One Direction Biography

Five young boys, with the same dream.

Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan had never crossed paths before they found themselves competing against each other as soloists on X Factor.

Yet just a few short months later, thanks to an amazing twist of fate, the teenagers comprise one of the country's hottest boybandsand are embarking on a career that is sure to turn global, working with some of the greatest producers in the music industry today.

This is One Direction's story.

AS THEY stood on a bare stage in front of the music industry's toughest critics, the five boys thought their dream of stardom had been crushed.

They had just been told they had not made it through the Bootcamp stage of X Factor in July 2010, and were to pack their suitcases and return to their homes.

But little did they know, behind the scenes there were huge plans in store to create a glittering future for them.

For the lads, who had entered X Factor as individuals, were to be put together as the show's youngest ever boy band.

The plan was devised by the panel of Simon Cowell, Nicole Sherzinger and Louis Walsh, who believed they would be stronger together than as individuals.

Liam says: "We had seen each other at Bootcamp and got on well, and Niall and I had shared a room. But we were competition then, and at the back of the minds we knew were against each other.

"So it was strange when we were put together and my first thought was, 'How are we going to make this work when we don't know each other? It was such a leap of faith."

Despite their fears, it took them just seconds to agree to join forces.

Niall says: "We were given five minutes to go away and decide if we wanted to do it, but we knew we were, it was just a formality.

"We were jumping up and down and we were all a bit giddy."

Zayn says: "I didn't think I would ever be in a group. But when I was there and it was happening, and I knew the lads a bit, there was no way I was going to say 'no'."

Louis adds:"We were given five minutes to make up our mind and we all said 'Do you want to do it?', everyone said yeah, and that was it. There was no question, go home as a solo or stay in as a group'.

The band had just weeks to gel as a group before the next stage of the competition, which was a problem given they lived in different parts of the country and had never sung harmonies until they were thrown together.

So they got together twice for week-long practice sessions a bungalow at the bottom of Harry's step dad's garden to get to know each other, and to practice.

But the boys admit they had no idea how to go about arranging harmonies and had little formal musical training.

Liam was studying for a musical technology A-level at college at the time, and had once performed in front of a 26,000 strong crowd at a Wolverhampton Wanderers' football match. He also got through to the Judge's Houses stage of X Factor two years previously played Danny in a school production of Grease; Harry performed once in a Battle of the Bands competition at school; Niall was in the school choir for occasional Christmas performances and Zayn did a 'couple of musicals' at school.

Zayn says: "We didn't know what a harmony was. We all just sang in unison for two weeks."
And Liam agrees: "We just threw ideas around. The first few days were quite tough. We all had different ideas but we didn't really know what a group was about."

They were also tasked with coming up with a name.

Harry came up with the idea of One Direction because he thought it would sound good when X Factor announcer Peter Dickson read their name out on the live shows.

It's a sign of how ambitious the boys were right from the start -and what they were setting out to achieve.

Louis says: "Harry text us to ask what we thought and it was one of those were we all just said, 'Yes' straight away. We all entered the competition with one thing in mind and that was to go to the top, so it worked. And it can be abbreviated to 1D!"

With a tiny amount of preparation under their belts, the boys headed to a villa in Spain for the Judges' Houses stage of the competition.

Louis admits they were desperate to impress Simon and tried to work out if they were in with a shot: "If he looked at you or said anything, we'd read anything into it. You'd go, 'Oh my God, did you see the way he just blinked at us? We're definitely through!'."

Whether there really were any secret signals, the boys were right: they had caught Simon's eye and he was impressed.

They sailed through to the live shows where they were mentored by Simon and competed against eventual winner and runner-up Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson, among others.

During the ten weeks of live shows, One Direction covered songs as diverse as Natalie Imbruglia's Torn, Coldplay's Viva La Vida, Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You, Kim Wilde's Kids In America and Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars.

They also performed on the show's number 1 charity single, David Bowie's Heroes, with proceeds going to military charity Help For Heroes.

One Direction quickly gained a huge fanbase and the boys enjoyed every moment of their live performances, although they admit the experience was a huge learning curve.

Liam says: "Normally when you put together a band they have some time to go away and do development but we had to do that on a live competition, in front of 20 million people.

"If you make a mistake in front of an audience like that, you get voted out.

"We had no room for error whatsoever. We had to grow up very, very fast."

The trio band made it to the final where they sang Elton John's Your Song, She's The One with guest artist Robbie Williams, and Torn by Natalie Imbruglia.

They were voted into third place and say they had mixed feelings: disappointed at not winning, but aware of how far they had come since those days practising in a bungalow.

Louis says: "We were gutted. But then we just started to reflect on it and we thought, we were the last group there, the youngest in the competition, and we didn't even know each other months ago.

"And when you look at it like that, we did really well."

There was no question that the group would disband or give up their dreams.

They were called to a meeting with Simon Cowell after a Christmas back home with their families in their respective homes: Liam (Wolverhampton), Harry (Cheshire), Louis (Doncaster), Zayn(Bradford), and Niall (Westmeath, Ireland), and told they were to be signed to Syco.

Harry says: "We wanted to win and coming third was a big disappointment. So to find out we were signed was incredible.

"Simon Cowell was telling you your life was about to change! It was weird.

"Coming from our first audition to being signed by Syco is a huge journey'

Louis adds: "Some people say X Factor's an easy ride and a queue jump to fame. But we came from nothing, and had no experience as a group at all.

"And for me, by the time we came to the end of the show, we were a completely different group. We worked so hard, and achieved so much."

After the X Factor nationwide tour, One Direction will record their first album.
They have already been to Los Angeles to be introduced to some of the world's finest producers to discuss ideas.

Niall says: "These guys are amazing. Basically, name one of the biggest hits of the past ten years, and the guys we met will be behind them. To even meet them is incredible. And to work with them would be even better!"

One Direction have already achieved so much in such a short space of time.
And if their meteoric rise to stardom continues at the pace it began, it won't be long before One Direction are global icons.