McFly, review: Tom Fletcher and co’s Strictly irresistible refusal to grow up
“I’m very disappointed in you all,” said Tom Fletcher to a sold-out Wembley Arena, the same evening a certain reality show – in which he is participating – relaunched on BBC One. “You should really be at home watching Strictly Come Dancing.”
Before McFly took to the stage, chunks of the audience were desperately refreshing Twitter to find out who Fletcher’s pro dance partner would be. When he eventually brought Amy Dowden onto the stage later in the night, they received one of the biggest cheers of the night.
“First bit of chat and he’s already brought up Strictly,” joked drummer Harry Judd, who won the glitterball in 2011. “Dude, that’s so 10 years ago.”
Formed in 2003 McFly, alongside Busted, were the UK’s answer to the very American wave of pop-punk bands taking over the airwaves in the mid-noughties. They might not have been as cool as their stateside contemporaries but for a generation, they were an important and influential band.
Their 2004 debut album Room on The Third saw the band become the youngest group to ever get a number one album (a title previously held by the Beatles), but, while every subsequent album charted well, they saw diminishing returns as guitar music fell out of fashion. They never officially broke up, but the day job took a back seat for McBusted (a supergroup that saw the members of McFlyjoined by two/thirds of Busted) in 2013 and the various solo ventures that followed.
Fletcher started writing children’s books and vlogging on Youtube, Dougie Poynter won the 2011 series of I’m A Celebrity and Judd won Strictly Come Dancing the same year. All four made regular appearances on various celebrity quiz shows, raising money for charity and have written songs for a variety of other acts.
The band reunited in 2019 for a comeback show at London’s The O2 (their first in three years) and released two albums in 2020. A total 498 days after it was originally meant to take place, their delayed headline tour finally returned to London on Saturday night.
Rather than acting their age and becoming a Take That-style “man band” though, it seems McFlywant to capture the young dumb thrills of their youth. As Poynter sang on the guitar-driven Growing Up, “There's not much we can do about growing old but plenty we can do about growing up”.
They took to the stage like absolutely nothing has changed since their teenage heyday, bristling with a childlike energy. The three guitarists skipped, pogoed, ran and jumped about the stage and its circular runway for the entirety of the show as if on one hell of a sugar rush.
There were lots of thirtysomethings in the 12,500-strong crowd, but there was also a new generation of fans seeing the band for the very first time.
“It’s like being back at school,” said Fletcher after Poynter asked the to point and laugh at his groin. It was exactly that feeling the band wanted to create.
McFly’s music has always straddled the worlds of pop and rock, and they still haven’t settled. The new song Red was a snarling, menacing track about lust, while the soppy rock ballads Obviously, The Heart Never Lies and All About You inspired deafening singalongs and more than a few tender embraces.
There was also the tropical pop dance of Happiness, while the buoyant energy of Five Colours in her Hair and Star Girl still had the power to make thousands of people jump up and down at the same time. Elsewhere, there were flashes of a classic rock’n’roll band hidden in the likes of Dragon Ball and One for the Radio that would have impressed any dads who’d been dragged along by their kids or partners. Through all the different styles, McFly’s mischievous personalities shone. It’s perhaps why tonight never felt like a tired walk down memory lane.
Instead, the whole show was a joyful burst of carefree excitement. Eighteen years after they first formed, McFly still look like they’re having the best of times – that free-spirited fun was impossible to sneer at.
“We came to entertain,” roared Jones at the end of the night. “We came to send you home with your hearts racing, your ears ringing, your sweat dripping and your smiles so big.” It’s an eight from us.
Tour details: mcfly.com
