Busted have spoken to about their appearance at this summer's Download festival, acknowledging that playing at the spiritual home of metal, Donington Park, represented a "huge journey" from their pop roots. The Essex pop-rock trio were one of the most successful bands of the early noughties. Released in 2002, their self-titled debut album sold in excess of 1.
2 million copies, spawned a UK number one single in , a number two single, , and two number three singles, and . Their second album, , released the following year, included three UK number one singles, , , and , and sold almost a million copies in the UK alone. Speaking to 's Stephen Hill before they headlined the Avalanche Stage on June 14, the trio expressed delight at the fact that they'd finally been embraced by the rock community, and admitted that they themselves couldn't have imagined playing Download at the peak of their pop success.
"We wouldn't have done it in 2003," admits vocalist/guitarist Charlie Simpson. "The whole scene was completely different back then. A lot has changed in 20 years.
I think that tribalism within music genres has dissipated, largely because of streaming: you've now got doing collaborations with , which, again, wouldn't have happened in 2003. So it felt like a good thing. And actually, when we were announced, I was interested to see what the vibe was, and everyone was actually loving it man.
" When Stephen Hill points out that, while authenticity has always been important to rock fans, Bus.