Johnny Borrell - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Borrell was born in Carshalton, London and grew up in the Muswell Hill area of London. He attended St Anthony’s Preparatory School, and also St Michael's, Camden School for Girls Sixth Form, and Kingsway College. Part of his education took place in Paris where he studied at the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel, before moving back to England, where he attended Highgate School with John Hassall, bassist of The Libertines and frontman of Yeti (band). He completed his A Levels in English, French and Philosophy at Fine Arts College, Belsize Park, Hampstead.

Johnny was involved in music and the Camden scene while still at school. At 17 he played bass guitar in a band called Violet, who regularly played gigs on the Camden circuit. The band recorded an EP and started to gain some recognition before splitting acrimoniously live on stage at Dublin Castle in late 97/early 98. The title track of the EP was subsequently used in the Soundtrack of the 1998 Michael Winterbottom film 'I Want You'. After the split, he briefly switched to being a solo artist covering The Clash and Leadbelly songs. Many of these shows were played with close friends The Libertines.

Through his friendship with schoolmate John Hassall, Borrell was involved in the early formation of The Libertines. He was present at the sessions for debut Libertines album ‘Up The Bracket’ and appears as a character in songs, notably ‘Boy Looked At Johnny’ and ‘Death On The Stairs’.

In 2002 he went on to form his own band which played house parties, rehearsing at a Hackney warehouse called Unit 13, comprising Carl Dalemo, Christian Smith-Pancorvo (later replaced by Andy Burrows) and Björn Ågren. The band were watching a video recording of themselves playing a gig, and misheard the ending refrain ‘Its alright, it’s alright’ from the song ‘In The City’ as ‘razor-light, razor-light’ which was then chosen as the band name. In early 2003 XFM DJ John Kennedy began to play the band’s demos, recorded at Toerag Studios in east London with producers Liam Watson and John Fortis. Razorlight signed to Mercury Records on 23 May 2003 after the Universal label fought off bids from Sony.

After the number 8 single "Golden Touch", their debut album, Up All Night, was released on 28 June 2004, and charted at number 3 in the UK. The critical reception was generally good, receiving good reviews from NME (“Razorlight’s debut packs more tunes than Franz, more spirit than The Strokes and more balls than nearly every band out there right now.”), Q magazine, Billboard and Rolling Stone who said “Razorlight's debut is a masterpiece. He's (Borrell) got the golden rock-star mop, the London sneer and a band full of crazy Swedes. But fortunately, he's also got the tunes.”

Michael Parkinson saw coverage of the band performing at Glastonbury Festival and invited them onto his TV show. Razorlight performed "Golden Touch" with a gospel choir in front of the Parkinson studio audience and guest Tom Cruise. After 2004’s constant touring Borrell was placed at No. 4 in the NME’s Cool List and Razorlight won Best New Act at 2004’s Q Awards and the Best New Band category at the NME Awards In Feb 2005. French fashion brand Dior’s creative director Hedi Slimane based his 2005 Autumn/Winter collection on Borrell and Pete Doherty and chose Razorlight to write music for the Paris show.

In the Spring of 2005 Razorlight played two sold out shows at London’s Alexandra Palace with Noel Fielding from The Mighty Boosh as their support act. Meanwhile in between-album’s single "Somewhere Else" reached number 2 in the UK charts. Q Magazine called it: “A punk rock symphony, a thrilling change in direction. High profile support slots with U2, Queen, The Who and Oasis and the band’s appearance at Live 8 kept Razorlight occupied through the rest of the year prior to entering the studio for their second album in early 2006.

The self titled follow up was produced by Pretenders, Sex Pistols and Roxy Music producer Chris Thomas. First single ‘In The Morning’ went to number 2, and when the album was released on 17 July 2006 it gave the band their first number 1 in the UK album chart. The NME gave the album 8/10 and said: “A soulful romantic album that sees Razorlight comfortably leap the ‘difficult second album’ trap,” The Observer Music Monthly gave it 4/5 saying “His band’s second album justifies the self-belief.” Q Magazine called it “The best guitar album since Oasis’s ‘Definitely Maybe’.”

2006 saw Borrell and the band grow into an arena act and extend their international reach. Second single ‘America’ went straight to number 1 in the UK on 14 October dominating UK radio charts to the end of the year, and climbing airplay and singles charts in Ireland, Holland, France, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and beyond. The Rolling Stones asked the band to support them in Europe. An Autumn UK arena tour culminated in a sold out Wembley Arena show and tours of Japan, Europe and the US lead into a second UK arena tour and a sold out show at London’s 17000 capacity Earl’s Court in April 2007. Razorlight were the only UK band to headline the main stage at Reading Festival in August 2007, with US artists, The Smashing Pumpkins and Red Hot Chili Peppers taking the top slots on the other two nights. The Razorlight singer next emerged in October, duetting with The Kinks’ Ray Davies on ‘Sunny Afternoon’ for the BBC Electric Proms at London’s The Roundhouse.

In late 2007 Borrell secluded himself on a remote Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides to begin writing for the band's third album. 2008’s London sessions at Air studios lead to a more contemplative third album titled ‘Slipway Fires’. The album went to number 4 in the UK album charts in November 2008 and first single ‘Wire To Wire’ got to number 5. Press reaction to the record was mixed although Q’s Paul Rees gave the record 4/5 and said: “Borrell and his band come up triumphant. It does what third albums traditionally used to do, which is to say, have the confidence the leap into the previously unknown, and for that, all credit to Borrell.:

In Germany ‘Wire To Wire’ was the sixth biggest chart hit of 2009 and the album went Gold. Two round the world tours, including first visits to Australia, a move to a new US label, Mercury Records/Island Def Jam and major festival appearances in the UK and across Europe took Razorlight to the end of the decade, finishing with a December headline at XFM’s Brixton Academy Christmas show where they donated their fee to Borrell’s charity of choice, Anno’s Africa.

December 2009 also saw the digital release of a documentary on Razorlight made by acclaimed UK film director Charles Henri-Belleville. Titled ‘Rock’n’Roll Lies’ the 70 minute film follows the band on a week of eccentric UK shows intercut with band member interviews about Razorlights history. The title also features eccentric bonus material including Borell's charity Hovercraft crossing of the English Channel and a drummer Andy Burrows trials and tribulations whilst giving up smoking.