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All About Busted...
With a Number One single, a double platinum album and a sold-out
UK tour under their belts, Busted have established themselves as one of the most important chart acts in the UK. And if this
all seems to have happened quickly, it has: while it might seem difficult to imagine the charts without them Busted's debut
single was released in September 2002. Thing is, the story goes back a little further than last summer…
Mattie Jay,
20 grew up in Surrey on the border of East Molesey and West Molesey, just where the West bit goes posh, and the East bit goes
working class. His early years were a catalogue of broken bones and tree-climbing - not totally unrelated - and by his early
teens his older brother's record collection was informing his own musical tastes. At the age of 13 he managed to win himself,
much to his neighbours' disgruntlement, a full-size drum kit, and formed a Green Day covers band with a couple of mates. One
night, while on holiday with his parents Mattie was coerced into a karaoke contest: one rendition of 'Don't Look Back In Anger'
later he'd been spotted by someone whose eye for a budding popstar eventually led Mattie to meet a music management team.
They suggested he get together with a guy called James Bourne.
As it happened, James and Matt already knew each other.
They'd met a few times at auditions and gigs, and writing sessions soon took shape at James' parents house in Southend. James
had been obsessed with music since he first laid eyes on Michael Jackson, and still maintains that seeing the King Of Pop
on his 'Dangerous' tour was one of the most important moments of his life. When he was 17, James had chucked in a music technology
course at a local college in order to actually pursue a career as a musician, having laid the groundwork in his teenage band
Sic (sic) Puppy, whom he formed with friends at the age of twelve. James brought a smart, pop sensibility to Matt's punky
background, drawing on his love of Swedish uber-producer Max Martin as a cue for some of the poppier moments in the Busted
catalogue. But you can't have a band with two members, so Mattie and James placed an ad for a third member in the NME.
Flicking
through the NME live ads one afternoon was a 16-year-old Ipswich boy by the name of Charlie Simpson. When he passed the audition
- Mattie and James still say there was no competition - Charlie found Busted to be a slight change of direction. Through his
early-to-mid teens he'd been more at home behind a set of drums, in bands going under names like FUBAR. But if it's good for
the Grohl it's good for the Simpson, and before long Charlie's role as one of the trio's three frontmen was cast in stone.
Where James brings the pop to the Busted table, Charlie throws in his encyclopedic and sometimes terrifying knowledge of the
alternative world, from global acts like The Deftones and Jimmy Eat World to the output of tiny indie labels like Fierce Panda
and Chemikal Underground. Charlie recently bought his first Porsche, and has yet to receive a parking fine.
The band demo'd and recorded dozens of tracks in London's Brick Lane,
in a dodgy studio with a leaky roof. James, Charlie and Matt were determined to get the sound right - they'd written these
songs themselves, and wanted to make sure the songs which had been in their heads all these years made a good transition to
CD. They needn't have worried: the punk pop sound of the Brick Lane sessions perfectly complemented the band's music and after
signing to Universal Island at
the start of 2002 chose 'What I Go To School For' - an infectious, Blink-182 style homage
to extra-curricular rumpo and one of the songs they'd performed acoustically when touring record labels in search of a deal
- as a first single. The single drew in rave reviews everywhere from Smash Hits ("Crashing guitars, head-bopping beat and
a catchy chorus make this a sure-fire winner") to NME ("Big-balled, big-chorused, big-eyebrowed… Ace."), and debuted
at Number 3 on September 23, 2002. Wondering what the real Miss Mackenzie made of the whole thing? She's very flattered, she
says, but she doesn't like to talk about it. So now you know.
Released two weeks later, Busted's debut album established
the band as that rare breed: a pop act not afraid to rock out, and a rock band not afraid to embrace the finer points of pop.
Once again, the reviews spoke for themselves. The Times were impressed by its "catchy punk-pop tunes with a sense of humour",
Q went for the "inspired one-liners and clever gimmicks", and Smash Hits concluded that the boys were "set to kick some boyband
butt [with this] rock-inspired masterpiece." But it didn't go double platinum overnight, and its beginnings were rather modest.
'Busted' debuted in the Top 40, but swiftly disappeared from view and spent a few weeks meandering around outside the Top
100. Gradually, however, the album began to thrive on good word of mouth and by the time second single, 'Year 3000', was announced
the album was back in the charts, eventually nesting in the Top 10 for months on end. To date the album has sold over 600,000
copies in the UK alone.
'Year 3000' came next - released in January with a syper-stylized, Roger Rabbit-esque video propelling
us forward into the next millennium with some nifty live footage from a special shoot at London's Garage. The track stormed
the Top 5 in January 2003, going one better than 'What I Go To School For' by romping in at Number 2, and bringing the world
of mathematics to its knees. "When we wrote it," James explains, "we knew that 'great great great granddaughter' didn't actually
work over the period of 1000 years. We did rather hope people would get the gist though - it's not literal! Like 'Walking
On Sunshine' isn't actually about walking on the Sun, because you'd die."
In May, to tie in with their third single 'You
Said No (Crash & Burn)', the band set off on their first UK tour. Being a Busted tour it was always going to be a bit
different, but the audiences (teenage, but with a respectable showing of adults attending of their own accord) found a pop
show like nothing they'd ever seen. Partly because it came with none of the costume changes, backing dancers, special effects
and seen-it-beforeness of your average pop spectacle. But mainly because it wasn't really a pop show at all: just the boys
and their band, and a string of tunes taking on a whole new personality in the live arena. Matt's trousers defied gravity,
James moonwalked and, on the penultimate night, Charlie smashed his guitar. During the course of the tour 'You Said No' gave
Busted their first Number One - making them the first act in UK chart history to have their first three singles hit Number
3, then 2, then 1.
Last summer, the fourth and final track to be lifted from 'Busted' was 'Sleeping With The Lights On'.
The end of the 'Busted' story takes us back to the beginning of the Busted story: it's the first song James and Mattie ever
wrote together, round at James' house in Southend. "Girl's left you," James summarises. "Classic excuse for writing a song."
Mattie adds that sleeping with the lights on is "useful if you come in pissed. Put the lights on, keep one hand touching the
floor, and it stops the room spinning."
Now, with a best selling book, a sold out arena tour, a brand new album `A Present
For Everyone' and yet another smash hit single in the shape of Crashed The Wedding' Busted are hotter than Mattie's pants.
'A Present for Everyone' once again, was written by the band themselves. A lot of work was done during the course of their
tour, and the successor to 'Busted' is a clear progression in the lads' songwriting capabilities without jettisoning any of
the cheek, style, humour or spunk that made them so unique.
In less than a year, Busted have smashed the mould of pop.
They are one of the defining new acts of the past five years; treating pop audiences with the respect they deserve, selling
their music without selling out their musical beliefs. Busted are the alternative.
But now they've split up and we're sad
=( .... except Laura B of course....
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