James return to Australia to perform all the songs from their classic ‘Laid’ album, plus hits and deep cuts. Joined by special guests Razorlight.
Concert in your area for Rock and Indie & Alt.
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For a period of time, Razorlight were one of the biggest bands in the United Kingdom. Far eclipsing everyone else who had come out of the same East London indie rock scene, even though that scene brought the world everyone from The Libertines to Bloc Party. From 2004 to around 2007, they were only second to Arctic Monkeys themselves in terms of albums sales, fan devotion, radio play and sheer popularity. However, the crucial thing to remember about Razorlight is that no amount of success, no matter how all-encompassing it was, was ever going to be enough for their frontman, one Mr. Johnny Borrell. Borrell formed the band in 2002, after ditching a solo career that he'd spent as an intense, young singer/songwriter supporting bands like the aforementioned Libertines in Whitechapel bars. Once he'd put together the first line-up of the band, and recruited NME scribe Roger Morton as the band's manager, the band made their live debut supporting The Von Bondies at Camden's Dingwalls and recorded demo versions of their songs “Rock 'n' Roll Lies”, “Rip It Up” and “In The City” shortly afterwards.
Borrell soon became something of an indie rock celebrity, thanks to his pin-up looks and habit of saying things in the press that were alternately bonkers, brilliant, disgustingly arrogant or a hybrid of all three. As I said before, no amount of success would satisfy the ambitious young rocker, so the sheer amount of critical acclaim and commercial success that they enjoyed straight out of the gate is arguably the best and worst thing to happen to Razorlight in their entire career. After the band signed with Mercury Records, their debut album “Up All Night” was released in June 2004, and was an immediate top three hit. In 2005, after their single “Somewhere Else” had crashed into the singles chart at number two, the band solidified their place as the next big thing by performing to an audience of 200'000 people at that summer's Live 8 festival in Hyde Park.
Their self-titled second album saw them ascend into the stratosphere. After its release in 2006, the band secured their first number one single in the form of “America”, Borrell's co-writing effort with their drummer Andy Burrows, and support slots with Queen + Paul Rodgers, The Rolling Stones and Oasis followed in short order. In October, they embarked on a sold out tour of arenas in the UK and the following year, they capped off their imperial phase by headlining the Reading and Leeds festivals, the biggest gigs of their career by far. Ever since then, the band have remained one of the most beloved acts of the 2000's as much for their singer's eccentricities a for their titanic back catalogue of hits and their consummate live show. For remaining relevant well past a lot of their peers, Razorlight come highly recommended.
I decided to head to see James on my birthday at the echo arena in Liverpool. And also that i was gonna busk me and my mate way in one way or the other. So i made a sign and found a good pitch just outside the arena. It didn't take long to get some tickets off some kind people who had spares for one reason or the other. made a few beer tokens too so we headed in and found our seats. I've been to see them many times before and they were as good as ever. We enjoyed Born of Frustration the most as he started the song stood right beside. There's a few youtube clips that show my mate offering Tim Booth a beer before he goes climbing through the audience. See you in Brixton and Birmingham in a few days x
I caught Razorlight in person earlier this year and those guys rocked the roof off of the house. Somehow I actually hadn’t listened to much of their work before going, even though they were such a huge hit in the early 2000s.
Lucky me, I got to experience all of their work for the first time live in concert, and I can’t imagine ever wanting to listen to recorded studio performances after seeing how amazing they were in person! Razorlight had the entire crowd captivated from the second they stepped on the stage until the club finally kicked everybody out so we couldn’t beg for yet another encore anymore.
They’ve got the whole package: hypnotic rhythms, driving basslines, and memorable hooks. On top of their immense talent, their passion for music is readily apparent in everything about the way they look and act. I could see any of the four grocery shopping and instantly know that they are rock stars; that’s how incredibly charismatic they are.
Razorlight is kind of on hiatus with some plans for a new album, but they are playing in several festivals this year so make sure to go check them out if you have the opportunity to.
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