Busted have reflected on the impact of their debut performance at Download Festival earlier this summer.
The band are the recipients of the Best Live Act award in the 2024 Rock Sound Awards Issue magazine and in our new interview, Charlie Simpson, Matt Willis and James Bourne look back on that huge moment as they headlined the Avalanche Stage in Donington back in June.
“I felt really excited going into it” says Matt. “But then when we were actually driving to the stage on a golf buggy, I looked to my left and there were so many fucking people outside the stage. You could just see through the little gap in the fencing and there was a fucking sea of people outside. That’s when I knew it was going to be fucking special. I felt so excited.”
“Download is now THE festival for me”, Charlie adds. “It’s migrated into the home of rock music, you know? And I think that’s really cool, man. It’s become the UK’s bastion of, not just metal, but a whole cross section of rock music, which is brilliant for everyone involved. Before, there was maybe 2% doubt and we had the conversation of ‘Is that the right thing to do for us?’ But that lasted maybe two minutes. We wouldn’t have done it 20 years ago. I think that would have been wrong. But now, obviously, the band has come so far, and the community has come so far. I just think it was the perfect time for us to do it, and it ended up being exactly what we all hoped it would be.”
He continues “That will go down as a moment in Busted history. We have markers across our career. The Brit Awards would have been one. Splitting up would be one. Playing Glastonbury was one. I think that Download was such an important one for us.”
Matt also revealed to us how he overcame technical difficulties at the show’s opening, saying “By six songs in, everything was fine. But for the first six songs, I could hear absolutely nothing. I had two pack changes, a whole new ear set, nothing. Then it turned out to be at the wrong frequency. It’s so weird. But I knew what was happening. Luckily, Eddy (Thrower, drummer) is loud as fuck, so as a bass player, as long as I’m playing in time with him, I’m all right, you know? So that was all I had to focus on. But the reaction when we went on was something that I haven’t really experienced for a long time. Every gig we play is a fucking cool reaction. But it felt special when we walked on. You felt like you had a bit of a job to do. There’s something about a homecoming crowd for us. We play our Busted gig, and we know how it’s going to go. But this, I don’t know, I felt like we had to put our mark on it. We’ve got to do something here to show people.”
