WORDS AND IMAGES WARREN MILLAR
So we are off to Liverpool again tonight and to one of our favourite venues Liverpool Guild of Students, Mountford Hall. Tonight’s headliners are the early mid-2000s indie rock band “Razorlight” formed in 2002 in London by lead singer and guitarist Johnny Borrell.
As we walk from where we parked up and past the two Liverpool cathedrals, The Anglican and Catholic places of worship, that add to reverence to Liverpool’s iconic skyline we can’t help but notice that its quiet and then remember that it’s Grand National week in Liverpool and most will still be making their way back from Aintree Race Course, either with a little more money than they went with or a lot less depending on their luck or skill at picking winners.
Supporting tonight is the Manchester-based band “Afflecks Palace” named after the iconic Manchester indoor market on Oldham Street, Manchester. It’s a nod from the band to probably one of the most influential shopping arcades of the Manchester music and cultural scenes for many years. Everyone in Manchester and its cultural history knows Afflecks Palace. Lead man James Fender (Yeah it’s his real name) comes on stage holding a huge placard which says “We Are Afflecks Palace” and is looking every inch the lead man of a Manchester band (even though he’s originally from Leeds) in his red jacket and bucket hat (We love bucket hats) Their songs are full of great guitar riffs and catchy Manchester dance rhythms of the mid 90’s feel. You can certainly tell they are big Stone Roses fans. All members of the band are together and tight and you find yourself moving to their tunes and thinking back to the Spike Island days of 1990. This for us is a big fan of the Manchester scene in the ’90s and of course, an avid wearer and collector of bucket hats were right up our street and we loved these guys check them out, please !!
So after an eventful interval during the set change where the fire alarm was accidentally set off (no panic though dealt with in no time at all), the house lights dim and onto the Mountford Hall stage come “Razorlight” Leadman Johnny Borrell is the archetypal charismatic front man bossing the stage with a powerful yet controlled voice and he looks so dam good! It’s straight into “Rip It Up” for their first song of the night. The crowd are immediately under the band’s musical spell dancing and singing away with total abandonment and loving what they are hearing and seeing on stage. Borrell and Björn Ågren (Guitar) bounce musically off each other creating real indie musical heaven. The guys haven’t lost anything during the years that have past and still sound just as good as they did back in the day when they played most of the big massive festivals such as Reading back in 2004. One thing about “Razorlight” is that no matter the size of the venue and or festival you get a great performance full of high energy great music from start to finish. The big hits such as “Golden Touch” and “In The Morning” were greeted with some wild scenes and sounded just perfect.
It’s always a sign of a great set when it seems that it’s over far too quickly and that was the case tonight with “Razorlight” Before we knew it the guys were singing their last song of a three-song encore which of course had to be their U.K. Number 1 hit single “America” which in our eyes sealed the night as a real great night of brilliant live indie music.
Walking back to the car there are a lot more people around all looking for a watering hole in which to either spend their winnings from today’s racing at Aintree or drown their sorrows having lost a few bob. All we know is that we backed a winner tonight by going to watch “Razorlight” live.
SETLIST
1/ Rip it Up
2/ In the Morning
3/ Stumble and Fall
4/ Keep the Right Profile
5/ Golden Touch
6/ Vice
7/ I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got
8/ In the City
9/ Rock ‘n’ Roll Lies
10/ Get It and Go
11/ Wire to Wire
12/ Los Angeles Waltz
13/ Who Needs Love?
14/ Before I Fall to Pieces
15/ Somewhere Else
ENCORE
16/ Don’t Go Back to Dalston
17/ Good Night
18/ America
FOLLOW RAZORLIGHT
FOLLOW AFFLECKS PALACE
Warren is a live music and festival photographer based in Cheshire and covers gigs/festivals mostly in the North West of England. He has been photographing live music for over 10 years and has covered major artists and festivals
