Charlie Simpson

At 38 years old, Charlie Simpson has this physical status:

Charles Robert Simpson (born 7 June 1985) is an English singer, songwriter and musician.

He is the youngest member of multi-BRIT Award-winning band Busted.

He is the Lead Guitarist, Drummer and Co-Vocalist for the Pop Punk band Busted and he is also the lead vocalist and the Rhythm Guitarist in the British post-hardcore band Fightstar.

AllMusic has noted that Simpson is "perhaps the only pop star to make the convincing transition from fresh-faced boy bander to authentic hard rock frontman".

Simpson is a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, keyboard, piano and drums.Simpson has achieved ten UK Albums Chart Top 40 releases across his musical career, five of which entered into the UK Top 10.

He has also had four number one singles with Busted and two top 20 singles with Fightstar.

Between Busted, Fightstar and his solo projects, he has sold over five million records worldwide, winning two Brit Awards and being nominated for two Kerrang! Awards.

In 2015, Simpson also released an EP with a side project called Once Upon A Dead Man alongside his two brothers Will and Edd Simpson, and friend Simon Britcliff.

On 10 November 2015, Busted announced they would be reforming with Simpson back in the original lineup and would embark on an 18 date arena tour around the U.K. and Ireland.

The band sold 100,000 tickets in the first hour of the tour going on sale.

Busted's third studio album Night Driver was released in November 2016.

In 2018, Busted announced their fourth album Half Way There, along with arena tour dates in March 2019.

The album was released on February 1, 2019 and reached number 2 in the UK.

Early life and family

The youngest of three boys, Simpson was born in Ipswich, Suffolk. He has 2 brothers, Will and Edd;— Will was born in 1980 and is the vocalist and guitarist in Brigade and Edd was born in 1981 and is the lead singer and guitarist in an alternative band called Union Sound Set. Simpson has a very musical family dating back to Sir William Sterndale Bennett (mother's maiden name) who was an English pianist, conductor, and composer, a notable figure in the musical life of his time.

Simpson was educated at Framlingham College's prep school Brandeston Hall – and then at Uppingham School, where his great grandfather Robert Sterndale Bennett (1880-1963), had been a most influential Director of Music between 1908 and 1945.

Personal life

Simpson married his long-time girlfriend Anna Barnard in June 2014, following the announcement of their engagement the week earlier. During a show on his 2015 UK Tour at London's Islington Assembly Hall, Simpson announced that he and his wife were expecting their first child together. On July 21 that year, Simpson's wife gave birth to their first son, Arlo Simpson. In February 2018, their second son, Jago was born.

In 2004, Simpson was quoted in Tatler magazine as saying he supported the Conservative Party, stating that he'd "grown up with their views" and "way of doing things". According to The Guardian, Simpson "was pilloried just like Phil Collins and Geri Halliwell before him". However, he later denied this claim of a political allegiance to the Conservatives, saying, "The Tory thing is complete bulls--t! It came out of Matt's mouth in an interview taking the complete p--s, and it was on the front cover of a newspaper. He was like laughing when he said it. Matt's Labour! He said something like, 'Now I've got loads of money I'm a f--king Tory boy,' laughing."

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Career

Simpson first gained notoriety with punk band Busted as a result of responding to an advert placed in NME magazine by Matt Willis and James Bourne in 2001. Simpson, lead guitar and occasionally drums, Willis on bass guitar, and Bourne on piano and piano; all three players provided vocals. The trio achieved international recognition and sold over 5 million records, gained two BRIT Awards, and also won Record of The Year in 2004.

Busted announced on November 10th that they will be returning to the UK arena for the 18th year, as well as recording a new album. Night Driver was their third album to be released in 2016, and Half Way There in 2019 followed them. Busted entered their first hiatus since its return to the country in the late 1980s so that the members could refocus on other initiatives.

Despite Busted's enduring success, Simpson began to become dissatisfied with the pop star lifestyle and the music he was performing. He was unsatisfied by Busted's commercial pop hits as a long fan of rock music.

In late 2003, Alex Westaway formed what became Fightstar shortly after. After completing compulsory media work and concert appearances with Busted, he'll live a "double life" by night. They Liked You Better When You Were Dead, which was his first EP, written by both he and Westaway in 2004. The EP featured a heavier post-hardcore influence on sound that differed sharply from Busted's. The EP was recorded in London in November with Mark Williams. During this period, rumors about Busted's future began to increase. In January 2005, Busted announced that he was leaving Busted to pursue his career full-time with Fightstar.

Simpson was able to fund and put together The Suffolk Explosion, a compilation album that was released by his own name Sandwich Leg Records. It featured a number of unsigned bands from Charlie's home county, Suffolk, including Brigade and Prego, as well as a solo acoustic song written by him called "Carry Her." With rock producer Colin Richardson, the Fightstar released their debut full-length studio album. Grand Unification was unveiled on March 13, 2006, and it put the initial cynics wrong by getting a lot of positive feedback. Paul Brannigan of Kerrang, in particular. The album was described as "one of the best British rock albums of the past decade," according to the publication. The Fly, a Scottish music publication, also lauded the album as "one of the 21st century's greatest rock debuts" on the album. The band went on to receive awards at the Kerrang soon after! "Best British Newcomer" and "Best British Band" have been nominated for "Best British Newcomer" and "Best British Band." The band quit Island Records due to a rift over the band's artistic direction, the band moved to Institute Records, a Gut Records affiliate, to debut their second album. This Will Be Yours, a One Day Son, (2007) reached No. (2007), when it reached No. 07. Alternate Endings (2008), the UK Album Chart's 27th, before releasing a B-sides compilation album titled Alternate Endings (2008). The four-piece funded and co-produced Be Human (2009), their third album, which became their highest charting album after peaking at No. 1. In the United Kingdom, 20 people are among the country's 20 best performers.

He created a Myspace account on July 29, 2009, acoustic solo work. "Dead Man Walking," "Empty Guns (Demo), and "Carry Her" were three songs on the website, as well as "Carry Her" and "Carry Her." The Suffolk Explosion had 'Carry Her' before.

Charlie has also been involved in film shooting, commenting in an interview that it was something he was eager to do later in his career. He wrote the script for an independent British film called 'Everyone's Going To Die,' which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March 2013.

At the start of 2010, Fightstar declared a hiatus, saying that they were "taking some time off" for the remainder of 2010–11 to work on separate projects before returning in 2012 to start working a new record. Simpson has started working on a solo acoustic album, while Westaway and Haigh will complete post-production of the band's film and filming on some music videos.

Simpson debuted his full-length debut album in June 2010 with producer Danton Supple, whose prior projects include Coldplay and The Cure. PledgeMusic and as one of the campaign's key rewards, fans of the album received an EP titled When We Were Lions on Christmas Day 2010. The full-length album was finally finished in February 2011 and was mastered by John Davis at Metropolis Studios in London. "Down Down Down" was the first single taken from the album, and it received its first radio airplay on April 11th, as Radio 1 DJ Fearne Cotton's Record of the Week. The single was officially launched on May 16th, but it was also available on iTunes straight away. Young Pilgrim, an album by the artist, was released on August 15th. It debuted at number six in the UK album chart, despite being at number 5 in the midweeks. Simpson signed to PIAS Records in Germany, and the album was released in Europe in August 2012.

Simpson had completed writing the sequel to his 2011 solo debut 'Young Pilgrim', and he's due to begin recording in early March with producer Steve Osbourne (U2/Placebo).

Simpson appeared on the Vans Warped Tour in the United States for the first time as a solo artist in America during the summer of 2013. During October 2013, Charlie went on tour with Deaf Havana, the UK's support rock band. He reviewed two new tracks from the forthcoming album "Winter Hymns" and "Ten More Days" series. In 2014, he appeared in a small number of solo shows in the United Kingdom in the lead up to his second solo album's debut.

Simpson revealed on April 28th that his second solo album, Long Road Home, would be released later this year, since announcing the release date is set to August 2014. On October 14, the London Roundhouse will host his biggest headline show to date.

Simpson revealed in October 2014 that he would perform a 13-date solo acoustic tour in January/February of the following year.

Simpson's third solo album, Little Hands, a collection of rare tracks from 2010 to 2016. The first single was a stripped-down version of "Emily." The album also featured "Walking With the San," a British television series that first aired in 2015. The song was recorded as part of the exhibition in which Charlie went to Namibia to spend time with the San people and play music. Since the show premiered, an edit was made to perform as a music video for the song and was posted on Facebook, the song has since gone viral and has been watched over 14,000,000 times.

Simpson's first track from his forthcoming album I See You, which peaked at 39 on the iTunes chart in its first week on October 23, 2020. Simpson's fourth album, Hope Is A Drug, will be released in March 2022, according to Simpson. He also announced that he was going to attend a Hope Is A Drug tour. The tour was postponed again due to delays to album production chains and shipping caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Simpson has often performed outside of his main musical projects, including This Is Menace, Gunship (the side project of his Fightstar bandmates, Alex Westaway and Dan Haigh's), as well as indie band The Travis Waltons. He co-wrote and lent his voice for Gunship's debut album, "Tech Noir," and he co-wrote and lent his voice. He contributed to Bullet for My Valentine's sixth album Gravity in 2018, earning a songwriting award on the track "Breathe Underwater."

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