By Emma O’neill,Joel Leaver
Copyright dailyrecord
Busted’s Matt Willis has once again paid tribute to bandmate James Bourne following his absence from the group’s current tour. This follows the announcement earlier this month that the guitarist had withdrawn from the concerts due to health concerns . James, 42, disclosed that he was “not in good enough health” to accompany his bandmates Matt, 42, and Charlie Simpson, 40, on the Busted vs McFly tour just one day before the opening night in Birmingham last Tuesday. It was subsequently revealed that his brother Chris Bourne would be taking his place. Matt addressed James’ absence during the inaugural gig last week, reports the Mirror . He has since mentioned his bandmate once more, with footage from a recent performance showing him offering tribute and providing an update, which has been circulated on social media. In the clip shared by TikTok user @smarshie. 07, reportedly filmed at the OVO Arena Wembley, Matt informed fans: “Mr James Bourne is really f***ing sick and we love him so much and we miss him.” With his voice faltering, he began to explain: “So we talked to him, we said ..” Matt received applause from the audience at the venue before continuing his remarks. He informed the crowd at the performance: “We talked to him and we said ‘mate, what do we do, man? Do we pull out of this? What the f*** do we do?’ And he said ‘no, I want you to keep playing the shows’.” The musician hinted that the band, which includes drummer Eddy Thrower for the tour, might need another guitarist to fill in for James. Matt stated: “We’re like ‘okay’ but there’s only three of us now, and we’re like ‘we’re gonna need someone else to play guitar, right’.” Charlie then jested: “He said ‘anyone but McFly, anyone’.” Matt continued to inform fans: “We came up with some suggestions and he went ‘what about my little brother Chris comes and plays with you?’ And we’re like ‘hell yeah!'” After fans recalled that Chris was in the Year 3000 music video, he was invited onto the stage, with Matt introducing him to the audience. James’ brother was greeted with cheers from the crowd after joining Matt and Charlie. Matt had delivered a similar speech at Busted’s first gig on their tour with McFly the previous week. He informed fans at the bp pulse LIVE arena: “You may have noticed our best friend is not here tonight. [James] is really f***ing sick and we love him and we miss him.” He also told the crowd on opening night: “This is the first show we’ve ever played without him and it’s really weird.” Matt added: “But we’re gonna do the best we can.” He then discussed replacing James before introducing Chris. Join the Daily Record’s WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. In a statement last week, prior to the first gig, James announced: “The VS tour kicks off tomorrow night in Birmingham and as excited as l’ve been all year for this tour to begin, I’m really sorry to say that over the last 8 days it has become clear that I am not in good enough health to play these shows.” He continued: “There’s a lot of information I still don’t have about my condition but my bandmates, management and I are unanimous in deciding that I should focus on the medical stuff for now. I really hope I can be in a position to come back further down the line. It’s still going to be an amazing show and I will miss being there! See you all as soon as possible.” Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond – Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
