If you haven’t heard that noughties pop-punk legends Busted are reuniting for a 20th anniversary tour, you might have been living under a rock. First, they crashed the wedding, then they crashed Ticketmaster, selling out a 15-date nationwide tour last week, as additional dates were announced due to phenomenal demand.
Busted, made up of James Bourne, Charlie Simpson, and Matt Willis, are best known for a string of hit singles in the early noughties including ‘What I Go To School For’, ‘Year 3000’, ‘Air Hostess’ and ‘Who’s David’. After two albums, in 2005, they called it a day, pursuing other avenues including Charlie’s post-hardcore band Fightstar, James’ Son of Dork, Matt’s solo albums, theatre appearances, and reality TV victories, before reuniting in 2015. Speaking to all three of them today, its crazy to see how time flies.
“We’re quite a considerable amount older but I don’t feel it,” Matt says. “We’ve been doing press for the last week or so and it feels like the old days. You forget you’re a grown up for a while.”
20 years on from their instant classic self-titled debut, Busted are getting back on the road in September, and they’ll be celebrating the last two decades with an arena tour, including two dates at Manchester’s AO Arena on September 24 and 30.
Matt explains “We’re mainly going to be playing the first two records. It’s going to be a big Busted love fest. We’ve all just fell back in love with Busted. We’re embracing it. It feels like the right time to do that with our fans.”
“When I think of us touring back in the day, I always think of Manchester,” Charlie tells me. “I think it’s because we filmed our DVD [A Ticket for Everyone] in Manchester. It’s one of the coolest venues.”
“It always shocked me how massive it was with another tier above,” Matt adds. “It was terrifying.”
“I love Manchester! I think that the crowds are always rowdy,” Charlie laughs. “It’s for the fans, this tour. We’ll be playing all the bangers!”
Alongside the twentieth anniversary tour, Busted will be releasing a brand new compilation album, including re-workings of their greatest hits, with plenty of special guests.
At this moment in time, the tracklisting is still under wraps, but The Mancunion can reveal that the new Busted record will feature a new version of ‘Meet You There’, in collaboration with pop-punk outfit Neck Deep. Charlie says “We’re so excited about this one. It’s a completely new version and we’ve changed it from an acoustic ballad into a full-blown rock track.” Matt chips in: “We’re such big fans of Neck Deep and Ben [Barlow] just sounds perfect for it.”
The first track to be released will be ‘Loser Kid 2.0’, featuring Simple Plan, the closing track from Busted’s self-titled debut, and one that Charlie refers to as “an unsung hero.”
“There are a couple of unconventional [collaborations] that we’re not allowed to talk about yet. We wanted to start off with bands from our world and then venture out. But there’s a few surprises in there for sure.”
Despite having more in common with those pop-punk bands, the music press were quick to label Busted as a boyband, something which annoyed them at the time, but they’ve learnt to live with.
“If an alien came down today and watched us perform, there’s no way we would be described as a boyband but that’s the way it was to begin with,” Charlies says.
“You wouldn’t find Westlife working with Simple Plan, All Time Low, or Neck Deep! Everyone would say ‘Ah, but you’re fucking boys in a band!’”, James jokes. Matt adds “Well, so are Slipknot.”
When I ask if there’s anything about the last 20 years the band would change, Charlie laughs: “I’d change my hair in the ‘Year 3000’ video. It was stupid – I looked like Sonic the Hedgehog.”
“I kind of look back at the past with really fond eyes now,” Matt says. “I look at what we’re wearing. My daughter’s going to be 14 soon and her and her mates are dressing like the Busted fan base from 2002. It’s all coming back around.”
Although Busted will be reflecting on their career and embracing the nostalgia this year, new material may well be on the horizon too. Matt says: “At the moment we’re really focused on this tour and this album, but we’re a band and we’ll always be making music. We’ve said very profoundly that we will release a seventh album – we’ve got another thousand years!”
You can purchase remaining Busted tour tickets here.
