McFly

Often you learn not only the practicalities of your chosen subject but also its history.

But this is not the case if the extremely well-paying and highly desirable job in question happens to be being a pop star.

Take Danny from rising pop group McFly. He seems like a very nice lad and, with two number ones under his belt, it's fair to say that he's successful.

But his cultural pop knowledge is decidedly shaky to say the least.

Danny shares a house with the other members of McFly - Harry, Tom and Dougie - a bit like the Beatles in Help!, eh?

"What's that?" responds Danny.

'You know, the Beatles film, where they all live together in a big house.' Danny's still drawing a total blank and I'm starting to feel very old.

But then again, Danny is very young. After all, when the film that inspired McFly's name - Back to the Future - came out he was only one year old and, as far as the 18-year-old is concerned, the movie is 'a classic'.

Danny vaguely remembers the film, in which Michael J Fox stars as time-traveller Marty McFly, from his childhood, but Tom reintroduced him to it when they moved in together.

Leaving his family bosom in Bolton to move in with a group of lads in London must have been quite a culture shock, let alone that Danny has had to cope with the fact that he's a pop star, but he seems to be taking it all in his stride.

"It was weird at first but I got used to it quickly and it's not as weird as you might think. I do miss my mum's dinners, though. I just miss eating properly because I don't eat properly now. I haven't learnt to cook - microwave meals, that's it," he giggles.

Luckily, given that they live and work together, the lads in McFly are firm friends.

"Because we're in a band that just hangs about together as well and because, you know, we go places together and we're friends and stuff and we just, you know, work, it's all fun. When we're working together it's a laugh."

Perhaps because fame has come to McFly so quickly, Danny doesn't seem to have given his rise from teenager making a bit of money gigging in pubs to pop star with legions of screaming girls for fans a great deal of thought.

When McFly were formed did he really think they would be successful so quickly?

"I dunno, I don't really think like that because, you know, I take every day as it comes," he says, sounding a little perplexed at the question.

"I dunno, it's kind of weird. You just take every day as it comes and make sure that you're enjoying it."

And how does it feel to suddenly be a pop star?

"Again, I've not really thought about it yet. I don't really get time to think because it's quite mad, the schedule, so I think when I go back home to Bolton, then I'll take it all in."

And Danny probably does have plenty of time to take everything in. McFly are no here-today-gone-tomorrow manufactured band. They got together themselves, write their own songs, play their own instruments and wouldn't mind if people took them a bit more seriously.

"We are a boy band as in we're young lads and we're boys in a band but it's like I'm going to watch the Rolling Stones tonight, that middle-aged band - no one puts that tag on them. Or when you're watching the Beach Boys, no one calls them that OAP band," he says.

"We're not the typical boy band that just dance and stuff, we're actually a proper band and we prove that, like playing live on Top of the Pops.

"I'm just doing what I do and enjoying it and hopefully people like it, because we're doing our best."

And you can't ask for more than that, can you?

McFly are supporting Busted at Broadlands, Romsey. Saturday, 17 July. Box office: 0870 2255163/4/5.