Overtones singer: I was badly bullied at school in Cork

The Cork-born lead singer of UK hitmakers The Overtones has spoken of the traumatic bullying he suffered at school.

“I had a tough time of it — I got bullied quite badly.” said Timmy Matley, who attended a school in Cork City.

“I wasn’t into football. I was doing my own thing: I was into singing and acting and performing. It was difficult. I used to dread walking through the school gates every day.”

Matley, 31, said he was advised to “stand up” for himself — but knew confronting the bullies would have made the problem worse.

“Most of my class was giving me grief. It was difficult for me and for my mother. I went really quiet. It knocked my confidence. I don’t have fond memories of school. You always hang onto that, the sense of being a bullied child,” he said.

Matley’s salvation came when he auditioned for the Laine Theatre art school in Britain, alma mater to the likes of Victoria Beckham .

“The lady who runs it, Betty Laine, said she would offer me a fully-funded place. I was in fifth year at school. I dropped out, got a job stacking shelves in Dunnes Stores so that I could afford to move to London. Off I went and haven’t looked back. I was definitely not the happiest teenager.”

A retro vocal group, The Overtones have sold nearly 1m albums. Following an unsuccessful X Factor audition, the five piece had gone into business together as decorators to make ends meet. It was while singing in harmony during their tea break on London’s Oxford St that they were discovered by a Warner Music executive who happened to be passing.

The group released their fourth album, Sweet Soul Music, yesterday. They return to Ireland in June, for concerts at Cork Opera House and Olympia Theatre.

“I love coming home and bringing the boys,” Matley said. “When we were starting out, I was really hoping what we did would be a success in Ireland. It’s fantastic to know my family in Cork can go into a shop on Patrick’s St and buy my record. It fills me with pride.”