Busted on playing Download 2024: “It was the perfect time for us to do it – we wouldn’t have done it 20 years ago”

nme.com:

Busted have said playing Download Festival this summer was “perfect” timing, adding that they “wouldn’t have done it 20 years ago”.The pop group played the rock-centric festival for the first time in June, and in a new interview with Rock Sound, Charlie Simpson, Matt Willis and James Bourne have reflected on their debut set in Donington.“Download is now THE festival for me”, Simpson said. “It’s migrated into the home of rock music, you know?

And I think that’s really cool, man. It’s become the UK’s bastion of, not just metal, but a whole cross section of rock music, which is brilliant for everyone involved.”“Before, there was maybe two per cent doubt and we had the conversation of ‘Is that the right thing to do for us?’ But that lasted maybe two minutes.

We wouldn’t have done it 20 years ago. I think that would have been wrong. But now, obviously, the band has come so far, and the community has come so far.

I just think it was the perfect time for us to do it, and it ended up being exactly what we all hoped it would be.”Assessing where the set will rank in the band’s history, Simpson added: “We have markers across our career.