Pop
Busted
Wembley Arena
What kind of people buy Busted records? A glance around the audience at this, the first of six nights in London in their sold-out UK tour, gave a pretty good idea: all sorts. Althought the fans standing and waving their arms and waggling their light sticks were predominantley female, they were not exclusively so. Nor were they all members of that demographic category known as tweenagers; some were very small indeed, many were in their twenties and beyond. My 10-year-old son, George, neither looked nor felt out of place, And nor did I. It is, frankly, the kind of fan base that most pop groups can only dream about: Busted are the band that it's OK for everyone to like (except perhaps those sad souls who sniff at the whole concept of pop").
And having seen them on stage, I can say only that I like them, too. How could I not? This was a stunning spectacle, from the very beginning when James, Matt and Charlie were thrust into the air from trapdoors amid billowing plumes of smoke after an absurdly portentous build-up, and launched into Air Hostess, springing and bouncing themselves around like over-excited puppies.
The set was a metallic affair that resembled something out of Robot Wars; video screens showed a combination of live action and recorded footage; lights blazed; firworks flashed. All this would have been exciting enough, but what made the show truly memorable was the quality of the songs. What Busted have done is to take the punky powerpop formula popularised by American bands such as Green Day and Sum 41 and made it more accessible to a younger and more mainstream market by accentuating melodies and toning down the aggression.
The result, as the crowd showed here, is music that's perfect for siniging and jumping up and down to. Musicianship - wise, it was hard to judge the boys' actual contribution, since they were supported throughout by a three-piece backing band - drums, guitar, keyboards, but the sound they made was tight and clipped. And singing? Charlie, the tall blond one, can more than carry a tune; the others are not quite so adept, but can hold a note. The show faltered only once when they played a spectacularly ill-judged rocked-up version of the Black Eyed Peas' Where is the Love; otherwise, it was mayhem all the way, espcially towards the end when they brought on the artillery for Year 3000 and Crashed The Wedding. We sang, we waved our arms, we were half-deafened and almost blinded, what more could a pop fan ask for?
David Cheal.