Busted have joked their new band motto since reforming is "keep Charlie happy".

Busted

Busted

The trio - Matt Willis, James Bourne and Charlie Simpson - got back together in late 2015 in the wake of the success of the tour and album of the Busted and McFly super-group McBusted.

The 'Year 3000' hitmakers have since embarked on a greatest hits tour and released critically acclaimed new album 'Night Driver' which they are playing live around the UK.

After so many years apart, the boys are loving being back together and Matt says they now live by the rule to keep Charlie content at all costs.

Speaking to BANG Showbiz at the VO5 NME Awards 2017 in London on Wednesday night (15.02.17), Matt quipped: "I think there's much more freedom now and we sought that out. When we got back together we were very adamant about what we wanted to achieve with this and how we wanted to stay creatively happy, that was very important to us. What we were learned from the past is that when you start to do things that make you uncomfortable cracks start to come, band members leave and then you don't talk for eight years! And we wanted to make sure we could stay in control every step of the way. We were like, 'Let's not do that again, let's keep Charlie happy!' "

Busted were at the ceremony at the O2 Academy Brixton to present the Best International Band award which was one by Metallica.

Matt admits it was a pleasant surprise to be invited to the event because back in their pop hey day they were consistently nominated as Worst Band at the traditionally rock 'n' roll show.

He said: "We would never have been invited to the NME Awards first time round, I think we were up for Worst Band every year! I think this just shows we've come full circle, it kind of feels like a completely new band, it feels like the start of something completely new for Busted, it's a really exciting time.

"We've come here on our night off actually, we play Manchester this week and we played Brighton, we're having a f***ing blast man!"

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