Charlie, Mattie and James splash out the paint... and their secrets!

Charlie

school life...
'I was one of the tall kids at school and because of that people in older years would always want to fight with me. So I'd just run up and punch them first! No, seriously, I've never been in a proper fight before. I've never punched anyone in the face. In fact, the most mature thing I've ever done was when, instead of fighting, I pretended to collapse!'

love life...
'I was at boarding school and getting girlfriends was quite complicated. When I was 15 I started dating a girl who was 18. It was unheard of for a boy my age to go out with a girl in the Upper Sixth Form. It seemed to really bug her friends that she was dating someone younger. I think it caused some jealousy amongst the older boys too.'

busted life...
'At school I was in five different bands. Recoil, Erase, Homesprung, Manhole and Spleen! They were all pretty heavy but it was great fun and we did special gigs for charity. When I saw the ad for Busted it said 'Two singer/songwriters looking for third to form pop band'. We were total opposites but we clicked straight away. It was the best decision of my life!'

Mattie

school life...
'My most memorable school day happened after I accepted a dare to turn up at my best mate's school for a day and pretend I was a new kid. It was awesome! I just mucked around and caused absolute havoc all day. In the last class of the day the teacher was getting really fed up and started giving me a hard time so I just out of the classroom window and did a bunk!'

love life...
'When I was thirteen I had two girlfriends at once. I'd never really had a proper girlfriend before so I think I just got a bit carried away! I started going out with the second the day after I snogged the first. I kept it going for a couple of weeks by meeting up with them night about. I covered myself by saying my auntie was ill and I was visiting her in hospital. Those girls were pretty gullible...'

busted life...
'The turning point in my life was when I started attending the Sylvia Young Stage School. I was in the same class as Billie - absolutely lovely girl! I only got in because I went to a scholarship audition - there's no way I could have afforded it otherwise.'

James

school life...
'School's your whole life as a kid and it sometimes seems like it's all based on exams. I got seriously stressed about exams - especially Latin. I remember everyone in my class had finished all 20 chapters in the text book and I was still stranded on the fourth. I started again, trying to understand it but I just couldn't get it.'

love life...
'If I had a girlfriend I'd keep it quiet because I don't think it would be fair on her. I chose the showbiz life but she didn't. When I first moved to London to work on Busted I used to finsih up at 10pm then travel back home for two hours to see the girl I was dating at that time. I only had a couple of hours sleep before I had to get up again to head back to London.'

busted life...
'This is what I dreamed about but never realistically thought it would happen. People still stop me in the street and ask how I'm getting on at college and I'm like, 'Um... er... I've kind of left college...'. When we first got the band together I was listening to the radio all the time and I kept thinking that we could write better songs. A lot of people say it's not what you know, it's who you know but I say, it's both. You need luck and talent...'