Taking a stance as scruffy, skate-boarding kids with a love of Blink 182, Busted
became big stars in the early 2000s by adding spiky guitars and heavy riffs to
bubblegum pop melodies. They scored four Number 1 singles and two
platinum-selling albums before bushy eye-browed hearthrob Charlie Simpson left
to find his musical destiny in hardcore metal act Fightstar. The band's break-up
left bass player Matt Willis (a former student of the Sylvia Young Stage School)
free to go it alone and he signed a solo deal with Mercury Records in 2005.
Adopting a more mature, polished rock sound...