If you’ve got great taste in music, chances are Busted is a household name.
The UK rock icons shot to fame in 2002 with their debut single, What I Go to School For, followed by their self-titled album. Over the next three years, the band—comprised of Charlie Simpson, James Bourne, and Matt Willis—released hit after hit, including Crashed The Wedding, Air Hostess, and the iconic Year 3000.
Now, over 20 years later, Busted are back (again) and celebrating their 20th anniversary- and what better way to celebrate than by playing in Australia for the very first time! Catching up over Zoom, it’s clear that Busted are beyond pumped to be heading Down Under, and I had the immense joy of chatting with them about all things touring, collaborating and the band's future.
As we wait for his bandmates to join us, bassist Matt Willis wastes no time sharing his excitement, saying, “I can’t wait to come to Australia. I love it so much, it’s my favourite place. I’m just so excited.”
A brief conversation about Melbourne and coffee later, and we’re joined by lead vocalist James Bourne and drummer Charlie Simpson, and it feels like reconnecting with old friends.
“Sorry, we’re catching up; we haven’t seen each other for a week.” Willis laughs as they chat about the weather and what each other has been up to lately.
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From 2005 to 2013, Busted were on an indefinite hiatus, making a comeback in 2015 and releasing two albums before taking another break in 2019.
“We always had it in the back of our minds that the twenty-year anniversary was approaching, and we kind of always wanted to do something to celebrate that,” Simpson says, explaining what led to the decision to return.
“It was a weird one, though; we didn’t expect the reaction we got. Obviously, we had done some touring, and we had released two albums from 2016 to 2018, and then when we released this tour in 2023, it just went mental, man. It’s been the biggest tour we’ve ever done. I think the last year has pretty much been the best year, twenty years on.”
“When we broke up, we were three people that were living three very different lives,” Willis says on their first break-up.
“In 2005, I don’t think we really understood that about each other. When we started, we were all in it together, and we kind of just found these separate lives.
“Now, we have this ability to lead these separate lives and then come together, and something happens - we call it ‘The Busted Button’, we press it, and everything’s back, and we’re all in this Busted zone, it’s all hands on deck. It allows us to go away and do our thing and then come back and just be focused on this for a while. And we all want the same things, which we didn’t realise.”
“We got to work with so many artists that we love,” Simpson says of their collaboration album Greatest Hits 2.0 (Another Present For Everyone). “Dashboard Confessional was a band that we were just huge fans of, so to get them on the record was amazing.
“And then to get new bands that have come along since we split up the first time, like All Time Low, Neck Deep and the Jonas Brothers - it felt really cool, man. It was just nice to see how Busted has made its way through to kids who picked up guitars that ended up being huge bands. That was really fun.”
“The bands had very distinct ideas on which [hits] they wanted to do”, Willis explains.
Bourne adds, “That’s actually the nice part about it, is that they were coming to us with like, ‘Hey, we want to do this one!’ When Ed Sheeran came out at one of our London shows, he knew what song he wanted to sing before he got there. And that’s the coolest part about it. These artists that have had huge careers of their own have a Busted song that’s special to them, it’s cool.”
“Also, we weren’t precious about them doing their thing on it,” Simpson says, “Alex [Gaskarth] from All Time Low added a bunch of new stuff to Crashed The Wedding at the end, which I think was awesome. I think it made the song better… Chris [Carrabba] from Dashboard sings [Everything I Knew] so much like Dashboard that it doesn’t even sound like a Busted song anymore; it’s so good.”
From 2013 to 2015, Willis and Bourne joined forces with fellow UK pop rockers McFly to make the supergroup McBusted. This project turned out to be massive, with their album peaking at number nine on the UK Albums chart. They headlined the UK and opened for One Direction in Australia and Europe, playing their own headline shows in Australia during this time.
This October, Busted will be bringing their 20th anniversary Down Under, marking their first-ever headline show in Australia as Busted.
When asked what they’re most looking forward to about their visit, Willis replies, “I’m most looking forward to people seeing Busted.
“With McBusted, it took four members of McFly to replace Charlie, so this time, you’re gonna get the full whack without the PG version… We’re also in a really good place as a band. We’re playing really well. We feel like it’s the best time to be in Busted ever, and we’re so stoked to be playing. We take every gig as if it’s our last; we give it everything. I also really love Australia, with a passion. It’s my favourite place, we’re going to be absorbing as much as we possibly can.”
Joining them will be Aussie favourites Between You And Me, who put on one hell of a show. “We asked the promoter, ‘What’s a cool, f*cking awesome Aussie band?’ Because they asked if we wanted to bring anyone over with us, and we were like, ‘No, we want an Aussie band to play with us,’ and we want to be introduced into that Australian rock scene,” Willis says.
With a slightly messy history, it’s fair to question the future of Busted, but the group quickly puts these worries to bed, with Simpson explaining, “We’re in the middle of making new music, so that’s exciting. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes next. We came back and made Night Driver, which was completely off-the-wall different, and then we made Halfway There, which was pretty much what we would have expected the third Busted album to sound like had we not split up. So now it’s sort of like open season, you know? Blank canvas. I think that’s quite an exciting place to be for us.”
“Busted’s a little bit like Mary Poppins,” Bourne adds, “we will stay til the wind changes.”
Busted are touring Australia this October and November. You can find tickets here.
BUSTED AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:
With special guests Between You & Me
Wednesday 30 October - The Forum, Melbourne
Friday 1 November - Eatons Hill Hotel Grand Ballroom, Brisbane
Sunday 3 November – Roundhouse, Sydney
