“In the last year of One Direction I was probably the most confident I ever was. Somewhere en route, Tomlinson says, he found his feet as a performer. In his day job with One Direction, meanwhile, he toured the world, released five albums and amassed a large, equal-parts fortune like the rest of the boys. “And if there was any bad news that needed giving to the label I’d always be designated to have the argument.” Later this would lead to Tomlinson founding a small record label of his own, Triple String, and to starting a side project managing a girl band. Not the best singer, not the high-energy guy, not the dude, Tomlinson discovered he was the one in the band who was most tuned into backstage logistics – the one who paid attention when “the 20th approval form” was passed around for a signature. But when you actually think about how that feels, standing on stage every single week, thinking: ‘What have I really done to contribute here? Sing a lower harmony that you can’t really hear in the mix?” He guesses, smiling wryly, that in those months he was best known as “The kid wearing espadrilles, stood in’t back.”įamous five: from left, One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan. “A lot of people can take the piss out of that. “You know I didn’t sing a single solo on the X Factor,” he says, recalling the time back in 2010, when One Direction were first put together as a band on the ITV reality show. They’re modest, rather lovely pop songs that in their quiet way seem to acknowledge his underdog status. Tracks from Tomlinson’s solo record have been playing inside the studio. Liam’s all about getting the crowd going, doing a bit of dancing…” Liam always had a good stage presence, same as Harry, they’ve both got that ownership. But Zayn has a fantastic voice and for him it was always about owning that. In the first year we were both the least confident. There are times I’ve thought: ‘I’d have a bit of that.’ Zayn, back in the day.
Happy-go-lucky Irish, no sense of arrogance. “The others have always been… Like Niall, for example. As Tomlinson acknowledges, in One Direction he was seen by some as “forgettable, to a certain degree”. Why they gather themselves to “go again”. I’ve often wondered why the fringe members of boy bands do this to themselves. But there’s so much hurry-up-and-wait in this job. “I know, I know,” he says of the smoking. Slender, tracksuited, a little wan under his manicured facial hair, Tomlinson sits on a garden bench outside the photographer’s studio and works methodically through an entire pack of cigarettes. It is in roughly this position I find the 25-year-old, one afternoon earlier this summer. Here was a combatant you might expect to find curled up in a fox hole on the battlefield, pale and chain-smoking and wondering how much he really wanted in on such an unequal fight. And ranked last in any serious analysis, the most fitfully appreciated member of One Direction, was Louis Tomlinson. Liam Payne and Niall Horan – always second-tier members – were given middling chances. Big-lunged Zayn Malik was already out of the band by that time and had used his head start to good effect, preparing a solo album that went to No 1. Harry Styles – charming, a grinner – was best placed to succeed on his own. By the time One Direction announced they were to go on indefinite hiatus in 2015, many of us were familiar enough with the conventions of boy-band bloodsport to start picking favourites for the coming melee.
Robbie Williams looked supreme in the Take That scrimmage, at least until Gary Barlow circled back, gathered up the other three, and made the fight a more compelling four-on-one.
Justin Timberlake, after NSync, enjoyed the unsporting edge of natural talent and crushed his former colleagues. or an amaZayn night depending on when you're watching.C oming out of a dissolving boy band must be a bit like being an entrant in one of those dystopian jungle fights – a Hunger Games-style event in which bandmates are scattered across an unknown terrain and challenged to slog their lonely route back to fame. Wow! Never thought Niall would be the calm one. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image. Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. Just to make you smile, then cry because those days aren't coming back for a while.
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