BUSTED + THE TYNE + WOLPH – BRIGHTON CENTRE 7.9.23
Growing up in the 2000s, my childhood was defined by McFly and Busted. After seeing McFly in 2021, (Review HERE) I was excited to finally see Busted live again. I first saw Busted in Birmingham in 2018; it was one of my gig highlights that year, so expectations were high! In 2017 I met Matt Willis in a nightclub in Leamington Spa; he took my phone away and took a selfie on it! He was so friendly and whilst I don’t think he spotted me in the crowd, it’s still cool to show off about. We headed out to the Brighton Centre in the boiling heat, with my Busted Keychain placed in my bag!
The night kicked off with WOLPH, who were joining Busted for two nights on tour. I’m glad to have caught them. WOLPH are an indie pop band formed of Andy and Luke. Their single ‘Shoulders Of Giants’ was released in 2022, which was a great tune to hear live. Their instrumental talent was incredible and I’m excited to see where they go in the future.
Then came the second support act, The Tyne. The Tyne formed in 2019, comprising of Cooper Stout (bass) and Ryan Lofthouse (vocals), with Josh James (guitar) and Noah Lima (drums). The band are big on social media TikTok, racking up 387.7 thousand followers. They released their first song, ‘Jessica,’ in February 2022. Since then they have been consistently releasing music such as their EP’s ‘Born On The Internet’ and ‘Complaining (But There Is Music)’. Their most recent song ‘Bad Mood’ was released on 1st September 2023.
I love seeing support acts as a way to discover new artists, and I’ve found a real crowd pleaser with The Tyne. The band opened with a cover of ‘Teenagers’ by My Chemical Romance—from that moment I knew I was going to love them. I enjoyed all of their original songs, ‘Funeral’ gave a unique spin on mourning the end of a relationship. But my favourite of the set had to be ‘Bad Mood’ which was the epitome of what pop punk should be. This is the exact kind of band we need in 2023: watch this space, I think they’re going places. The Tyne are for all the people who are still nostalgic over 2000s pop punk, but ready for a new 2020s twist on the genre. The Tyne are doing their own headline tour in November and I’m most definitely going to be getting tickets.
Then came Busted, formed of Matt Willis, James Bourne, and Charlie Simpson. Busted formed in 2000 and had a buzzing career, having four UK number-one singles, sold more than five million records, and winning two Brit awards. They have produced five albums: ‘Busted’ in 2002, ‘A Present For Everyone’ in 2003; after a ten year hiatus the band released ‘Night Driver’ in 2016, ‘Half Way There’ in 2019, and ‘Greatest Hits 2.0’ in 2023. Between 2013-2015, Busted and McFly toured together as McBusted.
The set opened with a video of Christopher Lloyd playing Doc from ‘Back To The Future’ as a nod to Busted’s lyric from ‘Year 3000’: “he told me he built a time machine, like one in a film I’ve seen.” Lloyd said that Busted had landed in the year 2023, when suddenly they walked out on stage. They started with the absolute classic ‘Air Hostess’. Amongst the crowd there were some brilliant air hostess costumes, which put my homemade Busted t-shirt to shame! ‘Air Hostess’ was the perfect opener and everyone was singing and dancing.
The graphics and staging were immaculate. I’m not sure how they coped with the fire in this heat, because even in the stalls we were boiling! I particularly liked that during ‘Meet You There’ the background screens had a lyric music video. During some of the older songs, the old-school music videos were playing in the background. It was so lovely and nostalgic for someone who used to watch their music videos with her friends!
I didn’t look at the setlist before the show, and I’m glad I didn’t because it meant I was surprised when they played a cover of ‘MMMBop’ by Hanson. I went through a phase where I was obsessed with ‘MMMBop’ and would listen to it every single day multiple times! Hearing it live as a cover was amazing. I really had the time of my life in a funny nostalgic way. I’m excited to hear the Hanson and Busted collab on ‘Greatest Hits 2.0’.
Matt Willis was on top form with his humour, making fun of McFly in an almost stand-up comedy set! He said that McFly have had two number one albums, but Busted haven’t had any, so we ought to be getting ‘Greatest Hits 2.0’ to that number one spot! Charlie Simpson noted that this is the biggest arena tour of 2023, so clearly after all these years, Busted have still got it.
‘What I Go To School For’ is one of my favourite Busted songs, so I went wild when they played it. As this is the 20th anniversary tour, Busted put a little spin on one of the lyrics in the song. Miss McKenzie is thirty-three in the original song, but tonight they sang fifty-three to commemorate twenty years since the song’s release. It was little touches like this which made the night so special.
When I saw Busted in 2018 they said they hate playing ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ so I was worried they wouldn’t play it tonight. It was an absolute dancefloor classic when I was at Primary School and I desperately wanted to dance to it again. Thankfully, they did! Matt told the story behind the song. They were promised that the 2004 ‘Thunderbirds’ film would be a Hollywood hit, and they would be like Aerosmith or Celine Dione with iconic famous movie songs. However, Matt said that nobody actually saw the movie, despite the crowd claiming they did! They said that although the movie flopped, they got a good song out of it. Whilst I’ve never seen the ‘Thunderbirds’ film, I am obsessed with the song, so Matt was definitely right!
‘Crashed The Wedding’ was another highlight of the night. It’s such a fun song which got the crowd going. I loved watching the music video in the background as it’s such a hilarious classic. This was the final song before the encore, leaving the crowd on a high, desperate for more.
When Busted came out for their encore, they started with a cover of ‘Teenage Kicks’ by The Undertones, another great surprise as I’m a huge fan of the song, having seen The Undertones playing in Huddersfield in 2022. Busted’s cover was great fun, perfect for us all to dance to. The crowd in the stalls were lovely and we all danced together.
The night ended with ‘Year 3000’, which was the perfect choice. We all screamed and danced along as the ticker tape fell from the ceilings (and into my mouth!) It was an absolutely perfect night. Matt Willis said he wanted to keep going for fifty years, and I really hope they do.
Busted setlist:
‘Air Hostess’
‘Meet You There’ (2.0 Hits Version)
‘Loser Kid’ (2.0 Hits Version)
‘You Said No’
‘Everything I Knew’
‘MMMBop’ (Hanson cover)
‘Sleeping With The Light On’
‘Good One’
‘What I Go To School For’
‘Who’s David’
‘Falling For You’
‘Thunderbirds Are Go’
‘She Wants To Be Me’
‘3am’
‘Crashed The Wedding’
(encore)
‘Teenage Kicks’ (The Undertones cover)
‘Year 3000’
SPECIAL BONUS – 10 EXTRA BUSTED PHOTOS:
Nice to see them back for everyone, it’s good news for fans and glad the band are enjoying themselves putting on a great show.
Great review! Sounds like a fantastic show