James Bourne

James Elliot Bourne (born 13 September 1983 in Rochford, Essex, England) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is the Rhythm Guitarist, keyboardist and co-vocalist for the band Busted and the lead singer and the Rhythm guitarist for the band Son of Dork. He is also co-founder of Pop Punk bands Busted and Son of Dork as well as a solo electronic project, Future Boy. From 2013-2015 he was a member of McBusted, which consisted of himself, Busted bandmate Matt Willis, and McFly.

For the 19th century painter, see James Bourne (artist).

James Bourne
Bourne performing with Busted at the Manchester Arena, 2016
Background information
Birth nameJames Elliot Bourne
Also known asFuture Boy, JB
Born (1983-09-13) 13 September 1983
Rochford, Essex, England
GenresPop, pop rock, pop punk, electronic, synth pop
Occupation(s)Musician, singer, songwriter, producer
InstrumentsVocals, guitar, bass, keytar, keyboard, piano, drums, percussion
Years active2000–present
LabelsMercury, Sic Puppy
Associated actsBusted, Son of Dork, Future Boy, McBusted,
Websitewww.futureboy.com

Personal life

Bourne was born in Rochford, Essex to Peter and Maria Bourne and moved to Southend-on-Sea[1] at age ten months. He has a sister named Melissa and two brothers named Nick and Chris. Bourne attended the independent fee-paying Thorpe Hall School in Southend-on-Sea. Bourne plays electric guitar, piano, drums and bass guitar. Bourne claims that he is still good friends with Matt Willis and on good terms with Charlie Simpson and have since reformed, releasing two new albums. He also has a good relationship with the band members of McFly.

Bourne 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 attended Morgan Academy of Performing Arts, based in Essex.

Bourne has been dating YouTuber Emily Canham since 2018.

Music career

Busted
Main article: Busted (band)

At the age of 17, Bourne dropped out of the South East Essex college course in Music Technology to pursue his music career. He met Matt Willis at a gig and they started writing songs together at Bourne's house in Southend. Willis and Bourne placed an ad for a third band member in NME magazine. They 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".[2] 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.

On 10 November 2015 Busted announced their return as a band, featuring Simpson again. They also announced a 2016 nationwide tour, Pigs Can Fly Tour 2016. Their third album, Night Driver, was released on 25 November 2016. Their fourth studio album titled Half Way There was also released in 2019.

Son of Dork
Main article: Son of Dork

After Busted split in January 2005, Bourne formed a new pop rock band 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. [3] Their second single Eddie's Song reached No 10 in the UK charts. They also contributed to the soundtrack of British Comedy film Alien Autopsy.

The band split in 2007 after Bourne had to dedicate his energy to an ongoing lawsuit for the rights to the Busted songs.[4] He has, however, been open for a reunion though stated he would only bring back the members who wanted to come back. Bourne did reunited with bassist Steven Rushton and guitarist Chris Leonard to perform Man in the Mirror with Welsh Comedy Duo Lilygreen & Maguire. [5]

Future Boy

Following the split of Son of Dork, Bourne pursued a musical career as a solo artist under the name Future Boy inspired by his favourite movie Back to the Future. In June 2009, Bourne announced that he had begun recording his debut solo album; "not a rock album. It is 100% electronic."[6] Volume 1 was produced and mixed by Tommy Henriksen and 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 then girlfriend Gabriela Arciero. As part of Valentine's Day, Future Boy posted a new track on Facebook called "Dangerous"; the song didn't make the final cut for Volume 1.

Although Volume 2 was officially announced in February 2011 for a 3 May 2012 release as a Facebook video game Space Travellers, the album has yet to surface due to technical difficulties and other commitments.

Solo projects

Alongside his alter ego act Future Boy, Bourne revealed on Kali FM 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. Songs including "Gone" & "One of A Kind", were played on air. Bourne revealed it would in fact be a solo album and will include the track "Beautiful Girls are the Loneliest".

In 2012, Bourne did his debut solo acoustic tour across the Uk. Dates included London, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, 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.

On 31 December 2019, Bourne announced a new solo project but reassured Busted fans that the band was not splitting-up, tweeting "After twenty amazing years making music, I am stepping into 2020 on a brand new solo adventure. Busted will always be my band. But, I’ve dreamed for years about releasing my own album so here we go."[7]

McBusted
Main article: McBusted

In 2013, Bourne supported for McFly, which was later referred to by the newly formed McBusted as the starting point for ideas of McFly and Busted joining together as a contribution to the McFly tour, which then later sparked ideas of their own McBusted tour. The McBusted tour was a success and the tour was extended from 11 dates to 36 dates. McBusted released their self-titled debut album on 1 December 2014, with a large portion of the tracks written/co-written by Bourne. Some tracks on the album were from some of Bourne's previous musical projects like "What Happened To Your Band" that was originally written for Son of Dork and "Beautiful Girls Are The Loneliest" which was intended for his solo project. McBusted went on a 21 date tour in 2015 and performed songs from their new album as well as previous McFly and Busted hits.

Other projects

In February 2009, Bourne formed the band Call Me When I'm 18 with Ollie Kinski. The band was meant as a successor to Busted and Son of Dork. The pair released four songs to the public including a cover of the previously unreleased Son of Dork song "Go Home Monday". The others were "Dumbstruck", "Break It" and "Gone". They disbanded in 2011 and Bourne instead decided to continue with his solo project.

In early 2013, Bourne formed a band with his brother Chris Bourne called The Bourne Insanity. They released their first single "Mohawk" on 16 April, unsigned and written solely by Chris. In late 2013, Bourne announced via Twitter that he had posted "secret" music under a different name on iTunes. The band was later revealed to be "88", which was Bourne and fellow musician Eric Bazilian. 88 released their first single, "Angels Walk Beside You", on 5 December 2013,[8] and on 8 February 2014 they released their second single "Miss the Girl".[9]

Songwriting
Bourne performing in 2016

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 co-writing credits on the first four McFly albums - Room on the 3rd Floor, Wonderland, Motion in the Ocean and Radio:Active, contributing to the majority of the tracks on the former.

He takes a lot of writing credits for artists such as Melanie C for whom 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 Britannia 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.[10] 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".[11]

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".

In 2014, Bourne was writing songs for supergroup McBusted, The Vamps and 5 Seconds of Summer. This includes the song Daylight by 5 Seconds of Summer which was cowritten with his brother Chris Bourne.

Musical theatre

Loserville: The Musical
Main article: Loserville

In February 2009, Youth Music Theatre UK 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.[12] The tickets for the 20 August premiere went up for sale on 7 May. 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. Bourne tweeted that the musical would be hitting London's West End in 2011; however, it eventually opened on 1 October 2012 at the Garrick Theatre. From 18 June 2012 to 14 July 2012 the musical ran in Leeds at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.[13] The show opened at the Garrick Theatre on 17 October 2012, following previews from 1 October officially beginning its tour on the West End. The production was originally set to run until 2 March 2013, but closed early on 5 January 2013.[14] The production included past Son of Dork band member Danny Hall on drums and singer Lil' Chris.

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[15] 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.[16]

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 whereas Bourne worked solely on the music score. The musical had 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.[17]

Discography
Main article: James Bourne discography

Studio albums

with Busted

with Son of Dork

as Future Boy

with McBusted

As James Bourne

  • Safe Journey Home (2020)

References
  1. "Busted to return for a reunion tour with Southend Singer James Bourne - Southend Standard". 10 December 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  2. "Busted | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  3. "Busted star James Bourne heads for Loserville". Bbc.co.uk. 18 June 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  5. "Man In The Mirror Acoustic". YouTube. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  6. "MySpace blogs: James Bourne – ALBUM NEWS". MySpace. Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
  7. Bourne, James (31 December 2019). "After twenty amazing years making music, I am stepping into 2020 on a brand new solo adventure. Busted will always be my band. But, I've dreamed for years about releasing my own album so here we go". @JamesBourne. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  8. "iTunes - Music - Angels Walk Beside You - Single by 88". iTunes.
  9. "iTunes - Music - Miss the Girl - Single by 88". iTunes.
  10. "James Bourne performing 28,000 Friends a year before Eoghan". Youtube.com. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  11. "Please don't change your mind written by James Bourne & Leon Thomas III". YouTube. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  12. "Loserville: The Musical (2009)". British Youth Music Theatre. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  13. "Official Loserville Musical website". Loservillemusical.tv. Archived from the original on 5 November 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  14. "Loserville posts early closing notices for 5 Jan 2013". London Theatre. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  15. "James Bourne and Elliot Davis commissioned for new musical; Out There". rockethub.com. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  16. "Out There, Josef Weinbeger". Josef-weinbeger.com. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  17. "Murder at the Gates: Tisch School of the Arts at NYU". NYU. Archived from the original on 15 August 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
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