It's been quite a year for Busted. What with endorsing the Tory party, failing to crack America, attempting to shake off McFly and being rude about the ginger one from Girls Aloud, they have also had to deny rumours of an imminent split.
It's an intriguing move, then, for each band member to do a solo turn in front of a sold-out Wembley crowd. Even more telling is their choice of tunes. Predictably, given that it is his desire for indie credibility that threatens the band's future, lead singer Charlie Simpson closes his eyes and strums like he means it on a U2'd-up version of album track Why?
Much more fun is guitarist Mattie Jay's turn, although if the pop snobs weren't happy with Busted's version of Teenage Kicks, you can only imagine their reaction to his Clash cover. Dirty-looking Jay is wrongly considered the least gifted of the trio, yet his gutsy, punky take on Should I Stay or Should I Go? hints at talent far beyond accompanying girls home from nightclubs. If Jay is a Robbie Williams in the making, then poor old James Bourne, up last, is Richard Clayderman, caressing the keys of his electric piano with the solemnity of a monk in mourning.
The boys clearly aren't travelling in separate tour buses at the moment, however. Having proved they could all, with varying degrees of success, go it alone, Jay introduces the "jazz hour", which involves them taking album tracks "back to basics". It could be on-stage suicide, with an audience of pre-teen pop fans, yet somehow they carry it off - Simpson's drumming proving especially impressive.
But it's the hits we came for, and it's the hits we get. What I Go to School For and Year 3000 are even more brilliantly mindless live than on record, and - when accompanied by a thousand little 'uns losing their pogoing virginity - prove Busted aren't about to go bust just yet.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 0870 060 0870.
