Having completed a strong resurgence with the critically acclaimed ‘Planet Nowhere’ album, Razorlight end 2024 by going back to where it all began by sharing the new short documentary ‘Surviving Up All Night: The Making Of Razorlight’s Debut Album ’. They debuted the film at their recent sold-out headline show at the O2 Academy Brixton.

The documentary starts with the story of each band being drawn to Johnny Borrell’s vision as he looked for musicians who shared his admiration for The Stooges, Lenny Kaye and The Velvet Underground. It’s not long before their riotous shows and accomplished songwriting builds a buzz around the band… at which point, events take a much darker turn.

The band, along with key members of the wider Razorlight universe including manager Roger Morton, engineer Natty and producer John Cornfield, document what happened next. A deal was inked with Mercury Records and the pressure was on – especially as the band had spent £40,000 of their budget before even recording anything. Yet somehow everything comes together despite a biblical array of misfortunes, including the studio being struck by lightning, lost recordings, an unexpected change of locations, people going missing, and schism amongst the band members.

And if you’ve ever wondered how Johnny unlocked that inimitable vocal – the seemingly effortless cocktail of a jittery, on-edge stutter with laconic drawl – this documentary will reveal all. But it’s not something you should be trying at home…

The effort paid off. ‘Up All Night’ became one of the biggest debut albums of the decade and made Razorlight instant icons in the indie world, with singles like ‘Somewhere Else’, ‘Golden Touch’ and ‘Rip It Up’ storming the charts and firing the album to more than 1.2 million domestic sales.

As Johnny reveals, everything that has happened since might have never happened had fate conspired against him. His phone rang moments after he imagined the ‘Golden Touch’ hook – had the call come just seconds earlier, all of this might have been nothing more than an alternate reality.

“I never thought the album was going to kill me or anything,” he concludes, “but if it hadn’t worked out then I think it would have killed music for me.”

The Razorlight adventure continues into 2025. Two shows are already confirmed: as special guests to Kaiser Chiefs at Temple Newsam Park in Leeds on May 31st and as headliners at The Brit Fest in Altrincham on July 4th.