Fans of indie icons Razorlight were treated to renditions of classic tunes as they’ve never heard them before as Johnny Borrell and Andy Burrows played a surprise intimate show in central London.
Gavin & Stacey creator and Hollywood star James Corden was among the select few at Stereo, in Covent Garden, treated to acoustic versions of classic tracks and the stories behind them.
The show came after the band released the demo version of their No.1 hit ‘America’, titled ‘Lost In America’, as the classic self-titled second album, Razorlight, hits its 20th anniversary.
Tickets are on sale now for the celebratory UK tour in November.
After Borrell and Burrows found huge success with the musical partnership that spawned Razorlight, they fell out and were estranged for more than a decade. But after a successful reunion in 2021, the pair took to the stage on Wednesday to tell the true stories behind some of the band’s greatest hits.
The initial spark for the No.1 smash ‘America’ was the drum rhythm to Billy Joel’s ‘Moving Out’.
Borrell said: “I sat down and said, ‘Why don’t we just write a song with a drop beat like that, but minus the trumpet?’ You looked at me like, “Well, we could, but you wouldn’t like it.'”
The song developed into the recently released ‘Lost In America’ and Borrell said: “My plan, which Andy probably didn’t like, was based on when Prince wrote ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ and no one knew it was a Prince song until it became this big hit (for Sinéad O’Connor). I was like: Wouldn’t it be so cool if we wrote this song and found some amazing artist to do it?”
The song was pitched around by publishers but nothing happened.
“There was a guy called Tony McMichael or something like that based in Nashville. Apparently, he tried it and didn’t like it,” said Borrell.
“Six months later, we still had this song. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the song. I was living in the rehearsal studio at the time, and I had written this riff years ago. I think it was the first riff I ever wrote – for a really bad song about northeastern England when I was away on a very long camping holiday when I was 13. I never used guitar pedals, but I looked at this pedal on the floor and thought, ‘You know, I could put that with the ‘Lost in America’ song and see what happens.'”
The pair developed the song from there and it became their biggest hit.
The evening also included renditions of ‘Golden Touch’, ‘In The Morning’, ‘Stumble and Fall’, ‘Who Needs Love’ and ‘Before I Fall To Pieces’, as well as unexpected snippets of Extreme’s ‘More Than Words’ and Eric Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’.
After ‘Los Angeles Waltz’, Borrell said: “We could write a song back then before we knew how to do anything else…we were in our 20s and I don’t think I could even tie my shoelaces back then. I was like, give me some Velcro – but here’s a hit record.”
The 2026 tour will see Razorlight‘s four classic members – Borrell, Burrows, Björn Ågren and Carl Dalemo – perform the Razorlight album in full. Find tickets at www.razorlightofficial.com.
Razorlight‘s reputation has grown since four-times platinum debut album Up All Night, and the band has connected with a new generation of fans, averaging more than 1.7 million monthly Spotify listeners. Their achievements include a UK No. 1 album, a Number 1 single, three UK Top 5 albums, two multi-platinum albums, and eight UK Top 20 singles.
‘Razorlight’ 20th anniversary tour dates:
- Saturday 3 October – Powerstation, Auckland
- Sunday 4 October – Meow Nui, Wellington
- Tuesday 6 October – Max Watts – Melbourne
- Thu 23 Oct 2026 – Kägelbanen, Stockholm, Sweden
- Sun 25 Oct 2026 – Tavastia, Helsinki, Finland
- Tue 27 Oct 2026 – John Dee, Oslo, Norway
- Wed 28 Oct 2026 – Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Fri 30 Oct 2026 – Kantine, Cologne, Germany
- Sat 31 Oct 2026 – Mühle Hunziken, Rubigen, Switzerland
- Sun 01 Nov 2026 – La madeleine, Brussels, Belgium
- Tue 03 Nov 2026 – Roxy, Prague, Czech Republic
- Wed 04 Nov 2026 – Technikum, Munich, Germany
- Thu 05 Nov 2026 – Simm City, Vienna, Austria
- Sat 07 Nov 2026 – Kammgarn, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
- Sun 08 Nov 2026 – Trianon, Paris, France
- Tue 10 Nov 2026 – Den Atelier, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
- Wed 11 Nov 2026 – Melkweg, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Fri 13 Nov 2026 – Rolling Stone Beach Festival, Germany
- Sat 14 Nov 2026 – Heimathafen Neukölln, Berlin, Germany
- Sun 15 Nov 2026 – Circolo Magnolia, Milan, Italy
- Tue 17 Nov 2026 – Moon, Valencia, Spain
- Wed 18 Nov 2026 – Wolf, Barcelona, Spain
- Fri 20 Nov 2026 – Grand Mix, Tourcoing, France
- Thu 26 Nov 2026 – O2 Academy, Glasgow, UK
- Fri 27 Nov 2026 – O2 City Hall, Newcastle, UK
- Sat 28 Nov 2026 – The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, UK
- Mon 30 Nov 2026 – O2 Academy, Leeds, UK
- Tue 01 Dec 2026 – Rock City, Nottingham, UK
- Thu 03 Dec 2026 – O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester, UK
- Fri 04 Dec 2026 – OVO Arena Wembley, London, UK
- Sat 05 Dec 2026 – The Prospect Building, Bristol, UK
- Tue 08 Dec 2026 – Hedon, Zwolle, Netherlands
- Wed 09 Dec 2026 – Nieuwe Nor, Heerlen, Netherlands
- Sun 13 Dec 2026 – Telegraph, Belfast
- Mon 14 Dec 2026 – 3Olympia, Dublin
With James:
- Thursday 8th October 2026 – Red Hill Auditorium, Perth
- Saturday 10 October 2026 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
- Sunday 11. October 2026 – MCA , Melbourne
- Tuesday 13 October 2026 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane
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