Former boybander Tom Parker of chart-topping band The Wanted is the not the type of guy you could envisage with a perm! "How things have changed," he laughed, speaking about his debut in a stage musical as Danny Zuko in the touring production of retro favourite Grease. "They were having real trouble getting my hair to look like Danny's. It has a mind of its own. So, yeah, I got a little perm to give it some body. It’s for the role." Alongside Tom was ex-EastEnders actress Louisa Lytton, who played Rizzo, in the stage show, which opened in Manchester in March 2017. Tom and fiancée Kelsey Hardwick got engaged in 2016, announcing their happy news in HELLO! But because of his starring role in the stage show, the couple didn't marry until July 2018. "We wanted to make sure we plan it right and I don't want to take two weeks off, get married, do a week on honeymoon, then go back on tour. I didn't think that was something I'd be comfortable with."
Speaking about the stresses of wedding planning, the singer revealed: "We've seen so many venues. But do you know what – I feel like the wedding is the girl's day and her dream. I feel like that might be seen as a cop out, like I don't want to do much, but I’ll roll with that. I mean, Kelsey knows what she wants and how she wants it to be, so I’m letting her put everything into place and I’ll just give her my credit card when needs be."
Speaking about co-star Louisa, Tom explained: "We get on well working together and we always just take the mickey out of each other," says Tom, who first got to know Louisa when they both took part in last year’s series of The Jump. Speaking about the action-packed reality show, Tom revealed: " I'd not skied that much before Austria for that job, but I picked it up quite quickly. Whereas she took a little longer, so if she was on the floor having fallen over I'd go over and spray snow in her face..." Louisa interjected laughing: "Basically, he's horrible to me." "But we have that kind of relationship," insists Tom. “Really jokey. And you need that – we’re on the road for ten months and it'll be tedious at times, with eight shows a week, so I think it's good that we've got that humour and that good working relationship."
MORE: Tom Parker announces engagement to Kelsey Hardwick in HELLO! exclusive
Talking about his role in the hit musical, Tom mused: "I think there’s a little bit of Danny Zuko in every guy," he says. "We think we're the bees' knees, but underneath it all we're all soppy." However, he says he was more of a Eugene – the show's geeky character – than a T-Bird when he was at school. "I always thought I was cool but really I was that kid who got a bit bullied at school, to be honest with you," he says. "Do you know what they did? They chucked my bag with all my GCSE school notes onto the cricket field so I couldn’t find it for two weeks and all my notes got soaked. I had to do them all again. But who's had the last laugh? Me. That's called karma. And being in a boyband is like being a T-Bird. One hundred per cent."
