No Rock And Roll Fun

WE SENSE THE START OF THE END: "It's degrading being called a Boy Band'" whine Busted, suggesting they're rather wasting the opportunities being number one give to them - if the only way they're being degraded is by getting enthusiastic write-ups in Smash Hits, they're really missing out.

Now, we know that Busted have a degree of smarts about them, and they're not strangers to the ways of the pop world. So you'd think they'd know that no matter how much you yearn to be taken seriously, you should never demand it. Especially not in terms like this:

"Anyone that calls us a boy band obviously doesn't know much about music.
"It's a very naive thing to say because if anyone was a fly on the wall in the process of making a Busted album they'd see it's not done the way a boy band does it.
"Boy bands just have to go in and sing the songs and the album is made very quickly. For us there's a certain amount of time to allow because we have to write it, find the producers, go in and record it. It's a completely different process."

Now, all of this it true, but the trouble is blurting it out in interviews does make the people who are buying your records think "They're saying they're too good for me." Of course Busted want to reposition themselves as a credible band with a future the length of Sting's ahead of them, but crossing from being a boy band (get over it) to simply being a band is something that has to be handled with tact, care and a certain amount of being prepared to go on SM:TV and talk to a puppet. The mantle of credibility takes a while to win (and we do think Busted might manage it), the support of the preteens is easy to lose. And you don't want to piss off the hairbunch market when you still need them to underwrite your careers while you turn yourself into rock gods. Busted need to take care - carry on like this and they'll be taking the East 17 bus to oblivion.