When Harrassed Met Harry...
Perfection, as I'm sure we're all aware, is over-rated. Oh sure, it's nice when things are flawless, but it's hard to get passionate about something which needs no encouragement, right? It's better to feel involved. So, prepare your best cock-a-hooping holler for this ChartBlog interview with Harry out of McFly. It is to perfection what custard is to ice-sculpture.
Here's what happened. Earlier this week, ChartBlog's Hazel Robinson went to meet Harry shortly before his band played what she describes as "one of the loudest gigs I've ever been to", for a brief chat. Unfortunately, due to panic over a late bus, and an unfortunate reaction to Harry's extreme physical beauty, she found it quite hard to concentrate on the job in hand. Don't snigger, you'd be exactly the same. I know I would!
She describes her mildly-derailed train of thought as follows. She's over-dramatising...a bit:
"Preoccupied with trying not to stare at him in case he thought I was giving him the adoring doe-eyes, I stared at the floor. I panicked and thought 'Oh God, he must think I'm a proper fool' and plunged into the spiral where everything becomes more awkward until eventually you cut off a ten-minute interview at under half its length because you are afraid one of you will die otherwise."
"I have taken it upon myself to transcribe the full, boring horror of The Worst Interview Ever, leaving in the bit where I lost my questions and the bit where me and Harry collectively tried to remember the name of a forest."
So, are we all sitting comfortably? We are? It won't last...
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ChartBlog: Hello, Harry from McFly! You're in Oxford tonight, doing a gig as part of your Up Close But This Time It's Personal tour; how's the tour been going?
Harry: Yeah, it's been great thanks! We've got ...I think three more shows left? So we're nearly at the end and it's been a lot of fun. Really good fun.
ChartBlog: You have been getting a lot more up close and personal with your fans lately; you've all got Twitter accounts now. How is it having that close level of interaction with your fans?
Harry: It's actually really cool; I was a bit like ...I wasn't so sure at first because it's quite personal, y'know but it's really nice and I hope it's really good for the fans and entertaining for them- they only get to see us when we're doing tours or if we're on TV or we're doing something like that, so I think it's nice for them to have a daily connection with us. So yeah, it's great!
ChartBlog: I noticed Tom at least's been using it to talk to other pop stars on it...
Harry: Has he been talking to people?
ChartBlog: Yeah, he's been exchanging tweets with Demi Lovato.
Harry: Did she reply?
ChartBlog: Yeah, they had quite a long conversation awhile ago.
Harry: Oh right.
ChartBlog: Not that I'm stalking Tom's twitter or anything, just researching the interview...
Harry: Well it's interesting, yeah.
ChartBlog: Hang on, I've lost my interview questions....one minute.
Harry: It's alright.
ChartBlog: I had to run from my bus stop cos my bus was delayed so everything's moved and...
Harry: Were you coming from Oxford?
ChartBlog: No, near Reading... hang on. [rummages in bag, expelling biros and tissues onto the floor] Oh, I've found them. You've been sort of touring the world this year - you've been to Latin America, Australia and done your first gig in continental Europe, in Holland. Are you planning another tour on a global scale?
Harry: Uhm, yeah, hopefully. We're going back out to South America in a couple of weeks and that's going to be fun.
ChartBlog: Are you scared of Swine Flu?
Harry: Well, quite, yeah... a little bit. We'll probably be fine, it's probably over-hyped but we don't want to let our fans down and they've been waiting for a long time, so we're gonna go back there and we'd like to do some more in Europe and we went to Japan as well as Australia, so it's been a real crazy year. We've been doing lots of travelling.
ChartBlog: And at the moment you're doing the thing for the forestry commission, planting trees with schools and you're doing those gigs in Sherwood and ...somewhere else?
Harry: Oh, err... Sherwood and ...uhm. ...Thepford?
ChartBlog: Yes.
Harry: Ah, right.
ChartBlog: Well actually I don't know why you're asking me but Thepford sounds right, anyway. And you are at the moment flogging - wait, sorry, not flogging, producing - a single and the old tour DVD. Is there going to be a DVD for this tour?
Harry: Uhmmm... I don't think so; we did a DVD for our last arena tour that went with the album -the tour we did in December- which was like a bigger version of what we're doing now; this one's like a scaled-down version.
ChartBlog: Oh right, so it's still very much the Radio: Active tour?
Harry: Yeah, pretty much but it's on a much more personal level and we're playing a couple of new songs and a new cover song.
ChartBlog: So it's not exactly the same?
Harry: No it's not exactly the same cos I think that'd be harsh - we like to keep it fresh. Really, we saw the DVD the other day cos it's just coming out and everything and we're really happy with it, it's got a documentary on it and stuff so it's great.
ChartBlog: So will that be the end of the cycle for Radio: Active?
Harry: I think so, yeah. 'Falling In Love' is gonna be the single that's promoting the DVD and that'll be it, yeah.
ChartBlog: So, after that there'll be new stuff?
Harry: Yeah, we've already done some recording and there'll be some more recording this summer. We were in Australia doing some recording and definitely more recording this summer; there'll be the forest shows like you said and we've got a load of festivals and things.
ChartBlog: Which festivals are you doing?
Harry: Well, I know Isle of Wight's confirmed but I don't know if I'm allowed to say anything about any of the others.
ChartBlog: Oh right, ok; so there might be others...
Harry: Might be others, yeah. And there'll be the other summer shows and things so ...yeah, gonna be a good summer.
ChartBlog: Busy summer! Well that'll probably do [checks dictaphone, realises has only used just over four minutes]...oh.
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Hazel has also written a long post on her blog, explaining the whole situation and detailing why , and wondering why music press types have got such a downer on bands/singers that young girls like, as if no-one else's music is ever manipulated to suit a target demographic (see this week's Asher Roth review for more details).
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McFly release 'Falling In Love' and the Radio:Active tour DVD on 11th May.
Comment number 1.
At 9th May 2009, Alice_the_goldfish_ wrote:*giggles*
It doesn't seem that bad.
And Hazel's livejournal entry/essay was amazing!
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Comment number 2.
At 10th May 2009, kenan005 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 3.
At 16th May 2009, Kim-ley wrote:Hazel, you did an amazing job...I think if I ever met them (unlikely, unfortunately), I would forget how to speak and stare at their hotness. And I am not usually one for doing that sort of thing.
I also went and read the long version, which I really really enjoyed! I have always had the problem of explaining McFly to people, just because they are sort of pop rock and here in the US people don't know them (and if you explain the movie, then you get a rant about Lindsay Lohan!). Listening to people tell me that they are 'music snobs' and they don't have to listen to pop is annoying because you know there are pop songs they like. I am tired of defending my love of McFly and will now tell people to get a life when they make fun of me for it!
And I'm totally with you for favorite member...I think Harry's hottest too!
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Comment number 4.
At 16th May 2009, BloggingLiam wrote:Im not a musical snob but I think McFly are pretty poop ;p
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Comment number 5.
At 18th May 2009, siobhangraham wrote:Haha, "are you scared of swine flu" was a bit of a random question! Mcfly sound like a bunch of cool guys, were listening to them on radio 1 last night and they were hilarious, would love to hang out with them!
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