London Camden Barfly @ The Monarch
February 7
Ex- Libertine’s garage rumpus. Watch this space
“Let go! Get on the dancefloor!” hollers Johnny Borrell, corkscrew-curled singer-guitarist in Razorlight. Clearly Johnny is a man in a hurry. So would you be if you’d just seen your former band The Libertines stumbling around on Top Of The Pops like they rented a bedsit in the place.
To his left, bassist Carl Dalemo flicks his fringe out of his eyes to signal he’s seen us: It’s enough. Guitars jack-knife; drumrolls build and collapse like peace negotiations at the United Nations. If the soundman wasn’t asleep, it’d be a classic.
Next stop, ‘Rock’N’Roll Lies’ (no, we’re not making this up). “You’re all tied up with your backstage lines/And you just cant move a muscle”, croons Johnny from deep within a blizzard of guitars. Who could he mean?
Insistent pop assaults called things like ‘Which Way Out?’,’ Action’ and ‘Get It And Go’ zip by. They’re the musical equivalent of a public phone ringing in a call box. In the end, someone’s got to pick them up.
To finish, Johnny hits us with his own take on Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ entitled ‘In The City’. “The boys are at the bar mixing up the medicine/Girls in the basement trying to get reception”, he drawls, as the band cave in and burst into garage standard ‘Gloria’. Girls scream; Johnny ignores them. Stardom beckons.