Background and career
James Elliot Bourne (born 13 September 1983) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is known as the co-founder of pop-punk bands Busted and Son of Dork, and he also created his own electronic project under the alias Future Boy. From 2013 to 2015 he was a member of McBusted, which consisted of himself, Busted bandmate Matt Willis, and McFly.
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 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, and bass guitar. He later attended Morgan Academy of Performing Arts, based in Essex.
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". 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. At the latter end of that year, Bourne announced a new solo project – officially announcing Busted to be on their first hiatus since the split. In March 2023 they announced a tour to take place in September of the same year, they also re-released some songs from their first two albums, including Loser Kid and Meet You There. In these re-released they collaborated with other bands such as Simple Plan and Neck Deep, the songs were in more of a rock style than their original calmer renditions.
After Busted disbanded 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. 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 ended in 2007 after Bourne had to dedicate his energy to an ongoing lawsuit for the rights to the Busted songs. He has, however, been open for a reunion though stated he would only bring back the members who wanted to come back. Bourne did reunite with bassist Steven Rushton and guitarist Chris Leonard to perform Man in the Mirror with Welsh Comedy Duo Lilygreen & Maguire.
Following Son of Dork, Bourne pursued a musical career as a solo artist under the name Future Boy. In June 2009, Bourne announced that he had begun recording his debut solo album; "not a rock album. It is 100% electronic." 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. Bourne confirmed in 2020 that the second album was 'mixed and mastered' but he would not be releasing it due to his commitment to his solo career.
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." His first album Safe Journey Home was self released in late 2020 on his own Bad Apple label. Bourne announced a follow-up album, Sugar Beach, on his Twitter for a Summer 2021 release.
