany, the band toured America, Australia and Europe before returning to the UK for shows in May at The O2 and Manchester Evening News Arena followed by UK festivals.

Fourth album (2009-present)

At the end of their Slipway Fires tour Razorlight previewed a new song called Dr. Boushitan in several German cities.⁵

In a recent interview with Teletext, Borrell announced that the band was working with Steve Lillywhite and Dave McCracken on a new record and that they were eager to get the new songs out "soon".⁶

Discography

• Up All Night (2004)
• Razorlight (2006)
• Slipway Fires (2008)

References

External links

• Razorlight's own website
• Official website
• Razorlight at MySpace

v • d • e Razorlight Johnny Borrell · Björn Ågren · Carl Dalemo · David 'Skully' Sullivan-Kaplan Christian Smith-Pancorvo · Andy Burrows Albums Up All Night · Razorlight · Slipway Fires 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" · "Wire to Wire" · "Hostage of Love" Related articles Razorlight discography · Mercury music