The Book Depository McFly - Unsaid Things...Our Story by Tom Fletcher

Author: Mr. R. G. Prizeman

Rating: 5

Review: Boybands have there haters, and many people still think of McFly as boyband. However they are not in the sense of pretty boys dancing,or sitting on stools and just singing along to backing tracks. As it say's in the book McFly started out wanting to be like any other "cool" band who played and wrote their one material. However being young the record company and management presented them as a boyband to grab female fans. The band hated it as they lost credibility and this led to people believing they were miming their instruments and had no idea they wrote the songs. I would argue that they are a real band and always were. It is nice that they have waited quite a while to do a Biography, instead of putting a book out in the first year, its been nearly ten years and that's a long time in the music industry. This book is unlikely to change anybody's mind a they won't bother to read it anyway. When i sat down and started to read it was a joy, amusing sad and very interesting. The introduction about a trip to Indonesia and a masseur has you laughthing, and then the story starts, in order of who joined the band first. Tom starts off and from a young age his musical talent started to show,from playing Oliver in the West end opposite Jim Dale and what amazed me is how dedicated he is at making the band work, he describes himself as mediocre at everything, he's not he is amazingly talented. After the experience of being in Busted for a couple of days and being told he was not and feeling his world falling apart, the management saw something worth while in him and keep him on as a songwriter with James Bourne. We also discover Tom's dislike of crowds and to think this guy must force himself to meet fans for there pleasure not for his is very commendable. Tom suffered from depression and he admits near the end of the book that he was diagnosed with Bi pola in 2010. Tom meets Danny who he may never have met had it not been for his mum, lucky Danny turned down the chance to be in V which was very short lived. Then Danny teamed up with Tom to write the first album with help from James Bourne. Deciding they wanted to start a group and needing a Bass player and drummer they put out the adverts. It's Dougie who will bring a tear to your eye, bullied picked on at school for being small and a father that just disappeared one day leaving a note. He failed his original audition playing the first bars of Billie Jean but the manager saw something in Dougie. He practiced at his craft and was the last to join beating the other guy nick named "Vandermolt" from Harry potter, and Tom's story about that makes you chuckle but not sure it made Tom Laugh at the time. Dougie get's in the group even though he had lied about his age, but they loved him for that. Harry was the most confident, like Danny having sport to fall back on was always going to help. However the cockiness as he said got him isolated at school, and having to win back friends. Harry like Dougie and only started playing drums about a year before the audition, but managed to get in even though Danny wanted the other drummer at first. The three were thrown together in a house until Dougie finally joined them and getting the smallest room in the house however it was apparently much bigger than his room at home. It's clear that Tom was the leader and was the driving force as the others hid there little weed habit from him in the house. This is a book you will not want to put down to you finish it's well written and the guys have waited until they had a lot to say and they do. There are times i even had tears in my eyes, and you will find out when you read when Dougie's Secret when he hit's rock bottom. In the end you just wanting to be part of there gang,or at least have friends as close as theses guys. It is this friendship that the group have that will keep them together. Am I a fan well I was not at first but as there music grew up (they were always rockers at heart) I became one,I also met them on occasions when I was working and you can't help but like them. If your a fan you will love this book if you want a good read its a great amusing story with emotion. This is so worth a read and you find out the truth about a lot the lows the highs a real story, McFly will be around for a long time because of friendship hats off to you guys.

Author: S

Rating: 4

Review: I had been a big fan of McFly back in the glory days of 2004/2005/2006 when things were at their peak. Like others have said on here, I thought I knew everything about them, especially Dougie who at the time was my complete OBSESSION, I lived and breathed everything DOUGIE POYNTER..... but how little I really knew. Now we're all 'grown up' it's amazing to understand the truth about what went on within the band house, quite shocking in some ways but not so much. Some stuff about their personalities - especially Tom - was quite surprising but in a good way and it made the whole band much more human to read about the flaws and the bad times and the struggles rather than the picture-perfect showbiz world that we were shown then. I like how the book is not a great big diss-fest on others, its just a fair overview on their own lives. For example, Dougie could have easily had a big swipe at Frankie but took the high ground. It's not written for sensationalism, just honesty. I bought this book intending to read it slowly but finished it in one sitting- just very gripping read that I could not put down. I am currently suffering from some crippling depression and really wanted to read about how Tom and Dougie had coped with this. I am glad they pulled through and could really identify with the thoughts and feelings they shared on the subject. I'm so glad to see Dougie and his happy ending.. never more deserved. There's lots more I could say but to spare the waffle, I will just highly recommend this book and have only knocked 1 star off because from reading this I decided that Harry isn't very interesting and his parts were a bit long winded and dull. Sorry Harry.