Son Of Dork

Bourne assembled the group in 2005 with Steve Rushton, Chris Leonard, David Williams and Danny Hall. The line-up brought several guitars and another vocal presence around the principal writer, giving the music a fuller band identity than a simple solo continuation would have provided. Mercury released Ticket Outta Loserville before the debut album arrived later that year.

The single made its intentions immediately legible: a quick-moving arrangement, a chorus shaped for group singing and a lyric whose sense of frustration was delivered with humour. The approach shared an obvious conversation with American pop-punk, but Bourne's particular economy as a pop writer remained easy to recognise. The songs tended to establish a scene quickly and reach the main melodic point without much delay.

The album was produced by Gil Norton and included Eddie's Song, Little Things, Boy Band and Slacker. The titles suggest the territory, but the writing was more specific than a general claim to youthful dissatisfaction. Different characters and small social situations gave the songs something to do between the larger choruses.

Eddie's Song became another single in 2006. The band did not develop a long studio catalogue, leaving Welcome to Loserville as the central document of the project. Its value is in the particular balance it catches: a writer already experienced in highly visible British pop, using a new band to make the guitars more forceful while preserving the directness and comic timing that had first made the songs work.