Busted in £10 million royalties row

Two original members of Busted have launched a £10 million High Court case alleging they were forced to give up rights to songs by the band's manager Richard Rashman.

Ki McPhail and Owen Doyle claim they never received any royalty payments despite co-writing the songs 'Sleeping with the Light On', 'What I Go to School For', 'Psycho Girl' and 'Year 3000' with Busted members James Bourne and Matt Willis.

McPhail and Doyle's lawyer Tim Penny told Mr Justice Morgan that Rashman forced the pair out of the band and put them "under pressure" to release their claims on the songs they had written.

"The pressure placed on the claimants consisted of repeated advice and threats that, unless they released their claims in relation to the group members' songs and in particular the four songs, they would be sued, Ki McPhail's parents would lose their home and the claimants would never work in the industry again."

The claimants are requesting that Busted's accounts be released so they can work out royalty payments owed based on record sales.

McPhail and Doyle were in a group called The Termites with Bourne and Willis from January to October 2001. They signed for a professional management company in March 2001 and changed their name to Busted a month later.

According to Penny, the claimants were released from the band in October 2001 when Bourne and Willis said they no longer wanted to perform with them.