Ticket Alert: Fightstar Return For 10th Anniversary Blowout

Chris Lockie
By Chris Lockie Last edited 113 months ago
Ticket Alert: Fightstar Return For 10th Anniversary Blowout

Image courtesy of Richard Heaven via Flickr

To get this out of the way immediately, yes, the main man in Fightstar used to be in Busted. Are you planning on holding that against him forever? The man has released two solo albums, most recently the very well reviewed Long Road Home a couple of months ago, and perhaps more importantly he’s the only member of Busted or McFly not to have agreed to take part in the monstrosity that is McBusted.

Between his boyband days and his recent impressive output, Simpson made his first attempt to shed his past, and it actually went surprisingly well. So it is that he and guitarist Alex Westaway, bassist Dan Haigh and drummer Omar Abidi will reunite for a 10th anniversary show at the Forum in Kentish Town on 16 December.

The band formed in London in 2003, and released their debut EP in 2005, so a 10th anniversary show in 2014 makes perfect sense. Tickets for the show go on sale on Friday 17 October.

So, Fightstar. Time for a quick reappraisal of a band whose debut album, Grand Unification, came out in 2006 to general astonishment that it was as far from ‘rock Busted’ than it could have been without them donning Slipknot-style masks and screaming abuse at horrified teens waiting for What I Go To School For. The album included a beast of a track entitled Waste a Moment, with a video set in a (hopefully) disused Underground tunnel, and here’s that.

One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours was Fightstar’s second album, released in 2007 to four-star reviews from the likes of Kerrang! and Q. By this point it had become pretty obvious that the first album was not a petulant reaction to boyband superstardom, but that this band had actual quality. Lyrically the album is a little more bleak than its predecessor, not least on Deathcar. Listen to this, then picture six horrified members of McBusted cowering in fear in case Mr Simpson ever changes his mind.

After the band’s record label talked them into releasing a b-sides collection entitled Alternate Endings, Fightstar went off on their own for 2009’s third album proper, Be Human. Once again the reviews made for happy reading as they added a touch of experimentation and additional melody to their post-hardcore sound, such as on single Mercury Summer.

And then, a year later, they were off into the world of hiatus that so dismays fans of any band. Tickets for their reunion show will go quickly, though a betting man might have a pound on an additional show to be added in due course (not that it could be the following night at the same venue, as Ginger Wildheart is having an ‘Oh F**K I’m 50′ birthday bash).

So get yourself onto a reputable ticket outlet at 9am this Friday to reacquaint yourself with Fightstar, who very much never were a boyband and who might end this hiatus debacle and get themselves back in the studio if we show them enough London love.

Fightstar’s 10-year anniversary show takes place at the Forum on 16 December, and tickets go on general sale on Friday 17 October via the Forum website and likely other ticket sellers.

Last Updated 16 October 2014