James Bourne

James Elliot Bourne, commonly known as James Bourne (born September 13, 1983 in South End, Essex, England) He is one of the lead vocalists and guitarists in the British pop punk band Son of Dork, along with fellow band members Chris Leonard, Danny Hall, Dave Williams and Steve Rushton. Son of Dork were formed after the 2005 demise of Busted, of which James was a member along with Matt Willis and Charlie Simpson.

Biography

James, who moved from Rochford to Southend-on-sea in Essex at age ten months.was born to father, Peter and mother, Maria, and has three siblings, two brothers, Nick and Chris, and one sister, Melissa. Chris, (James' youngest brother) appeared in the music video for "Year 3000" as the neighbour who builds the time machine. Nick, (his elder younger brother) appeared in a few Busted videos such as "Who's David" and "You Said No."

James's main instrument is the guitar; however, he also plays the piano (his best instrument, according to himself), bass, and a bit of the drums. He is still good friends with the members of Busted and McFly (who, alongside now defunct band V, opened for Busted during their tour in 2004.)

James is also the owner of a De Lorean DMC-12 and a Golf.

James teamed up with an American skating company to create a clothing label, called SicPuppy, named after a teenage band of which he was a member. SicPuppy produces clothes for both males and females, and also has such other things as belts, sweatbands and wallets. James splashed out over £16,000 to get his own record company, Sicpuppy Records (see[1]) which gave unsigned U.K bands a chance to play on the sic tour 2007 in Shepherds Bush empire, the event was hosted by David gest and Matt Willis.

Songwriting

James has worked with a variety of songwriters, including The Matrix, Michael Raphael (the guitarist of Neve), Tom Fletcher (guitarist/vocalist of McFly), Rhoderick Gates (songwriter for Paladin band in Melbourne 2005-06) and Dudefish. As well as co-writing McFly's debut album, James also wrote the majority of Busted's two albums with Matt and Charlie. Busted's style of music can easily be identified in his new band's poppier tracks. He was also involved in Band Aid 20 in 2005. He is also reportedly writing for Matchbox Twenty and Train. He was also asked to write with Swedish songwriting group "Locomotion" in 2004.

James co-wrote most of the songs for McFly's first and third albums, Room on the 3rd Floor and Motion in the Ocean with Tom Fletcher. In 2007 he co-wrote the song "Immune" from Melanie C's fourth studio album, This Time.

How he got into music

James started to get into music at the age of 6, when he discovered his main idol, Michael Jackson through a Bart Simpson (the cartoon character) song. He was intrigued by the line "dancing like Michael Jackson" and was eager to find out who it was – When he did, and started listening to his music; he was amazed. After seeing the King of Pop live a year later with his friend Eliot, James soon decided that his new aim in life would be being able to play his songs. By the time he was twelve, he decided to form a band called Sic Puppy with his friends, Nick and Jeremy. They started off without a bassist and had band practise in his friend's bedroom – As time passed by they found themselves a bigger rehearsal space and a bassist called Stewart, but as they got older, they lost interest in rehearsing and Sic Puppy eventually fizzled out.

At the age of 17, James dropped out of his college course in Music Technology to try and make his dream of being in a band as career happen. He eventually met Matt Willis through Busted manager Matthew Fletcher, who told him he'd found someone with the same ideals as him and they soon started writing songs together at James' house in Southend. Two-third of Busted was born.

Matt and James soon decided that they couldn't form a band with just two members, so they decided to place the tiniest ad for a third member in NME magazine. They soon held auditions and after listening to a few songs the two had written together, Charlie Simpson joined the band.

After signing up to Universal in 2002, Busted released their first single, What I Go To School For, from their selftitled debut album in September that year, which quickly became No.3 in the UK charts. Year 3000 soon followed and incidentally became a hit aswell, even abroad. Busted started getting bigger and bigger and soon got the name of "Biggest Band" in the UK, having quite a following all over the world.

James decided he didn't want to leave the music scene already so he formed a new pop punk band in the summer of 2005, named Son of Dork (which is "a heavier version of Busted" according to some). They released their first single, Ticket Outta Loserville in November that year, slowly followed by their debut album Welcome To Loserville a week later. Accompanied by Steve Rushton, David Williams, Chris Leonard and Danny Hall, he is currently preparing for another UK Tour and working on Son of Dork's second album, which is hopefully due sometime this year. james is under pressure from his record company,after poor recent sales.