Busted's Charlie Simpson cancels string of gigs amid James Bourne's mystery health battle

Busted star Charlie Simpson has sparked concern among fans after cancelling a series of gigs following bandmate James Bourne's mystery health battle.

A few days ago, Charlie and the rest of Busted told a crowd that James insisted they keep playing shows. "Mr James Bourne is really f*****g sick and we love him so much and we miss him," Charlie said.

Matt Willis added: "We love him, we talked to him and we said, mate, do we pull out of this? What do we do? He said no – I want you to keep playing the shows.”

But now, Charlie has sparked concern by cancelling his DJ sets. In emails sent to those who tried to buy tickets, he said: "Thank you so much for buy tickets to Charlie Simpson's DJ set at Gorilla Manchester.

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"Unfortunately due to the ongoing health issues of James and the strain that it is putting on Charlie and the rest of the band, he has had to make the difficult decision to cancel all upcoming DJ sets."

It added that all tickets would be refunded in 3-5 working days. Fans flocked to social media to share their worries. One wrote: "This feels really concerning. Hoping hard that James gets good health as soon as possible.”

A second said: “It could just be that cos of the extra work that Matt and Charlie are picking up on the tour - it might not seem a lot to sing a few extra lines, but doing that every night along with anything else James might've done behind the scenes will take its toll." Another said they hoped it wasn't "bad news".

James released a statement a few weeks ago, explaining his absence from shows. "The VS tour kicks off tomorrow night in Birmingham and as excited as I'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 didn't say what his health condition was and added that there was a lot of information he didn't have.

"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 medical stuff for now. I really hope I can be in a position to come back further down the line."

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