Busted Greatest Hits 2.0 - The O2.
I’m out of the office today - I went back to 2003 and the commute back is a bitch!
Nostalgia was on the menu and it was served in full with plenty left over for seconds. This is Busted’s biggest tour ever, Even back in their “hay day” they weren’t selling out the O2 and now, 20 years later, they are not only selling out the biggest arena tour of 2023 in the UK within 10 minutes of ticket release, but they are also putting on more dates and selling those out within 30 minutes of the ticket release - that's all the proof I need that time and nostalgia are a winning combination.
MSN, massive computers and Nokia 300 with the Snakes game are just some of the things that remind me of the 2000’s. Ohh, and Busted! All of the music they played last night revolved around the people who featured on their album. It was a nice touch and it reinforced the Busted to Emo Kids timeline of the early 2000’s that, due to being a baby, I was unaware of. You could tell how much love and care had gone into this show.
I brought friends with me, both of whom had claimed to dislike busted in the past and both of whom, by the end of the night, confirmed that it was not only the best show they’ve seen in the last year but that they truly had the most wonderful time. I believe that Busted were able to unlock a lot from their show - a great night for themselves, a great night for their fans and a great night for everyone who was dragged along to the show.
The wow pit … as a fan, I love the idea. And not to be too cheesy, but it was WOW! I love the idea of being able to stand and be close without having to arrive at the venue and queue for hours before the show. It gave an elevated fan experience for die-hard fans! Some of these fans have been waiting years or even decades for this show! There was a range of people from their mid-20s - 40+, and to my surprise, there was definitely a 50/50 split of males to females.
In a surprise event, Hanson also came onto stage to sing his biggest hit Do Bop. As you might know, James is a Massive fan of Hanson and was fangirling over him which was funny to watch. I was very surprised that they didn’t play their new collab song being released on Friday but I guess we'll just have to wait until Friday for that one.
Truly, it was the best show with the best vibes that I’ve seen all year and the smile I have on my face will take weeks to come off. They had so much fire and did so many scissor kicks with guitars and so much jumping that my knees hurt for them today.
Busted knows how to do a “greatest hit” tour right. They used a lot of archived photos, they played the fans what they love and they played into it so well that cringyness was not a problem. They put their hearts, soul and love and attention into this show and it showed! They welcomed everyone with open arms and it was enjoyed by every single person there.
They wrote one extra song about honoring the journey they have been on over the years which they played as their last song of the night which almost gave me a heart attack as we hadn’t heard The Year 3000…thankfully for everyone in the audience they came back out and played year 3000 in the encore… PHEW!
Please remember that they are still on tour and you can buy tickets from https://tourlink.to/BustedTour2023 or Twickest (that's how I got WOW pit last minute). Their new album is out on Friday and these lads have never had a number 1 album so let’s get them there! One thing I am looking forward to is after the album is out is that hopefully, they will bring on a special guest like All Time Low or You Me at Six because that would be amazing. I mean Wheatze start their UK tour soon… You Know!