Rockin' In The Three World

Are Busted The Most Misunderstood Band In Britain? As Guitars Continue To Disappear From The Charts, We Find An Older And Wiser Trio Whose New Album With Producer Gil Norton Is Fighting The Good Fight.

- Rob Laing

Guitar needs gateway bands to survive – those who balance the pop hooks with the powerchords in a way that draws young ears in; enough to bug their parents for that first guitar. And some of them will stick with it and make up tomorrow’s bands. TG spoke to Busted 15 years ago when they were one of those crucial gateways to guitar for teenagers; just like their own heroes Oasis, Green Day and Blink 182 before them. But fast-forward in time, after a 2013 mash-up with McFly in McBusted before a full 2015 reunion, and their old fans are pushing 30; the charts that Charlie Simpson, James Bourne and Matt Willis find themselves back in are devoid of our beloved instrument. They’ve got some insightful thoughts on why that could be, as well as their own attempt at a remedy with new album Half Way There. It’s not just that they’re appealing to nostalgia by name-checking Oasis, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and even Saved By The Bell characters in the album’s lead single Nineties; plenty of songs on this guitar-heavy Gil Norton-produced (Foo Fighters, Pixies, Feeder) record would be envied by any number of pop-punk bands. Indeed, a couple could easily have been Blink 182 tracks. It’s a bold statement – 2015’s comeback record, synth-heavy Night Driver impressed and confused fans in equal measure. “We’ve got the guitars back!” Simpson tells us. So are Busted the unlikely champions of guitar in the mainstream again?

We sit down with the trio during a break in their rehearsals at John Henry’s studios in Islington, London ahead of this month’s UK arena tour to talk six-string politics and the misconceptions about them. We also take a peek at what they’re playing on stage these days…