BUSTED – "Crashed The Wedding"

Very pleased this got an 8 and the review nails its appeal for me (beyond The Memories). A Present for Everyone was the first album I ever owned the day it came out – cue much pestering of my dad (“no its not Christmas yet” etc).. I never did play it as much as the first album and can barely remember it beyond its singles and a few other songs so I must revisit it.

One of the B-sides was a cover of Build Me Up Buttercup which was a collaboration with a group who had not yet put out any records. The favour was returned on the flip of when we’ll first meet them.

Beat out the comeback single buy Busted favourite Britney as well, a song which kept Madonna at number two for the third time this year. At number 6 entered a song which would eventually peak at number 3… four months later (while all the while flyby number ones kept it at bay). At number 10 was Missy Elliott almost inventing M.I.A.

2) Of course, today physical distribution limitations are completely irrelevant, which is how someone can emerge out of nowhere to be big in a lot of different ways, for better and worse. As opposed to either needing to slowly gain support like M.I.A. or have an out-of-the-gate label/media push like… Busted, as it happens.

I fell into a bit of a demographic crack when it came to Busted – I was in sixth form so felt just slightly too old for out-and-out schoolboy rock, and I was definitely too queer to embrace the out-and-out schoolboy urges of the lyrics. It was no coincidence that it was my younger brother who had at least one Busted album; I was busy playing the likes of Snow Patrol at the time.

I really thought that the landfill indie of the era was better at the time? Yes, and I was spectacularly wrong. The casual misogyny of “What I Go To School For” and “Britney” may have rubbed me decidedly the wrong way, but few guitar bands of any era – let alone this one – owned an aesthetic and energy better than Busted. Nor did they tend to have hooks as good as “Year 3000” or, yes, “What I Go To School For.” Hating them felt easy at the time; it takes effort now. And this is as chaotically energetic as anything they did, and a worthy chart-topper in an era with more unworthy ones than perhaps any before or since. Enough reflexive dislike of the band – and stronger memories of their other hooks – to hold the score back to a 6. But no further.

A pop punk nerd myself, but I think this record can hold up perfectly well if you think of it as pure teen comedy, something like from Not Another Teen Movie or something.

A fair 8 and a half from me. BTW, this was the last proper UK Number 1 to count not just CD sales, but also cassette singles (cassingles, for short) – if we’re not counting the precious few or so limited edition cassette (3/3) copies of a certain 2004 bunny which were printed and manufactured before the discontinuation date of 17 November 2003…

I don’t think there is an awful lot to say about this one. If you like Busted (and I do) then you’ll like this one. If they aren’t your thing, then you won’t. At least I can remember it which is more than can be said for Me Against The Music.

I was interested in the comments above about the discontinuation of cassette singles and also the landfill indie of the time. That chimes into looking at the sort of chart Crashed The Wedding headed; a mildly interesting race to the top between two big releases that would already be forgotten the following Monday and lower down a holding pattern of new singles from well known artists – most mined off existing albums and selling to completists. Of bands I considered myself fans of in late 2003 there is a Red Hot Chilli Peppers song I remember fondly and a Stereophonics song I don’t remember at all.

Busted, and especially lead songwriter James Bourne, knew their way around a good (frequently great) power-pop hook, and I agree with Tom that they’re best classified by that genre than pop-punk. You Said No was one of their weaker singles, so happy to see Crashed doing them more justice on this site. On the festival circuit, crowd enthusiasm seems only surpassed by Year 3000 and, curiously, Air Hostess (kept off the top by a monstrosity of a bunny IMO) – that’s one of my favourites, with the intro a perfectly pitched gateway to the thrill of guitar music in the same way, I dunno, Ballroom Blitz might’ve been to uninitiated kids in the ’70s.

They were limited, but it’s hard to overstate just how much Busted stood out on the radio to a then 9-year-old like me – the other options seemed to range from bland MOR (that, looking back as a grown-up, was only more suitable for adults in that it said nothing whatsoever of note – the worst insubstantial music is un-self-aware insubstantial music) to post-boyband RnB-inflected pop and post-90s dance-pop. And I’d say that A Present For Everyone stands as their best album across their entire career, if a bit bloated at 15 tracks

At this point Busted were both unavoidable and all conquering. Although males at my secondary school were all public advocates for Evanescence, The Darkness and Linkin Park, I suspect many in private liked Busted.

Who, let’s face it, were exactly like the popular pop-punk bands of the time – Blink 182, Green Day and Good Charlotte.
The only difference being they had far less tattoos, though were more honest about their pop commercial leanings.
The song also doesn’t outstay its welcome, clocking in a little over two minutes.

The music video was also played excessively on music channels the week of release, showing 2003 truly was the year of Busted.

The music video was also heavily promoted on music networks during its first week of release, proving that 2003 was definitely the year of Busted.