The last time Busted and McFly shared a stage a decade ago they were conjoined as McBusted, an unholy union that resulted in two arena tours and an album. Now they’ve reconnected as pop-rock foes, with the “rivalry” – both bands were formed by the same management company, with McFly arriving three years after Busted in 2003 – cemented by an opening video segment based on Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet that pits them as “star crossed bands” living in “fair Britannia”. Millennial couples in rival Team Busted and Team McFly T-shirts, meanwhile, eye each other up nervously.
A surprisingly buff McFly open proceedings, anchoring their rock credentials with 2023’s Where Did All the Guitars Go?, an embarrassing “real music” diatribe about the “shit” on the radio. But while there are some other duds in their 12 song set – Red is a Kidz Bop version of U2; the faux-breezy pop of Happiness falls into that “shit” category – they also have a handful of top-tier bops (Obviously, All About You, a raucous One For the Radio), and enough musical variety, to keep even the patient Busted fans happy.
