The Wanted - Chasing The Sun

They've done it again. The Wanted have come up trumps once more, delivering another lad-anthem dance stomper every bit as excellent as Glad You Came - fitting then that new single Chasing The Sun is set to become its follow-up over in the States. We could go into an essay-length discussion of how brilliant it is that the group are doing well in the US, but suffice to say, Chasing The Sun feels like the sound of a band on top of the world - riding high on another classic chanty Wanted riff and a pumping club bassline. There's a sort of smooth, sultry glide to Chasing The Sun that shoots it into new levels of the whole futuro-synth work-out vibe the band really cornered with their second album and frankly we just love the song. It's also, we hear, the song that Example originally wrote for Kylie - and it sounds like it - which makes it all the more amazing. It's essentially, crucially instant in a way The Wanted have always done with such ease, and if we're this excited about it, we're just trying to get our heads around how excited all those American girls must be. Quite a lot, we imagine.

Ben Montague - Love Like Stars

Fresh from supporting The Wanted lads on tour, up and coming singer-songwriter Ben Montague is wasting no time in getting his name about. His debut album Tales Of Flying and Falling is set for release later this year and even the title seems to cry out at not only the trials and tribulations of existing within the turbulent music industry, but the ups and downs we all go through in life. Lead single Love Like Stars is packed with that same youthful, boyish charm the Wanted have, but distilled down into the essence of one man. Montague's voice is a beacon, effortlessly clear, touching and lighting from verse to chorus with sublime ease.

Firmly situated in the bedrock of good, honest pop-rock, it's everything Matt Cardle's ill-fated album should have been, but never quite managed to achieve. Because what Montague has on his side is proper, genuine likeability, and passion. Love Like Stars is brimming with it, spilling it from the seams of every hook. It's epic in the most tastefully restrained of ways, and comes with the sort of well-dressed commerciality to appeal to both the Radio 1 and Radio 2 crowds. A song firmly rooted in the perfect middle ground then, but one that works the sensibilities of that middle ground to its limits, all the better to showcase his clearly evident talents.

If you didn't get a chance to catch Ben Montague on The Wanted tour, or if you just fancy some more of him, you can catch him on his forthcoming headline tour throughout June.

Love Like Stars is released on the 18th June.

Parade debut new track 'Throw It Up In The Air'

Those Parade girls certainly don't hang about - it's only been three months since the release of their debut album and already they're pumping out new material, and going by the sound of ace new song Throw It Up In The Air, there's a lot to get excited about!

Building on the street-smart PopR&B combo of their album, Throw It Up In The Air steps the Parade sound up to a bigger, more anthemic level via airy, glacial synths and an absolute killer of a chorus (seriously, how good are those 'oooooohhh' bits?!)

It's safe to say we're hooked, and we reckon the song will be netting them a whole new raft of fans as they perform it alongside old favourites like Louder and Perfume as they support The Wanted on their current arena tour.

Parade announced as support for The Wanted arena tour!

So, you know we love pop music, especially girl bands. So imagine our excitement when we heard Parade are going to be jumping in the 'ol tour van with The Wanted and heading out on their upcoming series of arena dates. That's right! Parade + The Wanted, playing arenas!

Sounds like a pretty amazing pop show right? And remember, the Fanfair girls will be supporting too, so that's three great pop acts for the price of one ticket - pop deal of the year so far, I reckon!

The tour kicks off on February 15th in Nottingham and finishes on the 9th March in Dublin - don't miss it!

Lawson to support The Wanted on upcoming arena tour

They're the boyband with a difference. Looking to follow in the footsteps of teen-girl-ecstasy-inducing groups like The Wanted and One Direction, newcomers Lawson bring a more mature, soulful brand of pop to the table. They not only play their own instruments, but going by tender acoustic number Standing In The Dark, they're a dab hand at emotional tissues-at-the-ready balladry too.

But why have one boyband when you can have two? The Lawson lads will be taking to the road with The Wanted for a tour of such unparallelled boybandery that it might through the Earth out of alignment. Or something like that.

Running through February and March, the arena tour will no doubt be setting teenage hearts a fluttering everywhere - and in the meantime, there's always a free download of Lawson's rather lovely track Red Sky to enjoy.

Catch both sets of boys on the following tour dates!

FEBRUARY
15 - Nottingham - The Capital FM Arena
17 - Manchester - Arena
18 - Sheffield - Motorpoint Arena
20 - Brighton - Centre
23 - Cardiff - Motorpoint Arena
24 - Liverpool - Echo Arena
25 - Newcastle - Metro Radio Arena
27 - Glasgow - The SECC
28 - Aberdeen - AECC


MARCH
01 - Birmingham - LG Arena
02 - Bournemouth - International Centre (BIC)
03 - London - The O2 Arena
05 - Brighton - Centre
06 - Bournemouth - International Centre (BIC)
08 - Belfast - Odyssey Arena
09 - Dublin - The O2

The Wanted perform Glad You Came on the Ellen Show!

Some things remain the same the world over - for example, girls breaking into fits of tears when a boy band appears. As in the UK, so too in the US.

And that's exactly what happened when the Wanted performed this ace rocked-up version of Glad You Came on the Ellen Degeneres Show - their first in America.

They all seem rather excitable - but then, you would be, wouldn't you? Where so many British pop acts before them have failed, the odds look pretty good for the Wanted actually making it big over in the states. Although it's clear what's actually on Max's mind as he raises the point of how many 'beautiful ladies' there are there...

He even personally delivers the closing bars of song directly to Ellen herself - such a charmer, Max!

Fanfair to support The Wanted on 2012 arena tour!

Now how's this for an ace pop line-up? Not only do you get everyone's fave boy-band The Wanted in an epic arena setting, but supporting them will be one of the hottest up and coming girl groups, Fanfair! We've covered them a lot on the blog in the past and are overjoyed to hear they'll be teaming up with the boys to bring you guys an awesome show.

The tour kicks off in February next year, so there's plenty of time to book tickets if you haven't already done so. This follows a number of summer dates the girls supported The Wanted, but this tour sees them really stepping up to the big time with an assortment of great pop tunes to match the boys' own.

For a full list of dates, check out the diary section of Fanfair's website: http://www.fanfairmusic.com/diary/

[Official Video] The Wanted - Warzone

It was only a matter of time... until the Wanted stepped tentatively into the world of dubstep. Albeit, with their usual boyband twists, the usual kind of female-fanbase-friendly titillation.

For starters, the beat doesn't even kick in till a minute into the track - taking cues from Glad You Came, the boys have clearly worked out that the formula of emo-ballad-into-mover-and-shaker really works for them. A bit of smoochy piano, and then - to coin The Black Eyed Peas' phrase - the 'dirty bit'.

Just as Heart Vacancy served as the perfunctory lighters in the air single from their debut album, so to does Warzone continue the tradition. For me though, a song like this feels flat removed from the live setting. Pained and heartfelt it might be, shoving all kinds of metaphors of a warzone/relationship at you, but the trouble for me is that there's just so many better tracks on the lads' Battleground album they could have released instead.

The video plays up the damaged love theme too - positioning the boys on a ruined scrap of industrial land littered with smashed-up cars. It looks rather nice, but it doesn't match the cheeky bawdiness of the dynamite-in-car moment from their previous video.

After such a stellar run of singles - Gold Forever, Glad You Came, Lightning - this feels like a bit of a comedown, a limp end to the preceding amazing night-out. What's needed is something like the fantastic Invincible to bring the pace up again, because when the Wanted go up-tempo, there's really no beating them within the boyband market.

Warzone is released on the 9th January.

Track-by-track preview of The Wanted's Battleground

As is customary these days, iTunes offers a tantalising preview of new albums before their release date - and with a minute and a half available of each track, you can get a far more real perception of what the album's like than the short 30 second previews of the past.

So what is the new The Wanted album like. Starting with the title and cover, all bloodstained red skies and the lads looking moody, the tone is obviously set up for a far more sombre, serious outing than their first album. And while that obviously doesn't hold true for the full throttle party anthems Lightning and Glad You Came, the newfound maturity on Battleground is undeniable. The Wanted have always positioned themselves as the boyband with grit, and it's a look that suits them well.

Aside from the singles that we've already heard (how amazing is Lightning?! I seriously dream of pop choruses this good all year round), Warzone starts off as classic Wanted ballad material, accentuated by nice little orchestral touches. It's big, sweeping, emotional stuff that suddenly launches into a mid-tempo dubstep style affair. It's an interesting mix of sounds that shows straight away that the band are looking to push their sound to more experimental areas.

Next up, Invincible - for me, this is the real highlight of the album. A kind of Gold Forever part. 2, the bonkers Ibiza synths rocket from left to right as the boys sing some rather amusing school related lyrics... 'please don't tell the principle.' It's the kind of thing you imagine Frankmusik might pull off, if he produced tracks for boybands.

Last To Know is another ballad, again, packing an absolutely massive sense of scale - church organs and towering beats can't help to shake off the feel of this track as being rather predictable though. Sure, it'll have the band's teen fans in floods at live shows, but on the album, aside from the nice production (a running theme throughout the album, it's all super-glossy), it falls flat.

I'll Be Your Strength is one of the most interesting tracks on Battleground - it's fascinatingly minimal, all trembling piano chords and subdued bass. This is the kind of ballad you actually want to hear from the band, something that feels genuinely innovative and emotive. More like this please, lads.

I had high hopes for Dianne Warren-penned song Rocket, and on hearing it, I'm left of two minds. It's one of the stronger tracks on the album, but not as majestically brilliant as I hoped for. It's a filmic, mid-tempo number - again very beat-heavy with lots of sci-fi bleepiness and some nice 'ahhhh-ahhhh-ahhh' vocal hooks. Could quite easily end up as a single.

I Want It All is The Wanted going acoustic - another ballad (there seems to be quite a lot of them on here, doesn't it). Compared to the relentless pace of the band's first album, moments like this fall just over the boring line, and it's a shame because at its best moments, this song sounds like a lost demo off a Keane album or something.

The Weekend is a East-17 House Of Love style rave-up, and while the pulsing synth bursts are enjoyable, it's a real dance-track-by-numbers, lacking the energy and fun of Invincible. A bit of a let down, all things considered.

Lie To Me is a pleasingly good late-album track, striking a kind of confident middle ground between Take That and Coldplay, it's The Wanted's very own Rule The World, with just the right rock flavours to keep things interesting. Like this one a lot.

So, all in all, not a bad showing for Wanted album Number Two - it's certainly a different feel from their debut. Certainly more ballads than I expected, but then, I suppose that can be forgiven seeing as the band have given us three of the best dance-pop tracks of the year in the three singles they've already released from Battleground. More mature, better produced, and on the whole showing real signs of progress, Battleground is definitely the sound of a band here to stay.

Listen to the previews of Battleground and pre-order the album on iTunes.

The Wanted team up with Diane Warren for 'Rocket'

There are some tried and tested songwriters that you can absolutely count on to pen you a hit.

Diane Warren is one of them. She's written new track Rocket for the Wanted's upcoming second album.

In case you need reminding, Diane Warren is pretty much one of the most awesome songwriters ever and is resonsible for incredible records like the Pet Shops Boy's Numb and Russell Watson's Where My Heart Will Take Me.

What to expect then? Basically a big, epic power-ballad with a moody bit in the middle that totally makes you contemplate your own existence. Or something like that...

Considering that The Wanted are collaborating with N-Dubz on their new album too, the lad's record looks set to be quite the mixed bag, drawing in influences from all over the place.

New single Lightning is classic Wanted material though - a swoony, energised chorus and those nice little string bits that made All Time Low so good.

Sainsbury's Super Saturday - the pop gig of the summer!

Ok, doesn't this just sound like the best line-up for a pop gig ever?

The Saturdays
The Wanted
Taio Cruz
Chipmunk
The Sugababes
Dappy
Pixie Lott
Nicola Roberts
Olly Murs
Will Young

Actually AMAZING. And it's just down the road from me in Clapham Common too. The addition of The Wanted and Will Young to the bill was only announced today - let's see what the lads had to say...

The Wanted: 'We can’t wait to perform at Super Saturday and hope to get involved with the Paralympic sport demos on the day too. We’re all fairly fit after the touring we’ve been doing so hopefully we won’t embarrass ourselves competing against the UK’s top athletes!'

Will Young: 'Sainsbury's Super Saturday sounds like it's going to be a brilliant day out, there's nothing better than a day of music in the park and I'm thrilled to be able to support our Paralympic team. I'm really looking forward to performing some brand new tracks from my album Echoes and I might throw in one or two classics on the day too.'

Bring on the 10th September eh!

Tickets for the even are still available from Ticketmaster.

New releases round-up - 11th July 2011

The Wanted - Glad You Came

Putting aside all the glorious opportunities for innuendo and euphemism the title of the boy band's latest single presents, it's actually a cracking summer tune. Gloriously dancey and basking in full-on Ibiza vibes, the track carries the group's laddy attitude perfectly; a strong move forward as the band gear up to release their second album.

Download

Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum

With all the hoo-ha about the pro's and con's of On Air/On Sale, it's important to remember that at the heart of the matter, there still lies a song. And in this case, a very good one indeed. This week sees the physical release of Nicola's debut solo single, backed with the wonderfully titled b-side Disco Blisters And A Comedown (sounds like something the Pet Shop Boys or The Smiths would dream up, doesn't it?).

Quirky, brilliant electro, the kind of stuff that us long-time Girls Aloud fans always dreamed Nicola would come up with, it's yet more proof of how she really is the most amazing popstar around at the moment.

Download

The Horrors - Skying

The past decade has been awash with bands trying to recreate the sounds of the 80s - but perhaps none quite so faithfully as The Horrors do on this, their third studio release. Already racking up stellar reviews across the board, many are touting Skying as a real contender for album of the year.

Download

A summer in the sun for hot new girl group Fanfair

We like new girl group Fanfair a lot. We wrote a bit about them and their brilliant track The Vaccine back in March, and since then, things have been hotting up rather nicely for them.

All this has culminated in a slot for them supporting those endearing lads The Wanted at a massive gig in Scotland's Hamilton Park on the 22nd July. The British summer has always been a brilliant excuse to get together with mates for a few drinks and a bit of a party, and anyone heading up to the gig can count on a suitable injection of pop fun too.

Meanwhile, the band - comprised of Roberta, Anara, Jessica and Aimee - have been busy recording new tracks in Sweden, which we can't wait to hear!

Fanfair's full list of upcoming summer live dates is as follows:

•7th July 2011 - GP Ball – The Hurlingham Club
•9th July 2011 - Lifehouse Spa, Essex
•17th July 2011 - Leeds Castle, Maidstone
•22nd July 2011 - Hamilton Park supporting The Wanted
•23rd July 2011 - Ponty Festival, Pontypridd
•6th August 2011 - Lake Meadows, Billericay
•13th August 2011 - Livewyre Festival, Burnley

(Video) The Wanted - Glad You Came

What better way to show you're a cool, trendy boyband than a video for a new single where said band goes and lives it up in the clubbing capital of the world?

Yes, that's right - for The Wanted's new track Glad You Came (resists innuendo laden joke), they're going to Ibiza! (resists singing the Vengaboys song).

There's a real LADS on a night out feel here, with lots of hot girls dancing around the boys (we imagine all The Wanted fans will be massively jealous of these girls right now) and there's even lasers! Actual lasers!

In many ways, Glad You Came is a kind of male version of J Lo's On The Floor, channelling that same glorious strain of EuroDance. It's also a very natural evolution from Gold Forever and you can easily imagine the two tracks sitting side by side on the band's forthcoming second album. That said, I don't think it's quite up there with Gold Forever (still my favourite The Wanted track), but a good record nonetheless.

Glad You Came is released on the 10th July.

The Wanted debut potential future single 'Lightning' on tour

Mass-hysteria-prompting boyband the Wanted are currently touring the UK and their setlist features new number Lightning. The song is penned by Ed Drewett who wrote the lad's debut single All Time Low and could follow Comic Relief track Gold Forever as the second single from the band's new album, due out later this year.

Lightning is produced by Steve Mac who's also currently working on The Saturdays new single as well. It could be the perfect track to see the boys hitting it big in America too; they recently signed a US deal with Def Jam.

A snatch of the lyrics: "I know it's a little bit frightening/ We might as well be playing with lightning." - Warning to any The Wanted fans out there; playing with lightning is highly dangerous.

The Wanted - Gold Forever

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for The Wanted, All Time Low was one of my favourite pop songs from last year, so I was intrigued to hear what their new single would sound like. Well, for starters, it begins like some epic Coldplay/Take That ballad. Definitely more than a few pages being taken out of the big Gary Barlow songbook at any rate.

And then, suddenly, it goes all Basshunter, erupting into a massive synth riff that quite literally blows your socks off. Boybands seem to be quite big fans of ballad-into-dance songs at the moment (Look at JLS, they've done it twice). But let's be honest it's a formula that works, and if something works well, why not use it again. It's a rule The Wanted stick to closely; you even get a rhythmic All Time Low string section thrown into the mix.

All in all, Gold Forever is a strong track, my only reservations being that there are so many better tracks on The Wanted's debut album which will probably never see the light of the day as singles now. But anyways, this track is for Comic Relief, so go out and buy it - do your bit for charity etc.

Oh, and when I heard the title of this song was Gold Forever, I had a brief image of this being some raved up futuristic cover version of Spandau Ballet's Gold. Now that would have been amazing.

Genuine – Another take on the BRIT awards

I recently read an article criticising the BRIT awards for being dominated by ‘pop’ artists such as Take That, Cheryl Cole and The Wanted. The article placed these artists in direct contrast to ‘genuine musicians’ like The XX or Arcade Fire. Now, don’t get me wrong, both these two apparently ‘genuine’ artists are great – they produced two of my favourite albums of the last year – but to presume that they are in some way innately more ‘genuine’ and by association ‘better’ than pop artists is ridiculous.

What a makes a ‘proper musician’? The notion defeats itself by way of the fact that the definition can only be completed with the involvement of personal bias. There is no fact to the horribly general label, only the user’s opinion of what they personally think is ‘proper’ and ‘genuine’. Whereas, if we look at the facts, every single one of the artists nominated for a BRIT award is by fact a musician. They have released albums of music which have gone out into the shops and we have brought. Indeed, it could be argued that many of these ‘pop’ artists - who tend on the whole to sell the most records every year – are in fact the better ones. The public opinion is clearly shown by the opening of their wallets. People will buy an album if they like an artist’s music and think it is good, so by association, the artist who sells the most records could indeed be seen as the best.

Of course, things aren’t that simple – but it highlights the key point that a portion of musicians simply cannot be written off simply because of personal bias. The article in question continues in its war on pop artists, saying that the future of British music will only be secure if music becomes seen as an art form and not just a commercial asset. There are many things wrong here – firstly, all music by its very nature is an art form. Music is a creative act, just in the same way as writing and painting are. That art may manifest itself in a myriad of different genres, and not all of them may be to your taste, but they are all undoubtedly ‘art’. Think of what music is made up of; melodies, lyrics, production and so on – all have been crafted by people; artists.

Secondly, is there anything that wrong with music being a commercial asset? If music didn’t sell, then no-one would hear it at all, thus, the whole point of it would be defeated. Also, without the mega-sales of those select popular artists, the labels would potentially have no money to invest in breaking new or experimental acts. By zooming out and seeing the greater scheme of things, Britain’s musical landscape is in fact a far more harmonious place.

Lastly, the article takes issue with the BRITs not featuring enough up-and-coming acts. Well, for starters, there is in fact both ‘breakthrough’ categories and a critics’ choice award; giving ample coverage to new artists (and if you look at previous winners, they have since gone on to be massive successes). And let’s think about things; if all the BRITs were was just a platform to appraise new artists, then would anyone even pay attention? No, far better is a greater construct supported by established, well known artists that catch people’s attention – and then when they attention is caught, the subtle introduction of a select few new artists; the real cream of the crop. And at the end of the day, this leaves us with the most important thing, what people actually like.

The Wanted - Made

iTunes are offering a great track from The Wanted’s debut album (which is fantastic by the way) as a free download this week and it is well worth getting your hands on. Those that think they know what the band is all about based on their first two singles will find Made refreshingly different.

Featuring a more guitar based vibe; it showcases the band’s more ‘indie’ side, coming surprisingly close to sounding like a more poppy, glossed-up version of Bloc Party at times, something that can be said for a number of tracks from the album. With husky, delicate vocals and an infectious chorus, it’s tracks like this that help make their debut LP so consistent and a standout as one of the best pop releases of the year.

Download the track from iTunes here.

INTERVIEW - Nathan Sykes from The Wanted

Hi Nathan! You and the band are all in your teens or early 20s, how did it feel having your single All Time Low get to Number 1 at such a young age?

It was crazy because we’re all fairly young and it just came from nowhere. We didn’t expect to get a number one at all; we’d have loved to have even just got top 40. The single kept going up and up on iTunes and held out through the week. It’s just crazy for all of us because we’ve been working so hard over the past year and didn’t know if it was going to pay off.

And do you still get a buzz when you hear your songs on the radio?

Definitely! We just got off a flight from America, got in the car and one of the first songs that came on was our new single Heart Vacancy. We were like ‘We’re on the radio! Turn it up, turn it up!’ So yeah, we do still go a bit mad whenever our songs come on the radio, and we probably still will do for the next ten years ha!

Your new single Heart Vacancy has got quite a different feel from All Time Low. What’s the song about?

I think it’s just about you trying to convince a girl that’s been hurt by someone that you’re not going to do the same to her. It’s basically a love song, but it’s got a good beat to it too. It’s a completely different side of us from All Time Low.

And what can we expect from the album? You’ve worked with people like Guy Chambers and Taio Cruz on it haven’t you?

Yeah we have! It’s really cool because we’ve all got different influences; we wrote about 50% of the album so we’ve all put our different backgrounds and musical influences on it. There’s one track that’s a very stripped back ballad; just piano and strings, and then there’s a few quite rocky ones too.

So you felt like you were in safe hands with these experienced songwriters then?

Yeah! We walked into the studio and were like ‘There’s Guy Chambers!’ It was quite scary for the first few days; he’s got a really dry sense of humour. Like we’ll be in the studio singing and he’ll lean in and go ‘That was... nearly there’ haha! But it’s been great working with these people, like most artists won’t ever get the opportunity to work with people this experienced in their whole career and we got to work with them on our first album so it’s pretty amazing!

As a boyband you have all these girls following you around everywhere, what’s that like?

We’re not complaining about it, not at all! We’re loving it!

With the music industry at the moment there’s all this focus on the internet – sites like Twitter and YouTube – do you feel this is a good thing?

We didn’t have any kind of instant success like some people do from the X Factor or anything so we had to really put in the groundwork, especially as it’s really hard to build a fanbase these days. So it’s great to be able to go on Twitter and talk to the fans; really communicate with them. It’s about keeping a good relationship with people who like your music and getting feedback too! We have a thing we do called ‘Wanted Wednesday’ where we post a video every Wednesday of what we’ve been up to that week and it lets all the fans know what we’ve been doing and lets them get to know our personalities which is really cool. So I think the internet side of things is definitely really important!

What’s great about you as a band is that you all feel very relaxed together – just five lads hanging out together having fun.  When you first got together you all shared a house together didn’t you?

That’s what people like about us; we’re all best mates and when we’re not working together we’re chilling together. We’ll just be watching the football or having a beer, something like that. We’re all really tight and that really helps when we’re writing music because we all know each other really well, so we know what sort of song will suit which person.

So is it quite daunting then to take that tight bond and then go out and perform to 80,000 people or so at Twickenham Stadium when you did the Help for Heroes charity concert?

I think it’d be worse if you went out there on your own but I know I’ve got the other boys there with me so I’m usually alright. For some reason I don’t get as nervous as everyone else. I think that’s the best thing though, all this hard work we’re putting in and getting opportunities to do stuff like that. It was an absolute pleasure doing that gig because it’s for such a great charity.

You work with Brian Friedman on your choreography and at that gig you came onstage bursting from a giant box before pulling out smoke flares; is it important to have that visual aspect to a performance too?

I think so yeah! It was like the first massive production we’d done and we were quite worried we’d get part of it wrong, like break our hand on the box or something ha! It was quite crazy but it’s definitely something we look forward to because it just gives you that extra boost of adrenaline.

So could we see this kind of thing expanded into a tour once your album is out?

Hopefully! If people want to come see us then we’re happy to tour! So that’s going to be really exciting and hopefully we can put on a really good show for them. We’ll be working really hard to give the fans something extra than what they’re getting on the album.

Recently you and the guys have been appearing in the style sections of quite a few magazines, did you expect this kind of focus on your ‘look’ when you entered the industry?

I think there’s that extra kind of emphasis on what you wear but we don’t go out there with the aim to stick to a certain image. We just wear what we normally wear on a day to day basis. We’ll just go into our wardrobe and pick out a few things and then wear that for a gig or whatever. Obviously we have a stylist to give us a bit of advice now and then but that’s it really.

At the moment there’s only really you and JLS in the boyband market so do you think this gives you a lot of freedom to do your own thing?

I think so yeah! It’s quite open at the moment; obviously there’s JLS doing their thing – and doing it really well – but they’ve got more of an R&B feel to them. We’re just going to keep on doing our own thing and hope people enjoy it.

And to finish off, if you had to describe The Wanted in just three words, what would those three words be?

Oooh! Hmmm.... ‘Pretty Mental People’! Haha!

The Wanted’s new single ‘Heart Vacancy’ is out now, followed by their debut album out 25^th October.