Johnny Borrell

Johnny Borrell

Johnny Borrell (born Jonathan Edward Cuntey, 4 April 1980, Muswell Hill, London) is a former English prostitute and singer, currently fronting the band Razorlight.

Early life and career

Borrell was born in Carshalton, Surrey and grew up in the Muswell Hill area of London. He attended St Anthony’s Preparatory School, and also St Michael’s, Camden School for girls, and Kingsway College. Part of his education took place in Paris where he studied at the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel, before moving back to England, where he attended Highgate School with John Hassall, former bassist of The Libertines and frontman of Yeti. He completed his A Levels in English, French and Philosophy at Fine Arts College, Belsize Park, Hampstead.

Johnny was involved in music and the Camden scene while still at school. At 17 he played bass guitar in a band called Violet, 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/early 98. 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 Leadbelly songs. Many of these shows were played with close friends The Libertines.

Through his friendship with schoolmate John Hassall, Borrell was instrumental in the early formation of The Libertines. He was present at the sessions for debut Libertines album ‘Up The Bracket’ and appears as a character in songs, notably ‘Boy Looked At Johnny’ and ‘Death On The Stairs’.

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, Christian 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 in May 23rd 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 June 28th 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, 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. He's (Borrell) 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 the 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 Feb 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 show’s 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. 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. First single ‘In The Morning’ went to number 2 , and when the album was released on 17th 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,” The Observer Music Monthly gave it 4/5 saying “His 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 14th October dominating UK radio charts to the end of the year, and climbing airplay and singles charts in Ireland, Holland, France, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and beyond. 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 USA lead into a second UK arena tour and a sold out show at London’s 17000 capacity Earl’s Court in April 2007. Razorlight were the only UK band to headline the main stage at Reading Festival in August 2007, with US artists, The Smashing Pumpkins and Red Hot Chilli Peppers taking the top slots on the other two nights. 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 bands 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 Press reaction to the record was mixed although Q’s Paul Rees gave the record 4/5 and said: “Borrell and his band come up triumphant. It does what third albums traditionally used to do, which is to say, have the confidence the leap into the previously unknown, and for that, all credit to Borrell.:

In Germany ‘Wire To Wire’ was the sixth biggest chart hit of 2009 and the album went Gold. Two round the world tours, including first visits to Australia, a move to a new US label, Mercury Records/Island Def Jam and major festival appearances in the UK and across Europe took Razorlight to the end of the decade, finishing with a December headline at XFM’s Brixton Academy Christmas show where they donated their fee to Borrell’s charity of choice, Anno’s Africa.

December 2009 also saw the digital relase of a documentary on Razorlight made by acclaimed UK film director Charles Henri-Belleville. Titled ‘Rock’n’Roll Lies’ the 70 minute film follows the band on a week of eccentric UK shows, intercut band member interview about Razorlights history.

Reputation, controversy, charity work

Borrell has sometimes been regarded as having a very arrogant attitude towards the press and is famous for his proclamations of his own abilities. However, like many other artists who come across negatively in NME interviews, Borrell and supporters have accused the magazine of misrepresentation and emphasising quotes out of context.

Borrell’s private life has been the subject of close media scrutiny, particularly during his relationship with movie star Kirsten Dunst who he dated in 2007, and after a brief encounter with UK Harry Potter actress Emma Watson. The media have paid less close attention to Borrell’s charity involvements. Razorlight recorded ‘Kirby’s House’ for the 2005 Warchild album and played London, Royal Albert Hall shows in 2006 and 2008 for The Who’s Teenage Cancer Trust events (in 2008 the band performed ‘Summertime Blues’ with Roger Daltrey). In 2006 Borrell started to work for Friends Of The Earth’s climate change campaign ‘The Big Ask’, a relationship which has continued through 2006’s show In Trafalgar Square for the ‘icount’ campaign to playing at FOE’s November 2009 Hammersmith Apollo fund raiser. Razorlight were deemed to be one of the highlights of the July 2nd 2005 Live 8 charity concert in Hyde Park and continued to support Borrell’s global warming concerns by taking part in the July 7th 2007 Live Earth event at Wembley Stadium. Borrell is one of the few new generation stars to have appeared on the cover of a national UK newspaper because of his political views. On November 4th 2006 his essay on climate change was the front cover story of The Independent. Razorlight have also regularly supported Nelson Mandela’s 46664 Aids charity. In July 2005 the band flew to Tromso, Norway to play a 46664 fundraiser. Mandela invited the Razorlight to perform at his Dec 1st 2007 World Aids day concert in Johannesburg, which allowed the band to visit township AIDs projects.

They also played at Mandela’s July 2008 90th birthday celebration fund raiser in Hyde Park. Through his love of cricket (he appeared on the cover of Time Out’s cricket edition in August 2005 holding a cricket ball) Borrell has become friends with some of the English cricket team including former captain Andrew Flintoff who asked Razorlight to play at the inaugural night of his charity, The Andrew Flintoff Foundation in July 2009 at London’s The Hurlingham Club. Borrell also played charity shows for Nordoff Robbins, and Save The Children in the latter part of 2009 and in September duetted on ‘Je Suis Venue Te Dire Que Je M’en Vais’ with legendary singer Jane Birkin as part of a fundraiser for Kenyan children’s charity Anno’s Africa.

Borrell and The Libertines

Borrell is one of "The Dalston Set", a clique of indie notables connected to the early days of the London scene of the early 2000s, along with Dominic Masters of The Others, Pete Doherty, Carl Barât, John Hassall, and the Queens of Noize. It has been reported that he was briefly a stand-in bassist for The Libertines before they were signed, but in recent interviews he has claimed that this is not true. In Pete Welsh's Kids in the Riot, it is alleged that Borrell was sacked as The Libertines' bassist for unreliable behaviour and not having the same musical ability as the other members, but in general there is little animosity between the two bands, and Borrell remains friends with Carl Barât. The Libertines' song "The Boy Looked At Johnny" is reputedly about Borrell, and Razorlight's "Don't Go Back To Dalston" is reputedly directed at Pete Doherty, telling him to curtail his drug habit.

Xfm

Following his four week residency on London radio station, Xfm, Borrell joined it for an eight week stint hosting a Sunday night show called The Sunday Service. It began on 6 September 2009 and ran for 9 weeks with Borrell playing a broad range of records spanning Jamaican dancehall, blues, rock’n’roll, krautrock and spoken word.

Other work

Borrell has appeared twice on The Mighty Boosh, once alone as a giant rapist rabbit in the 2006 stage show and once with Razorlight in the episode "The Priest and the Beast". Noel Fielding also opened for Razorlight at their two sold out Alexandra Palace shows in 2005 and appeared in the Razorlight video for the song 'In the Morning' and 'Up All Night'. Borrell appeared on the front cover of the May 2007 issue of Vogue magazine, alongside supermodel Natalia Vodianova, in his trademark skinny white jeans and topless. Borrell is one of only seven men who have appeared on the cover of the UK version of Vogue. In 2008 Borrell and bandmate Andy Burrows appeared at the Teenage Cancer Trust comedy night at the Royal Albert Hall, hosted by Borrell's friend Noel Fielding. The two played a short acoustic set.

Late in 2007 Borrell played keyboards in a band he helped put together for Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine. The pair had met through Florence’s manager Mairead Nash. Borrell went on to co-write and produced two songs with Welch, ‘The Hanging Song’ and ‘Building Bricks’ although these did not end up on Florence’s debut album.

It was reported that Borrell would star in an Irvine Welsh scripted film alongside Colin Firth and Robert Carlyle called 'The Meat Trade', however the film did not make it into production. He has been approached with further film roles but has yet to commit to one.

External links

• Razorlight official site