The last time Busted and McFly shared a stage a decade ago they were conjoined as McBusted, an unholy union that resulted in two arena tours and an album. Now they’ve reconnected as pop-rock foes, with the “rivalry” – both bands were formed by the same management company, with McFly arriving three years after Busted in 2003 – cemented by an opening video segment based on Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet that pits them as “star crossed bands” living in “fair Britannia”. Millennial couples in rival Team Busted and Team McFly T-shirts, meanwhile, eye each other up nervously.
A surprisingly buff McFly open proceedings, anchoring their rock credentials with 2023’s Where Did All the Guitars Go?, an embarrassing “real music” diatribe about the “shit” on the radio. But while there are some other duds in their 12 song set – Red is a Kidz Bop version of U2; the faux-breezy pop of Happiness falls into that “shit” category – they also have a handful of top-tier bops (Obviously, All About You, a raucous One For the Radio), and enough musical variety, to keep even the patient Busted fans happy.
As McFly’s colourful visuals start to pixelate and fracture at the end of their set, they’re replaced by the teenage punk iconography of a depleted Busted, reduced to a duo after James Bourne pulled out of the tour due to illness. Bourne’s goofy presence is instantly missed as Charlie Simpson and Matt Willis earnestly try to contort time-stamped teenage anthems such as Dawson’s Geek, Britney and What I Go To School For into Serious Rock poses. A lovely Sleeping With the Light On – dedicated to Bourne – is a highlight, however, as is a surprisingly ferocious Thunderbirds Are Go, which Simpson delivers as if fronting Turnstile.
Kept apart for over 90 minutes the bands start to inch closer: Willis and McFly bassist Dougie Poynter appear in opposite audience gangways to sling insults at each other (Willis suggests Poynter smells like cheese and has herpes), before the more sensible Simpson and Danny Jones croon their way through Busted’s 3am and McFly’s Not Alone. It’s only during the encore that the bands fuse together, tearing through Shine a Light and Year 3000 with an infectious energy missing from parts of what’s gone before.
In this rock-tinged boyband battle royale, while acknowledging a bloodied and bruised Busted, victory just about goes to a still intact McFly.
