A preview of the music video to accompany the song, which is scheduled to be released on the same day, shows Tom Fletcher performing the song on stage at last month’s Children In Need event, and concludes with a polariod of him and Buzz embracing. The teaser also includes snippets from the 25-minute animated film, showing Pudsey, the charity’s iconic yellow bear, on different adventures. The animation is also based on a book written by Tom Fletcher, which celebrates 40 years of Pudsey Bear.

The video tells the story of a young boy named Jai who is navigating the grief of his father, so he embarks on a healing journey with Pudsey, and encounters other children connected by a golden thread of kindness. Also featured on the track are the voices of young performers from the inclusive theatre programme The Habbit Factory, who can also be seen in the preview.

Tom Fletcher called the opportunity to write a song for the animation “an honour” by saying, “It’s been amazing seeing Pudsey brought to life in animation for the first time. I wanted to write for animation for ages and so finding myself with the responsibility of another iconic bear… I don’t know why I’ve got all these bears in my life at the minute! It’s Pudsey’s 40th anniversary and to be on Christmas Eve is really special.”

Pudsey Bear, the Children In Need mascot, first came to life in 1985, and was created by BBC graphic designer Joanna Lane.

Tom Fletcher has written multiple children’s books including The Dinosaur That Pooped A Planet! and There’s A Monster In Your Book as well as The Christmasaurus series.

The singer also wrote the music and lyrics for Paddington The Musical, which is based on the book A Bear Called Paddington, by Michael Bond, as well as the 2014 film Paddington. The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant has recently appeared on the BBC dance show and performed alongside the cuddly-looking bear from the musical.

The animation, Pudsey And The Thread Of Hope, will air at 10.20am on Christmas Eve on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Busted’s Matt Willis holds back tears in tribute to James Bourne pic.twitter.com/NPxJSZKWsR — The Sun (@TheSun) September 24, 2025

Willis addressed the crowd directly, saying, “You may have noticed one key face is missing tonight,” before acknowledging Bourne is “really sick” and that the decision to continue the tour had become a fraught conversation among the band. Charlie Simpson, the other core member of Busted, echoed that sentiment, telling fans: “We love him so much and we miss him.” The vulnerable moment, as the band scrambled to find the right words amidst the melancholia, cracked the high-gloss veneer of a stadium show, turning it into something raw and vulnerable. For those in attendance, it was more than a tribute; it was a public recognition of the human costs hidden behind the glitz of arena tours. The news of Bourne’s withdrawal from the tour emerged just hours before the first show was scheduled to take place.

 

 

 

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  A post shared by James Bourne (@jamesfutureboybourne)

In a heartfelt Instagram post, Bourne explained that over the previous eight days, it had become clear he was not in sufficiently good health to perform. He admitted that much about his condition remained unknown, and that he and his management team agreed he should pause to focus on medical matters. Bourne, in his Instagram post, added, “I really hope I can be in a position to come back further down the line… It’s still going to be an amazing show, and I will miss being there. See you all as soon as possible.”

Social media swiftly became a forum of support and concern. Fans praised the decision to keep the show alive and showered Bourne with well-wishes. McFly drummer Harry Judd posted, “Won’t be the same without you, dude. Hope you’re back on tour asap.”

In a poignant display of band loyalty, James’s younger brother, Chris Bourne, stepped in to offer essential support on guitar and vocals, helping the remaining members keep the Busted set afloat and honouring the commitment to their fans. For Busted, and particularly for Matt Willis, this on-stage moment was charged with more profound significance. Willis has been publicly transparent about his decades-long battle with addiction and mental health, a struggle he has often linked to the pressures of touring and the music industry machine. The emotional moment underscored the human cost of the high-pressure touring environment, an environment Willis had previously found challenging.

For now, the tour continues. Busted, with Willis and Simpson still fronting, press forward with Chris Bourne filling in. But the future is less specific. Will James return later in the tour? Will his health permit a comeback? Will the emotional weight of this moment shift how they present future shows? Last night’s tribute might be remembered as more than a footnote; it could mark a turning point in how these bands relate to audiences and how tours reckon with the human in the spotlight. For a genre built on yearning, heartbreak, and exuberance, a moment of raw care has made itself visible.

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A post shared by McFly (@mcflymusic)

  Supporting act, Sam Ryder, rose to prominence during the COVID-19 lockdown by posting music covers on social media platform TikTok. He was selected to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, and his single “Space Man” peaked at no.2 on the UK charts and achieved the highest score ever by a UK contestant in the contest. He is set to go on a winter tour in the UK.

 

 

 

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McFly and Sam Ryder are both set to perform at Rock N Roll Circus, a festival that takes place over multiple days in summer 2025. It’s held in both Sheffield and Norwich, with McFly set to perform at the opening night in Norwich. The band have commented: “Rock N Roll Circus in Norwich sounds amazing. See you there.”

 

 

 

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The director of the festival, Ali O’Reilly, commented saying: “Rock N Roll Circus is launching in Norwich with a bang,” he said… McFly is the perfect act to open the show. Their energy and iconic hits will set the tone for an unforgettable weekend.”

With McFly’s success in the UK charts, and their continued sustained position in the spotlight, proved by their various wins in reality shows, is sure to create anticipation for the show. Both music lovers and McFly fans are sure to be in for a great show.

Other headliners include Olly Murs, Courteeners, and Reverend and the Makers. Information for other shows can be found here. Ticketing information can be found here. Tickets go on sale 9am, December 13.

@radiotimes Take us back to the year 2013 because Busted and McFly are hitting the road again! Announced at McFly’s 21st anniversary gig, the bands will be facing off in Busted vs McFly 2025! Will you be going? #mcfly #busted #mcbusted original sound – RadioTimes

McFly and Busted are two pop-punk bands which have created hits since the early noughties, known respectively for their tracks ‘Five Colours In Her Hair’ and ‘Crashed The Wedding’.

The two bands reunite once again for their forthcoming 2025 tour, a reunion much needed after the success of their last co-headline tour, the ‘McBusted Tour’ in 2014 which featured 34 sold-out shows throughout the UK. However, this upcoming tour includes all the members of both bands, including Charlie Simpson of Busted, who did not feature on the last McBusted tour.

The upcoming tour takes the formation of a battle between the two iconic pop-punk bands. Accompanying the announcement, McFly commented: “Busted gate-crashed our show last night (not cool), and challenged us to a VS tour next year. They’re old men now, and we are gonna blow them and their carers of the stage next year. We’ve had a great time celebrating our 21^st birthday this week and next year is going to be even better – P.S. Busted Suck.”

Busted added: “There’s been a lot of talk recently… This is where the talking ends…! We are ready to show who is the better band once and for all. McFly suck and Busted Rock!”

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A post shared by McFly (@mcflymusic)

The competitiveness from both bands to depict their superiority means both McFly and Busted will plan to dazzle fans with their biggest and greatest hits, along with their newer tracks. This is not surprising given that McFly released their most recent album Power To Play in 2023 and Busted re-recorded and released their Greatest Hits last year.

Often pitted against one another during their emergence in the early 2000s, McFly and Busted have manipulated this concept to create a supergroup tour catered with bucket loads of nostalgia for noughties music-lovers and their diehard fans.

As the tour announcement emphasised: “the whole tour is to find out who’s a better band. Fans can decide. They can come and support their band, and they might change their mind. It’s going to be a fight to the death.”

Tickets for the iconic tour will be available via artist pre-sale on October 16 at 9am, or alternatively general sale starts October 18 at 9am.

The dates for the Busted vs McFly tour:

September

16^th – bp Live, Birmingham

19^th – OVO Arena Wembley, London

20^th – The O2, London

23^rd – Utilita Arena, Cardiff

26^th – Utilita Arena, Sheffield

27^th – First Direct Arena, Leeds

30^th – P&J Live, Aberdeen

October

2^nd – OVO Hydro, Glasgow

7^th – MS Bank Arena, Liverpool

10^th – Utilita Arena, Newcastle

14^th – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham

17^th – AO Arena, Manchester

20^th – 3Arena, Dublin

21^st – SSE Arena, Belfast

Tickets are on sale here.

On 7th June, local artists: Finn Forster, Spilt Milk, Lizzie Esau and Noyou will perform to Teesside University’s Students’ Union in a competition for opening slot at James Arthur’s huge show the following day. After their performances, James Arthur and Shakk, the new BBC Music Introduction presenter for Teesside, will choose who will be the opening act.

The concert is part of the singer’s Bitter Sweet Love tour, and there will be exciting guest performances from McFly and Lauran Hibberd.

It was Arthur’s family who chose the four finalists, and had the difficult task of choosing from over one hundred artists who entered the Road to the Riverside competition.

The competition was Arthur’s idea, however it has been organised by ‘Make A Scene’, a brand who promote independent and alternative rock across the North East. Arthur’s sister, Sian, told the BBC that he hopes to “give young bands and singers the chance to support him, to give back to the local community”. To be eligible to enter, all artists must be from the North East, allowing Arthur and attendees to reunite with Middlesborough’s music scene.

One of the final contestants, Spilt Milk, who are from James Arthur’s home town Redcar, spoke to the BBC about being in the final, saying winning would be a “dream come true”, adding that the crowds of Teesside have always given “great support” for them.

I’m finding I can fly so high above with you ☃️ Our version of Walking in the Air is available on all streaming platforms now. Play this one LOUD! https://t.co/OrkiUputlr pic.twitter.com/7UEDeextdq

— mcfly (@mcflymusic) December 3, 2021

McFly consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Tom Fletcher, lead vocalist and lead guitarist Danny Jones, bassist Dougie Poynter and drummer Harry Judd. This is not the first time in which McFly have performed the track. In 2020 the band played a cover of the song during their Christmas With McFly special on 21st December. The cover was then made available via YouTube on the band’s channel.

The track begins with the instantly recognisable melody played on guitar; the vocals then begin soon after. The song remains delicate and atmospheric until a heavier influence kicks in. The new release’s rock sound has been perfectly matched with the canonised original’s magically intricate musicality. The track has been released on all streaming platforms and has been promoted by all band members across their social media pages.

The festive classic was written by composer Howard Blake and was featured in the 1982 animated film The Snowman. Since the film’s release, the song has become synonymous with Christmas and has since appeared in various TV advertisements. The song was famously re-released by Welsh chorister Aled Jones in 1985, the singer was 15 years old at the time and was recommended by Blake. The single achieved chart success and placed in the top five within the UK singles chart. Jones followed in the footsteps of original singer Peter Auty who sang on the 1982 release, both vocalists were choral singers.

The track has since become a festive go-to for many artists and has been featured on various albums. Cliff Richard covered the track in 2003 and included the song on his album Cliff at Christmas. West End Legend Elaine Paige also covered the track for her 1986 album Christmas. The festive favourite has been recorded and performed in various genres; Metal legends Iron Maiden covered the track during a performance on their tour in support of the 1986 album Somewhere in Time.  Symphonic metal group Nightwish also covered “Walking In The Air”, the Finnish band featured the cover on their 1998 album Oceanborn.

In other news, McFly have confirmed that they are working on the follow up to their 2020 album Young Dumb Thrills. Judd has revealed that the group are aiming for a rock-heavy sound by returning “Back to More guitar, drums and bass” and leaving behind the “Classic Pop” style.  He continued to add, “Young Dumb Thrills’ still had guitars and drums on it but there was programming and a bit of a different approach to recording. This time, from day one of writing and recording, we’ve had all our gear set up. So if Tom has brought in a song in the morning, we go straight into playing it as a band to get parts that way. We’ve been writing songs in that environment as well, and writing riffs.”

McFly UK tour

13/05/2022 – Pub In The Park 2022 – Marlow
03/06 – Wicksteed Park – Kettering
10/06 – Gloucester Park – Gloucester
11/06 – Pub In The Park 2022 – Warwick
03/07 – Waddeesdon Manor –  Aylesbury
08/07 – Lincolnshire Showground – Lincoln
17/07 – Chewton Glen Hotel And Spa – New Milton
13/08 – Doncaster Racecourse – Doncaster
03/09 – Imperial Recreation Ground – Exmouth

Click here to purchase tickets.

Click here to stream “Walking In The Air“

The band members, Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter, all shared the news in their own way. Danny put up an Instagram story of him and his son Cooper and the vinyl, Dougie had a livestream to celebrate, Tom went on his stories to thank fans for their continued support and Harry put up a fun TikTok dance with the rest of the band, which will be a definite trend among McFly fans.

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A post shared by H A R R Y J U D D (@harryjudd)

Fans were ecstatic to finally have a new McFly album, many of them reacted on social media. There were a range of album reaction videos as well as excited tweets. One fan took to Twitter to say; “Apologies to any non mcfly fans who follow me, but I’ve waiting for this moment for 10 years and imma live it up.” Another said; “Thank you for believing in our loyalty waiting patiently to hear your magic. It was so worth waiting for! You should be so unbelievably proud of yourselves because this album is insanely awesome. I’m so incredibly super proud of you.”

McFly will also be staring in a one-off ITV documentary about the band called, McFly: All About Us this Saturday, the 14th of November. The one-hour special will feature band members Tom, Danny, Dougie and Harry talking openly in interviews about the origin of the band and the near split of the band in 2015.

The documentary will feature never before seen footage from key moments throughout the band’s career. In a press release from ITV, it has been revealed that viewers will see their; “rise as teenage pop stars to achieving seven number ones, appearing in a Hollywood movie and winning a Brit Award, selling over 10 million records worldwide through to unexpectedly taking a break.” 

Young Dumb Thrills is out now on all platforms, you can also catch the band’s ITV documentary McFly: All About Us on ITV on Saturday 14th of November at at 6:40pm.

The documentary will feature never before seen footage from key moments throughout the band’s career. In a press release from ITV, it has been revealed that viewers will see their; “rise as teenage pop stars to achieving seven number ones, appearing in a Hollywood movie and winning a Brit Award, selling over 10 million records worldwide through to unexpectedly taking a break.” 

We will also get a look into the current state of the band’s relationship following group therapy, an amazing reunion gig at the O2 and the release of their first album in 10 years, Young Dumb Thrills, which will be out on the 13th of November. The documentary will also feature an exclusive gig, filmed at the Union Chapel in London with their families in the audience, who have been their “constant support through the years.”

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What’s your favourite track from YDT thus far? #YoungDumbThrills

A post shared by McFly (@mcflymusic) on Oct 23, 2020 at 10:08am PDT

McFly have also made a comment in the press release saying; “This is the true and open story of our band and our friendship, the challenges we’ve faced as well as highs we could never have dreamt of and why we’re stronger now than ever.”

McFly have released three singles from their upcoming album, Happiness, Tonight is the Night and Growing Up, which also features Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus. The album is set to explore McFly’s new style of writing, which includes all member’s input, rather than one person writing and bringing it to the band.

Tom Fletcher, who would have written a lot of songs for the band, spoke to the BBC about their new method saying; “That really puts pressure on you as the writers, to come up with a hit that all your fans will love, but will also reunite you as a band and repair your relationships. We needed to get all of that out of the way first and come at it completely fresh.” Danny Jones added; “It’s the first time I feel like we’ve all been part of it. We were all involved, split down the middle, and it was just such a collaborative, energetic process.”

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To everyone who came to the show tonight, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you. That was one of the best shows of our entire career. YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!!!!!! @steviekyle

A post shared by McFly (@mcflymusic) on Nov 20, 2019 at 3:45pm PST

The air date for the documentary is yet to be confirmed, but it will be in November, presumably to coincide with Young Dumb Thrills, which will be released on the 13th of November.

The band announced the song last week and released behind the scenes clips throughout the week. The song premiered on the Zoe Ball radio show today, the 1st of October, on BBC Radio 2.

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Listen to Tonight Is The Night ~exclusively~ with @zoetheball tomorrow morning on @bbcradio2!!!

A post shared by McFly (@mcflymusic) on Sep 30, 2020 at 12:00am PDT

Bandmember Tom Fletcher, was quoted in an Instagram post talking about the emotional, reflective song saying; “We’re incredibly proud of this song, it’s about seeing someone you think is perfect, someone you idolise and realising they are flawed and that allows you to accept your own imperfections and your own flaws and seizing the moment.”

Drummer Harry Judd also said; “In a way ‘Tonight is the Night’ is the perfect summary of the album because it’s got this classic Tom melody but with Danny production flourishes and great harmonies and hints of (McFly’s 2006 album) ‘Motion in the Ocean.'”

Tonight is the Night is the third single released by the band, Growing Up with Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus came out in September and Happiness was released at the end of July. Young Dumb Thrills will be McFly’s first studio album since they reunited after a seven-year hiatus. It has been previously reported that the band took the break after there was tension among the band members as they all took on solo projects. Thankfully, the band is back and this new album sounds like a new and interesting sound.

Tonight is the Night is available on all streaming platforms, Young Dumb Thrills will be released on the 13th of November.

When asked by Ant and Dec about the performance, drummer Harry Judd explained; “Well we just wanted to do something. We felt pretty helpless like the rest of the nation and obviously the NHS were doing an amazing job.”

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What. A. Night! The talent on show last night was INCREDIBLE in our second #BGT Semi-Final

A post shared by Britain’s Got Talent (@bgt) on Sep 13, 2020 at 7:00am PDT

The band released a music video for All About You in April as a thank you to the NHS for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The video featured band members and their families who danced around their homes, showing the importance of doing your part. All royalties gained from the video were  donated to NHS Charities Together. In the video, the band spoke about how grateful they are to the key workers saying; “While we’re going through one of the most challenging times we will ever experience, we know there are some incredible people out there risking their lives every day. Everyone in the NHS; all the carers, all the key workers who are still working to keep this country running, to keep us safe and keep us alive. We owe you so much right now.”

Fan’s loved the BGT performance, with many of them taking to social media to show their support. One fan tweeted; “awww!!! that song just for the NHS. this is so cute, i cant stop smiling, thank you.” Another claimed that McFly were the best talent on the show, including the contestants, one fan said; “If it wasn’t for McFly, I wouldn’t be watching” another added; “Can I vote for McFly tonight please??”

Man I’ve missed McFly #BGT #BritainsGotTalent

— Joey Kay (@JoeyKay20) September 12, 2020

This positive response comes after Britain’s Got Talent received 15,500 complaints following the powerful performance by dance group Diversity, which narrated the death of George Floyd and showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Replying to trolls online, Diversity member and BGT judge, Ashley Banjo said; “For the people sending this: You do not represent or speak for the Great British public. 2. Silence was never and will never be an option. 3. Change is inevitable… Get used to it.” Fellow judge, Alesha Dixon added; “[They] can kiss my black ass!”

McFly’s new album, Young Dumb Thrills, will be out on the 13th of November, you can check out their performance on Britain’s Got Talent below.