Son of Dork

Formation

James Bourne placed adverts in publications such as NME and The Stage in order to recruit potential band members for his new project. The members that were chosen had all been involved in bands. Drummer Danny Hall had previously spent ten years with hardcore metal band "Spiral Rocks" and Punk band "Like I Care", whereas guitarist Chris Leonard had been in band "Stamford Amp", the house band on BBC's The Saturday Show in 2002 and had also toured with acts including Brian McFadden and Busted. David Williams is now in a Kent-based band called Adelaide. Steven Rushton was dividing his time between former band "Mr Cheerful", college studies and a job in Sainsbury's.

Welcome to Loserville (2005 - 2006)

In November 2005 Son of Dork released their first single "Ticket Outta Loserville" which reached number 3 in the UK Charts, followed a few weeks later with their debut album Welcome to Loserville. Follow-up single "Eddie's Song" was released in January 2006 and reached number 10 in the UK charts. Son Of Dork then penned their next single "We're Not Alone" for Ant and Dec’s film Alien Autopsy, although it was never released as a single.

Get Happy Tour and Sic Puppy Records (2007)

On 6 February 2007 Son of Dork toured with Wheatus, Army of Freshmen, and Bowling for Soup in The Get Happy '07 Tour. The tours were met with a favourable reception and the band performed a new song originally for the deluxe edition of their Welcome to Loserville album called "Colgate Smile".

The band during most of 2007 went under Bourne's self-created record company Sic Puppy Records. During this time they headlined The Sic Tour which gave several unsigned bands an opportunity to perform to the public. The gig took place in Shepards Bush Empire on 24 March and was met with high praise from fans. Son of Dork played several new songs during their stage time such as "What Happened To Your Band?" and "Go Home Monday" as well as old favourites. Shortly after the tour, Bourne announced they were to work on a new album and uploaded a demo on his Myspace called Loser With No Life. Despite this, Son of Dork was slowly disbanding.

Hiatus and 'Split' (2007 - 2008)

After months of speculation of a split, on 11 July 2007 David Williams posted on Son of Dork’s Myspace Page that the band had split. Within hours, however, James confirmed that the band had not split. Dave later announced that he had quit since he didn't want to be in a band that does nothing.

Chris Leonard also left the band in October 2007, saying "I've left but to be honest there wasn't really anything to leave. The band wasn't doing anything at all so obviously I wasn't prepared to sit around doing nothing all day when there's so much other stuff I can be doing so I moved on and I'm making new music".

After Leonard's and Williams sudden departure, the Son of Dork went into an unannounced hiatus not performing a live concert or even meeting up in a year. This caused Rushton to leave the band stating "I didn't pick up a guitar to leave it hanging on a wall gathering dust for two years".

Loserville: The Musical (2009)

In early 2009, Bourne and fellow play writer Elliot Davies announced a musical play based on Son of Dork's debut album Welcome to Loserville, Loserville: The Musical which would premier for two exclusive nights in South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell on 20 and 21 August. The musical was met with favourable reviews, and two years later played at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds over the summer of 2012. In October, it was signed for five months at the Garrick Theatre in the West End, however it was cut short with its last date playing on 5 January 2013.

Possible reunion

James Bourne has stated several times that he does wish Son of Dork went further than it did. In March 2010, he tweeted that he did 'miss SOD! Big Time! I'd tour with SOD again. BIG TIME!'. A reunion now looks extremely unlikely as Danny is working with his new band Hill Valley High while studying at university, while Steve has achieved bigger success in America whilst being signed to Hollywood Records and writing songs for films, including a track for Race To Witch Mountain, starring The Rock, entitled 'Emergency', and Chris has gone back to session work, including being part of a live band with Steve on a live episode of the 2011 X Factor and writing and recording songs with Ed Sheeran, having co-written Sheeran's hit song "Lego House". Dave's current status is unknown, after playing bass for a band called Adelaide, who, after participating in the 2012 Red Bull Bedroom Jam, split in October 2012. James also stated in an interview that if he was to reform Son of Dork he would only bring back the members who wanted to come back. However, he ended the interview stating it was very unlikely he'd make a new Son of Dork album as he'd rather 'work with Matt Willis again.' Despite this, Steve Rushton, Chris Leonard and James Bourne, along with the Welsh duo Lilygreen & Maguire, all recorded a cover of Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" leaving the possibility for a reunion again open. This was later confirmed to be in talks on Bourne's Twitter. In 2013, James Bourne reunited with Matt Willis and McFly to form McBusted, an amalgamation of band names McFly and Busted, quashing any rumours of possible Son of Dork reformation.

Members

Tours