Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell recently sat down for NME‘s Show & Tell series. Watch it in the video above.
As the indie veterans return with fourth album ‘Olympus Sleeping‘, their first in ten years, Borrell shared his responses and opinions on a wide-range of topics that were presented to him without warning – including his thoughts on Glastonbury, Morrissey, Arctic Monkeys, Radio 1, motorcycles, his own white skinny jeans, and the eating habits of his former Libertines bandmate.
“Radio 1 was thrilling back in the day,” Borrell told NME. “It felt like you could a snotty guitar band and they’d play you alongside the biggest guitar bands in the world and the biggest pop thing. That just felt amazing. It felt like it was such a credit to this country.
“It was the opposite to America where everything was a genre, but you could have The Zutons followed by Beyonce, followed by Dre, followed by Red Hot Chili Peppers. I remember that music is music man, and that was great.”
Speaking of his ‘look’ of wearing white skinny jeans, Borrell said: “I made a t-shirt of my favourite Van Morrison album and I wore it at Live 8, and I was wearing white jeans as well. I was sitting there with my good friend Alex McGuinness, the daughter of U2’s manager Paul, and she said to me ‘Whatever you’re wearing right now, you’ve got to wear it every day for the next year, and that’s how you get your message across in music’.
“I looked at her and I said, ‘You’re on’. I happened to be wearing white skinny jeans and a very pale washed out blue Van Morrison t-shirt. The record had a long life so it ended up being a good 18 months. I enjoyed it because it was like a uniform. You didn’t have to think about it. That was a real relief.”
He also had a short and sweet response to Pete Doherty conquering a big breakfast challenge in Margate. Watch the full Show & Tell video with Borrell above
The band’s upcoming UK tour dates are below. Tickets are available here.
Tuesday December 4 – Glasgow The Old Fruitmarket
Wednesday December 5 – Sheffield O2 Academy
Thursday December 6 – Liverpool O2 Academy
Saturday December 8 – Bristol SWX
Monday December 10 – Birmingham The O2 Institute
Tuesday December 11 – Brighton Concorde 2
Thursday December 13 – Nottingham Rock City
Friday December 14 – London O2 Forum Kentish Town
Sunday December 16 – Manchester O2 Ritz
Monday December 17 – Newcastle O2 Academy
Tuesday December 18 – Leeds O2 Academy
Wednesday December 19 – Cambridge The Junction