Razorlight @ Leeds Cockpit - 2nd June 2004

Item: Razorlight @ Leeds Cockpit - 2nd June 2004
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Author: Andy Salmon

By Andy Salmon on 10 June 2004

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Razorlight @ Leeds Cockpit - 2nd June 2004

Razorlight arrived on stage to a sell out crowd, eagerly anticipating their forthcoming album Up all night . Their single Golden Touch is due for release on the 14 th June, has received wide radio air play and is dually anticipated with the same regard.

After a bit of delaying tactics to build the buzz (or at least the sweat dripping down the walls), Razorlight jump straight into Rip It Up, a mass of spiky guitar and furious drumming released last year as a single and destined to be a centrepiece of forthcoming album, Up All Night. Older members of the audience recognise

Razorlight @ Leeds Cockpit - 2nd June 2004

it as Television-by-numbers, the youngsters don't care what it sounds like - they just know it's terribly exciting.

But excitement is what Razorlight deliver in spades and as the temperature rises, so does the speed and delivery of the tunes. To The Sea comes and goes within minutes, Rock and Roll Lies prompts the first huge audience reaction, while Golden Touch, staggeringly, is dropped without a hint of warning right in the middle of the set. How many bands can get away with playing (what is destined to be) their biggest hit seven songs in? Only the handful that know they can back it up with more.

By the time they unleash In The City and set closer Stumble and Fall, Johnny is doing just that. Ripping across the stage like a demented, sweat-soaked, guitar-wielding general, he knows he can mentally check Leeds off in his list of cities to conquer en-route to world domination. They might be riding on the back of the re-discovered love for English guitar-rock, but with the killer combination of confidence and tunes there is no doubt that Razorlight will rise to the top.

Andy Salmon