POP star Danny Jones has been reminiscing about his days playing at open mic nights around Bolton ahead of his band McFly’s tour of arenas next year.

The band will play the MEN Arena, in Manchester, on March 19, but Danny revealed his career started in much smaller venues closer to home.

“I used to play at the buskers ball,” he said.

“It travelled around the pubs but the one at the Man and Scythe was the best.

“Going to those nights really helped me.”

The singer was speaking after the band, which also includes by Tom Fletcher, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter, had recorded a special acoustic session for Manchester’s Real Radio.

And the mob of screaming girls, who were standing outside hoping to catch a glimpse of the heartthrobs, proved their popularity remains undiminished — eight years after they first burst on to the pop scene with their debut single Five Colours In Her Hair.

“I’m pretty impressed there are still people who’ll stand out there,” former Thornleigh pupil Danny said.

“It’s nice to see, and we never take it for granted.”

The boys were promoting their next single, That’s The Truth, the third from their latest album Above The Noise, which will be released on March 6.

They recorded the album in Atlanta with superproducer Dallas Austin, who has also worked with Michael Jackson and Gwen Stefani.

“Recording with Dallas was a ball,”

said 24-yearold Danny.

“I think we did more partying than we did work — but the work we did do was good.

“He’s a great guy, he was like the fifth member of McFly while we were recording.”

He admits when the band started they had no idea how popular they would become.

“We never expected to be as successful as we are — it’s amazing,” said Danny.

“The past two years we’ve grown internationally as well, that’s been amazing for us.

“Fingers crossed we’ll keep going and keep growing — we’ve still got goals to achieve.”