Credibility is a big word in the punk world. There’s purists that were looking down their noses at Green Day and Rancid in the 90’s… never mind what they’ve turned into nowadays. You can’t wear a Ramones shirt or a Misfits hoodie without some crusty punk jumping out of nowhere demanding to know three songs. Three private-schooled stage kids never stood a chance claiming to be punk.
Busted didn’t do themselves any favours. They could have passed off songs about sleeping with teachers, a crazed stalker girlfriend, and time travelling to a world with triple breasted women, as a fun Blink 182 or NOFX trope. But the synchronised jumping and lack of a drummer contributed to the image of a pop boy band like Take That or Boyzone.
You had pretty boy James Bourne who was the hopeless romantic, brooding Charlie Simpson with his eyebrows, and bad boy Matt Willis. It was a boy band no matter how much the members tried to fight it. Charlie pulling the band towards the newly emerging emo trend with his solo number ‘Why?’ before trying to nurture his tortured artist within with side project Fightstar. Matt frequently acting up and [gasp] swearing on stage, while James was the innocent in all this… happy with being a pop star and spending his money on an actual DeLorean car.
With their management company releasing another band with Back To The Future references into the wild, Busted were shown up to have been too plastic for the kids who were now too cool for primary school punk. McFly was more mature and even managed to have more credibility. The break up was inevitable.
Busted did make a few attempts to get back on stages with some crazed supergroup with McFly – McBusted – including two bass players and four guitarists and a reunion tour with highly forgettable electronic album around 2016. But now… 20 years from the peak… there’s a real attempt to be credible pop punk.
A secret appearance at Slam Dunk in 2019 proved that the fans that were the primary school punks back in the day are now the festival goers and some even have to get babysitters for gig nights. Maybe Busted were to blame for their current musical tastes? Maybe Busted are their Beatles?
Since then the reunion and 20 year anniversary tour have been in the oven . We’ve heard of the grown up problems that the boys have faced since the good ol’ days… Matt’s drink and cocaine problems, Charlie’s tragic near miss with his youngest suffering from second drowning on holiday, and James going through the hardship of writing for The Jonas Brothers and Train. They’re human, they’re flawed, they’re just like us.
A new album featuring cameos from legit pop punk stars such as Simple Plan, All Time Low, Dashboard Confessional, Neck Deep, and You Me At Six, is pulling a lot of credibility by association. Re recordings of the biggest hits, many of which – particularly ‘What I Go To School For’ – have a much punkier feel to them with double time palm muted guitars.
This tour could ensure the credibility sticks. Now the original audience are able to fill the Hydro twice over (where frenemies McFly are playing the much smaller Barrowlands) and they have ex-Lower Than Atlantis drummer Eddy Thrower behind the kit. Will the shows still be like one big hen party?
We start off with The Tyne who seem to be making the same mistakes that Busted did. Saccharine, bubblegum pop dressed up as emo punk. Born on TikTok and playing arenas before any real releases, The Tyne are skipping all the steps here. Does TikTok revenue allow large scale buy ons? Perhaps.
Relying on a cover of My Chemical Romance’s ‘Teenagers’ to warm the crowd, that’s about all that’s going on here. To open with a cover is questionable though. People just assume you’re a cover act. The issue is that there may be an audience for this band… the school disco dwellers that were into Busted when they first came out 20 years ago. That’s not the audience here. This audience are grown adults who are unashamedly honouring their younger selves, but they’re not children.
The Tyne want to be credible, but they’re playing dumb and young. It’s condescending and patronizing when this audience listened to this kind of music two decades ago… Busted get the free pass and sell the tickets because it’s nostalgic and it was the gateway to the real stuff. That’s the point these guys are missing. They do have a super-talented guitarist though, so credit where it’s due.
Everyone has heard of tonight’s main support… Hanson. If you didn’t know that Busted covered the the classic 90’s hit ‘Mmmbop’ on their new album, you might be a little miffed at this. We know Busted are pop, but I thought we were trying to emphasise the punk?
Even if you were wanting a band from the new album, there’s plenty to pick from… Neck Deep for example are primed for a stage this size and are UK based. But alas, maybe it’s just getting your pals on tour because you like hanging out. Don’t mistake this confusion as malice. Back in my student days, I actually owned a Hanson album. I will always maintain that ‘Crazy Beautiful’ is quite the “bop” as the kids say. They didn’t play that tonight though.
The short set was enjoyable enough with smooth, unoffensive American indie pop. If you knew the words you could sing along, if you didn’t know the words you could sway gently and when it really kicks off you could tap your feet. As much as there’s not too much to rave about unless you were already a fan, there’s nothing to be really upset about here.
Now it’s time for the main act. The big budget intro for Busted features a bespoke video starring Dr Emmett Brown himself… Christopher Lloyd. It’s no secret James Bourne is a massive Back To The Future geek so this was probably his shout. It does get the cheers going, though and let’s face it… it’s pretty impressive. Doc Brown makes a reappearance later on for closer ‘Year 3000’ which is unsurprising, but also a nice touch.
Before we say another word… the first thing you notice when Busted appears above the drum riser is not only how they’ve aged (haven’t we all) but how absolutely ripped Matt Willis is. If he wanted to be seen as punkier, he would absolutely fit into The Misfits right now.
From beginning to end, this is a good show. It sounds about as good as a Hydro show can, there’s an impressive light show, and the crowd are into it. But are Busted now putting on a credible pop punk show? They’re playing all the hits from the early stages of their career, and as I said before, have even punked up the likes of ‘What I Go To School For’.
There’s plenty of swearing on stage… especially from Stone Cold Matt Willis – which is punk, isn’t it? Even switching some lyrics to Blink 182 levels of crudeness – Miss McKenzie showed you what?! There’re still ballads but the crowd are more than happy to sing along with those.
A high point is ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ when some genius slipped footage from Team America into the video background. Is this more punk? Not really… it is more grown-up though. Showing old music videos at the back of the stage drag the atmosphere back to the pop days. The cover of ‘Mmmbop’, which is kinda stealing the sing along potential from their support act, burns down any hope of this show being pop punk but at least they got Hanson back on for it.
Something tells me that the boys aren’t too fussed about whether this is punk though. They’ve got an arena full of fans singing along and cheering for them. Stopping mid-song to help one of those fans in distress earns extra kudos. Where the pursuit for credibility was strong when the stars were ansgty teens and getting a whole lot of flak for being posers, that doesn’t seem to be an issue now.
Ultimately, this show is a middle finger to the pop punk gatekeepers of yesteryear who gave everyone in this crowd a hard time because Busted aren’t Green Day. In 2023, that point of view is almost ironic which is giving everyone here the last laugh. The music hasn’t evolved all that much, but attitudes have. After twenty years, all three members seem to be totally at ease with themselves on this stage playing this music. Maybe that’s more punk than changing what they’ve done previously just to please me?