Like jagged shards of urban talent, the incisive rock art and eclectic passion of Razorlight electrified the scuzzy atmospheric environs of London's Astoria in October. It was a memorable night for Louise Stickland...

Condensation dripped off the ceiling and adrenaline steamed off the crowd, as surfers gave themselves to this molten mix of music, excitement and intensity...

Razorlight's founder and lead singer Johnny Borrell is a seriously dynamic performer and songwriter - his insightful, surreal lyrics and expressive rhythmic rollercoaster careering from gritty punk to serene impresario are all there on the band's in-the-face debut album, Up All Night. It marks two years of hard graft that have seen Razorlight elevate themselves from rock bottom to the "next big thing".

Needless to say, working with them has at times resembled a white knuckle experience, but it's always very invigorating being involved with something on the cusp of success and acclaim, explained lighting designer Matt Dowden, as we escaped the mayhem of the Astoria briefly in a nearby bar. Disappointingly, they didn't take their touring production into the London show - the final date on the UK itinerary before a showcase in Paris. However, that didn't detract from anyone's enjoyment of the show, least of all Dowden's. He's pleased to be working with the Band Of The Moment.

Named after a line in a Who song, Razorlight are tour managed by the very friendly Fruit Pie Music, run by Kumar Kamalagharan, an individual clearly dedicated to taking the bollox out of band management! Dowden had previously worked with him on the Dum Dums, Steve Winwood and others, and he came on-board with Razorlight in the late summer. Initially they played some festival slots which were invaluable in getting into the music.

Johnny Borrell has very clear visual ideas himself, and although the lighting brief came late in the day - 10.30pm on the penultimate day of production rehearsals at lighting supplier Neg Earth in Park Royal - when it did, it was very specific.

Borrell wanted a strong theatrical style to the show, and some songs with certain specific still projections. He wanted to use a white backdrop, which made sense for the projections, and he also wanted to see very solid walls of colour. Oh, and he dislikes blue and its subtractives. Consequently, the show is heavily based around red, white and sepia tones.

Dowden rose to the challenge, once he'd recovered from the shock of being banned from using blue - one of his favourite colours! By this time, they had limited time to pull everything together, but this was Razorlight and the late brief was all part of the genuinely creative mayhem.

Borrell is into repetition, and wanted some different images depicting this - all of which come on for the duration of a song and don't change. Dowden went out and photographed two of the specific site shots he wanted, one of a bookshop full of antiquarian books, and the other a well-known cigarette shop in High Holborn.

The touring rig consisted of 11 Martin MAC 2000 profiles, four High End PC Beams, six bars of Pars and five Atomic strobes, plus the practicals - three standard lamps and a string of fairy lights. The domestic fairy lights proved "a right pain in the arse" and kept breaking, resulting in the daily task of replenishing stocks as and when possible as they traversed the country.

As the tour continued and settled down, Dowden admitted to sneaking a few slick and tastefully executed blue 'moments' in there now and again, but they're virtually imperceptible amidst the gassy cloud of tungsten whites and the searing saturated reds.

The standard lamps were sourced from Theme Traders, along with assorted other props including Japanese Shoji screens, originally used to cover the backline for the opening acts, but they looked so good they decided to leave them (an antique cigarette vending machine and two 1980s telephones), although I have to admit I missed these!

Dowden was also charged with visiting Borrell's flat to collect the table on which he wrote most of the songs - also dutifully onstage. It was a lot of leg work, but Dowden became very excited and energised about pulling all visual elements together. He's pleased to be working with an artist with a strong concept of visual identity for the stage.

For the projection, he sourced a RADlite digital media server and Sanyo projectors from Siyan, with a Barco used to boost the lumen count for the Brixton show. The RADlite was used to project the seven stills and one video effect - a 30 minute countdown after the last support band left stage, which was great for ramping up audience anticipation. One other video effect was used: a jumbly noise pattern for in-between numbers.

Dowden used his own Avolites Pearl 2004 for control which he loves. "It's a completely hands-on console," he declared, "and great for running a show that changes daily to fit the venues." He likes having the front lighting available for 'on the fly' manipulation and manually matching to what's going on elsewhere on-stage.

The Astoria house rig features six SGM Giotto 400s and four Robe Wash lights plus some Pars. Razorlight brought in their Atomics, four MAC 2000s, the RADlite and all the props.

The LD is thoroughly enjoying himself and the whole Razorlight buzz, which always boosts the vibes of any tour. The shows are constantly eventful, especially when Borrell goes walkabout into the crowd. Dowden is now looking forward to doing larger venues with them, commenting that "a lot of Johnny's ideas will work well in arenas".

SHARP SOUND
FOH engineer Ian Lawton came on-board with Razorlight pretty much from day one. He's totally into their energy, enthusiasm and talent, and has invested plenty of time and effort into getting the sonics spot on. Unlike the visuals, Borrell leaves him to his own devices.

Monitor engineer Phil McDaniel's company, Nottingham-based ESS (not to be confused with the staging company of the same acronym) supplied the UK tour's sound - a Turbosound Floodlight rig which was purchased from Skan, and still very much going strong.

"It's actually my favourite PA to this day," said Lawton. "I love those old blue boxes; the 'real' sound of Turbo is unbeatable," he added confidently, having also used all the current a la mode line arrays. He's had plenty of experience with punky rock bands with oodles of attitude before - with Ash, Supergrass and others already on the CV - and concluded that this type of band needs "plenty of room to manoeuvre" in their sound systems.

At the Brixton show, they augmented the touring rig with some flown Flashlight from Brit Row which gave a great result. On tour, he ran seven mid-tops a side and seven subs, which just about squeezed into all the venues. The touring desk was a Midas Heritage 3000, on to which he also fitted the two support bands, together with a small Midas stretch for the effects returns and extras.

As you might imagine, the show is totally full-on - a sonic assault on the senses from the first chord, pausing for breath only for the first number of the encore, the brand new 'I Can't Explain', when Borrell proved his vocals can be as soulful as they are lasceratingly attitudinal.

Lawton used Drawmer gates and TL Audio valve compressors for warmth on the kick and snare, plus some BSS compressors. Apart from that, effects were minimal - just two Yamaha SPX 990s and a TC D-5000 delay.

Mics are Shure SM57s on the guitars, SM58s for vocals, and a Beyer M88 on the kick. There's no processing needed on the vocal as Borrell is such a powerful singer with exceptional projection. "I've not heard a voice like that since I worked with Richard Ashcroft of the Verve," claimed Lawton.

Lawton also used the Astoria's house rig, consisting of a Soundcraft Vienna console and ASS Reflektor speakers. It was augmented with four Brit Row Flashlight boxes, brought in and hung on the middle truss, to blast sound up on to the balcony, traditionally a dead spot in the venue.

I asked Lawton how he had been enjoying himself and he responded with a wide grin: "They're seriously talented, and really great guys to work with." Razorlight are in their mid-twenties; their maturity is matched by all the zeal and energy you'd expect from teenagers. The overall sound oeuvre is reinforcement at a massive level - LOUD and CLEAR being the primary objective, but with plenty of spatiality.

Phil McDaniel and his company ESS do a lot of work with developing indie artists, and he was enjoying the family atmosphere of the tour. The monitor wedges they used on the tour were ESS's own dual-concentric 15"/2" design, used in conjunction with four-way Floodlight side fills. They also like to give support bands a good crack of the whip at ESS, so both acts used a separate compact four-way ESS-designed drum fill. The larger shows featured gospel singers and a piano, and up to 12 monitor mixes.

ESS's highly flexible monitor control is based around the dbx 480 DriveRack, used for control and also allowing support bands complete access to everything. The monitor console was a Soundcraft SM20 - ideal with its small footprint in some of the more intimate venues, and with MIDI synchronisation to the DriveRack.

Outboards included an SPX 990, Drawmer gates and compressors, and 'virtual dbx 160A' compression, which was used extensively. It was no big surprise to learn that the biggest monitor challenge was dealing with the high stage volume and the need to hear the vocals clearly!

Razorlight's itinerary takes them to the US supporting Jimmy Eat World and then back to the UK supporting the Manic Street Preachers before Christmas. In January, it's back to the US for their own shows. And next year? Well, we're all watching this space as it's going to be exceptionally LARGE and fabulous on planet Razorlight!

Photography by Louise Stickland