LAST BOOK YOU READ: Forever Young by One Direction
LAST FIVE THINGS YOU BOUGHT: A pair of shoes from Supra, an Adidas t-shirt from Selfridges, a Nandos, dinner at TGI Fridays and some toothpaste
WHAT TYPE OF GIRLS DO YOU LIKE? I don’t have a type, because with some girls I may not find them attractive immediately, but then I really get to like them because their personality is so attractive. I like someone I can have a conversation with, and I would always look for someone who could get on with my parents. It’s important to me that my family like her too.
LIAM PAYNE
KEEP ON RUNNING
I guess one of the strangest things I can tell you about my younger years is that I’ve only got one kidney because when I was born I was effectively dead. Weird, I know. The doctors couldn’t get any reaction from me, so I had to be brought around, and although it seemed like I was okay, there were underlying problems.
I was born three weeks early and I kept being ill. From the age of zero to four I was always in the hospital having tests done but they couldn’t find out what was wrong. In the end they discovered that one of my kidneys wasn’t working properly, and because it hadn’t been discovered in time it had scarred, and the other one was working at 95 percent of its capacity. It got to the stage when I had to have 32 injections in my arm in the morning and evening to try and make me better. I’ve still got both kidneys, but one doesn’t work, so I have to be careful not to drink too much, even water, and I have to keep myself as healthy as possible.
My first ever school was an infant school in Wolverhampton called Collingwood and I was a bit of a naughty boy. In fact, I was often called into the headmistress’s office in the first few days. I used to have water fights in the toilets and climb on the roof to get soccer balls back.
By the time I went to junior school I’d grown up a lot and I tried out for a lot of the school teams but I never got into any of them. Then one day I tried out for the cross-country running team and I came in first in the race.
There was a guy who was running for Wolverhampton at the time and he was one of the best runners around, and I beat him, so everyone said that I cheated. The next week we ran the same race and I won again, and that’s how I found out I could run. From then on I was training all the time and getting up at six in the morning to run for miles. At the age of 12 they put me in the school’s under 18s team, so I was running against 18-year-old men and keeping up with them.
I joined the Wolverhampton and Bilston running team, and for three of the five years I was the third best 1500 meters runner in my age group in the country, which was amazing.
I carried on being sporty in high school and I joined the basketball team, but some older kids picked on me because I had some really nice basketball clothes I’d bought in America. They decided that meant I thought a lot of myself, so they started bullying me. I was only 12 and they were a lot older, so I needed to find a way to defend myself. My sister had a boyfriend called Martin who used to box, so my parents suggested that I went along with him and learned to defend myself.
It wasn’t the nicest gym in the world and you had to fight everyone regardless of age or size, so there I was, at 12 years old, fighting the 38-year-old trainer. I broke my nose, had a perforated eardrum and I was always coming home with a bruised, puffy face. But it gave me so much confidence. It was nerve-wracking at first, but I got pretty good over the next couple of years.
GETTING SOME EARLY BOXING PRACTICE IN!
I USED TO LOVE WOODY AS A KID
CHILLING OUT AT HOME, AGE FIVE
These older kids were still bullying me, to the point where once they chased me into the road. It all got too much so I stood up to them and ended up having a fight with one of them. Thankfully I won, but I nearly got kicked out of school for it, which obviously wasn’t ideal.
I was a bit of a mini businessman when I was young. I really look up to the guys on Dragons’ Den and I used to buy big boxes of sweets and sell them at school for a profit. I used to make about £50 a week and my dad was so proud of me. I never had any proper jobs because I was always busy doing singing gigs, so that’s how I used to make my money.
I was always singing karaoke when I was growing up. I used to get up anywhere and sing Robbie Williams songs. I did my first rendition of “Let Me Entertain You” at a holiday camp when I was about six, and I didn’t stop from then on. I’ve done karaoke in America, Spain, Portugal—you name it.
I always loved singing and dancing. My sister Ruth and I were always singing in the car, and my mom says that even when I was a really young kid I used to dance around the living room to Noddy. I also used to put my dad’s glasses on, clasp my hands behind my back and sing along to his Oasis CDs, pretending to be Liam Gallagher.
I’ve got two older sisters, Nicola and Ruth. I always got on really well with Ruth when we were growing up, but I guess because Nicola, being the eldest, was usually left in charge when my parents went out, I saw her as a figure of authority, so we used to bicker sometimes. Ruth and I are very alike in that we both like to sing and we don’t really drink or anything, whereas Nicola is more of a party girl.
In Year Nine I joined the school choir and we used to do loads of shows in front of audiences, which I guess got me quite used to it. We set a world record when we joined with loads of other schools and sang the same song in unison. It was the Bill Withers track “Lean on Me” and it was great because I got one of the solo parts.
Apart from singing I liked science, and of course PE. My parents even suggested that I could go on to be a PE teacher. I was a big soccer fan and I used to play every lunchtime, rain or shine. I also used to go and watch West Bromwich Albion, and I remember running on to the pitch when we got promoted. It was a great moment.
Judging by photographs of me growing up, my hair has kind of come full circle. I had a big mushroom when I was a kid, then I had tramlines put in the side of my head and eyebrows like my sister’s boyfriend Martin. After that I shaved it all off till grade three, then I grew it long again, so it’s now similar to how it was when I was a kid. I keep thinking about shaving it all off again, because it would be so much easier to manage, but I’m a bit scared of doing it.
Clothes-wise I made a few mistakes here and there too. I used to wear this bright orange Umbro t-shirt and a special pair of shorts that I loved. I didn’t really have much of an interest in fashion generally, so when my first X Factor audition came around I had absolutely nothing nice to wear. My shoes had a hole in them and I borrowed a pair of Armani jeans from Martin. He’s a 34-inch waist and I’m a 28, so they were really belted in. I wore a large shirt and then I bought a £30 waistcoat, which was the only thing I spent money on. When I look back now I can’t believe I got away with it. I did three rounds of The X Factor with a hole in my shoe.
Despite my hair mistakes, I think I got away with it at school. I had a girlfriend called Charnelle in Reception, who used to send me love letters. I was also really proud of the fact that I went out with a girl who was in Year Six when I was in Year Four. She was one of my sister’s friends, and I thought I was really cool having an older girlfriend.
I really liked one girl called Emily and asked her out 22 times, but she always said no. Finally I sang to her and then she said she’d go out with me, but she dumped me the next day. My friends used to wind me up and pretend that girls liked me when they didn’t, so I’d ask them out and they’d say no, which was mortifying.
I had a few dating disasters along the way, with girls cheating on me, and one girl was the inspiration for me singing “Cry Me a River” on The X Factor. That was my payback to her because she was unfaithful.
I’ve always preferred having girlfriends to just seeing people. I think it’s nice to have someone special. I was seeing a girl called Shannon while I was on The X Factor. We were seeing each other for a while, but we had to be apart for months on end so it put a lot of pressure on the relationship and we finally split up. We still speak to each other, bu
t it was just one of those things.
I was 14 when I first tried out for The X Factor. I had become really bored with running and although I was on the reserve list for the 2012 Olympics, I wanted to find something I could do apart from run. When I told my friends I was going in for The X Factor we had a bit of banter because they thought it was quite funny, but they were also supportive.
The only thing I really wanted to do was see Simon Cowell, and I waited nine hours in a line to get that chance, but it was definitely worth it. I felt quite grown-up at the time and like I was capable of handling everything that came with being on the show. But looking back now at all we’ve been through, there is no way I could have handled it. No way at all.
It was horrible to be turned away at Judges’ Houses, but if I had made the live shows I wouldn’t have known what had hit me. JLS and Alexandra Burke were in that year and I would have been gone straight away.
It was hard going back to school having done The X Factor because I got a real taste for performing on a big stage and all I wanted to do from that moment on was be a pop star. My schoolwork suffered quite a bit, to be honest, and I remember my head of year talking to me about my grades and things. I remember him saying, “Your grades are slipping. What if your voice breaks and you can’t sing anymore? What will you do then? You won’t have any qualifications to fall back on.”
That really hit me and I started working a lot harder from then on and I ended up getting one A+ in PE, as well as two Bs, six Cs and a D. The school wanted me to carry on and do A-levels, but I went to music college instead. At least I did get decent grades in the end, though.
Going away for a few years after I first tried out for The X Factor and doing gigs was the best thing I could have done. I worked with producers and writers but I never signed any deals, just in case I ever wanted to try out for The X Factor again. If I hadn’t made it I was going to do an apprenticeship with my dad, which seemed quite exciting to me, but first he wanted me to give the singing all I had.
My dad works in a factory building planes, and in my mind I was going to be playing with giant Lego or something, but it’s actually really hard work. My other backup plan was to become a fireman. But then, when I was 16, I decided to give singing and The X Factor another go.
THE NEXT STEP
Trying out for The X Factor for a second time was really nerve-wracking because now I wanted it more than ever. Some friends and family members were even a bit worried about me going for it, in case I got let down again, but I knew I had to try, whatever happened. I desperately wanted to get a yes from Simon and prove how far I’d come since the last time I was on the show. I’d grown up so much since I was last there.
LOOKING MY BEST FOR GO-KARTING
Getting through to Bootcamp was just amazing, but then finding out I hadn’t made it to Judges’ Houses was crushing. I honestly thought that was the end of everything and I was so upset. So to get the second chance like we did left me virtually speechless. I was the only one of the guys who really had to think about whether or not it was a good idea to become a band. I’d been working as a solo artist for so long that I couldn’t imagine not doing that, but as soon as I made the decision to go for it I knew I’d done the right thing.
I was quite nervous about going to Harry’s stepdad’s house, because obviously none of us guys knew each other, so to be thrown together like that and have to get to know each other so quickly was a bit scary. We’re all quite different as well, so we did bicker occasionally. I had lots of friends at school, but they weren’t all that outgoing, and Louis is so outgoing that at first I was a bit wary of him. He’s a big influence on everyone in the band because he’s the eldest and he has a sense of leadership, so he’ll take charge of emails or phone calls from management. I’m more on the creative side, so I think we both want to take the lead in different ways, which meant it took us a bit longer to bond. We get on brilliantly now, though. As soon as we were honest with each other it worked, and we’ve ended up being really close friends.
We had such a laugh that week. We were all staying in a bungalow and we’d spend the days in the swimming pool or watching TV. We told ourselves that we were rehearsing, but we didn’t really know what we were doing. We’d sit around and sing what we thought were harmonies and try out different songs, but really that week was more about us getting used to each other than anything else.
We’ve all changed so much since those days at Harry’s house. We’re growing up around each other in a way, and because I spend so much time with Niall I do an Irish accent these days without even noticing!
Going out to Judges’ Houses in Spain was another big learning curve for us, because we got to know each other even better. We went out there to do our best and work as hard as we could to get through. Looking back, that week went so quickly and so much happened that I can barely remember everything we did, but I remember coming back feeling incredible.
We all went back home briefly before moving into the contestants’ house. Then it was time to go again, and I remember my dad looking at me and saying, “Whatever you do, don’t come back before Christmas.” He wanted us to go all the way.
It was strange to be packing up and leaving home, knowing I could potentially be away for a few months or more. Also, a lot of the other contestants we were going to be sharing a house with were still strangers to us, which meant I was going to be working and living in very close quarters with people I didn’t know.
Even sharing a room with the other guys was a bit of a shock. The room was tiny, and we spent all day together too. We all found little ways to have some time to ourselves, and that was very important. I used to get in and go straight to bed, but the other guys used to stay up a lot later, so I was always telling them off for waking me up. But I’ve honestly never met four harder-working guys. There was nothing we refused to do. Every time we were asked to do filming or interviews or anything we never said no, because we were determined.
It was good fun sharing the house with other people but, as I said, they were strangers, so it was a case of getting to know loads of new people. Apart from the other guys I got on best with Rebecca and Matt, and I still get on really well with them now.
For me, needless to say, the highlight of being on The X Factor was meeting Robbie Williams. He’s one of the big reasons that I’m doing this now, so even just having my picture taken with him was amazing. I thanked him and told him that if it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t be in the show, and he seemed chuffed by that and was really humble about it. He admitted that he never knows what to say when people tell him they like him, because he’s just doing his thing, but it meant a lot to him to hear it. He gave us great advice about staying down to earth, and he made so much sense.
Meeting Michael Bublé was brilliant as well. He was such a nice guy and as easy to talk to as anyone else you’d meet. It was such a buzz that he knew who we were as well. Imagine knowing Michael Bublé had watched you perform on the show!
Getting down to the final three in the show was amazing, but of course we were massively disappointed when we didn’t win. We were completely happy with our performance of “Torn” though, so at least we’d done all we could.
We were standing on stage with Matt and Rebecca, and they called Matt’s name out first. Then they called Rebecca’s and we were so deflated. We hadn’t experienced that situation before, because our name had always been called out on the right side when the votes came in. When I watched it back on TV it seemed like Dermot waited ages to read out Rebecca’s name, but when I was there it felt like no time at all.
As soon as Dermot reads out Rebecca’s name you can see all of our faces drop, and our fans in the audience kind of slumped. It wasn’t that we believed the hype when people said we were going to win, but we couldn’t help but hope.
Even when we were standing on the stage watching our best bits, knowing we hadn’t got through, I couldn’t help smiling. We’d had such an amazing time and I kind of knew
in the back of my mind that there was more to come. All the other guys were absolutely gutted, but I had a feeling that we’d be okay.
Seeing the video of all the things we’d done made me realize how far we’d come and how we’d made things work. We were thrown together and we worked so hard, doing a lot of things off our own bat, so even though we didn’t win I felt so proud of us and I knew we were capable of going on to so much more.
I kept thinking back to those days in the bungalow right at the beginning of the competition, and it seemed like such a giant leap to be standing on that stage in the final. We hadn’t even expected to get through Judges’ Houses, so to make it all that way was amazing. At the end of the day I was deeply disappointed that we lost, but I was happy with how well we’d done overall.
Backstage afterwards there were a lot of tears, but even though I’d cried before when I didn’t get through at Bootcamp, I didn’t actually cry in that moment. I guess I didn’t really know how I should feel. I’d been on a TV show for the past ten weeks, singing in front of 20 million people, and it was exactly what I’d always wanted to do. I felt like at least I’d got the chance to do it. But of course I was wondering whether we’d get a record deal, or whether this was the end of the road for us. I kept thinking about other people who hadn’t won and who had done well anyway. Diana Vickers came fourth—and look at where she is now.
One Direction: Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction Page 3