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06.06.08
The result of the court case has finally come to light - our boys have won!I'm not sure how I feel about this. There was a rumour going around that Ki and Owen won half a million pounds, which I thought would have been pretty reasonable, to be honest.
However, from what I've read (e.g. that Owen was deemed an unreliable witness by the judge, that he was confused while giving evidence and that he failed to relate his evidence to the case), they had it coming. No offence to the guys, because I think they had a valid case at the bottom of it all, but to insinuate that their families were threatened is absurd and just seems to take the whole thing too far.
But fair play to them for trying. I do kind of wish they'd got a bit of money just because that would have been fair.
05.03.08
There's not much to say on the court case at the moment. A new article has been published here - someone tell me why Ki compared it all to Wheatus and most of all, the Spice Girls?! How is that relevant to the case?You can view some pictures from Monday here, and some from last week here and here. It's nice to see some pictures of Matt and James together, even if it is for the wrong reasons!
Apparently Kara has been giving evidence, and Charlie's also up for interrogation. There are even rumours that he's standing AGAINST Matt and James... ooooh...
26.02.08
Okay, I'm sure you're all aware of the court case involving Ki Fitzgerald and Owen Doyle against Matt and James. The case started yesterday and a few details have been revealed by various news sources such as BBC News and Digital Spy. Here's the article from BBC News:Two original members of boy band Busted have gone to court, claiming an estimated £10m in unpaid royalties.
Ki McPhail and Owen Doyle say they wrote songs with James Bourne and Matt Willis when the group formed in 2001.
But they claim they were forced to sign away their rights after "threats" and "undue pressure" when they were sacked from the band later that year.
The songs include Year 3000 and What I Go To School For, which went on to be huge hits for the now-defunct group.
Mr McPhail and Mr Doyle were in a band called The Termites with Mr Bourne and Mr Willis between January and October 2001, the High Court in London heard.
They also wrote songs including Sleeping with the Light On and Psycho Girl together during that time, the claimants said.
That March, the four signed a deal with a professional management company, changing their name to Busted the following month.
In October, however, Mr McPhail and Mr Doyle say they were kicked out of the group and coerced into signing an agreement that released their claim to the group's material.
The pair said they were not told record label Universal liked the songs and had offered Busted a lucrative record deal when they signed the agreement.
They are now seeking to set aside that agreement on the basis of undue influence and misrepresentation.
Tim Penny, representing the pair, said: "The pressure placed on the claimants consisted of repeated advice and threats.
He said they were told "unless they released their claims in relation to the group members' songs and in particular the four songs, they would be sued, Ki McPhail's parents would lose their home and the claimants would never work in the industry again".
Singer Charlie Simpson subsequently joined the group, remaining with them until they split up in 2005.
The case continues at the High Court before Mr Justice Morgan. The hearing is expected to last 15 days.
I'm glad it's going to be over sooner than later, of course it could end up lasting a lot longer, but I just hoped it wouldn't be months like some cases can be.
One thing confuses me - 'Ki McPhail'? Where the hell has 'McPhail' come from? Someone please enlighten me lol. Anyway, it seems that the pair are admitting that they signed away their rights, but are now saying they were threatened. Let's see if they have enough evidence to prove that, because I'm not sure I believe the bit about Ki's parents losing their home. Over a few songs? It just seems a bit much, but who knows?
I also laughed at the fact Busted used to be called The Termites. Excellent!
05.07.07
Yesterday, Scott Mills & Zane Lowe were talking about Busted on Radio 1... you can listen to it here, with both Scott & Zane playing clips of songs and singing... or rapping... along. It's from about 2:20 onwards till the end.
02.07.07
05.05.07
A question through the form (I will be answering them soon, I swear!)where has ki ever said it was his fault he signed away the songs please get ur facts rite before you put things up on websites, lets just all wait for the trial and will see whats what.z
Admittedly, I don't think Ki said it. I think it was in that story Owen sold to The Sun, but I will have to double check that. I certainly read it somewhere, but I am pretty sure it was Owen who said it, not Ki, and I think he might have even said it was both of them who signed them away (but again I'll have to check that). I don't just make things up, so I'm sorry if I've been misinformed.
(Also, I have absolutely no faith in the justice system in the UK due to knowing various people who are now in prison for things that I know for a fact they didn't do. But that's a different story. :-p)
On another note, do you KNOW how much I miss Busted right now? :-( I'm listening to A Present For Everyone and realising for the millionth time just how truly amazing they were. Sigh.
23.04.07
You all know about Owen and Ki taking Matt and James to court over unseen royalties for the songs they wrote while in Busted.The court case was held last Tuesday, and the verdict is yet to be announced. They are aiming to squeeze £10 million from their pockets, which personally I think is outrageous. Even supposing they win the case, how can that amount of money be justifiable? Surely it's not Matt and James' fault that they didn't receive their royalties? At the end of the day, in fact, Owen and Ki SAID THEMSELVES that it was their own faults for signing a contract to take their names off the credits of the songs (What I Go To School For, Sleeping With The Light On, Year 3000 and Psycho Girl, apparently), making the amount of money they're expecting AND the case itself even more unjustifiable. And even if they do deserve the royalties, WHY JAMES AND MATT? It is not their responsibility to ensure that everyone gains the royalties. It is the publishing company's and the record company's. Sue them, not James and Matt, who in my eyes, are innocent.
They may have lied about one or two things in interviews, but really, it's the music industry. EVERYONE LIES. James and Matt may even have been told by the record company, 'don't tell anyone this and that, or we'll tear up your contract with us'. It's not a nice thing for music fans to not be able to know what's true or not, but for bands, that's incentive enough for lying about it. The whole origin of the name thing is also just stupid. It doesn't matter where the name came from. I generally don't care where bands get their names from, and if I happen to find out, I'm not really bothered what the story is.
Seriously. £10 million. That's probably more than James and Matt HAVE (well, maybe not...), so to try to take away the money they worked so hard to earn for a few years is absolutely ridiculous and undeniably unfair. At least lower the amount of money you're bloody expecting, please. It's an insane amount, particularly for your case.
Also, what the hell?! Ki has a website dedicated to his hate campaign of Busted here. Owen has one (saying exactly the same thing) here. Both sites link to each other, both their campaigning MySpaces (which also say exactly the same thing)... and this website. What, are you trying to insinuate that I'm supporting you?! I'd like to make it very clear to all Busted Online viewers that I'm not. I don't disbelieve your case, granted, but I think it's outrageous that you're pointing your fingers at Matt and James - and for such a lot of money. At least sue the record/publishing companies. You know, the ones who CAN make a difference.
23.11.06
I do miss this site. I never updated this page for Charlie and James's birthdays. Charlie's now 21 and James is 23... pretty insane, really! I'm probably going to go through the site and make sure everything's all right, and probably do something with the gallery as well. Anyway, believe it or not, there is actually Busted news. Other than James and Matt arguing over the whole I'm A Celebrity thing... apparently original Busted members Owen Doyle and Ki Fitzgerald are at it again, trying to sue James and Matt (why not Charlie...?), this time for leaving their names out of the Busted autobiography. Nice one. The autobiography was only released three and a half years ago! Anyway, read the article here.08.05.06
Can you believe Matt's 23?! It doesn't seem that long ago that he was 19, haha. Anyway, have a brilliant day, Matt!
30.04.06
Wow, so that's a revelation and a half. There is an interview with Matt in Bliss, and he reveals that Charlie quit Busted in December 2004 (possibly the last night of the tour - like the papers said, remember?), but he didn't find out until Christmas Eve. Amazing Christmas present, eh? :-(
26.04.06
All the questions are up to date. :-)
23.04.06
You might have heard about being able to vote for the best UK artist of all time. The list is now up, and you can vote for Busted - click here and go to 'vote' beside them! I think you can vote for more than one as well, and Son Of Dork are on there as well... er, yes. Son Of Dork. Best UK band ever. Now I like Son Of Dork, but really... even Busted would be stretching it quite far in my opinion, but let's face it - at least they did something for pop music.In other world-breaking news, I've changed the enter page - what do you think?! I think it's quite snazzy myself, and it's a lot better than having those silly little boxes above this. Yarr.
Apologies for not answering the rest of those questions, by the way. I ended up being out all weekend and then I've been busy since school started on Tuesday. NEXT TUESDAY, I get them completely up to date, promise!
15.04.06
YES, I'm still alive! I've been so busy lately, last week was the first week I haven't been completely bogged down with school work, and my boyfriend came to stay, so I didn't have time then either.I've just answered all the questions from March and the rest of February. I'll answer the April ones tomorrow night.
I don't think I posted about some articles about Matt talking about James, so I might find them and post 'em up. :-)
I'm also going to change the enter page, by putting the latest news of each project on there instead, which will look a lot better than having them squashed into little boxes up there lol. I have to say, I miss this site. :-(
18.03.06
A Chinese band, Hua Er (Chinese for 'Flowers') have been accused of plagiarising various songs including Busted's Losing You. There is an article about it here.You can also hear the song called Missing You. Sorry, Losing You. It's a bit uncanny, especially in the chorus.
05.03.06
You might have noticed I'm playing around with the coding of this site a bit. This calls for a new layout. If I'm off school yet again tomorrow, I'll make it then. If not, I'm not sure when.
04.03.06
I've made a couple of changes to the forum, and it seems to have died a bit. Please go and join, and help liven it up again. :-DI'm also making a video request site, which is almost finished. I've just got to add a few bits before it goes live heh.
26.02.06
I'm compiling a list of all the gigs Busted ever did (CLICK), and I need your help. If you know of any gigs that I've missed (not just headlining gigs, just any festivals they played etc), or have any information on the others (venues for the Japanese gigs, for example), then please drop me a line. :-) Cheers!
21.02.06
Crashed The Wedding is the 20th most essential pop song ever, according to iTunes. Considering the list has huge pop classics (number one is Dancing Queen), that's really not too bad!
18.02.06
There is an interview with Fightstar in The Guardian, you can find the link in the Fightstar news box. It's actually really annoyed me. I did a huge rant on the official Fightstar forums - read that here (second post down).There is also an article about the importance of Busted in the music industry. A lot of it I don't agree with - the Kaiser Chiefs and Green Day parts, especially. Anyway, click here to read it.
I've answered a whole pile of questions as well, I'll do last month's now.
05.02.06
The bit down the side is fixed for everyone using Firefox, big thanks to Toady for helping me sort that out. :-)I've also just opened the official Busted fanlisting, after it closed on busted-rock.com. Please join it! I'll probably make another layout for it soon, because I don't really like that one.