Chubby and Old: Busted are Back

Chubby and Old: Busted are Back


13 years ago, I saw Busted and it was one of the best night of my life. 

Admittedly I was seven years old and totally in love with James Bourne. However, It was completely sold-out and I remember the day like it was yesterday. In fact, I still have the t-shirt. Tonight, Busted play the Guildhall in Southampton; it is about 2/3 full and we are all shocked as our once childhood heroes now look like overweight Dad’s badly playing air-guitar.

Formed in 2000, almost twenty years ago, Busted reformed in 2015 and released some questionable music. Tonight they are trudging through it hoping that perhaps someone cares when in reality, we are all here only to hear the first two albums.  When they do start playing their back catalogue, it feels great but this is purely down to the nostalgia factor. The actual skill behind it lacks and the three chubby men look like they have simply had enough of playing their once-famous songs.

Opening the set with uncomfortably weak tracks from the new album, the intensifying stillness of the audience clearly shows that no one is here for this. It must be noted however, Charlie Simpson still has a striking voice that has carried over to this side of his career. However, my childhood crush James Bourne seems to have lost not only any ounce of a good voice but any character either. 

My childhood is officially over.

I also feel slightly awkward when the old men sing about their school teacher’s “ass” in ‘What I Go To School For’ and “messing” their pants in personal-favourite, ‘Air Hostess’. If Busted were a band that formed this year, I personally don’t think they would stand a chance in a generation raised in the MeToo movement. The three-piece have obviously outdated their music and the whole thing feels contrived; it also looks as if they have been coerced into making another album that -quite frankly- no one wants before being forced to play it on a clearly low-budget tour.

But the MOST disappointing part of the night is that I do not see them do one Busted jump. 
Time to call it quits, Busted. 


Image: Tom Pullen

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