From 2nd October 2002

Emma, Stockton
How did you feel when your debut single got to No.3 in the charts and how have your lives changed since?

Matt: I was so shocked. We had an inkling that it was going to go Top10 but I never thought it would go that high - I was over the moon. My life has changed quite a lot. I never had anything to do beforehand, I was bored all the time. But now I don't have time to be bored.

James: The biggest shock was going in higher than Eminem and Bon Jovi, who released singles on the same day as us. We expected them to be No1 and No2, but we beat them. I was also like "oh my god" because if we were No3 then we were going to be on Top of The Pops.

Charlie: Being on Top Of The Pops was the strangest thing - that was a reality check. We'd been working all that time on the single release and then when we were on TOTP we realised that the song had actually made it. It was something I'd always dreamed of doing. The strangest thing now is that when we are doing everyday things we get recognised. People look round and say, "he's in Busted" which is quite strange. People come up and ask for autographs.

Dave, Essex
OK guys, own up, who is Miss MacKenzie and if she's not real who is she based on?

Matt: The song was based on one of my teachers - she was buff. It was a typical teenage crush. I think it was most probably because at the time she was the only girl in my class with boobs and my hormones were racing!

Charlie: I didn't fancy any of the teachers at school. I was much more of a fan of the girls in class, and I did very well there. But I will keep the names classified for the moment.

James: None of my teachers were particularly good looking and neither were the girls in class, so I was unlucky. I tended to go for the girls outside school.

Jim, Hull
How did you get the name Busted and why didn't you give the album a title?

Matt: We were originally called Buster after the great train robber but that name royally sucked as everyone reading this probably agrees.

James: Buster as a name sucked more than anything has ever sucked before.

Charlie: The name just evolved into Busted. The only problem with Busted is that some people confuse it with b******, especially Germans!

Matt: We originally wanted to call the album In Bed With Miss MacKenzie but as we were putting it out so quickly we thought it would be safer to just call it Busted.

Charlie: And our record company are boring (joke!)

Kayleigh Handley
I think you are all fit, especially James, and I love the new single. But I just have to ask, what would your perfect girlfriend be like?

Matt: My ideal woman is somewhere between Liz Hurley and Pink. I want the sexiness of Liz Hurley and the feistiness of Pink. And that is even though Pink beat us in the charts, she deserved to.

Charlie: There is only one woman for me – Britney Spears. I love everything about her! I will be thoroughly shocked if I get to meet her, because she is the most gorgeous girl in the world. And I will be seriously annoyed if it's true that she is dating Nick Carter.

James: We have a song dedicated to Britney on the new album – we all love Britney. She is all good! My ideal woman is a cross between Britney and Cameron Diaz. She would have the looks of Britney with the sophistication of Cameron.

Gina Watson
Do you still speak to your old school mates and what do they think of Busted?

Matt: I speak to my mates everyday. I've been friends with them since I was four so they are very important to me. You never ditch your mates. They all love Busted. I was surprised because it is not really their sort of music but I think they are biased. Also it means I can blag them into a lot of things.

Charlie: My mates love Busted, they are always buying the records and going on the website. They don't treat me any differently which is very important to me. When I am with them I just forget about Busted and act like I did before any of this happened.

James: That is true, your real mates don't treat you any differently.

Sandra, Suffolk
What do you think of all the Pop Idol/Popstars type programmes?

Matt: It's just overrated karaoke.

Charlie: They bore me, they are getting very boring. Finding talent through a TV show makes good TV but not always good music. That's what it is – a TV show, nothing else. It would be good if they had one of these reality TV shows and then the winner never got a recording contract at the end of it. It would make me laugh so hard if someone beat the Popstars bands to Christmas No.1 – Simon Cowell must have something up his sleeve.

James: It makes a mockery of people who can't really sing but just want to fulfil their ambition – they just get slated on television and publicly humiliated. For me that is just not compulsive viewing. Also it gives them an unfair advantage over bands like Coldplay and Sugarbabes – bands who weren't formed through TV. The TV bands get unfair exposure and will always sell records.

Natalie Woods
What is your favourite song on your new album and what's your fave song in the world that is by someone else?

Matt: My favourite song on the album at the moment is most probably Without You, but it changes every week. As for the best of all time – one that always cheers me up is Falling by Ben Kweller.

Charlie: The best on the album is Day Turns Into Night. At the moment my favourite track by someone else is 80 Windows by the excellent Nada Surf.

James: My fave on the album is Britney. My favourite of all time has to be Jam by Michael Jackson.

Charlotte-Anne Wisbey
One of the songs on your album is called psycho girlfriend. Have you ever had one?

James: Many a time. I've had loads. I think everyone can relate to this song, I'm sure it will find it's way onto some teen film soundtrack.

Matt: I've had a few psycho girlfriends, a recent girlfriend was absolutely psychotic. Funnily enough that was also my longest relationship!

Charlie: I had a psycho girlfriend. When I ended it she sent me hate mail – she was mad!

Ellie Jeffries, Yorkshire
I know I'd do almost anything to spend some quality time with the three of you. If you weren't likely to see them due to your fame what lengths would you go to meet and greet your idols?

James: We wrote a song about Britney! The easiest way to make a girl cry is to write a song about them – they are suckers for it. We hope that Britney will hear it and say that she wants to meet us. So far it hasn't worked but we are performing it on the Saturday Show/Top Of The Pops so hopefully she will hear it then. I would go to great lengths to meet Britney.

Charlie: I would go to far greater lengths than James. If anyone gives me a challenge I would take it up. Hopefully she'll hear the song and ask to meet us, all girls like having songs written about them. I would be star struck if I met the Deftones.

Matt: I met Finch and New Found Glory at our record label and I didn't expect to be star struck but I had so many questions I wanted to ask them and didn't. I was just like 'ahhhh'.

Claire Alderman
What were the best and worst things about school and did you do well in your exams?

Matt: The best thing about school is the friends you make. The worst thing was actually having to go to school. I didn't do extremely well in my exams, lets leave it at that.

Charlie: I didn't really concentrate on lessons. My favourite memories are of playing gigs with my band in the 6th form centre. Those were awesome times. I did pretty well in my GCSEs, but I didn't concentrate in class and just crammed at the end. But you can do that with GCSEs as they are quite easy at the end of the day.

James: I got really good exams but I never had to use the results for anything. I have them to fall back on, but as yet they haven't come in useful. Music, drama, art and games were my best subjects. And my worst was definitely science.

Lup, London
How much money do you see from your record sales and are you saving for the future?

Matt: You don't see anything for at least two years, that is what I've heard.

James: But in a way you see it up front because you get advances from the record company. What's the point of having money if you're not going to spend it – you can't take it with you, coffins don't have pockets.

Charlie: I just bought a new car – one of those new Minis – and a drum kit. Spend, spend, spend.James - Hats off to Charlie, I say live for the moment.

Matt: Unlike these two I am sensible and saving for the future. Later on in life what Charlie will start to find, as he grows older, is that once it has gone it is long gone.

Charlie: Shut up Matt, you weener.

Matt: At least I have a weener, you c**kmonkey.

Danni, Northwich
If you could meet anyone famous - alive or dead - who would it be and why?

Charlie: I would really like to meet Kurt Cobain as he is a legend. Nirvana and Guns N Roses were the first bands I got into. I would have been about seven or eight, it was just after I got my first guitar. When I was in my first band we played loads of Nirvana covers. I would like to ask him how he wrote so many great songs.

James: I would like to meet Michael Jackson, but I think I've only got a slim chance of that. I would love to write a song with him. I'd like to have my voice on tape singing with his, with him beat boxing underneath it, that would be a cool thing to own. It would be good to record it in Neverland as well – see the zoo and ride on all the rides in his garden.

Matt: I'd like to meet Elvis but just so that I could rub my uncle's face in it – he is a massive Elvis fan.

John Smith
In your new video you are surrounded by girls in school uniform – whose idea was this? And why was Miss MacKenzie pretty minging?

James: The girls weren't our idea but it was something we approved of very much.

Charlie: It didn't take much to persuade us! The director wanted something less obvious for the teacher. He wanted someone that wasn't instantly beautiful but I wouldn't have minded a Liz Hurley type figure.

Matt: I would have liked a famous porn star for Miss MacKenzie, but I was very happy with what we got.

Holly, Oxfordshire
You are always asked "who is the smelliest", so who is the cleanest?

Matt: The three of us have lived together for about eight months. And considering these two don't even know how to operate the washing machine and dishwasher, it has to be me who is the cleanest.

Charlie: I prefer to be hygienically clean than care about the house. James on the other hand is just a smelly unclean b******.

James: I don't care. There are different types of cleanliness. When it comes to the dishwasher Matt is king but I keep my own space very clean.

Mike, Southend
How do you guys go about writing a song, can you give an example?

Matt: We sit there and all jam together and see what comes up.

James: Normally you'll be playing and la'ing a melody with dummy lyrics over the top and they'll just stick and it will become a song. Most of the songs we wrote for the album were finished quite fast. The main ideas came fast – and then we re-analyse it in the studio. It is mainly lyrics that get changed. The tunes and melodies come quicker than the lyrics. You have to be in the right mood to do lyrics or be fluky and do a dummy lyric that fits. Year 3000 was started on a piano, you would have thought it would be a guitar but it was a piano. The whole first verse was a dummy lyric – you can tell that was wind!

Charlie: The best songs are usually just the spontaneous ideas. If you have a good idea then you are inspired so you can finish it in half an hour. You can write a whole song without any lyrics and add them a week later, or the other way round. It works in a mysterious way.

Matt: What I Go To School For took about an hour. That was to do the initial song, and then you touch it up in the studio.

Karen, Romford
Which bands inspired you to get into the music biz, and are there any bands you really hate?

James: When I was young I loved listening to Michael Jackson – that is what made me want to get into music. All the songs I first learnt to play were Michael Jackson songs, and Wonderwall.

Matt: My brother inspired me to be honest. He was into bands like the Chilli Peppers and early punk stuff like the Sex Pistols and the Clash. I used to hear it blaring out and once I stopped annoying him he started to educate me in it.

Charlie: I went to see loads and loads of bands– and that made me want to be in music more than ever. I go to see so many gigs and all the time I just want to be up there performing.

All: There are many bands we hate but we can't really say.

Kitty, Wigan
What is your favourite biscuit?

Matt: Milk chocolate hob nobs. By far! They are the daddy! They are the perfect biscuit for dunking into tea. But I hate it when the biscuit falls into the tea.

Charlie: Mine is the newish Rolo biscuit.

James: The ones you get from Marks and Spencer with the chocolate in the middle. You can see the chocolate from the outside. I don't know what they are called but they taste great. And Jaffa Cakes too.

Stephen Marx
Have you guys ever been busted?

Matt: I've been in little bits of trouble with the police. Just for fighting and stupid stuff like that. It was nothing major. And it wasn't my fault!

Charlie: I was caught in a compromising position with a girl by my parents, that was not the best of times.

James: I did an ID parade and that was the closest I ever got to a police station – it was exactly like on our album cover. I got a tenner for doing it and I was well chuffed. It was just round the corner to college so I went between lessons.