Tom Fletcher

For other people named Tom Fletcher, see Tom Fletcher (disambiguation).
Tom Fletcher

Fletcher performing on stage
Born Thomas Michael Fletcher
(1985-07-17) 17 July 1985
Harrow, London, England
Other names Tom Fletcher
Occupation Musician, singer-songwriter, author
Spouse(s) Giovanna Fletcher (m. 2012-present)
Children 2

Musical career

Genres
Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano, ukulele, bass guitar
Years active 2003–present
Labels Island, Super
Associated acts McFly, James Bourne, Busted, McBusted, Carrie Hope Fletcher
Website www.mcfly.com
Notable instruments
Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Flying V
Gibson ES-335
Fender Stratocaster
Gibson SG
Gibson Les Paul Junior
Epiphone Les Paul Ukulele

Thomas Michael "Tom" Fletcher (born 17 July 1985) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and children's author. 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 and principal songwriter. He originally auditioned and was accepted into the band Busted before losing out on the place to Charlie Simpson after the record label Island decided the band should be a trio rather than a four-piece. He carried on writing with the band. In his twelve-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.

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.[2]

Early life

Fletcher was born in Harrow, London.[3] 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.[3] 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. He has a younger sister, Carrie Hope Fletcher, who produces vlogs for the video sharing site YouTube and is currently playing Éponine in Les Misérables at the Queen's Theatre in London.[4] 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 even a role 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 guitarist/drummer Matt Willis.[3][5]

Musical career

At a very young age, Fletcher began writing music commercially.[3] 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 however, where Fletcher got to know Busted band member James Bourne. 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

Main article: 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 so 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. Bassist Dougie Poynter and drummer Harry Judd were subsequently recruited via a classified advertisement. McFly then rose to fame after Busted helped launch them by inviting them 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 début 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 new 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. He named the band after Marty McFly, the main character from his favourite film Back to the Future.

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 a lot of songs with James Bourne including "Chills in the Evening" recorded by V. Fletcher has penned ten UK number one singles and 21 top ten singles. Despite the decision to exclude Fletcher from the line-up of band Busted, he was included as a member of their songwriting team, mainly because of the label's intrigue at his writing talents. 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 onto YouTube on 1 June 2013, and in 2014 featured as a B-Side on their hit single Don't Stop.

Other work

In 2008, Fletcher contributed to the short story anthology, Wow! 366.[14] Fletcher, along with the rest of McFly, have made a deal with Transworld Publishers and released their memoir 'Unsaid Things... Our Story' in the autumn of 2012.[15] He released a children's story with bandmate Dougie Poynter entitled "The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas", about a boy who gets a pet dinosaur for Christmas. The book was released on 25 October 2012.[16] A follow up titled "The Dinosaur That Pooped A Planet" was released on 29 August 2013.

In June 2011, he 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,Tom appeared as a gorilla for bandmate Dougie Poynter to ask five questions to for celebrity chest on episode 11 of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (UK series 11). He was also there to greet Dougie after his lap of honour down the red carpet, once he had won the whole series. In 2013, he took part in All Star Family Fortunes with his family and All Star Mr and Mrs with Giovanna. 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.

Tom has been a guest on Celebrity Juice a total of three times.

In 2016, he was a Judges alongside Nadiya Hussain on ITV Lorraine's competition to find new children’s author. [17]

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.[18] They were married on 12 May 2012 with his McFly bandmates serving as his groomsmen.[19] 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 of his wedding speech, sung to the tunes of several of McFly's most successful songs, which has received over 17 million views.[20]

It was announced on Fletcher's YouTube channel on 29 October 2013 that the couple were expecting their first child.[21] At 7pm 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'.[22] On 16 February 2016, their second son Buddy Bob Fletcher was born.

Fletcher's sister is Carrie Hope Fletcher, a singer, actress and YouTube blogger. Carrie joined him to produce the 2012 Olympic Mascot song, "On a Rainbow."[23]

In McFly's autobiography 'Unsaid Things', Fletcher revealed he suffers from 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.[24][25][26][27][28]

References

  1. ↑ "Tom Fletcher biography". McFly Official website. Archived from the original on 1 July 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
  2. ↑ Vincent, Alice (2 October 2013). "Telegraph Interview". Telegraph (London). Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gannon, Louise. "The super McFly guys". Mail Online (The Daily Mail) (London). Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "The Tatler List". Tatler.
  5. ↑ McFly's Tom Fletcher... Accessed 20 March 2011
  6. ↑ "McFly Interview by CMU's Chris Cooke". CMU Beats Bar. December 2005. 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'". Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  14. ↑ "Press Release: Wow! 366". Scholastic. 2008. Archived from the original on 25 March 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  15. ↑ "McFly Announce Plans For Biography, Discuss Jessie J Dreams". Yahoo.com. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  16. ↑ Jamieson, Natalie. "McFly's Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter pen kid's book". BBC. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  17. ↑ Eyre, Charlotte (11 February 2016). "ITV’s Lorraine launches children’s writing comp". The Bookseller. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  18. ↑ Smart, Gordon. "McFly Star Tom is Engaged". The Sun (London). Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  19. ↑ Sheridan, Emily. "McFly's Tom Fletcher weds Giovanna Falcone". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 13 May 2012.
  20. ↑ "My Wedding Speech". YouTube.
  21. ↑ "Pregnancy Announcement".
  22. ↑ "Player 2".
  23. ↑ "On A Rainbow performance".
  24. ↑ "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.
  25. ↑ "Tom Fletcher | Tom Fletcher Struggled With Weight Obsession Before Bipolar Diagnosis". Contactmusic.com. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  26. ↑ "McFly's Tom Fletcher: 'I Was Diagnosed With Bipolar Two Years Ago' – Celebrity Gossip, News & Photos, Movie Reviews, Competitions". Entertainmentwise. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  27. ↑ "McFly's Tom Fletcher: 'I hated being the fat one'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  28. ↑ "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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