McFly - Unsaid Things...Our Story [Hardcover]

I sat down to read a couple of chapters of Unsaid Things and could not put it down. I have been a McFly fan from the beginning, I am now 32. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the band and each individual member, I was so wrong.

McFly take you on a roller-coaster journey througout the book, they are honest and inspirational. I found myself laughing out loud and at one point sobbing.

I would reccommend this book whether you are a fan or not. It is extremely well written and captures your attention from the beginning, I guarantee you will not be able to put it down.

I have been a fan of McFly since I was 11 years old. I'm now almost 20, McFly nearing their 10th anniversairy as a band. They have stated themselves that they chose to wait to release an autobiography until the time seemed right, not only for themselves, but for their fans. We have grown up together, and there couldn't be a better time to release their tales.

Unsaid Things...Our Story never struggles to have an interesting and impacting story to tell. It begins with the initial coming together of the band, Tom first introducing his childhood and unsuccessful bid to join the boyband Busted before he met bandmate Danny Jones. Danny, Dougie and Harry then all introduce themselves and their diverse indivial childhoods in the order of which they became members of McFly, all the while we are introduced to the setting of the music industry that the story is about the delve into. Tom in particular makes facinating mentions of the difficulties that surrounded Busted at the time that McFly were forming. It is clear straight away that he is making allusions to what becomes a rollercoaster of a tale of the difficulties that have faced the band over the past 10 years. Busted split up in 2005, and as will become clear as you read this book, McFly feel somewhat lucky that they have failed to call it quits as of yet, or even to have fallen a bandmember short.

This book is as honest as you can expect it to be. The bandmembers do not shy away from discussing private details regarding mental illness, attempted suicide and family affairs. Not a sentence of what is written even feels forced or uncomfortable for them to share. Dougie, for example, rightly refrains from speaking too much about his previous relationship with The Saturday's member Frankie Sandford, mentioning only what is needed to be known for the story he is telling, respecting her own privacy. It is Dougie, in fact, who provides the most emotional yet inspirational content of the book, showing the depth and inteligence of his character. It is easy to forget sometimes that the band, despite their long career, are still very young, and as a 19 year old I felt I could look over his teenager years, and those of his bandmates, relating them to my own experiences, and understanding their feelings as presented. Quite often in showbusiness we witness the decline of young stars who are messed up by their surroundings at such a young age. Quite clearly the band were not left unscathed, but they never deny that they are lucky and particularly show how down to earth they really are in discussing their travels to Uganda for Comic Relief. The emotional chapter shows their dispair at witnessing such devestating scenes of poverty and disease.

Each individual bandmembers personalities seemed well displayed throughout their writing. Each paragraph was started with the first name of he who was speaking, but I found myself able to skip this and still identify who was who easily. The way in which the text flips between the opinions and stories of each bandmember is never irritating, flowing easily.

Overall, I feel as if despite feeling like one of McFly's biggest fans over the past decade, only now I have a fuller understanding a respect for the band. It is clear, throughout the book, that they are perhaps one of, if not the closest band our generation has had the pleasure to meet. McFly have a friendship which, although may have be turbulent on occasion due to events discussed at length, remains apparent and key to the success and ever gaining reputation this band does and will continue to have. As they mention so well in the final and well structured end pages of the book, a decade may have passed, a rollercoaster may have been ridden, but the last few pages do not feel like the end of something, but the beginning. While the reader has had the pleasure to delve into the lives of these facinating men for the first time, there is a key understanding that the band themselves feel like writing this book has been an important and satisfying experience.

I would certainly say this book is a must read, whether you are fan of McFly or just generally interested in the effects on people of being constantly in the public eye.

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.