Fightstar

Fightstar is a rock/post-hardcore band from the UK. In early January 2005, Charlie Simpson left the highly successful British guitar pop trio Busted, citing his marked preference for heavier guitar rock over the music he had produced with Busted and his intention to carry on carving out a musical career, in a different genre, with his band Fightstar.

Fightstar's debut EP, "They Liked You Better When You Were Dead", was released on February 28, 2005, following a rapid promotional tour of the United Kingdom. Being an EP and containing in excess of 3 tracks (it in fact contained 6 tracks, one more than shown on the track listing, the 6th being a hidden track) it was ineligible for the singles chart in the UK - whether or not this was a conscious choice on the part of the band, since it effectively negated the possibility of their first release being judged by its placing in the singles chart (and so, almost inevitably, poorly by comparison with Simpson's former band), is a matter for debate; regardless, the release proved popular enough to warrant a reprinting on March 23, 2005. First track, Palahniuk's Laughter, enjoyed heavy rotation on music video channels and spent many weeks in charts based on video and radio requests.

The release of Fightstar's first full length album "Grand Unification" showed a band that could not be further from Simpsons previous band Busted. With raw power, melodic guitars and hard rock hooks they showed the world that Simpson knew what he was doing when he left Busted and that they know exactly where they are going.

In September 2006, the band ended their contract with Island Records. Charlie Simpson said that "they wanted a pop album and we didn't. I've put so much into this band I don't want to start compromising now. We're thinking about going to America. The market for our stuff is much bigger over there."

In September 2007, the band released their second LP entitled 'One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours' under Institute Records. '99' was released as a free-to-download single, along with it's video on the 11th May 2007. Their next single to be released was 'We Apologise For Nothing' which had minor chart success peaking at #63 on the UK singles chart and at #1 on the UK Independant Chart.
'Deathcar' was the third song to be released as a single from the album. It was released on the new VinylDisc format and was also available for download. 'Floods' and 'I Am the Message' have also been released from this album.

A majority of tracks by Fightstar have references to the Japanese manga cartoon 'Neon Genesis Evangelion', including most notably 'Shinji Ikari', 'Nerv/Seele', 'H.I.P. (Enough)', 'Unfamiliar Ceilings' and 'Lost Like Tears in Rain' which contains the lyrics 'It's Neon Genesis'.

The band announced during their set at the Offset Festival on 30 August 2008 that they would be entering the studio the following week to commence recording of thir third album. It is expected to be released in February 2009.