Testimonial: Charles, The Individual

Charles is on the left.

He's already written a few posts here, but I thought it would be nice for you to get to meet our new writer, Charles. We've known each other since we were in primary school, and he's introduced me to some of my favourite bands. Here's what he has to say for himself:

So I liked Busted. I mean, actually loved them. I owned all (both) their albums. It has to be said, there's not many bands I can claim physical ownership of their entire discography. So naturally, when asked to introduce myself to the blog, the first thing that came to mind (that made any cohesive sense whatsoever) was Busted. They were great, weren't they? But this article isn't about Busted, it's about me. So let's get to it.

There was once this guy, called Charles. He was brought up pretty well off, and he was pretty musical. He responded to this ad in NME for a guitarist where he met James and Matt. Together, these guys were Busted, and they were pretty lame. Yet still people bought their albums. But people didn't realise they were lame at the time; they thought they were super hip! And so they were, for everyone under the age of twelve. I remember wishing I had a teacher as hot as the one in 'What I Go To School For' and jumping off the stage blocks at school discos to 'You Said No'. Hell, I remember getting so fucking pissed off when 'Sleeping With The Light On' was kept off the top spot by this joke of a song. Fuck R&B, man.

But hey, like everyone else around me, I grew up. The new ten year olds were listening to a crap new band called McFly and Busted's reign was pretty much over. They finally split their separate ways in 2005 and all went on to do even worse things. So whatever, I grew up and forgot all about Busted so what have three teenage boys jumping around with guitars have to do with my life? Well, quite a lot, really.

They were my gateway into music. They made me think, "hey, guitars are pretty cool". Because of this I went on to listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers and Coldplay and U2. Then one day I was checking out this thing called the internet, and I stumbled upon a guy called Bright Eyes. And he was fucking cool. He wasn't even playing electric guitar and he was still fucking cool. Man, I never thought cool guys played acoustic guitar, but this man proved me wrong. A year or two later I discovered a guy called Patrick Wolf, who played the violin and the ukulele. I didn't even know what the fuck a ukulele was, but he was making it look cool. So I no longer listen to Busted, nor do I think Conor Oberst is only guy to ever make an acoustic guitar cool. Hell, I don't even have a huge man-crush on Patrick Wolf any more. But that doesn't matter, because these are the things that have shaped me as a person today. I'm pretty sure this is still the reason I don't like R&B to this day. It's called progress.

So I sit here with my fancy Mac and swivelly chair, iPod and egg-shaped shaker, and I ponder over one question. Would my life really be the same without Busted?