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Thomas Michael “Tom” Fletcher (born 17 July 1985) is an English musician. He is best known as one of the lead vocalists, guitarists and songwriters of pop rock/pop punk band McFly, along with fellow band members Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd. McFly rose to fame after they were invited to tour with fellow teen-pop band Busted in March 2004. Fletcher was born in Harrow, London. When he was 10, Fletcher starred as the main role in Oliver! at the London Palladium alongside Jim Dale as Fagin. He then went on to do a documentary about HIV for schools. He is currently living in his hometown. He is the founding member, joint lead singer, guitarist (and sometimes pianist) of pop band McFly, naming the band after the main character in his favourite film Back To The Future, Marty McFly. McFly’s formation came about when he auditioned for Busted but lost out on the place to Charlie Simpson (who later went on to co-found post-hardcore band Fightstar), after the record label decided to have the band as a three-some rather than four-some, Fletcher states that he was in the band “for approximately 24-hours.” Though the record label (Island) decided against offering Fletcher a place in Busted, they were intrigued by his song-writings talents, and later offered him a place on the Busted song-writing “team,” alongside bandmember (and already accomplished song-writer) James Bourne; Fletcher has since stated that it was Bourne who taught him how to “properly” structure songs, and how to “come up with good, poppy melodies.” During the writing project for Busted’s second album (A Present for Everyone), Fletcher was asked, by the record label, if he was available to film auditions for a new band, V. It was at this time that Danny Jones and Fletcher met for the first time; Jones went to the audition mistaking the band (V) to be a Busted-esque band, rather than the conventional, all-singing, all-dancing, boyband, for which they were intended. Fletcher was impressed with Jones’s unique style, and so approached and invited him to write with himself and Bourne. When writing projects for Busted had come to an end, the two began collaborating for their own (as of yet, unnamed) band, and, eventually, moved into the InterContinental Hotel in London for 2 months to concentrate on writing together. Bassist (Dougie Poynter) and drummer (Harry Judd) were subsequently recruited via a classified advertisement in the NME magazine. Both Essex lads, the pair turned up, coincidentally, at the same audition, and got to talking over their shared appreciation of the band The Starting Line, after Dougie Poynter noticed their name and logo was printed on Harry Judd’s t shirt. The name McFly was eventually decided upon as band name. Fletcher proposed the idea based on his love for the American science-fiction comedy Back to the Future trilogy and Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly. McFly made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, beating The Beatles out of the slot for “the youngest band to have a début album go straight to number one”. Fletcher has written the majority of McFly’s songs with bandmate Jones and Poynter, with occasional contributions by Judd; James Bourne, formerly of Busted fame, has also assisted with songwriting on occasions. As of 15 November 2010, McFly have released five studio albums and one “greatest hits” album. |
