Busted rocked Leeds during their Sound of The City set

★★★★★ (5/5)

BUSTED LIVE AT LEEDS SOUNDS OF THE CITY 2024
PHOTOCREDIT: ALEX BROWN

Wednesday night saw the ‘What I Go To School For’ trio rock the Sound of The City stage in Millennium Square Leeds, but not before a busy line up including Muddy Elephant, SOAP and Scouting For Girls.

Muddy Elephant and SOAP opened up the night with two fun-filled sets, neither band had been on my radar but they absolutely entertained and brought some fun on a gloomy looking evening.

But the real action started when Pop Rock legends Scouting For Girls hit the stage and starting strong with ‘Heartbeat’. The English band are known for writing absolute bangers and having fun live shows and they certainly live up to it. A band worthy of headlining the stage themselves bringing laughs and huge hits to the Leeds crowd. Even though the set wasn’t long it was powerful enough to get everybody dancing singing and getting themselves ready for the headliners. Playing classics such as ‘This Ain’t a Love Song’ ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’ and of course ‘She’s So Lovely’ Scouting For Girls will always be a band I love to watch live and I definitely won’t be alone from that crowd that have bought a ticket for their own headline shows later in the year.

After what felt like an incredibly short wait we were hit by the PA powering out ‘Lose Yourself’ and ‘Thunderstruck’ before the Essex Trio entered the stage and after a loud (VERY loud when you’re in front of the whole crowd) scream from the fans, we were treated with ‘Air Hostess’ which as an opener just tells you how strong of a nostalgia filled set this is going to be.

The band are known for being a ‘gateway’ into pop rock/punk rock and they certainly kept that in mind with the way the set was set into motion and Charlies infamous screams. They may have been around for 20 years but they always have a freshness about them when they perform. Even when telling stories of how Simon Cowell wanted to sign them and talking about music videos from the beginning, it just felt like they were still a new young and exciting band (they may not be as young any more but they are still certainly fun and exciting).

The crowd didn’t stop bouncing or singing the entire set, even when Charlie started a ‘Footballs coming home’ chant before going into the Hanson classic ‘Mmmbop’. Busted are certainly a crowd pleasing band smashing out hits like, ‘Sleeping With The Light On’ ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ ‘Crashed The Wedding’ and the song everybody wants to hear ‘Year 3000’

They still have plenty of time to hit that “seventh album” they talk about in Year 3000, but after 4 solid albums (and an album stacked with fantastic guest performers on their Greatest Hits 2.0 album) Busted don’t look like they’re on track to stop any time soon, talking about writing a new album in the near future.

Leeds may be one of their favourite cities to perform but Busted will always be a fan favourite band and if Download fans don’t want them back, we certainly will.