Be My Escape

Keep all the lights off
And I’ll try to kill our past time
Just to find your heart
Please dont ignore me
Or I’ll just fall asleep
And wake up when you’re gone

This is an EP which I regard as a classic of the Post-Hardcore genre, and one of the best English rock releases of the 00s. But Fightstar are a very UK-focused band, with a winding story to tell. So some context:

The story of Fightstar starts with a band called Busted. Busted are a household name in the UK, a popular power pop trio who have sold 5 Million records and hold 4 number 1 singles. Their initial run from 2000 – 2005 saw the three members, James- Guitar, Matt- Bass, and Charlie- Guitar combine teenage good looks with an accessible brand of Pop Punk, that was almost entirely Pop. The “Punk” being relegated to sagging trousers and gelled up hair. During their rise they were reviled and celebrated in equal measure: earning legions of fans with their bouncy songs and cheeky image. While being reviled by the rock-guard as the height of manufactured trash.

To what extent Busted were manufactured is actually quite a conundrum. There’s definitely something weird about their initial burst of popularity. They already had management, a record deal and they appeared on the cover of the UK’s Smash Hits before they’d even released a single (the first band ever to do so). Yet at the same time all three band members played their own instruments on record, with Charlie even filling in on drums, and they wrote the band’s songs (alongside a number of co-writers and producers). The three band members were also very young. Matt and James founded the band at 17 and Charlie joined when he was 16. Even at Busted’s peak they were barely out of their teens. In that context it seems genuinely impressive that they kept the wheels on for as long as they did, even if they did have a lot of help from the machine.

Charlie Simpson was not happy in Busted. The band were hugely successful, but musically unambitious. The songs were tight, catchy and sunny. With a few school-disco ballads thrown in for variety. Charlie wanted more. He especially needed to express his love of a genre he’d gradually been sinking deeper into: Post-Hardcore. Meeting guitarist Alex Westaway and drummer Omar Abidi at a party, Fightstar- his ticket out of Busted- began to take form. It was going to be a deeply authentic and serious band, paying heavy respect to their underground influences and with no crossover appeal. A true Post-Hardcore band that could stand on its own, regardless of whether their frontman was one of the biggest Pop stars in the country. While recording and releasing Fightstar’s first EP Busted fell apart.

“This EP was all I cared about. It consumed my mind. It was the first time I’d recorded anything that I loved. I was 18 and we were just kids having fun. It was the most innocent record because we weren’t thinking about how it might be received at all. We just wanted to record some songs. There were no limitations: we were just doing it for ourselves. It was such a fun time. I’ll always remember those days. We didn’t have a care in the world.” – Charlie Simpson (Kerrang, 2009)

The exuberance of creating something because you have a fire burning within you. Thinking that this little work of art is the most important thing in the world. It captures an eternal youth, that anything is possible and nothing can stop you. You’re all in on everything and you’re never growing old.

Whether the songs would be good was a bit of a media circus. What? That guy from Busted was trying to front a proper Rock band?? If the tracks had been crap, phoney, then the egg would have been all over Charlie’s face. He’d broken up an absolute money machine in Busted, and now had only hubris to show for it. Fightstar’s debut EP They Liked You Better When You Were Dead was defiant against the doubters. A definitive statement of intent, utterly unapologetic. The weird, gory album title. Taking a track name, and part of the album artwork from Fight Club. When the first video was released it was torrid, with the band thrashing around in sea waves, rain and tears straining over their shrouded faces. We dare you to take us seriously.

But the songs were good. They were absolutely solid. A tight 5 tracks, with a sneaky hidden one at the end. Each one walls of guitars, bendy basslines and vocals that screamed, yelled and gnashed for absolution. There were desolate moments too, Mono and Amethyst being horizon-wide, with plenty of space and breath room. None of the tracks were “poppy”, but they were alert and melodic. This wasn’t going to crossover to the mainstream charts, in fact it would alienate the vast majority of Busted’s fanbase- but Fightstar could sit proudly alongside their rock peers without fear or favour.

And ultimately that’s what Charlie wanted. There’s nothing wrong with making pop music, selling millions of records. That’s an amazing gift, to be able to connect with so many people and be justly rewarded for doing so. Charlie has since made peace with that side of himself- reuniting with Busted for a super-successful run of shows across the length and breadth of the UK. But in cutting the cord when he did, of walking away and not expecting people to applaud him for it, just wanting to prove himself honestly with music he actually cared for, you can’t help but respect that.

Fightstar themselves ran their course from 2005 – 2015. An honest, working bad of decent popularity, each of their four albums reaching the UK’s top 30 and generating a loyal fanbase. Alex Westaway has co-found the seminal Synthwave group Gunship, and Charlie onto solo work, the Busted reunion and winning the UK’s Masked Singer reality TV show (?!). Fightstar are now gearing up to reunite for a one-time 20th Anniversary show at Wembley Arena. It’s sure to be a triumph, proving that Charlie could make it on his own terms after all.

Whether Fightstar are one of the best British Post-Hardcore bands of all time is, in my opinion, without question. And whether they have one of the most cathartic backstories in all of music is, also, without question. Nice one Charlie.