| Tom Fletcher | |
| Birth Name: | Thomas Michael Fletcher |
| Birth Date: | 17 July 1985 |
| Birth Place: | Harrow, London, England |
| Years Active: | 2001–present |
| Current Member Of: | McFly |
Thomas Michael Fletcher (born 17 July 1985) is an English musician, composer, author and vlogger. He is one of the lead vocalists and rhythm guitarist of English pop rock band McFly,[1] in addition to being the group's founder.
In his 20-year career as a professional songwriter, Fletcher has written 10 UK number one singles and 21 top-ten singles. He is credited as having written songs for One Direction, Busted, the Vamps and 5 Seconds of Summer.
Fletcher was born on 17 July 1985, in Harrow, London. He attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London,[2] where, at the age of 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.[3] When he was 10 years old, 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 for the Mike + The Mechanics single "Over My Shoulder".[4] [5] When Fletcher was a schoolchild, he was schoolmates with Busted bassist Matt Willis.[6]
At a very young age, Fletcher began writing music commercially. He originally auditioned for band Busted,[7] but lost out on the place to Charlie Simpson after the record label Island Records decided the band should be a trio rather than a four-piece; Fletcher states that he was in the band "for about 24 hours."[8] This led to a job with the band's songwriting team, mainly because of the label's intrigue with his writing talents, Fletcher then got to know Busted band member James Bourne, which would then lead to a strong songwriting relationship between the two.[9] He has since stated that it was Bourne who taught him "how to structure a pop hit".[10] [11]
See 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.[12] Impressed with Jones's style, Fletcher 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 two months[13] 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.[14] McFly then rose to fame after Busted helped launch them by inviting them to be the opening act on their tour in March 2004
.[15]
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".[16] 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 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.
Fletcher has written or co-written 10 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 seven of the band's albums. Of McFly's four members, he has "the most songwriting credits and therefore the most money".[17]
Fletcher wrote "On a Rainbow", the official song of the 2012 Summer Olympics' mascots Wenlock and Mandeville.[18] 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.[19] 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".He also cowrote the song "Own This Town" with the British band Chapter 13 for their Britain's Got Talent semi-final performance.
Fletcher released his first children's book in 2012. Co-written with band-mate Dougie Poynter, The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas sold more than 72,000 copies and became the most popular debut children's book of 2012.[20] [21] 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.[22] On 21 March 2019, Fletcher released his second novel and released a Lead single from the soundtrack to THE CREAKERS: THE MUSICAL EDITION called "Don't Turn Out The Light" (featuring Chapter 13) from Britain's Got Talent, along with a music video.[23]
Fletcher released The Christmasaurus and the Winter Witch in October 2019, a sequel to his first solo novel The Christmasaurus. In November 2020, a series of Fletcher's books appeared in McDonald's Happy Meals as activity packs, including stickers. In 2020, he also released 'The Danger Gang' a debut novel bestseller, also releasing an audiobook read by Harry Potter star, Tom Felton. The book is about a boy named Franky who moves house.
In 2008, Fletcher contributed to the short story anthology Wow! 366.[24] Fletcher and the other members of McFly released their memoir Unsaid Things... Our Story in the autumn of 2012.[25]
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 Lorraines competition to find a new children's author.[26]
Fletcher has a strong YouTube audience with just over 633,000 subscribers. He was a frequent vlogger, filming his daily life and his life while he was on tour with McFly.
Between September and November 2021 Fletcher was a contestant on the nineteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional dancer Amy Dowden.[27] On 26 September it was announced that both had contracted COVID-19 and would not appear in the next episode.[28] On 21 November they were the eighth couple to be eliminated from the contest, after a dance-off against Rhys Stephenson and Nancy Xu.[29]
In 2024, Fletcher will be featured as a coach on the upcoming thirteenth series of The Voice UK alongside Danny Jones in a duo chair.[30]
On 18 April 2011, Fletcher became engaged to his schoolmate and longtime girlfriend Giovanna Falcone.[31] They were married on 12 May 2012. In January 2013, Fletcher uploaded a video to YouTube, titled My Wedding Speech, in which he sang to the tunes of several of McFly's most successful songs during his speech: the video has received over 24 million views.[32]
Giovanna is also a YouTube vlogger and an 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.[33] 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[34] on 29 October 2013 that the couple were expecting their first child, with a video titled, We Have Some News....[35] In March 2014 their son 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'.[36] In February 2016 their second son was born. During both pregnancies, Fletcher and his wife Giovanna took pictures every day throughout the nine months of pregnancy. They created another YouTube video to announce the arrival of their first son, which has over 16 million views.[37] On 3 March 2018 it was announced that their third child was due in September, but their third son was born in August 2018.
Fletcher's younger sister is Carrie Hope Fletcher, an actress, author, singer and YouTube vlogger. Carrie joined him to produce the 2012 Olympic Mascot song, "On a Rainbow".[38] 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".
In McFly's autobiography Unsaid Things, Fletcher discussed his diagnosis of bipolar 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.[39] [40] [41] [42]
In June 2021, Fletcher and his wife apologised for using the government scheme to furlough an employee. Fletcher and wife Giovanna released a statement on social media clarifying that the money had been returned and admitted that "it was a huge error of judgement."[43]
See main article: articles and McFly discography.
| Year | Title | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | "Afraid of Heights" | The Christmasaurus: Musical Edition | |
| "Don't Know What It Is" [44] | |||
| 2019 | "Don't Turn Out The Light (featuring 13) | THE CREAKERS: THE MUSICAL EDITION |
| Year | Song | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | "Afraid of Heights" | David Spearing |
| "Don't Know What It Is" | ||
| 2019 | "Don't Turn Out The Light" | |