James Bourne hits the street to busk for Loserville

The sun came out in Leeds today, for James Bourne who was busking.

November 28th, 2004. Also known as the last time I saw James perform Busted’s hit tracks live. Imagine my delight when I found out that James would be performing a selection of the hits he’s penned over the years, smack-bang outside Debenhams in Leeds.

Now when we say busking, what we mean is street performing – no money exchanged hands, he’s not trying to fund Loserville, he was there to promote it, and that he did.

By the time James was set to perform a huge crowd had already gathered – a crowd that only grew bigger when he started to play.

Several people stopped us to ask who it was (not because they didn’t recognise him, but because they couldn’t see through the massive crowd) and when we told them it was James from Busted the reaction was largely positive. Males and females were getting excited, mums were calling their daughters and when we told one girl she nearly burst into tears… tears of joy!

When we chatted to James, he told us he’d be performing “Busted – stuff I’ve written – McFly, Son Of Dork, Future Boy, solo stuff and obviously music from Loserville” and he didn’t disappoint.

The crowd took me back to my Busted years – everyone was screaming and singing along. It just goes to show how timeless Busted’s music really is. To give you an idea of the hysteria, we lost count of how many people assumed it was Justin Bieber singing. No, really.

‘Will Busted be performing together again any time soon?’ we hear you ask. Sorry, but they’re all far too busy at the moment.

“I don’t think about it,” James told us. “There are other things happening. Charlie [Simpson] is playing gigs and stuff, I just did a tour.”

So if you missed you show today, you missed a rare chance to see Busted hits brought back to life.

Click here to read our recent interview with James.

Tickets for Loserville can be reserved by calling West Yorkshire Playhouse Box Office on 0113 213 7700 or by visiting www.wyp.org.uk.