ÿþ<html> <head> <title>Busted Online</title> <LINK REL=stylesheet HREF="/busted/style.css" type="text/css"> </head> <body> <i>Taken from New - March 2004</i><br> Thanks to <a href="mailto:vicluvsfrogs@hotmail.com">Victoria</a> for typing this up! *mwah*<p> <center><b><u>'We'll still be together when we're 60'</b></u></center><p> <i>Are they splitting up? Is Matt single? Did someone throw a toaster out of the hotel window? We get the Busted boys all to ourselves to find out the truth..</i><p> <b>March is barely over and 2004 is already Busted s greatest year yet. With 2 BRIT awards, a second No. 1 single and a month-long arena tour under their low-slung belts. But there s more to Charlie Simpson, Matt Jay and James Bourne than their blazing pop career. For one thing, rumors about the band splitting up refuse to go away, fuelled by Charlie s  other band, Fightstar, and by the advent of McFly, the boy band being touted as  the new Bused , to which James has lent his support. And of course, the boy s personal lives continue to keep us interested. Charlie,18, is happy with school sweetheart Camilla Smith, 20, who works in TV, and James, 20, is looking loved-up with his on-off actress girlfriend, Kara Tointon. But despite rumors that he s back with PR girl Holly Davies, 30, who he split from last November, Matt, 20, insists he s single, although not necessarily enjoying it. We chatted with the lovely threesome backstage at Wembley and asked them all about the women, the music, the drinking and the splitting up..</b><p> <b>Do you miss your girlfriends when you re on tour?</b><br> <b>James:</b> I don t really miss Kara because she comes out on the road with us!<br> <b>Charlie:</b> Yeah it s the same with me. Camilla will come along every now and again and I ll get to spend some time with her. We tend to have a day off after every city we play, so we try to co-ordinate our schedules to spend some time together.<br> <b>Matt:</b> Well I don t have a girlfriend at the moment, so I m fine!<p> <b>Are you taking advantage of being a single pop star then Matt?</b><br> <b>M:</b> Well, being on the road you d think so, wouldn t you! [guffaws] Seriously though, I don t go in for the groupie thing, which is just as well when you see the age of some of our fans!<p> <b>So what can a girl do to get a backstage pass on the Busted tour?</b><br> <b>J:</b> We often ask ourselves the same thing- there s such a demand for passes that even we have trouble getting our own families backstage after the show, let alone anyone else!<p> <b>But you seem to enjoy touring with or without your girlfriends. We hear there s been some, er,  high spirits on the road..</b><br> <b>J:</b> Do you mean the TV-out-of-the-window thing? The papers said Matt threw a toaster out of the window, but I don t remember that at all. Have you ever seen a toaster in a hotel room? The way I remember it, there was a TV, a wastepaper basket, two bananas and some grapes that went flying. In Matt s defence, I d like to say he was really p***ed - its not the sort of thing he d do sober- and that window was already open. Which makes him a bit less responsible for what happened. Sort of.<p> <b>Matt, do you drink too much?</b><br> <b>M:</b> You d be forgiven for thinking so from all the pictures you see of me out on the town.. [laughs] I don t know really. I mean I ve got mates who are at university and the amount they get through on one night out is just unbelievable! As I get older I ll probably have to chill out a bit, but I m only 20 and my body seems to be able to cope.<p> <b>You re off to America after this tour- do you think you stand a better chance of making it over there than Westlife or Robbie?</b><br> <b>M:</b> I guess we ll find out once we get there. We re just going to go and see what s what.<br> <b>J:</b> We re releasing an album over there, which will be the best bits from our first two UK albums. Robbie did the same a few years ago.<p> <b>Charlie, you were gigging with Fightstar, just before the arena tour. Which do you prefer?</b><br> <b>C:</b> Fortunately, I never felt I d have to make that choice. Everyone s been really supportive about it. I was beginning to feel a bit frustrated before I started gigging with Fightstar and I think people could see that. Fightstar has been a great release for me.<p> <b>You re touring with McFly, who share your record label. Are you worried they ve been lined up to replace you?</b><br> <b>J:</b> Not at all. They re a guitar band but they ve got a whole different set of influences. There was enough room for Blur, and Oasis- so the idea that we re going to disappear just because there s another pop band with guitars on the scene is silly.<br> <b>M:</b> I reckon they could be huge, but I don t feel threatened by them. The charts are a bit s**t at the moment so you d hope there s enough room for two half-decent bands.<br> <b>J:</b> We re getting on really well with them on tour too. Tom from McFly was almost in Busted at one point and he and I have been writing together. He co-wrote the next Busted single, Air Hostess. I ve been writing some stuff for McFly, too.<p> <b>How long do you think Busted will stay together?</b><br> <b>J:</b> If you look at what s happened over the past few years, bands seem to do three albums and a greatest hits and then split. But that s not something we ve ever thought of. Our fans are really dedicated and I don t see any reason we can t keep going for another five years - or for as long as we ve got idea and people want to hear them. We ll still be together when we re 60 - like the Rolling Stones!<br> <b>M:</b> Seriously though, we all know that it won t last forever- you can probably count on one hand the number of big bands who ve stayed together for more than ten years. But we re having a brilliant time at the moment - I can t imagine wanting to do anything else.<p> </body> </html>