The two multi-million-selling groups will go head-to-head for their “versus” tour in 2025. In this candid conversation, Lauren Edwards speaks to James Bourne of Busted and Dougie Poynter of McFly to discuss their reunion, the friendly rivalry, and the theatrical elements they have in store for fans.
With 40 years of combined musical history between them, this tour promises to be a true celebration of the enduring appeal of their pop-rock anthems and soothing ballads, alongside the genuine camaraderie shared by the musicians. As the bands navigate the saga of their intertwined past and look toward an uncertain, yet thrilling, future, the anticipation for this epic showdown is only just beginning to build.

Hey guys! How are you?
Dougie: Very good, very excited! Wait… are we keeping up the act?
you don’t like one another?
James: All the tickets have been sold now, so we can be nice to each other again. We’re very excited, and we’ve missed each other! It’s fun to see their familiar faces and come to their house to play.
I mean, the big McFly vs Busted tour is a year away, but pre-sale happened this morning and you’ve already added multiple extra shows—how does that feel?
D: I don’t like this part, it’s hourly updates and it just makes me nervous. It’s only in the past couple of years that people have been like, “oh, these are the percentages at the moment.” I just want everything to be 100%.
J: On the way in, I drove past a huge, huge billboard for the tour. And that never gets old. You see the billboard, and you’re like, “oh, that’s us.” And it’s weird when you see that in the outside world because, at our shows, when you’re present and you’re there with the fans, it sort of feels like these are the ones that know us. But when you see a billboard like that, you’re like, “oh, even people who don’t like us have to put up with that too.”
D: I know exactly what you mean. We just did two sold-out nights at the O2, and when you’re there, you think you’re the center of the universe. Then the next day, you go to a pub and the bartender’s like, “are you still in a band?”
So many people are excited to see this happen. Twenty years later, you have two of the coolest bands in the country coming together for the ultimate showdown. How do you even start to bring that together?
J: There’s a nice history, but a fierce rivalry, and I think that’s what’s going to be the fun part about the show.
Busted came about first, and then we, you know, turned to dust, and McFly kept it together—they were sort of a Stargate back. I would never have imagined, when I first started working with Tom, that that was going to be a way back to my own band, but this tour is going to be mental.
It’s nice that we’ve got Charlie back, and both bands are fully complete—it’s like it’s 2004 all over again.
With that said, even though there’s some fan crossover, most of them will either be Team Busted or Team McFly. What do you think it’ll be like when you bring them all together?
J: I think people used to be very influenced by the way things were marketed. There were a lot of different boxes for bands to be put in: you’re part of this world, you’re not part of that world. Now, Spotify has sort of broken those boundaries—everything’s just a file on a computer, and people just go to it if they care to hear it. So, for example, I think there will be people who maybe enjoyed seeing Busted at Download that will come and see this tour.
D: Or if you just want to come to throw tomatoes at Busted, I’ll personally be handing them out—so buy a ticket even if you don’t like them!
J: I actually remember we did a Radio 1 thing in 2003, and there were some eggs flying around and we had to dodge them. It made the show a lot more fun because they’d had to buy a ticket to throw the eggs.

Big question: Do you think you’re going to have to hire more security? Will there be trouble in the stands?
D: There’s going to be trouble backstage! I’m hiring my own personal security, you know, I’m a relatively small dude!
J: Size isn’t everything, Dougie… when you get into a jiu-jitsu class, they teach you that. You should come with me, I’ll show you all the moves—you’ll be fine. You’ll be able to beat up Charlie.
D: You can’t teach the enemy!
What does the rivalry element of the tour mean to you guys?
J: People enjoy the rivalry and have always liked that stuff. I think it’s one of the reasons why this tour is going to be a big thing for both bands because it adds a layer of entertainment.
There’s a lot of people out there that know the band, they like the songs, but they don’t really love them as much as the people who want to come to every tour. This just adds something more; there’s just a little bit of depth to it. Both bands on their own are exciting, but actually seeing the two together in this way, in this setting—I’m excited about it, as you can tell!
D: Since I was a kid, I always wanted to secretly be a WWE superstar, and this is the closest I’ll ever get.
I suppose you’ll have an entrance song?
D: I hope so! But it’s more about how you enter the arena, right?
J: It’s a shame that Charlie has already come back, because what would have been great is if his entrance was in an arena. When we came out to launch the tour, it was very sort of WWE. I love the theatrics, and I think it went down really well.
You need to get a full-on ring for the middle.
D: Maybe there is… who knows what it’s going to be?
J: We’re already talking about things we can play against each other, to have versus-branded stuff. The branding for the tour is really cool, and it looks so good on the posters.
Will we get to see you guys playing those games against one another as part of the lead-up to the main event?
J: So, Harry is super competitive—by far, out of everyone, he’s the most competitive. On the last McBusted tour, we had a ping pong table that traveled with us, and every day we were in there just battling it out all the time.
D: And he was the winner.
J: He won more than I did. The thing about Harry is, I’m a better ping pong player, but he’s a better winner than I am. He cares so much about winning that he doesn’t do anything crazy; he just wants to hit shots. We’re probably going to have versus-branded ping pong tables!
D: James also pointed out that Connect Four is in the tour colors.
J: I love Connect Four! We should take all of these things on tour!
So, the slogan for the tour and on the poster is “Every saga has an ending”—what is the saga exactly? And how does it end?
J: The tour is going to have some kind of conclusion. We don’t know what that conclusion is yet, but we do know that it’s being written now and throughout the tour.
D: One band will die.
“Thanks for coming out… and we’re done.”
D: That’s it, band over.
Do you think some people will think this is your way of saying you’re disbanding?
J: I think this is the kind of thing that gets people riled up to the point where, when it ends, it’s like, “so, what now?” So, I do feel like there needs to be a conclusion of some kind. What that will be, we don’t know—that’s the whole point of this thing unfolding. People just have to come and find out; they have to come and see for themselves.
Between the two bands, you have 40 years of musical experience—that’s quite a catalogue of songs. How are you even going to fit all of that in?
D: I think what makes it kind of interesting is the bands level each other out. I think Busted have more uptempo hits, songs that people know, but McFly have the slower ones that maybe more people know in other areas, like in adverts or something.
J: They’ve got the power ballads, we’ve got the uptempo smash energy!
D: I mean, even songs like “Obviously” get the crowd going, but is it as hard as “Air Hostess”?
They’re very different.
D: I know, but that’s the discussion.
J: This is the brilliance of the tour; this is what people are going to talk about, and that’s the whole magic of it. I’m glad we came up with it!
So how did it come about?
D: Oh wow, it was ages ago!
J: It was spoken about ages and ages ago – even when we were in McBusted it was spoken about. I remember we’d just done the Night Driver tour and Charlie and I went to see Dougie in Richmond. We had lunch and we were like what do you think about this versus tour, is it gonna happen anytime soon — it just wasn’t really the right time then.
I assume no one thinks this is going to be McBusted 2.0
J: No, that’s pretty clear on the poster, you can see that both bands are represented. The mystery of Charlie and McBusted is funny now because we knew he wanted to come back in the middle of it all, but in a way it didn’t seem fair to McBusted to end it too early.
McBusted was a really good two years, and it sort of felt like if me and Matt left after one year it would be like Charlie leaving Busted after two years. So, how do you find the balance? We knew that there’d be people that would want to see Busted again eventually. And then we did do that.
Like, I say it’s been a saga and it’s gonna be really exciting to figure out how the show is gonna be. I think is has the potential to be an even bigger and better show than McBusted and that was a really good one!
What do you think you can do to make the versus even better than the McBusted shows?
D: Honestly, I just really want to put on a WWE concert — that’s all I’ve had in my head for few years, I want to do some kind of stunt!
I wasn’t joking when I said that I really wanted to be a WWE star growing up. I wanted to be Jeff Hardy, he was the coolest dude. He was a high flyer taking risk after risk, he did flips off of ladders and shit and I’m trying to think, like, okay, musically, how can I do something?
Maybe I’ll do the biggest guitar jump ever or something, I’ll jump off of the trusses at the top.
J: I was thinking it could be fun to have that guy, Bruce Buffer. I thought he would probably be really expensive, but I went on cameo and he’s only 300 bucks. I was thinking we could just get him and tell him what to say then just use it on the big screen.
Apart from the opportunity to live out your WWE fantasy what does the show represent?
D: Well, how do you feel James? You and Tom wrote most of the McFly songs on the first album, so you’ve created a monster — the babies you created are going against you.
J: I mean thank god I did do that with Tom because if I didn’t do that I don’t believe Busted would be back now. I don’t believe McFly would have been McFly either. Now we get to see who’s best!
D: The thing is, for you and Tom writing each other’s songs and being involved in each other’s bands and stuff you win either way. I’m merely a pawn in all of this. I’m just the bass player.
J: Now, Dougie, we’re gonna conclude in the conclusion that that’s not true.
D: I’ll be the surprise ending, like the end of Game of Thrones when the kid turned out to be the king and it was totally unexpected and everyone was like, really? That’s going to be me at the end — I’ll be the champion. Also, I think it’s really important that your readers know that I now ride a motorcycle, so I’m 5% cooler.
J: And you’re 5% less likely to show up. How the fuck are you insured to ride a motorcycle, that’s literally the most dangerous thing you can do.
D: Because they do it based on CC, the bike looks cool but it’s basically a glorified scooter. It’s only 20 mph around here anyways, there are cyclists in lycra going faster than me. I have all the gear helmet pads all of that and I’m like bobbing along at 18mph.
I’m surprised you’re not falling off going that slow…
D: That’s how I’m going to fall, the wind will blow me over!
So, I’m super excited to see what you guys come up with for the show, before you go, James, how would you describe McFly in one word? And Dougie how would you describe Busted?
J: Esoteric: unique, but also kind of out there. I think that’s a pretty good word!
D: I can’t think of a better word for it, but I think they’re very important, in the scheme of British music and culture I don’t think they get the credit they deserve.
To get your Busted Vs McFly tickets go to www.ticketmaster.co.uk/busted-vs-mcfly-tickets
Interview Lauren Edwards