And so it came to pass that Busted, 48 hours after telling their fans that they were 'taking a break', have come clean and admitted that Charlie is leaving, so they're splitting up. It is unclear if there is a helpline at this stage. Charlie is releasing a single next month with his 'serious' band, Fightstar - a name horribly reminiscent of Dogstar, Keanu Reeves' attempt at a serious band. Look! Charlie's in a proper band! He smokes in this one!

In what is known as 'The Curse of winning 'Record of the Year'', Busted have gone the way of S Club 7 and boyzone and imploded after winning it. Busted probably realised that there was no getting over the sheer embarrassment of winning the pointless award with a crap movie theme tune which wasn't even the best Busted single of last year, let alone the best in the whole music biz. (The best of Busted's three would have been 'Air Hostess', just for the record.)

To give them their due, Busted's chart career was small, but perfectly formed, with eight hits in two years, every one of which made the Top 3. (Four 4 number 1s, two number 2s and two number 3s.) They fleetingly held the record of lowest-selling number one ever with the unmemorable 'Who's David?' a year ago, before Ja Rule and now Elvis Presley played pass-the-parcel with that particular award. In fact, it's one of the ironies of pop that their best singles ('Year 3000', 'That's What I Go To School For' and 'Air Hostess') didn't get to number one, whereas the aforementioned 'Who's David?' and the similarly lacklustre 'You Said No' did. Who said poplife was fair, eh kids?

World Of Chig couldn't really give a monkey's whether or not Busted exist, to be brutally honest, except for one thing: Matt Willis. For the last two years, Matt has been WoC's favourite popstar. He has played the Robbie role of cheeky chappy in Busted very well, and always entertained in interviews. His many haircuts have kept us all amused for two years, and his 'look-you-can-see-all-of-my-arse' jeans, clinging tenuously to his thighs in Busted's early days were a pure joy to behold. Even the revelation that he was in fact, a naive twat, when he said they'd have to vote Tory now they were earning some money, could only destroy 90% of Chig's love for him.

The thing Chig most loved about little Matty was when he was quite clearly wearing masses of eye-liner on an early cd:uk appearance, causing the goddess Deeley to say, "nice eye-liner Matt" at the end of the song. Respect! You'd never see Westloife with eyeliner smeared around their perfectly clean little faces, would you? Busted were rock'n'roll, man!

At least Busted were able to go out on a high, being given a whole three words to sing on the Band Aid 20 single, ending 2004 with what was effectively their 5th number one and the biggest-selling single of the year, which must have made up a bit for 'Who's David?'. No one else could possibly have sung 'Here's to them' with the same pathos and sincerity as the Busted boys did, and for that I hope the children of Sudan realise how indebted they should be to Charlie, Matt and James.

So let's raise an alcopop, like all their 13 year-old female fans in shopping centres across the country, to the memory of Busted, for they are no more. Let's finish by remembering their legacy to pop music:

"I messed my pants, when we flew over France."

There is no finer poetry in pop than that. Here's to them, indeed. Charlie has passed on the baton of posh public school pop to McFly, who are more than capable. Here's a special message though for The Noise Next Door. Don't think, even for one minute, that this gets you off the hook, okay?
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