Tom Fletcher

Tom Fletcher
Fletcher performing on stage in 2009
Born Thomas Michael Fletcher
(1985-07-17) 17 July 1985
Harrow, London, England
Other names Tom Fletcher
Occupation Author, YouTuber
Spouse(s)
Children 3
Musical career
Genres Pop rock, pop
Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano, ukulele, bass guitar, drums
Years active 2003–present
Labels Island, Super
Associated acts McFly, James Bourne, Busted, McBusted, Carrie Hope Fletcher
Website www.mcfly.com

Thomas Michael Fletcher (born 17 July 1985) is an English musician, singer, composer, author and YouTube vlogger. Among his accomplishments, he is one of the lead vocalists and guitarists of English pop rock band McFly,[1] in addition to being the group's founder. He originally auditioned and was accepted into the band Busted before losing out on the place after the record label Island decided the band should be a trio rather than a four-piece. However, he still carried on writing with the band. In his thirteen-year career as a professional songwriter, Fletcher has penned ten UK number one singles and twenty-one top ten singles. He is credited as having written songs for bands including One Direction, Busted, the Vamps and 5 Seconds of Summer.

Early life

Fletcher was born in Harrow, London.[2] His father, Bob Fletcher, who worked at Kodak and played in local bands, and his mother, Debbie Fletcher, a special needs teacher, encouraged and supported his love of music from a young age.[2] He attended a prestigious music school, Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, where, at age 13, he met Giovanna Falcone, whom he would later marry in 2012. He has a younger sister, Carrie Hope Fletcher, who is a musical theatre actress who has played multiple roles on the west end including Éponine in Les Misérables at the Queen's Theatre in London, as well as currently playing the lead role Veronica Sawyers in Heathers[3][4], amongst others. She’s also a popular internet personality with other 500,000 subscribers on youtube, as well as a best selling author. 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 and starred in a commercial. In 1995, Fletcher made a small appearance in the video to the Mike + The Mechanics song "Over My Shoulder". When Fletcher was a schoolchild, he was schoolmates with Busted bassist Matt Willis.[2][5]

Musical career

At a very young age, Fletcher began writing music commercially.[2] He originally auditioned for Busted,[6] but lost out on the place to Charlie Simpson after the record label Island decided the band should be a trio rather than a four-piece; Fletcher states that he was in the band "for approximately 24 hours." This led to a job with the band's songwriting team, mainly because of the label's intrigue at his writing talents, Fletcher then got to know Busted band member James Bourne, which would then lead to a strong song writing relationship between the two. He has since stated that it was Bourne who taught him how to "properly" structure songs, and how to "come up with good, poppy melodies".

McFly

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 he and Danny Jones met for the first time; Jones went to the audition mistaking the band to be a Busted-esque band, rather than the conventional, all-singing, all-dancing, boy band for which they were intended.[7] Fletcher was impressed with Jones's style, and invited him to write with him and Bourne. When writing projects for Busted had come to an end, the two began collaborating for their own (as yet unnamed) band, and, eventually, moved into the InterContinental Hotel in London for 2 months[8] to concentrate on writing together. During this time together Fletcher and Jones wrote most of their first album, Room on the 3rd Floor. Bassist Dougie Poynter and drummer Harry Judd were subsequently recruited via a classified advertisement. Fletcher came up with the idea to name the band after Marty McFly, the main character from his favorite film Back to the Future. McFly then rose to fame after Busted helped launch them by inviting them to be the opening act on their tour in March 2004.[9]

In 2004, McFly made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, beating the Beatles's record for "the youngest band to have a debut album go straight to number one".[10] Fletcher has written the majority of McFly's songs with Jones and Poynter, with occasional contributions by Judd; Bourne has also assisted with songwriting on occasions. As of 15 November 2010, McFly have released five studio albums and two compilation albums. A greatest hits album entitled Memory Lane: The Best of McFly which includes a number of B-sides from earlier albums, original demos of well known tracks as well as three new singles, was released in November 2012. As well as being the founding member of McFly, Fletcher plays rhythm guitar, shares lead vocals with Danny Jones, and sometimes undertakes the role of ukulele player and pianist.

Songwriting

Fletcher has written or co-written ten UK number-one singles: "Crashed the Wedding", "Who's David?", and "Thunderbirds" for Busted; and "Five Colours in Her Hair", "Obviously", "All About You," "I'll Be OK", "Please, Please", "Star Girl", and "Transylvania" for McFly. He co-wrote eight of the songs on A Present for Everyone, as well as all but one ("Not Alone", written by Jones) of the tracks on McFly's debut album, Room on the 3rd Floor. He is the primary writer on the majority of tracks on all five of the band's albums. Of McFly's four members, he has "the most songwriting credits and therefore the most money".[11]

Fletcher wrote "On a Rainbow", the official song of the 2012 Summer Olympics' mascots Wenlock and Mandeville.[12] The song features vocals from him and his sister Carrie Hope Fletcher. He also wrote the song "I Want" for One Direction's debut album Up All Night, and co-wrote (with Dougie Poynter and Danny Jones) "I Would" for their second album Take Me Home and "Don't Forget Where You Belong" for their third album Midnight Memories.[13] He has co-written several songs with James Bourne including "Chills in the Evening", recorded by V. He also co-wrote "High Hopes" along with all four members of the Vamps for their debut album, Meet the Vamps. Fletcher is also credited as having co-written the 5 Seconds of Summer track "Try Hard". The song was originally released on YouTube on 1 June 2013, and in 2014 featured as a B-Side to their hit single "Don't Stop".

Children's books

Fletcher released his first children's book in 2012. Co-written with band-mate Dougie Poynter, The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas sold over 72,000 copies and became the most popular debut children's novel of 2012.[14][15] A follow up titled The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet was released on 29 August 2013.

Fletcher released his first solo novel, The Christmasaurus, on 6 October 2016, about a young boy called William Trundle who goes on a magical adventure on Christmas Eve. On 6 October 2017 a musical version of the book, entitled The Christmasaurus: Musical Edition was released.[16] On 17 November 2017, Fletcher released a single from the soundtrack to The Christmasaurus: Musical Edition called "Afraid of Heights", along with a music video.[17] On 15 December 2017, Fletcher released a second single and music video from the soundtrack called "Don't Know What It Is". Both videos were directed by David Spearing.

Other work

In 2008, Fletcher contributed to the short story anthology, Wow! 366.[18] Fletcher and the other members of McFly released their memoir Unsaid Things... Our Story in the autumn of 2012.[19]

In June 2011, Fletcher appeared on the ITV game show The Cube and became the third person to win £100,000. He gave the money to Comic Relief and BIRT. Later that year, he appeared as a gorilla for bandmate Dougie Poynter to ask five questions for the celebrity chest on episode 11 of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. He was also there to greet Poynter on the red carpet after he had won the series. In 2013, he took part in All Star Family Fortunes and All Star Mr and Mrs. All four members of McFly played Celebrity Deal or No Deal for charity in 2012 as well. In November 2013, he appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks with Emma Willis. Fletcher has been a guest on Celebrity Juice a total of three times. In 2016, he was a judge on ITV's Lorraine's competition to find a new children's author.[20]

Fletcher has a strong YouTube audience with just over 633,000 subscribers. He is a frequent vlogger, filming his daily life and his life while he is on tour with McFly.

Personal life

On 18 April 2011, Fletcher became engaged to his schoolmate and longtime girlfriend Giovanna "Gi" Falcone. He proposed to her at the Sylvia Young Theatre School where they first met at age 13.[21] They were married on 12 May 2012 with his McFly bandmates serving as his groomsmen.[22] They sold the rights to OK! magazine and the article was published on 22 May 2012. In January 2013, Fletcher uploaded a video to YouTube, titled My Wedding Speech, in which he sung to the tunes of several of McFly's most successful songs during his speech which has received over 18 million views.[23]

Fletcher's wife Giovanna is also a YouTube Vlogger and a bestselling-author. Her books, Billy and Me, You're the One That I Want, Christmas with Billy and Me, Dream a Little Dream, and Dream a Little Christmas Dream are published by Penguin's Michael Joseph.[24] She also released a book in 2017 about motherhood titled, Happy Mum, Happy Baby. She also blogs weekly for Hello! magazine.

It was announced on Fletcher's YouTube channel[25] on 29 October 2013 that the couple were expecting their first child, with a video titled, We Have Some News....[26] At 7 pm on 13 March 2014, their son Buzz Michelangelo Fletcher was born. Fletcher announced on 3 September 2015, again on YouTube, that his wife Giovanna was expecting their second child, by means of a video entitled 'Player 2'.[27] On 16 February 2016, their second son Buddy Bob Fletcher was born. During both pregnancies, Fletcher and his wife Giovanna took pictures every day throughout the 9 months of pregnancy. They created another YouTube video, called Bump to Buzz to announce the arrival of their first son Buzz,[28] which has over 13 million views. The second video announcing the birth of their second son was titled Bump to Buddy, where they took pictures documenting their second pregnancy,[29] together along with their son Buzz present. On 3 March 2018 it was announced that their third child was due in September, but Max Mario Fletcher, their third son (named after his grandfather) was born early on 24 August 2018.

Fletcher's younger sister is Carrie Hope Fletcher, a singer, actress, author, and YouTube vlogger. Carrie joined him to produce the 2012 Olympic Mascot song, "On a Rainbow".[30] Carrie also joined as a part of the cast of The Christmasaurus Live, a live production of Tom's debut children's novel of the same name). She played the part of Brenda Payne and sang two solo songs, "Thin Ice" and "I've Been a Good Girl".[31]

In McFly's autobiography Unsaid Things, Fletcher discussed his diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder, which he has stated was a great influence over McFly's second album, Wonderland. He has also described his struggles with his eating disorder, weight, and obsessive dieting.[32][33][34][35][36]

Discography

Singles

  • "Afraid of Heights" (2017)
  • "Don't Know What It Is" (2017)

Music videos

Year Song Director
2017 "Afraid of Heights" David Spearing
"Don't Know What It Is"

References

  1. ↑ "Tom Fletcher biography". McFly Official website. Archived from the original on 1 July 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Gannon, Louise. "The super McFly guys". Mail Online (The Daily Mail). London. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Accessed 20 September 2018
  5. ↑ McFly's Tom Fletcher... Accessed 20 March 2011
  6. ↑ "McFly Interview by CMU's Chris Cooke". CMU Beats Bar. December 2005. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2007. External link in |work= (help)
  7. ↑ Petridis, Alexis (23 July 2004). "Mad about the boys". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 November 2007.
  8. ↑ "Debut McFly album track by track". McFlyOfficial.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2007. External link in |work= (help)
  9. ↑ "Fletcher". Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  10. ↑ "Youngest double toppers". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  11. ↑ Pidd, Helen (30 September 2008). "The Party's Over". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  12. ↑ London2012. "Mascot song behind the scenes with Tom and Carrie Fletcher – London 2012". London 2012 Official YouTube Channel. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  13. ↑ Renshaw, David (14 September 2011). "One Direction 'Can't Imagine Splitting Up'". Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  14. ↑ Vincent, Alice (2 October 2013). "Telegraph Interview". Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  15. ↑ Jamieson, Natalie. "McFly's Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter pen kid's book". BBC. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  16. ↑ https://www.amazon.co.uk/William-T/dp/0241336848/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509370084&sr=1-1&keywords=9780241336847
  17. ↑ https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/bizarre/4931860/mcflys-tom-fletcher-releases-stunning-musical-edition-of-his-novel-the-christmasaurus/
  18. ↑ "Press Release: Wow! 366". Scholastic. 2008. Archived from the original on 25 March 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  19. ↑ "McFly Announce Plans For Biography, Discuss Jessie J Dreams". Yahoo.com. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  20. ↑ Eyre, Charlotte (11 February 2016). "ITV's Lorraine launches children's writing comp". The Bookseller. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  21. ↑ Smart, Gordon. "McFly Star Tom is Engaged". The Sun. London. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  22. ↑ Sheridan, Emily. "McFly's Tom Fletcher weds Giovanna Falcone". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  23. ↑ "My Wedding Speech". YouTube.
  24. ↑ "BOOKS BY ME!". www.giovannasworld.com. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  25. ↑ Fletcher's YouTube
  26. ↑ "Pregnancy Announcement".
  27. ↑ "Player 2".
  28. ↑ Bump to Buzz
  29. ↑ Bump to Buddy
  30. ↑ "On A Rainbow performance".
  31. ↑
  32. ↑ "McFly's Tom Fletcher survived on one muffin and coffee a day during obsessive dieting struggles | Mail Online". London: Dailymail.co.uk. 13 October 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  33. ↑ "Tom Fletcher | Tom Fletcher Struggled With Weight Obsession Before Bipolar Diagnosis". Contactmusic.com. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  34. ↑ "McFly's Tom Fletcher: 'I Was Diagnosed With Bipolar Two Years Ago' – Celebrity Gossip, News & Photos, Movie Reviews, Competitions". Entertainmentwise. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  35. ↑ "McFly's Tom Fletcher: 'I hated being the fat one'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  36. ↑ "Tom McFly reveals weight issues – RTÉ Ten". Rte.ie. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
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