September 21, 2013
I stood alone on the dark stairs just below a crowd of screaming fans, with a perfect view of the stage from the left side. I'd never been in the audience, but I reckon if i had I would prefer to stay here anyways.
A large screen descended from above the stage in the darkness and lit the large room. A black and white image of four men getting ready appeared.
They tuned instruments, got dressed and walked down the hall single file in a stoic manner. Then, they opened a door.
And when they passed through, it was almost like they had been transported into another dimension.
Dougie was dressed a sailor, Danny was in a Native American costume, Tom was a shirtless cowboy and Harry was a police officer, also shirtless.
The black and white video had been replaced with vivid color, and the song YMCA by Village People blasted through the speakers of The Royal Albert Hall.
When the video finished, the boys walked out slowly, arms extended, taking in the glory as the fan's roared and the lights came up on them. This was their third of four shows at the RAH.
"SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE ALBERT HALL!" Danny yelled into his mic, as they finished up their opening song, Saturday Night. "LONDON MAKE SOME NOISE!"
*******************************
Just after the boys finished Room on the Third Floor, the lights dimmed again as the large screen came into view again.
Like last time, the screen was filled with images of the band, but this time they were boys again.
"The bond between the four of us is quite a...it's quite a unique bond, I think." Tom's voice projects, as the screen is filled with videos taken from back in time. Tom had chubby cheeks, Danny had bone-straight hair covering his eyes, Harry had dodgy sideburns and Dougie had a lip ring.
"It's quite hard to describe and quite hard to explain. There's a connection there." Danny's voice takes over. Then, it was Harry.
"We each get on in different ways." He says, as the videos of the young boys continues to play. I wish they'd never stop and my cheeks begin to ache from smiling. "I relate to Tom in a way that I don't relate to Danny, but I relate to Danny in a way that I don't relate to Tom so...I think we all offer each other something."
"I don't really quite...I don't think for legal reasons I can go into detail about what the bond actually is." Dougie jokes through the video.
"Band mates," Tom continues, "is...uh...it's different to just friends and best friends and it's...I think it's more- it's closer to being brothers."
The video montage continues showing the boys dancing, jumping, eating, drinking, falling over, stripping and torturing each other.
Then, modern day Tom appears on the screen in black and white. Almost as if we were back in time. That the videos playing from the Wonderland tour were now, and that everything happening now is from another time period we've not been to yet. I find It feels like that often.
"What's amazing is how much we've all experienced, the four of us together as a band. Not only have we gone through all of these...you know, the amazing things we've been able to do as a band...like musically as McFly, but just...growing up together from the age of fifteen to our late twenties." Then Dougie appears, also in black and white, sitting in an empty row in an audience somewhere.
"We'll never stop doing what we do because we started doing this so young...none of us really know any better. We'll keep doing it until...nobody comes to the shows. And even then we'll just...try and tell tickets to our mums."
Then videos of the boys posing on the red carpet from the Just My Luck premier play.
"We've always still got that something there." Danny's voice comes through, and then it shows him sitting alone where Dougie had just been. "You know, we're four individuals and we've grown to be four individuals...but we've still got that something from the start. You know, we're not all living on the same street anymore and...you know, I'm quite sad about that." He laughs. "I'm sure we will one day, but it's just amazing. Whatever we've got, I don't know what it is, but I hope people can see that."
"When I look back over the past ten years," Harry starts now "It's kind of...I see it in my mind as, like, sections. You know, the early days of being in a band house together...and that was just the most electrifying, exciting time of our lives. And we had a debut number one single and the album went number one and we were traveling the world and...you don't really ever have time to take a stop and think 'what's going on?'. You just have to go along with it. Go along with the ride...and we did that, and we're still going so...yeah, it's been pretty good fun."
*********************************
Just after the end of Little Joanna, the lights dim again, and the sound of thunderbolts fill the hall.
Just like the previous nights, I watch Tom stand up from his piano, and Dougie runs towards me, shoving his bass in my hands and the rushing past me up the stairs.
Every other night, I stayed at the base of the stage waiting for Dougie to return, but for some reason tonight, my excitement got the best of me.
Ignoring the screaming crowd (they knew what song was coming), I placed Dougie's bass down and ran after him. I pushed open the door to the well lit venue area, shielding my eyes as they transitioned from dark to bright. I open the door to the small passage way Dougie had just crept through and see him, sitting at the organ at the top of The Royal Albert Hall, playing the first line of Bach's Fugue in D Minor, or as McFly fans know it, the beginning of Transylvania.
As soon as Dougie finished, the light on him disappears, and Tom begins to sing the first line. His voice is muffled, but still shakes the Hall all the way back to where I am. Dougie runs out into the abandoned white hallway where I'm standing, and stops short when he sees me. He grabs my arms.
"What are you doing?" He asks.
"I-I'm sorry I just got excited and-" I stumble, thinking he's mad, until his whole face breaks into a smile (even his eyes). He laughs, grabbing my hand and we run back down towards the stage. I slip his bass strap over his head just in time for him to run back out onstage and sing the chorus.
**************************
"Me and Tom weren't necessarily friends at school." The projection of Matt Willis speaks on the screen. I smile as the fan's screams become louder. If only they knew what was to come. "It's not like we hated each other, but we weren't mates...so when I saw him in the audition hall for Busted...I don't know if I was pleased. I was probably unpleased. But then he did a cracking audition."
In the video, the background music is filled with Busted's song Sleeping with the Light On, and the image of a very young, very blonde Tom playing an acoustic guitar comes up from a time long before any of the boys knew him, let alone, me.
"We were thinking 'this guy's really good'." James pops up on the screen now. "We wanted him to be in the band but...you know. I thought he was really talented so we ended up writing songs anyway, but...uh...yeah it was a good moment." A photo of Tom and James pops up from when they were very young. James still has a black streak running through the front of his blond hair at that point. "We would just write songs...you know...all night. And um...a lot of those songs were gonna be for the band that would eventually become McFly, but we didn't know that yet."
"Our management looked after McFly, so I was very up-to-date with what was happening. I remember meeting Danny for the first time and knowing that those two had a real connection and were working really well together." Matt speaks again. "Slowly but surely I met these new band numbers...and...suddenly they were McFly."
"Yeah I remember they came on the road and it was obvious they were gonna break really big and it was amazing." James laughs, as an image of the boys playing a Busted show, running wild onstage pops up. "To have both bands on the road together, that was a really good time."
"McFly had something immediately." Matt says. "As soon as you saw them play live they just had something that...Busted didn't have, actually, which was genuine...between all four of them...like...they were just like brothers. And they had this bond which we never really had, you know? We were all really close friends, and we got on pretty well at times, and then...there was just these four guys that got onstage and just...acted like a band."
"Every single member in the band compliments each other perfectly." James adds. "You have Danny and Tom that sound really good together and they're both the singers. They have very distinctive voices and I think...they've not been scared to try new things. They just make whatever album they want to make at the time and they're not afraid to make those drastic decisions and...that's why they're gonna keep on making music."
The screen shuts off, the crowd roars, and the lights come back up as the first notes to Year 3000 play, revealing a band of six now. Behind them in lights, the stage reads McBusted.
One day when I came home at lunchtime,
I heard a funny noise
Went out to the back yard to find out if it was,
One of those rowdy boys.
Stood there was my neighbour called Peter,
And a Flux Capacitor.
He told me he built a time machine
Like the one in a film I've seen.
Yeah, yeah.
He said,
"I've been to the year three thousand.
Not much has changed but they lived underwater.
And your great-great-great-granddaughter
Is pretty fine
is pretty fine."
He took me to the future in the flux thing and I saw everything,
Boy bands and another one and another one... and another one!
Triple breasted women swim around town... totally naked!
We drove around in a time machine,
Like the one in the film I've seen.
Yeah, yeah.
He said,
"I've been to the year three thousand.
Not much has changed but they lived underwater.
And your great-great-great-granddaughter
Is pretty fine
is pretty fine."
I took a trip to the year three thousand.
This song had gone multi-platinum.
Everybody bought our 7th album.
It had outsold Michael Jackson.
I took a trip to the year three thousand.
This song had gone multi-platinum.
Everybody bought our 7th album, 7th album, 7th album.
He told me he built a time machine
Like the one in a film I've seen.
Yeah, yeah.
He said,
"I've been to the year three thousand.
Not much has changed but they lived underwater.
And your great-great-great-granddaughter
Is pretty fine
she's pretty fine."
He said,
"I've been to the year three thousand.
Not much has changed but they lived underwater.
And your great-great-great-granddaughter
Is pretty fine."
He said,
"I've been to the year three thousand.
Not much has changed but they lived underwater.
And your great-great-great-granddaughter
Is pretty fine
she's pretty fine."
He said,
"I've been to the year three thousand.
Not much has changed but they lived underwater.
And your great-great-great-granddaughter
Is pretty fine."
They continue to play Air Hostess, before pausing. James walks up to his mic, smiling.
"Hello Matt!" He exclaims, as if they hadn't seen each other since Busted broke up.
"Hello James." Matt replies, after the crowd's cheers die down.
"Hello McFly." James smiles into his mic. It's written all over his face how excited he is to be onstage again.
"Hello...Busted." Tom answers.
"Hello Royal Albert Hall!" Matt yells, and I have to cover my ears to protect them from the screams.
They play Shine a Light and when they finish, everyone runs off stage except Danny, who switches guitars in the dim light. Matt and James come off on my side, and I give them big hugs, telling them how great they did. They were only on stage for about ten minutes, but they're drenched in sweat. They quickly scramble off the the other side of the stage, presumably to find the guys, and I am alone as Danny begins to play Walk in the Sun.
I wonder what it's like to be loved by you
I wonder what it's like to be home
And I don't walk when there's a stone in my shoe
All I know, that in time I'll be fine
I feel someone grab my hand, and I turn around to see Dougie.
"What's-" I start.
"Follow me." He whispers. He leads be through a dark backstage area filled with grates and metal banisters until its such a confined space that we have to crouch down. He holds my hand the whole time, even though I'm sure we both know I could follow him on my own, but hey, I'm not complaining.
He guides me through with his hand on my back till we're up against a wall and through it, I can see The back of Danny's legs.
But more importantly, I can see the entirety of the Royal Albert Hall, and I realize we're under Harry's drum platform.
"Dougie!" I whisper yell, frightened.
"Don't worry." He laughs. "They can't see us."
I was glad. The sight was absolutely amazing. The lights shone through the small grates onto our faces and the fact that there were thousands of people in front of me was just breathtaking.
I listen to Danny a little longer before turning to look at Dougie. He's behind me, but leaning so that our faces are looking right at each other. I realize he's been looking at me this whole time. His face is so close to mine, and he's looking between my eyes and lips.
Yeah, just go for it Dougie.
But he doesn't. He stays, looking at me, and I look at him and I notice his face looks full of remorse. He sighs and lets his forehead rest on mine. He closes his eyes, but I continue to look at his face until my eyes hurt from the angle and I have to look down.
It's only me and him. It's like Danny's voice fades away and all the thousands of people just beyond this grate are gone. It's just us again.
I don't want to look away because I'm not sure when I'll get this close to him again.
//