Busted have said they want their upcoming, 20th anniversary, greatest hits comeback to be the “Top Gun: Maverick of tours” by giving their fans a “little bit of razzle-dazzle”.
The pop-punk trio: Charlie Simpson, Matt Willis and James Bourne; will be back together later this year to perform reworked versions of all their classic songs including: Year 3000; What I Go To School For; Air Hostes; and Crashed The Wedding, at a series of UK arena shows.
They will also be releasing an album of the revamped tracks which will feature collaborations with McFly, All Time Low, Simple Plan and more.
Following the announcement on Thursday, Willis told the PA news agency: “I think when you get to a certain point, a lot of bands get scared of the word nostalgia, you don’t want to become this nostalgia act but nostalgia is really powerful.
“Like when I saw Blink-182 do All The Small Things I lost my mind. That effect is massive because it reminds you of a special time in your life.”
Simpson admitted that he used to be someone who was afraid of nostalgia but he has now embraced the emotion.
“Our lives are formed through the music we listen to when we’re 15 and 16, nothing will ever replace that”, he said.
“So that nostalgia is part of us, it’s so powerful. I love it, it’s awesome.”
The group hopes the comeback tour, which will start in Plymouth on September 2, will provide those who have supported them since their 2002 self-titled debut album with this feeling, alongside a “little bit of razzle-dazzle”.
“It’s still in the planning stage but we’re going to throw the kitchen sink at it,” Willis revealed.
“We’ve talked quite a lot and have put on different types of tours and this is going to be a spectacle tour.
“Like if you’re a Busted fan, you’re going to want to see this tour because it’s going to be everything you love about the band.”
He added that they want it to be the “Top Gun: Maverick of tours” by paying homage to the original material while offering something fresh.
Simpson said: “You’ve got to do it justice because what you don’t want to be doing is when films do remakes and they’re terrible, you’ve got to pay homage and you’ve got to do it well.
“The last thing you want to do is to bring people along in that good vibes and nostalgia and let people down.”
They will play 15 dates throughout the arena tour including shows in Cardiff, the O2 in London, Newcastle and Glasgow, before ending on September 24 in Manchester.
US pop band Hanson, whose hits include MMMBop and Where’s The Love, will join the band from their Birmingham show on September 9 onwards with pop trio New Hope Club also on the line-up.
Willis and Bourne previously united with McFly to form the pop supergroup McBusted in 2013 and released an album under the same moniker the following year.
Simpson later reunited with his bandmates for a comeback tour in 2016 and they released two new albums together: 2016’s Night Driver and 2019’s Half Way There.
The group said their 2016 reunion felt like a celebration of them being back together while this time round they are honouring the songs which made them.
Bourne added: “I feel like we all want it the most this time. This is the first time that we’ve come back all three of us fresh, having not done anything for a while.
“Last time, we had McBusted for two years. So the whole arena thing was quite heavy. It was a lot of arenas and so we weren’t super fresh.
“But this feels like a real rested and reinvigorated version of our band.”
Pre-sale tickets for the 20th anniversary tour will go live on Wednesday March 29 and the remaining tickets will go on general sale on Friday March 31.
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