Johnny Borrell

Jonathan Edward Borrell (born 4 April 1980) is an English guitarist and singer, currently the frontman of the rock band Razorlight.

Borrell was born in Sutton, London.

His father, New Zealand-born John Borrell, was a war correspondent; his mother was a primary school teacher in Tottenham.

His parents divorced when he was young.

Borrell lived at Highgate, where he attended Highgate School.

He moved to Camden School for Girls for sixth form.

Borrell was involved in music and the Camden scene while still at school.

At 17 he played bass guitar in a band called Violet alongside Paul Rose, aka dubstep pioneer Scuba, 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.

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 Lead Belly songs.

Many of these shows were played with close friends The Libertines.

Through his friendship with schoolmate John Hassall, at Highgate School, Borrell was involved in the early formation of The Libertines.

He was present at the sessions for their debut album Up The Bracket and appears as a character in songs, notably "Boy Looked at Johnny" and "Death on the Stairs", and also "What a Waster" which appeared as a bonus track on the album in Japan.

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, Shïan 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 [Ferdinand], 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. [Borrell]'s 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 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 February 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", and 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.

Their first single "In The Morning" went to number 3, 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" whilst The Observer Music Monthly gave it 4/5 saying "[Borrell's] 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, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and America.

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 led into a second UK arena tour and a sold-out show at London's 17,000 capacity Earl's Court in April 2007.

Razorlight were the only UK band to headline the main stage at Reading Festival in August 2007.

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.