Charlie slams Busted's record label

Charlie Simpson has blasted Busted's record label Universal for turning them into a boyband "machine."

The singer quit the band to focus on his hard rock project Fightstar. The remaining members Matt Willis and James Bourne said the band would not continue with Simpson.

Charlie says after three years of performing, he ran out of passion for the group reports Contactmusic.com.

He says, "I was in London and an opportunity came up. At the time, when Blink 182 and Green Day broke and the whole pop-punk thing went really big and I just thought, 'It's better than being at school,' so I gave it a go.

"And it ended up being this massive thing and I was like, 'Oh s**t!' When I joined it was three songwriters writing music for a laugh. And then it got put into this machine that was Universal and came out as a big-branded thing.

"It was a fun three years and it just came to the point where I wanted something that my heart was in."