Busted vs. McFly review: ‘An almighty battle between star-crossed bands’

Throughout their respective histories, Busted and McFly have been attached from the outset. Both bands were formed by the same management group, with Busted coming three years prior. McFly drummer Harry Judd featured as Busted’s drummer in the video for ‘Crashed The Wedding’, and Tom Fletcher was originally meant to be a member of Busted before the record label opted to leave James Bourne, Matt Willis and Charlie Simpson as a three-piece.

After previously sharing the stage as the supergroup McBusted sans Simpson over a decade ago, the two bands reunited earlier this year as “rivals”, with the “feud” reinforced by a retelling of Baz Luhrmann’s classic ‘Romeo + Juliet’, pitting the two bands as “star-crossed bands” unleashing their rage before a video package highlighted Busted’s success as “Pop’s bad boys” and McFly’s considerable charting success, creating an unrivalled sense of anticipation in the sold-out audience ahead of a battle of the ages.

Stepping onto the stage with intent, it was McFly who opened proceedings by demonstrating their impressive rock chops on a punchy rendition of ‘Where Did All The Guitars Go’ before ratcheting up the intensity with stomping performances of ‘Star Girl’, with Fletcher, Dougie Poynter and Danny Jones engaging in their trademark kicking dance, and ‘That Girl’ to get the crowd bouncing from the get-go.

Cramming 12 hits into approximately one hour, the hits came thick and fast as a rowdy rendition of ‘One For The Radio’ quickly followed, leaving the Mancunian crowd singing their hearts out. As ever, there’s something truly magical about hearing a live crowd belt out ‘Obviously’ in full voice, with Jones truly in his element performing in his hometown. The rock-infused and synth-heavy ‘Red’ saw Jones climb onto the barriers of the standing section before the piano-driven ballad ‘The Heart Never Lies’ ended McFly’s set.

Afterwards, it was Busted’s turn to leave their mark on the 20,000 in attendance, opening their set with an ultra-punchy rendition of ‘Crashed The Wedding’, a heart-racing ‘Meet You There’ and a hypnotic performance of ‘You Said No’ before Willis stopped to “address the elephant in the room”. Reduced to a two-piece with the absence of James Bourne, who was forced to withdraw from the tour due to health reasons, the bassist paid tribute to his fellow Busted member and announced James’ brother Chris, who starred in the ‘Year 3000’ video, would fill in for Bourne.

Chris filled in for his brother impeccably as Busted followed up with a medley of ‘Dawson’s Geek’, ‘Britney’, ‘Nerdy’ and ‘Why’ and flawless renditions of ‘Loser Kid’ and ‘Who’s David’. However, despite Bourne’s absence, he was on the minds of the sold-out crowd throughout the set, with Simpson requesting that the audience sing the opening verse of ‘Sleeping With The Light On’, sharing that Bourne was keeping an eye on the tour via TikTok, and the crowd delivered with a pulse-racing singalong.

Following a pulsating performance of ‘Everything I Knew’, Chris exited the stage before Busted’s set culminated with the fabulous one-two punch combo of ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ and ‘What I Go To School For’, the latter of which felt heavier and grittier with a barrage of Simpson’s distorted guitar and Eddy Thrower’s powerhouse drumming, a notable highlight from the rendition.

After being separated for the first half of the set, the ‘rivalry’ concept crept into the performance after the end of Busted’s set. Following a pyro-laden masterclass of a drum battle between Thrower and Judd, Willis and Poynter emerged in the nosebleeds at opposite sides of the arena to hurl insults at each other, but the insults petered out as Simpson and Jones emerged to engage in emotionally charged renditions of the Busted classic ‘3am’ and McFly’s ‘Not Alone’, providing a tender moment to savour.

Nonetheless, as the tour’s tagline suggests, “every saga has an ending”, and that quickly followed as Willis and Thrower joined Simpson on stage to launch the final act into life with an explosive performance of ‘Air Hostess’ before McFly emerged once more for a spine-tingling rendition of ‘Five Colours In Her Hair’ that got the entire crowd bouncing.

The two bands merged as one to close out the evening, performing a three-punch combo of ‘What Happened To Your Band’, ‘Shine A Light’ and ‘Year 3000’ to end the performance on a euphoric high. As the confetti rained down and Poynter climbed on Willis’ back, there was a sense of unity rather than competition. In the end, the ‘rivalry’ concept was an absolute triumph, but after seeing an almighty battle between star-crossed bands, the biggest winners were the 20,000 fans who got to see a masterclass from two era-defining acts.