Can you believe it’s been two decades since Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd joined forces to become pop group McFly?
From dominating the charts with their No1 debut single 5 Colours In Her Hair to creating a supergroup with close pals Busted, the quartet have had their fair share of highs.
In 2016, they began a three-year hiatus before smoothly picking up where they left off. Now, the lads show no signs of slowing down, despite three of them juggling young families with fame, and this summer they’re busier than ever with new album, Power To Play and an upcoming UK and Ireland tour.
When new chats with the boys following their live gig Pizza Express in Soho, who they have teamed up with this summer for their Summer Sessions campaign, they’re at their effervescent best, sharing their secrets to their long-lasting success, opening up about mental health struggles and discussing what the future holds – a McFly Juniors band, anyone?
Hello! Congratulations on 20 years of McFly. Did you ever imagine you’d still be going after all this time?
Danny: Yeah, I think we did know we’d still be going strong after
20 years – we love it.
Harry: There was this feeling really early on that everything felt, almost, like fate. Like any job, it’s not always been easy, but it’s never felt even close to being hard enough not to do it.
Dougie: And now our fans from years ago have begun to spawn new fans, which is great.
Tom, Harry and Danny – are your kids fans of the band?
Tom: My three boys [Buzz, nine, Buddy, seven, and Max, four] love coming to the shows and think it’s so cool. Well, they think Dougie, Danny and Harry are super cool – I’m not sure about me.
Dougie: Well, I was speaking
to Buddy the other day and when I put on my stage outfit he looked at me and said, “Everyone is going to laugh at you.” That really knocked my confidence because kids don’t lie.
Harry: My son Kit thinks you’re the coolest, Tom, if that’s any consolation. He and my daughter Lola will definitely come to some shows. They love it.
The kids like to jam with you all. Is there another supergroup on the horizon?
Harry: I hope so. I can’t wait for the day that Buzz, Kit and Buddy join us on stage and play a song. Danny’s son Cooper is unsurprisingly showing vocal ability already, so, that’s a pretty good line-up.
Dougie: We’ve got a solid band there.
Danny: Cooper might need more convincing. He’s obsessed with racing so it could be F1 for him.
How come you’ve not split up like other bands?
Harry: Break-ups usually happen when egos are involved. We’ve always been such good friends. We care about each other. Any problems have never been big enough to impact that. Ultimately, it comes down to friendship.
Tom: After our hiatus, we felt really reinvigorated to get back into it.
Dougie: Yeah, it made us all realise how much we love being in the band and that it’s OK to take time to explore other things. It’s something we needed but didn’t know we did.
Dougie, you opened up about your struggles with addiction on Matt Willis’ podcast. What motivated you to discuss it?
Dougie: I’ve always been a believer that your personal and professional life are two separate worlds. So, this has probably been the first time that I’ve 100% opened up about it and spoken properly in public about it. I’ve always thought that I didn’t want the world to know the ins and outs of my mental health, but I’ve known Matt for years so I trusted that if I talked to him, it would be presented in an honest way.
Harry: Dougie may purely think he’s being honest, but what he did can actually help other people and be inspiring. Over the years, people have told us that our honesty about mental health has helped them. That’s a really good thing to hear.
Has your relationship with each other changed over the years?
Harry: Individually, we all have really different relationships with one another. When we’re all together, we spend most of the time behaving like we did when we were 17 – although I hope we’re a bit more mature in some ways.
Dougie: I don’t think we’re more mature.
Tom: We’re definitely not.
Danny: Ha, some things never change…
It must be nice to have always had each other to lean on?
Danny: Being in a band is a protection and that’s really helped us. You can play an alter ego – you’re not Danny Jones, you’re “Danny from McFly”. When I wanted to tour on my own, I felt so exposed having the limelight all focused on me. The band is a safe place and a bubble for me, which I like.
Tom: For me, the thought of going it alone is so much harder.
Harry: There are loads of things we have done as individuals but, ultimately, if we could only do one thing, it would be McFly. Nothing beats being on stage with your mates, playing live shows.
Your new album is a lot more rockier than any previous albums. Why is that?
Harry: That’s always been our sound when playing live. It’s just that in the past we’ve struggled to push ourselves and find the courage to make an album that actually sounds like us on stage. Until now, that is. It’s been really exciting.
And is there another 20 years of McFly to come?
Harry: Well, if we’re gonna do what S Club 7 did with S Club Juniors, but with our kids then yes. That’ll be one step better than ABBA because we won’t even need holograms. Tom’s
kids look enough like him too.
Dougie: McFly will never end.
McFly partnered with Pizza Express to launch Live Summer Sessions, taking place at locations across the UK until 20 August. See pizzaexpress.com/live-summer-sessions
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