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Razorlight is an Anglo-Swedish band formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Johnny Borrell.
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Band historyAt the begining 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 put them in Liam Watson's Toerag Studios where he produced the tracks "Rip It Up", "Rock 'n' Roll Lies" and "In The City" alongside John Fortis
. 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 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. 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.
Following the release of their successful debut album Up All Night in summer 2004, drummer Christian Smith-Pancorvo left the group and was replaced with 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.
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'.
They played Reading on 24 August, and Leeds on 25 August 2007. They also played the
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 NightRazorlight'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 ChildRazorlight contributed the song "Kirby's House" to the War Child charity album Help-A Day in the Life.
RazorlightContinuing 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.
Third studio albumAfter many months of writing new material, some of which was written on the Isle of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides, Razorlight have almost completed recording the album. The band are expected to release further details concerning the release of their third studio album within the course of the coming months. At this year's Rockness Festival, near Inverness, the band premiered a new track entitled "frequency" (although bassist, Carl, stated that may not end up being the song's final title). The band stated in September 2007 that a heavy rock vibe would be incorperated into their third album. In contrast to this statement, a review of this year's Rockness Festival commented that the new track sounded to be in a similar vein to the band's self titled sophomore effort. Razorlight have confirmed that producer Mike Crossey will be producing the record.
Possible songs to be included on the third studio album
1)"Hostage of love" - This song was played by Johnny Borrell (and acoustic guitar accompaniment was given by usual drummer Andy Burrows) during their short 3-song set at the November 2007 MENCAP concert at Islington's union chapel.
2)"Frequency" - This song has been played several times at various appearances and festivals during 2008 although it has been played in at least two different versions.
3)"Unknown title 1" - Razorlight streamed a video on their official website entitled "the band work on the ending to a new track", on which frontman Johnny Borrell is shown to be playing the piano. About 30 seconds of the song can be heard which comprise of an ostinato which is bisected several times with a repetitive drum fill.
4)"Unknown title 2" - during the sound check for June 2008's "Concert for Nelson Mandela" which was held in Londons Hyde Park and emphasized as well as Mandela's 90th birthday the ongoing 46664 campaign, the band were heard to rehearse new material, a clip of which was broadcast on youtube during which the band play a song with a beat similar to their song "Dont go back to Dalston" which included the lyrics "we all live as one".
5)"Funeral Blues" - Although it is probably unlikely that this will be included on the third album, alike "Kirbies House" from the war child album of 2005, this does not completely rule out the possibility of the song making an appearance, although like "Kirbies House", the song may be reworked before this happens.
6)North Lodon trash
7)monster boots
8)Through your barricades
9)Tabloid lover
10)Wire to wire
11)The house
12)BB eyes and stinger
In August 2008,Razorlights site sent out E-mails to its members to notify them that a new web site will be launched in September.Razorlight will release their as yet untitled third studio album on November 3rd,2008 with the lead single coming out on October 20th,2008
Discography==Albums- Up All Night (28 June, 2004) Vertigo #3 UK(3x Platinum)
- Razorlight (17 July, 2006) Vertigo #1 UK (4x Platinum), #180 US
- Third studio album November 3rd 2008
Singles
Copyright Citations
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