RAZORLIGHT SHARE THE STORIES BEHIND THE HITS IN AN INTIMATE LONDON SURPRISE SHOW

NEWS | 24th July 2026

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.

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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.”

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.

The ‘America’ 20 Year Anniversary Tour is coming this winter, with tickets on sale NOW.