James Bourne

James Elliot Bourne (born 13 September 1983 in Rochford, Essex, England) is an English singer-songwriter and co-founder of pop bands Son of Dork and Busted. He is currently pursuing a solo career while simultaneously working on the Future Boy project, as well as performing with supergroup McBusted. His albums have sold over six million copies.

Biography

Bourne was born in Rochford, Essex to Peter and Maria Bourne and moved to Southend-on-Sea at age ten months. He has a sister called Melissa and two brothers called Nick and Chris. Chris, his youngest brother, appeared in the music video for Busted's song "Year 3000" as the neighbour who builds the time machine. Nick appeared in a few Busted videos such as "Who's David" and "You Said No". Bourne attended the independent fee-paying Thorpe Hall School in Southend-On-Sea. Bourne plays electric guitar most often, but he has stated that his best instrument is piano. He also plays the drums and bass guitar. Bourne claims that he is still good friends with Matt Willis and on good terms with Charlie Simpson as well as the band members of McFly. Bourne is the owner of a De Lorean DMC-12 and drives a Volkswagen Golf. He also owns an American skating and apparel company called SicPuppy, named after a band he was once a member of. Bourne paid over £16,000 for his own record company, Sicpuppy Records, which, in 2007, gave unsigned UK bands a chance to play on the Sic Tour 2007 in Shepherd's Bush Empire. The event was hosted by David Gest and Matt Willis.

Bourne started to get into music at the age of 6, when he discovered his main idol, Michael Jackson through the Simpsons after Bart Simpson. He was intrigued by the line "dancing like Michael Jackson" and was eager to find out who it was – When he did, and started listening to his music, he was amazed. After seeing Jackson live a year later, Bourne soon decided that his new aim in life would be being able to play his songs. James attended Morgan Academy of Performing Arts, based in Essex, and the head being Vanda Morgan. James dated Kara Tointon when he was there however Kara ended the relationship the day after Busted split.^[1]

By the time he was twelve, he decided to form a band called Sic Puppy with his friends, Nick and Jeremy. They started off without a bassist and had band practice in his friend's bedroom. As time passed by they found themselves a bigger rehearsal space and a bassist called Stewart, but as they got older, they lost interest in rehearsing and Sic Puppy eventually fizzled out.^[2] Sic Puppy is now used for James' clothing range and Record label.

Music career

Busted

At the age of 17, Bourne dropped out of the South East Essex college course in Music Technology to pursue his music career. He eventually met Matt Willis at a gig and found that he had the same musical ideas as him. Matt and James soon started writing songs together at Bourne's house in Southend. Willis and Bourne soon decided that they couldn't form a band with just two members, so they decided to place an ad for a third member in NME magazine. They soon held auditions and after listening to a few songs the two had written together, Charlie Simpson joined the band. After signing to Universal in 2002, Busted released their first single, "What I Go To School For", from their self-titled debut album in September that year, which quickly became No. 3 in the UK charts. "Year 3000" soon followed and became a hit as well reaching No. 2 in the charts, their third single "You Said No" was a No. 1 hit.

By the end of the band's career, they had managed eight top 10 singles and four number ones – "You Said No", "Crashed the Wedding", "Who's David?" and "Thunderbirds Are Go". Despite their success, Busted split on 14 January 2005 after just three years, following Simpson's decision to leave the band to concentrate on his side project Fightstar.

In September 2013, Bourne and Willis returned for a surprise brief reunion at McFly's four 10th anniversary performances at the Royal Albert Hall. They performed Busted tracks "Year 3000" and "Air Hostess" followed by McFly's "Shine A Light" with McFly under the name McBusted.

Son of Dork

After Busted split in January 2005, Bourne formed a new pop rock band the following summer, named Son of Dork. They released their first single, "Ticket Outta Loserville" in November 2005 followed by their debut album, Welcome to Loserville, two weeks later. Although a split was never officially announced, Dave Williams, Chris Leonard and Steve Rushton all left to pursue other projects leaving James Bourne and Danny Hall the only members. With that, the second album was cancelled although Bourne hopes for a reunion. A reunion of sorts happened on occasion as Bourne turned their debut album into Loserville: The Musical. Danny Hall and James Bourne both performed 'Holly... I'm The One' together at the Oliver Awards.

Future Boy

Following the split of Son of Dork, Bourne is now pursuing a musical career as a solo artist under the name of Future Boy inspired by Bournes favourite Movie Back to the Future. In June 2009, Bourne announced that he had began recording his debut solo album; "not a rock album. It is 100% electronic."^[3] Future Boy will be bringing out a new "Volume" album of new songs every six months, every release will be on the 3rd of every month with Future Boys motto as "Always the 3rd".^{[citation needed]} Volume 1 was produced and mixed by Tommy Henriksen and James Bourne at Henriksen's Anarchy Studio's in Nashville and Los Angeles. Side A of Volume 1 was released on 3 May 2010; the album was released via his official website and not a record label. Side B would be released on 3 June. Side B featured a further five songs, including a ballad with his girlfriend Gabriela Arciero. As part of Valentine's Day, Future Boy posted a new track on Facebook called "Dangerous" for Valentines; the song didn't make the final cut for Volume 1.

Solo project

Alongside his alter ego act Future Boy, James revealed on Kali FM live on air that he would be releasing a solo EP and aired some songs on the radio show. The EP is set to be released in the summer. James promised to go back to a Busted kind of sound with guitars instead of the synth based Future Boy songs. Songs including "Gone" & "One of A Kind", were played on air. On his Facebook, Bourne revealed it would in fact be a solo album and will include the track 'Beautiful Girls are the Loneliest'.^[4]

In 2012 Bourne did his debut sell out acoustic tour starting round the UK in only 5 locations; London, Manchester, Glasgow, Islingon and Birmingham, with Matt Willis and wife, Emma Willis, as well as family members coming to support him. His set consisted of a mixture of songs from Busted, Future Boy and Son of Dork. He went on to do a brief tour in Spain. In 2013, he supported for Mcfly.

The Bourne Insanity

In early 2013, Bourne formed a band with his brother Chris Bourne. They released their first single 'Mohawk' on 16 April, unsigned and written solely by Chris.^[5]

McBusted

Bourne has recently been performing with a 'super-group' of McFly and Busted. They have confirmed their 2014 tour, Bourne and Matt Willis will be performing even more of Busted's hit singles from the past alongside Mcfly, who will also be performing their hit singles too.

Other

In late 2013, Bourne announced via Twitter that he had posted "secret" music under a different name on iTunes. One song was later revealed to be "Angels Walk Beside You" under the name "'88".

Song Writing

Bourne wrote the majority of Busted's two albums with Matt Willis, Charlie Simpson and Tom Fletcher (McFly). Busted's style of music can also be identified in songs with his next band Son of Dork's poppier tracks.

Bourne has helped write at least one song on every McFly album Room on the 3rd Floor, Wonderland and Motion in the Ocean. He also helped write several songs on their fourth album, Radio:Active. He takes a lot of writing credits for artists such as Melanie C for which he wrote "Immune" for her fourth studio album "This Time". Other artists include MC Lars, with whom he wrote the song "Twenty-three" on the "This Gigantic Robot Kills" album, and Pat Monahan, with whom he co-wrote "Great Escape" on the album "Last of Seven". Bourne has recently been writing with his girlfriend's band The Lunabelles and JC Chasez as well as unknown artists as a part of Metrophonic. He has also helped write songs for the British Drama Brittania High. He also wrote Eoghan Quigg's debut solo single "28,000 Friends", which was originally performed by Bourne at The Living Room, New York on 11 October 2007.^[6] He also co-wrote The Saturdays song, "Forever Is Over", which was released on 2 October and reached number two in the charts. In November 2009, Bourne collaborated with Leon G. Thomas III to write the song 'Please Don't Change Your Mind.'^[7]

Bourne's music often includes references to films. For example Busted's song, Year 3000 contains several references to Back to the Future as well as Son of Dork's song Ticket Outta Loserville containing the lyrics 'Wake up to "I Got You Babe", Like the guy from Groundhog Day -'.

As of 2014, Bourne is currently writing songs for supergroup McBusted and The Vamps. Bourne has also expressed interest in writing for One Direction.

Musical Theatre

Loserville: The Musical

In February 2009, Youth Music Theatre commissioned Bourne, along with his friend Elliot Davis, to write a musical based on the Son of Dork album, Welcome to Loserville, Loserville: The Musical. The tickets for 20 August premier went up for sale on 7 May.^[8] The slogan used for the musical is 'I guess it really pays to be a slacker...', and is centred around 17-year-old Michael Dork, who is called a nerd, geek and slacker by others. Socially marginalised by the entire school and constantly picked on by Eddie, the coolest boy in school, Michael is desperate to find his ticket outta Loserville. But when stunning new girl Holly arrives, Michael is introduced to a whole new world of cool. It is presented by Youth Music Theatre in Association with South Hill Park Arts Centre. James has since signed a deal to take the show to the West End.^[9] James has since tweeted that the musical will be hitting London's West End in 2011, however it has been confirmed as eventually opening on 1 October 2012 at the Garrick Theatre.^[10] Information can be found about the musical on the official website. From 18 June 2012 to 14 July 2012 the musical will be running in Leeds at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.^[11] The show opened at the Garrick Theatre on 17 October 2012, following previews from 1 October officially beginning it's tour on the west end. The production was originally set to run until 2 March 2013, but closed early on 5 January 2013.^[12] Production included past Son of Dork band member Danny Hall on drums.

The Musical is due to be available for Amateur and Professional performances in Schools and the Stage through the Josef Weinbeger LTD.^[13]

Out There: The Musical

In 2011, Youth Music Theatre once again commissioned Bourne and Davis to write a new, original musical called Out There. First presented as a workshop presentation in a small theatre west of London, the musical is set in the fictional town of Hope, Texas, and follows the story of Logan Carter, who is on the run from his home town near Detroit after committing a minor felony. Hope is a dead-end, one-horse town (even the horse has died) and its inhabitants are searching for ways to rescue the town from obscurity and financial ruin. Meanwhile a few miles away in the desert an old man is building something weird in his outhouse...

In July 2012, the original Youth Music Theatre cast and crew reunited to put on several performances at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London with new songs added. Prior to this, a funding page^[14] was set up to allow them to perform and although they didn't reach their $15,000 goal they still went ahead with the shows.

The Musical is available to have Amateur and Professional performances in Schools and the Stage through the Josef Weinbeger LTD.^[15]

Murder at the Gates

In 2013, Bourne announced another Musical he had been working on, Murder at the Gates. This time, the Musical sees Bourne working with Spring Awakening writer Steven Sater who has penned with Book & Lyrics for this musical where as Bourne worked solely on the Music Score. The musical will have a trial run performance of three shows in New York under NYU in September 2013 using NYU students. Murder at the Gates is set in a posh gated community in a Manor where a Costume Birthday party is being held for a Murder Mystery play but, the play becomes her life.^[16]

Discography

Studio albums

• 2002: Busted Busted
• 2003: A Present for Everyone Busted
• 2004: Busted (US) Busted
• 2006: Welcome To Loserville Son of Dork
• 2010: Volume 1 Future Boy

References

External links

• Official website