Chart-topping band McFly are due to play sell-out gigs at the NEC next week. Fiona McCartney talks to the lads who are currently one of the hottest properties on the music scene. With an astonishing run of chart-topping singles and albums, industry awards and sold-out arena dates under their low-riding belts McFly have cemented their position as the nation’s sweethearts. They once supported Busted on tour and hoped to be as big as Westlife - now they have far surpassed the defunct bands to be the hottest property on the music scene.
Starring alongside Hollywood beauty Lindsay Lohan and stripping on stage for thousands of adoring fans are all in a days work for the heartthrobs.
Their show at Birmingham NEC this Tuesday sold out within hours, resulting in another the following night.
And now the band just can’t wait to wow their legions of Midland fans.
Drummer Harry Judd told the Express & Star: “We are so excited about our tour. And Birmingham is always a great crowd.
Fantastic
“Performing live is always fantastic. We have lots of fans just really into what we do and we’re all having a great time.”
McFly were formed four years ago by Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones, later joined by Harry and Dougie Poynter following an ad in the NME.
Their first number one ‘Five Colours In Her Hair’ topped the charts for two weeks.
This was followed by ‘Obviously’, which also shot straight to Number One.
Last year they played for 70,000 people at Buckingham Palace, and become the youngest-ever group to score a Number One with their debut album, Room On The Third Floor.Ê
The lads won Best Pop Act at the Brits less than a year after the release of their first single.
All About You then became 2005’s official Comic Relief single.
“We hadn’t intended to release a new single until the second album was ready.
“But when we got the call from Richard Curtis we were round the Comic Relief offices like a shot,”said Harry.
In January, a trip to Uganda brought home to the band the extreme poverty affecting millions around the world, but it also showed the lads how Comic Relief money had changed thousands of lives for the better.
It led to them supporting the Make Poverty History campaign and a headlining slot at the Live 8 concert in Japan, after which the lads jetted back to the UK for another slot at the pre-G8 summit gig in Edinburgh.
Next came the Lindsay Lohan movie Just My Luck, and rumours of a romance between Harry and the Hollywood beauty.
The drummer told of a fling with the siren in the tabloids, but denied the claims, saying the McFly boys were nice, but she didn’t fancy them.
But Harry still upholds the claim. “It was true”, he said. “but I don’t suppose it’s really important now. It was a good story for the Press at the time, but we’ve both moved on.
“All I can say is that Lindsay was a really cool girl and we all really enjoyed working with her.”
McFly can rest assured that they’ll never be short of female attention with hordes of screaming girls following in their wake.
Deserved
But Harry says although success is surprising, it is well deserved and anything but fleeting.
“We’ve been very surprised by our success., but you tend to get used to it after a while,” he said.
“I personally really felt from the moment that we started the band that we were going to be a hit. We all lived together in the same house for the most part of our career, which was great because we really got to know each other.
” It really teaches you a lot.
“In fact the last couple of years have seen us really grow as people.”
The band are now combining rehearsals for their new show with working on new material.
Harry said: “It’s been pretty hard going but fun.
We’ve all got really different influences so what comes out is an interesting mix.
“I’m really influenced by the Beatles, The Beach boys, Tom really loves pop music and Danny is into stuff like Bruce Springsteen and The Who.”
The band play Birmingham NEC on Tuesday September 19 and Wednesday September 20.
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