‘We’re writing songs together and we love being McBusted and we genuinely get excited about the idea of having an album and doing more touring . . . but who knows?’
For now, as he put it to The Vault, ‘We are riding the wave of McBusted.’
And they were ready to catch a big one. Sunday, 6 July, dawned bright and clear – a perfect summer’s day in the city. And McBusted made their way backstage.
They were in reflective spirit.
James said to Enas Refaei, ‘We have a chance to create memories together.’ Harry: ‘We’re super-proud of it all.’
As for Tom, he simply said, ‘Hyde Park will be the most incredible moment of our careers.’
In the dressing room, the sextet were warming up. There was Matt, jumping around like a maniac, buzzing on caffeine and anticipation. There was Danny, crying like a dog (‘It’s a good vocal warm-up,’ he explained to Andi Peters). There was Harry, merrily doing press-ups to get his arms loosened for the pounding he would be giving his drums.
And where was James? Still making his way down from cloud nine, having just performed ‘I Want It That Way’ with the Backstreet Boys onstage. He later tweeted, ‘Anyone who says dreams don’t come true is telling a serious lie. Crossing this off my bucket list now: singing “I Want It That Way” with the Backstreet Boys.’
And then it was almost time for a show of their own. They gathered in a circle for ‘the clap’ of togetherness. The six of them, squeezed into one room. James said to Good Morning Britain, ‘We don’t have individual rooms or individual riders. We arrive together, we get changed together, we eat together, we shower together.’
And they played music together.
McBusted burst onto the stage with their usual energy. The crowd gave it back to them in spades. Playing to 65, 000 people is an experience very few will ever have. James, Danny, Tom, Harry, Dougie and Matt were six of them.
Matt summed it up best. He said gloriously to the crowd, ‘You have no idea how much this means . . . we can’t believe we’re playing here.’
And when, onstage, Dougie said sadly that he didn’t ever want to leave, and suggested to the group that they start again from the very beginning, he could have been talking about the band itself. It was only the beginning for McBusted. And so they played on.
Harry was on the drums, the Uppingham boy who joined a band with only eighteen months’ experience. He’d gone on to excel not only behind his kit, but on the dance floor too – and in love. He and Izzy were the happiest they’d ever been. And Harry said shyly to The Vault, ‘Will there be a second McFly baby? I think at some point there will be; we’d hope.’
Playing along with his ‘father figure’, his best mate, his brother, was little Dougie Poynter. From the shy boy who wouldn’t say boo to a goose, he had come a long way. It had been a rocky road, but he’d come out the other side. It said everything when Ellie Goulding, who was lovingly cheering him on in the crowd, tweeted a picture of her boyfriend up onstage, accompanied by just two words: ‘Very proud.’
Danny was centre stage as usual, playing on the same stage as his hero Springsteen. Had you told the Bolton boy that one day he’d be up there, handling his guitar with all the speed and dexterity one might a cherry-red Porsche, he would never have believed you. In nine days’ time, he and the McBusted boys would be heading to Ibiza for his stag do. The wedding was only weeks away now. Danny Jones was settling down at last.
Somehow, it felt even more satisfying than his wild days as a single man.
Tom, for one, was happily married, besotted with both Giovanna and his new baby Buzz. He said of Gi on All Star Mr & Mrs, ‘Cheesy as it sounds, I think we were destined to be together.’ And that wasn’t the only thing that was meant to be in his life. Like all his bandmates, Tom Fletcher was an extremely talented man. When he’d cried in his bedroom all those years ago, after getting the boot from Busted, he could never have known that one day he would be headlining Hyde Park, singing songs that he’d written not only for his own band, but for his best friends, too.
But it was written in his stars, just as clearly as his love for Gi.
Matt and Emma were still going strong, too. Just the day before, they’d celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary. Emma had tweeted, ‘At this time, six years ago today, @mattjwillis and I were married! I was 45 minutes late . . . Thanks for waiting babe. You are my world.’ And Matt responded in kind, ‘This day six years ago I became officially the luckiest man on earth and married the hottest girl I’d ever met! I love her more every day.’
Matt – as well as being a romantic – was still a joker. He still had that charisma that had landed him musical-theatre roles and those early comparisons to Robbie Williams. These days, he did it all without the buffer of booze, which made it even more impressive. He ran his fingers down his bass, and the crowd screamed. The showman was back onstage, where he belonged.
As was his bandmate, James Bourne. The boy who’d dreamed in Southend-on-Sea of a band to rock his world. Who’d had it all – and lost it all. He said on The Vault, ‘McBusted has changed our lives. It’s life-changing.’ He’d returned to his home country in a literal blaze of glory, the scorched tyre tracks of the DeLorean still burning bright against the summer sky in Hyde Park.
‘Do you feel like you’ve been given a second chance at it now?’ he was asked on The Vault.
He paused thoughtfully. ‘Yeah,’ he said emphatically. ‘A second chance at life.’
At the press conference to announce the supergroup, Harry had said, ‘We’re so lucky that we all get on so well. It’s literally as simple as that. People are like, “What’s your secret?”
‘It’s just that we find each other funny and we get on well – and we don’t really ever argue. We’ll have debates, and that’s about it. I don’t get bored of them.’
And it looked like the world wasn’t getting bored of McBusted any time soon.
As they launched into ‘5 Colours in Her Hair’ – for the ten-thousand-and-first time in Tom and Dougie’s careers – the light shower that had dusted the park cleared to beautiful sunshine.
And a rainbow of five colours arched above the supergroup on their super stage.
Somewhere over the rainbow . . . dreams come true.
Author’s Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I want to thank my husband – my first reader and my first love – who not only encouraged me to write this book in the first place, but kept me fed and watered and was a brilliant sounding board throughout the intense writing process. Thank you, darling.
Thanks too to my family and friends, who were almost as excited as I was about the fact I was writing a book all about my favourite band, and whose pride and enthusiasm means more to me than they can know. They even manage to look interested when I display my intimate knowledge of McBusted at every social occasion – and that’s true friendship.
Special thanks to my editor Abigail Bergstrom, who has been passionate and supportive of this book from the word go. Thanks also to the entire team at Simon & Schuster, who believed in the book and championed it to retailers and the media alike. I’m truly grateful.
I’m indebted to the many McBusted aficionados out there who maintain their fan forums and YouTube channels with such diligence, pride and care. These were an invaluable resource in writing the boys’ story.
Finally, thanks to the boys themselves: McBusted. James, Matt, Tom, Danny, Harry and Dougie, your music has been the soundtrack to my life, and it has been such an enormous privilege to write this book about you all. I have loved it from start to finish – but not as much as I love the music you have all created over the past twelve years or so. I cannot wait to see what you do next. You deserve your future to be totally awesome.
I’ll be cheering you on, every step of the way.
Jennifer Parker, 2014
Sources
Books
Busted by Busted (Virgin Books, 2003)
Busted on Tour: The Official Bo
ok by Peter Robinson (Virgin Books, 2004)
Unsaid Things: Our Story by McFly (Transworld, 2012)
Magazines
Attitude
Bella
Closer
Glamour
Hello!
HR
Kerrang!
Music Week
NME
OK!
Q
Self
Smash Hits
Sound on Sound
Sugar
Music
A Present for Everyone by Busted
Above the Noise by McFly
‘Angels Walk Beside You’ by 88
Busted by Busted
‘Crashed the Wedding’/‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ by Busted, feat. McFly
Don’t Let It Go to Waste by Matt Willis
‘Five Colours in Her Hair’/‘Lola’ by McFly, feat. Busted
‘Love is on the Radio’ by McFly (McBusted mix)
Motion in the Ocean by McFly
Radio:ACTIVE by McFly
Room on the 3rd Floor by McFly
Volume 1 by Future Boy
Welcome to Loserville by Son of Dork
Wonderland by McFly
Newspapers
Birmingham Mail
Bolton News
Chronicle Live
Daily Mail
Daily Record
Daily Star
Express
Guardian
Liverpool Echo
Metro
Mirror
Observer
Plymouth Herald
Telegraph
Somerset News
Sun
Sunday Mirror
West Briton
TV, video and radio
5 NewsTalk Live
All Star Mr & Mrs
America or Busted
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night
Takeaway
Daybreak
CD:UK
Children in Need
Fearne and McBusted
The Frank Skinner Show
Fun Kids
GMTV
Good Morning Britain
I’m a Celebrity
I’m a Celebrity Hall of Fame
The Jonathan Ross Show
London Live
Magic FM
The Making of Radio:ACTIVE
McBusted: The Birth
McBusted Vodcast
McFly, 10th Anniversary Concert: Live at the Royal Albert Hall
McFly on the Wall
Newsround Showbiz
Popstar to Operastar
Radio 1
Radio 5 Live
Showbiz 411
Steve Wright in the Afternoon
Strictly Come Dancing
Sunday Side Up
T4
This Morning
Up Close and Personal
The Vault
VJ Scorpio TV
Websites
AbsolutePunk.net
AllMusic.com
Bailii.org
BBC.co.uk
BustedOnline.org
Celebrity.Yahoo.com
CultureWatch.org
DreamMoods.com
DigitalSpy.co.uk
EDP24.com
EntertainmentWise.com
Facebook.com
FleckingRecords.co.uk
FutureBoy.com
GigWise.com
heatworld.com
HuffingtonPost.co.uk
JamesBourneBrasil.com
MusicOMH.com
PopJustice.com
PoynterSource.com
SetList.fm
Sing365.com
Sugarscape.com
TES.co.uk
Twitter.com
VirginMedia.com
Wunderground.com
YouTube.com
Photo Credits
The author and publishers would like to thank the following copyright-holders for permission to reproduce images in this book:
© Rex Features 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33
© Getty Images 2, 3, 4, 10, 15, 21, 22, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36
© Corbis 7, 18
List of Illustrations
1. ‘What I Go to School For’: Busted burst onto the pop scene in 2002, as does Matt’s famous ‘Busted gurn’.
2. Busted: the final line-up. From top to bottom: Charlie Simpson, Matt Willis, James Bourne. Auditionee Tom Fletcher is nowhere to be seen.
3. Jumping for joy: Busted storm to the top of the charts and make the Guinness World Records with their first three singles.
4. Not one but two BRIT Awards: Busted claim Best Pop and Best British Breakthrough at the BRITs 2004.
5. Where it all began: both Busted and McFly spent a lot of their early days at the InterContinental in London, forever immortalised in the song ‘Room on the Third Floor’.
6. The luxurious Princess Park Manor in north London, home to Busted and McFly and scene of some totally awesome songwriting.
7. And then there were two: Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones decide to start their own band.
8. Magic McFly: the full line-up sees the band make history in 2004 as the youngest group ever to have a debut number-one album.
9. All about you: after the shock Busted split, McFly rule the world, collecting Best Pop at the BRITs 2005. From left to right: Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter, Tom Fletcher, Harry Judd.
10. Tom and Giovanna Fletcher – childhood sweethearts and still going strong.
11. James with his childhood sweetheart, actress Kara Tointon. Their romantic relationship ended in 2004, but the pair remain friends.
12. Her frog prince: TV presenter Emma Griffiths met her perfect match in Matt Willis.
13. Cavorting on the red carpet – but behind the smiles, Matt was struggling with addiction. Emma would be the one carrying him through the tough times to come.
14. Me and Mrs Jones: Danny and Georgia Horsley tied the knot in August 2014.
15. Harry and Izzy Judd. They met on McFly’s Wonderland tour and married in a magical winter wedding in December 2012.
16. Love at last: Dougie and singer Ellie Goulding.
17. Wasn’t meant to be: Dougie and his former girlfriend Frankie Sandford from the Saturdays.
18. Partying too hard: in 2005, Matt crashes into rehab. It won’t be the last time.
19. Don’t let it go to waste: Matt launches his solo career in 2006.
20. Ticket Outta Loserville? James’s new band, Son of Dork, rock out onstage.
21. McFly’s career goes from strength to strength as they release and tour albums.
22. Even star on the silver screen with Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan.
23. What I go to court for: James and Matt defend themselves against their former bandmates’ claims.
24. Dougie, Danny and Harry show their support at the premiere of James’s new West End musical, Loserville, in October 2012.
25. Reality-TV royalty: Matt is crowned King of the Jungle in 2006.
26. Dougie does it again down under five years later.
27. Harry and his dance partner Aliona Vilani waltz off with the Strictly Come Dancing glitter-ball trophy in 2011.
28. McBusted is born: the superband announce the awesome news on Daybreak.
29. At their own press conference, where Busted’s debut album artwork is revived to criminally good effect.
30. No one does a human pyramid like McBusted.
31. Rocking out: the band show off their sexy sixsome style on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.
32. They might not quite hit 88 m.p.h. in this golf buggy, but McBusted are driving into a very bright future.
33. James and Tom nail their McBusted jumps as the band play the gig of their career at Hyde Park on 6 July 2014.
34. As the supergroup play ‘Five Colours in Her Hair’, a multicoloured rainbow arcs above the stage. Six is the magic number.
1. ‘What I Go to School For’: Busted b
urst onto the pop scene in 2002, as does Matt’s famous ‘Busted gurn’.
2. Busted: the final line-up. From top to bottom: Charlie Simpson, Matt Willis, James Bourne. Auditionee Tom Fletcher is nowhere to be seen.
3. Jumping for joy: Busted storm to the top of the charts and make the Guinness World Records with their first three singles.
4. Not one but two BRIT Awards: Busted claim Best Pop and Best British Breakthrough at the BRITs 2004.
5. Where it all began: both Busted and McFly spent a lot of their early days at the InterContinental in London, forever immortalised in the song ‘Room on the Third Floor’.
6. The luxurious Princess Park Manor in north London, home to Busted and McFly and scene of some totally awesome songwriting.
7. And then there were two: Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones decide to start their own band.
8. Magic McFly: the full line-up sees the band make history in 2004 as the youngest group ever to have a debut number-one album.
9. All about you: after the shock Busted split, McFly rule the world, collecting Best Pop at the BRITs 2005. From left to right: Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter, Tom Fletcher, Harry Judd.
10. Tom and Giovanna Fletcher – childhood sweethearts and still going strong.
11. James with his childhood sweetheart, actress Kara Tointon. Their romantic relationship ended in 2004, but the pair remain friends.
12. Her frog prince: TV presenter Emma Griffiths met her perfect match in Matt Willis.
13. Cavorting on the red carpet – but behind the smiles, Matt was struggling with addiction. Emma would be the one carrying him through the tough times to come.
14. Me and Mrs Jones: Danny and Georgia Horsley tied the knot in August 2014.
15. Harry and Izzy Judd. They met on McFly’s Wonderland tour and married in a magical winter wedding in December 2012.
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