Busted at the Royal Albert Hall, review: Band reunite for a surprisingly intimate, nostalgia-fuelled set
The trio got together for a special, one-off show in London
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Your support makes all the difference.Usually, a fan’s obsessive nature peaks as a teenager, but sometimes all it takes is a band coming back together 10 years on to rekindle those feelings of adolescent hysteria.
Busted’s one-off gig at the Royal Albert Hall was one such occasion, attracting a millennial crowd to what felt like an unusually intimate gig.
For the first 40 minutes or so, the trio performed a stripped-back acoustic set accompanied by a saxophone and cello, maturing the youthful pop sound they became famous for in the early Noughties.
Despite Charlie Simpson’s previous quitting of the band and refusal to join Matt Willis and James Bourne for the McBusted “superband” tour, there was friendly banter between all three.
Bourne told a sweet story about being a young boy and watching a performance of Crowded House play “Don’t Dream It’s Over” at the very same venue they were playing that evening, before Busted launched into a stunning rendition of the song.
A 30-minute interval saw a complete gearchange as they brought out some of their best-known tracks: “Air Hostess”, “Crashed the Wedding” and “3am”.
Closing on arguably their biggest hit – “Year 3000” – left the audience on a huge high, buzzing at the end of a nostalgia-fuelled set.
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