James Bourne

James Bourne

James Elliot Bourne (born 13 September 1983 in Rochford, Essex, England) is a singer-songwriter and co-founder of the two former pop bands Son of Dork and Busted. He is currently pursuing a solo career under the name Future Boy, while working with Call Me When I'm 18. His albums have sold over six million copies.

Biography

James Bourne moved from Rochford to Southend-on-Sea in Essex at age ten months, was born to Peter and Maria Bourne, and has three siblings - Nick, Chris and Melissa. Chris, his youngest brother, appeared in the music video for "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's main instrument is the guitar, however, he states his best instrument is the piano. He also plays the drums and bass guitar. Bourne claims that he is still good friends with the members of Busted and McFly. Bourne is the owner of a De Lorean DMC-12 and a golf cart. 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.

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.

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 through Busted's manager Matthew Fletcher, who told him he'd found someone with the same ideals as him and they 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.

By the end of the band's career they had managed to get 8 top 10 hits and 4 of them number 1. "You Said No", "Crashed the Wedding", "Who's David?" and "Thunderbirds Are Go" were singles that reached number one.

The band split when Charlie Simpson decided to leave the band to concentrate on his career with other band Fightstar.

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 a week later. Son of Dork split up in the latter half of 2007, after David Williams, Chris Leonard and Steve Rushton left the band.

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. In June 2008, Bourne announced that he had began recording his debut solo album; "not a rock album. It is 100% electronic." On December 3, 2008, Bourne revealed the tracklisting for his eleven-song album. and was announced via Twitter the first single will be named Karate on my Heart. According to Bourne's website, his début album as a solo artist will also be titled Future Boy and will instead feature twelve songs, including a ballad with his girlfriend Gabriela Arciero. Bourne announced the album's May 2010 release via twitter.

Call Me When I'm 18

In February 2009, Bourne announced that he was starting a new band, Call Me When I'm 18, featuring himself on guitar and vocals and Ollie Kinski on bass and vocals. The band are currently recording their debut album. james had a girlfriend. gabby something

Songwriting

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 latest album, Radio:Active. He takes a lot of writing credits for artists such as Mel 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 Avenue B 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 . He also co-wrote The Saturdays song, "Forever Is Over", which was released on the 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.'

Bourne's love of films has often influenced the music he writes. 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 'Like the guy from Groundhog Day -'. This has continued since his Busted days and has become his unofficial trademark.

Loserville: The Musical

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. The tickets for the August 20 premier went up for sale on May 7. 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: UK in Association with South Hill Park Arts Centre. James has since signed a deal to take the show to the West End.

Discography

Main article: James Bourne discography

Studio albums

• 2002: Busted Busted
• 2003: A Present for Everyone Busted
• 2004: Busted (US) Busted
• 2005: Welcome To Loserville Son Of Dork
• 2010: Future Boy Future Boy
• 2010: Unnamed Studio Album Call Me When I'm 18

External links

• Official Website
• James Bourne on MySpace
• Future Boy MySpace
• Call Me When I'm 18 on MySpace
• Loserville The Musical on MySpace
• James Bourne on Twitter
• Call Me When I'm 18 on Twitter