Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell and Andy Burrows share hit stories at secret London gig ahead of 20th anniversary tour

Johnny Borrell and Andy Burrows of Razorlight performed a surprise acoustic show at Stereo in Covent Garden on Wednesday, playing stripped-back versions of the group’s best-known songs and recounting the stories behind them. The performance for a small audience coincided with the release of a demo version of the band’s number one single America, titled Lost in America, and the approaching 20^th anniversary of their self-titled second album.

Among those in attendance was the actor and Gavin & Stacey creator James Corden. The intimate performance served as a precursor to a UK and Ireland tour scheduled for November 2026, which will mark two decades since the release of the Razorlight album.

Borrell and Burrows achieved significant commercial success together in the mid-2000s before a falling out that left the pair estranged for more than a decade. They reunited in 2021. At Wednesday’s show, the two musicians recalled how several of the band’s songs came together.

The frontman said the initial idea for America stemmed from the drum rhythm of Billy Joel’s Movin’ Out. “I sat down and said [to Andy], ‘Why don’t we just write a song with a drum beat like that, but minus the trumpet?’ You looked at me like, ‘Well, we could, but you wouldn’t like it,'” he said. Burrows then came up with the chorus which at the time was “Who-oh, she’s lost in America, somewhere in America”. The song eventually evolved into Lost in America.

Borrell described his original intention for the song, which drew on the example of Prince writing Nothing Compares 2 U before it became a 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?” he said.

The song was circulated among publishers without success. “There was a guy called Tony McMichael or something like that based in Nashville. Apparently, he tried it and didn’t like it,” Borrell said.

He recounted how the track was eventually reworked. “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 evening’s setlist also included Golden Touch, In the Morning, Stumble and Fall, Who Needs Love and Before I Fall to Pieces, alongside excerpts of Extreme’s More Than Words and Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight. Reflecting on the band’s early songwriting after playing 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 feature the band’s four longstanding members, Borrell, Burrows, Björn Ågren and Carl Dalemo, performing the Razorlight album in full. The band’s debut, Up All Night, was certified four times platinum, and the band currently averages more than 1.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify. 

The editorial unit
Photos: Filippo L’Astorina

For further information and for tour dates visit razorlight.com.