Busted – ‘The music industry didn’t know where to place us’

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Matt smiled: “It’s weird innit? I was 21 when the band broke up, and it’s been almost that again. It feels like a weird full circle. It’s really full circle for us because we’re back with our first-ever manager, the guy we first signed a management agreement with.”

James Bourne agreed, calling this second (sort of?) comeback the band’s third “era”. “To start another chapter, 20 years in, is really cool,” he excitedly added. “To be able to do that and to have the demand to play, it just says an awful lot about our connection.”

When Busted first hit the airwaves they were instantly popular, but they took up the same space as Britney Spears and U2; not quite fitting in either category. Despite that, as the years progressed, they have been adopted by the alternative scene and are now firmly in that category. “I feel like it’s really funny,” Charlie Simpson mused. “Because Busted has taken on this sort of newfound respect, I guess. It took a long time … a lot of kids were influenced by Busted, but – obviously – they were really young back then. And I think the music industry, at the time, didn’t really know where to place Busted. It wasn’t really a rock band, but it wasn’t really a traditional pop band. I think we lived in our own space.”

Charlie confessed he has had all kinds of people telling him how Busted influenced their music taste over the years (“Metal fans come up to me saying they bought Busted’s first album, and now they’re playing Meshuggah!”) and these experiences have shown him how powerful Busted were when they first hit the scene. “It’s really interesting to look back on it now,” he went on. “It actually pushed the barrier more than I think people realised at the time.”

With their greatest hits tour firmly booked in, the big question is: What songs will they be playing?

“Mainly the first two records,” Charlie revealed, speaking of their debut self-titled and their second release A Present For Everyone.