interview
boy – that’s some band! Tom Parker talks to Chris Wood about The Wanted – and being wanted
There’s something about that bracing Epsom Downs air. Take a boy band up to the racecourse and before you know it, you’ll have a hit- making machine on your hands. JLS appeared there last year and then went on to complete a landmark arena tour; this year The Wanted is back – as a headline act – following a sensational twelve months since the lads supported The Feeling in the Epsom Live! concerts last year.
Yes, the five lads have come from zero to heroes in the time it takes to race from one Epsom Live! programme to the next. However, the rapid rise is not that unexpected, as the famous five were hand- picked from thousands of wannabees across the country by those very astute people at Universal Records.
Tom Parker, one of the two guys in the group from the north-west, explained what it felt like to be on the runaway train that is a new, breaking band:
‘The last year has been absolutely crazy, but we’ve loved every minute of it! What pleases us most is that we’ve brought a whole new sound – and meaning – to the boy band thing.’ With an affectionate nod to aforementioned counterparts JLS, Tom is delighted to be
10 . june 2011 .
timeandleisure.co.uk
blowing away the cheesy image boy bands had acquired over recent years and replacing it with some much-needed cool and edgy imagery.
‘The Beatles did it perfectly,’ the 21-year old Tom states, taking me a little by surprise by going back to a band way before his time. ‘They are one of my all-time favourite bands. I’d very much like to go down the same route that they took.’
Of course, The Fab Four didn’t have the benefit of X Factor style auditions to throw them together in their day. However, Tom and partners Jay, from Nottingham; Nathan, from Gloucester, Siva, from Dublin and Mancunian Max did. Universal auditioned 4,000 young hopefuls over a period of nine months and... ‘For some reason they chose us,’ chuckles the self-deprecating Tom. Actually, it’s quite easy to see why the final five were chosen, each having a twinkle in their eye, bags full of laddish charm and a great voice to match.
‘We’ve got to know each other really well since we’ve been together. We’re all quite different characters but we respect those differences, says Tom, impressing me more and more as a really nice guy with every passing phrase.
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