Busted
From Free net encyclopedia
- For the Joanne song, see Busted (song).
Image:Busted - a present for everyone.jpg Busted were a British pop group of James Bourne, Charlie Simpson and Matt Jay which formed in 2001 and disbanded in 2005. They were signed to Island Records and released two albums and seven singles. Their most well known songs include "What I Go to School For" and "Year 3000". The Busted sound is somewhere between pop rock and pop punk, with influences including Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne and more traditional boybands such as N*SYNC. The band themselves dubbed their style "Nu Pop", though this term has not achieved widespread recognition.
Their second album A Present For Everyone was released in October 2003. In total it spun off three #1 singles: "Crashed the Wedding", "Who's David? and the double A-side movie tie-in "Thunderbirds Are Go/3am" which later won the public vote for The Record of the Year in the televised live final on ITV. The song "Air Hostess" also hit #2. In 2004 they released a live album entitled A Ticket For Everyone. Busted were winners of Best Pop and Best Breakthrough Act at the 2004 Brit Awards, as voted by the public.
Busted's last venture together was as part of Band Aid 20, a charity group put together by Bob Geldof. The group released a new version of 1984's hit Do They Know It's Christmas? in order to raise funds to help combat poverty and famine in Africa. The single spent several weeks at number one in the UK singles chart.
Despite their success in the singles charts, Busted failed to ever have a number one album.
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America or Busted
The TV series "America or Busted", about Busted's attempts to achieve success in the United States, debuted on UK MTV in November 2004. Over the course of the series, the audience see Busted's attempts to 'break' America dwindle as interviews fall through and performances remain limited both in terms of audience size and press attention. Some have suggested flaws in the band's management's strategy, such as which radio stations were targeted as a reason for the failure of the tour. It is also possible that many in the U.S. public felt that the band was too similar to the proliferation of American pop punk bands on which Busted had based itself.
Solo Careers
After the failure of the US tour, rumours soon began to surface that a split was imminent. Charlie Simpson announced that he was to take a break to tour with his side-project, Fightstar (a band which differs greatly from the music Busted recorded). The group then formally disbanded at a press conference on January 14th, 2005. Simpson declared that he had become restless with the sound and the 'clean' image he was expected to uphold and that he wanted to concentrate fully on Fightstar.
James Bourne went on to release music through his pop punk band Son Of Dork and Matt Willis plans to set up a solo career, releasing his first single "Up All Night" in May 2006. "Hey Kid" has been leaked and is available on the internet, as well as another Matt Willis track called "Broken". Matt has built up a big fanbase in France and promises to have a big career.
Discography
(with UK chart positions)
Albums
- Busted (2002) – #2
- A Present For Everyone (2003) – #2
- Busted Live: A Ticket For Everyone (2004) – #11
- Busted [US] (2004)
Singles
- "What I Go to School For" (2002) – #3 UK, #22 AUS, #32 Austria, #34 GER, #20 IRE
- "Year 3000" (2003) – #2 UK, #15 Austria, #5 Belgium, #21 GER, #9 NETH, #9 Taiwan, #2 IRE, 19 NOR, #10 DEN, #43 Australia
- "You Said No" (2003) – #1 UK, #38 GER, #27 NETH, #3 IRE, #15 DEN
- "Sleeping with the Light On" (2003) – #3 UK, #4 IRE
- "Hurra Hurra Die Schule Brennt" (2003) – #20 Austria, #19 GER transalated as "Hurray Hurray, The School's On Fire" (German/Austrian release only)
- "Crashed the Wedding" (2003) – #1 UK, #28 NETH, #3 IRE, #14 Japan, #6 Spain, #3 DEN
- "Who's David?" (2004) – #1 UK, #9 IRE
- "Air Hostess" (2004) – #2 UK, #12 IRE
- "Thunderbirds Are Go"/"3am" (2004) – #1 UK, #6 IRE
- "She Wants To Be Me" (2004) – Inelegable to chart. Limited Edition Single.
Other appearances
- "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (as part of Band Aid 20) (2004) #1