More about: McFly

Like most kids in the early 00s, I was an enormous McFly fan. I at first tried to resist – music snobbery hit me early, and even at the age of eight, I was turning my nose up at Busted and McFly in favour of Green Day and The White Stripes. But eventually I caved. ‘5 Colours In Her Hair’ made its way onto every mixtape. I considered ‘Obviously’ to be a heartbreak anthem up there with The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’ – and to be honest, I probably still do. 

So when Gigwise gave me the opportunity to go and see the band in the 500-capacity Camden Underworld, I was naturally thrilled. The band played two shows at the iconic venue on 8th June – one in the afternoon and one in the evening – to celebrate the release of their new record Power to Play the following day. When I arrived, the queue was stretching down the main road and then down the backstreets, with hundreds of fans excited for the rare opportunity to see the boys up close.

For the venue staff, this must have been an odd experience, since the Underworld is a spot usually reserved for rock bands of a much heavier ilk. While I was waiting for the band to come out, I overheard a conversation between two male members of staff.

“Different crowd to usual,” one says.

“It’s nice to be outnumbered by women for once,” the other replies.

When the boys eventually come out, I’m struck by how much things have changed since they arrived on the scene back in 2004. I’m not just looking at McFly anymore – I’m looking at celebrated children’s author Tom Fletcher, DJ and producer Danny Jones, Strictly Come Dancing champion Harry Judd, and King of the Jungle Dougie Poynter. 

And despite the boys only being in their mid-thirties, I’m immediately acutely aware that what I’m about to watch is a legacy act. Unlike Busted, the band have never actually split – barring a short hiatus from 2016 to 2019, they’ve been steadily releasing new music since their breakthrough. In 2010, they changed tack by collaborating with R&B star Taio Cruz on the song ‘Shine a Light’, and in 2012 they released the fantastic albeit twee single ‘Love Is Easy’, which I think was a real late-career highlight for the group. 

However, it was the formation of the supergroup McBusted in 2013 that I think saw both bands – whether intentionally or not – become more concerned with the past than the present. The McBusted tour was a huge sell-out success. A decade on from McFly’s debut, their grown-up fans flocked to arenas in their thousands to regain a slice of youth. When McBusted released an album of new music in 2014 though, the same hype wasn’t quite there. 

All of this having been said, McFly have retained a dedicated fanbase for whom the new releases clearly still mean a lot, as evidenced by the huge chunk of the audience who sing along to every word when the band opens their Camden Underworld set with the first single from Power to Play.

The single itself, ‘Where Did All The Guitars Go?’ sees McFly jumping head first into ‘old man shouts at cloud’ territory. “Where did all the guitars go?” the boys ask in the lyrics. “Who’s gonna play for all the kids with long hair?”. It’s a sentiment that was embarrassing coming from Royal Blood when they sarcastically asked the crowd “Who likes rock music?” at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend recently. Coming from the author of The Dinosaur That Pooped the Bed, it’s even harder to take seriously. 

As the set continues, the singing along stops. Not for lack of enthusiasm from the fans, but because the album won’t be released for another couple of hours yet. The atmosphere’s good, and I’m trying to approach the new material with an open mind. One thing I am impressed by is the musicianship on show here. I hadn’t realised what a strong guitarist Tom Fletcher is, and his and Danny Jones’s singing is superb. It’s apparent that I’m watching four seasoned professionals more than accustomed to pulling off slick performances in sold-out arenas. It’s a real spectacle. 

All four members prove themselves to be charming too – at one point Judd makes a wisecrack from behind the drum kit, before realising his mic isn’t on and he’d gone unheard, at which point Poynter encourages the crowd to give his bandmate a pity laugh. And having long played third fiddle to Fletcher and Jones, Poynter is really given a chance to shine. He shares lead vocal on several new tunes, then halfway through the set the others leave the stage and we’re treated to a solo Dougie acoustic number. 

As for the new songs themselves, I’m less blown away. Fletcher, Jones and co. are clearly talented songwriters. They’re more than familiar with how the components of a good pop song slot together. But maybe that’s the problem here – something about these new songs feels a little too workmanlike. An expensive chord here and a key change there just can’t disguise how derivative it all sounds. 

But maybe I’m being unfair – after all, McFly have always been derivative, and that’s part of what makes them fun. Their first record, Room on the Third Floor, is a half-remembered pastiche of 60s rock-n-roll and surf rock, and when they play ‘That Girl’ towards the end of the set, it serves as a reminder of this early sound. 

The new material is pastiche too, but it’s calling back to a different era of rock music. These new songs evoke 80s hair rock acts like Alice Cooper or Bon Jovi. It’s an interesting stylistic choice, and one which allows the band to indulge in bombastic guitar solos and have a lot of fun in this live setting. 

‘God of Rock & Roll’, the second single from the new record, especially leans into this style. It’s very much aping ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll All Nite’ by KISS. “I’m the number one at making bad decisions,” Tom Fletcher sings at the start of the song, and I wonder whether he’s referring to his decision to use taxpayers’ money to furlough an employee during the pandemic. “I’m a full-on freak,” he insists in a later lyric. Despite these clunky lines, I have to admit that the band do pull the whole thing off, and ‘God of Rock & Roll’ is a highlight of the set. 

The set is only an hour long, so while we do get to hear some of the classics, the band don’t play as many older songs as many in the crowd might have liked. ‘That Girl’ is followed by Poynter-fronted 2007 single ‘Transylvania’, then we get an energetic version of Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’, before the lads close the set with their debut hit ‘5 Colours in her Hair’. Obviously it’s amazing to hear the song live, and the crowd goes absolutely wild. Despite having come to the show by myself, I’m unabashedly dancing along. For those three minutes, I become the ‘loner with a sexy attitude’ that the song is all about.

See the view from the pit, captured by Daniel Landsburgh:

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More about: McFly