On the day we were due to hear whether or not we were through to the live finals everyone was up really early for breakfast and the atmosphere was incredibly tense. We didn’t find out our fate until late in the afternoon, and the boys and I spent all day talking through how we thought we’d done, while also trying to have a laugh to take our minds off things.
When we were first put together as a band Simon had told us that he’d given us a lifeline and he expected a lot in return, so not only were we doing this for ourselves, but we felt like we owed him something too. He’d given us another chance and we needed to prove to him that he’d made the right decision and we’d been a risk worth taking. (Hopefully we have so far!)
Standing there waiting for the verdict was one of the longest moments of my life. Hearing a “yes” would change things forever, and my mind kept going back to the performance—replaying it in my head and wondering if we could have done it better. It’s so hard to read Simon’s face, so it could have gone either way, and when he said he was putting us through I wanted to leap about ten feet in the air.
The first thing we did when we got through, apart from hugging each other, was to phone our parents. We were over the moon but we kept things quiet on the way home because everyone else was on the same plane, including all of the acts that didn’t get through.
I flew to London and then on to Dublin. We’d been told we could tell our family we’d got through, but no one else. Somehow it was all over the internet so people kept asking me about it and I kept saying, “You’ll just have to wait and watch the show.”
I had about two or three weeks back home before we moved into the contestants’ house, and it was strange packing up all my things and heading off, but I couldn’t wait to get to London. As I didn’t know how long we’d be away for, I took my whole life with me! My bedroom was literally empty when I left.
When we arrived in London we stayed in hotels for a couple of days while they finished getting the house ready. Then we moved in, and when I saw our room I wondered how we’d all fit in there. I’m very clean and I don’t like a mess or my things being out of place, but Louis is the messiest person I’ve ever met. He’d just leave everything on the floor and I used to have to clean up after him. (Looking back, I do wonder why I did that!)
Our room was so bad that one day when we all went out for work, Esther from Belle Amie cleaned it for us because she found it so horrific. It was really clean when she finished, but it didn’t stay like that for long.
Michael Bublé was without a doubt the best celebrity I met on the show. I am a massive fan, and I even made it on to his documentary, so I’ll always have that as a reminder. He’s an absolute genius, and when he heard that I was a massive fan he came over to me and introduced himself. I was freaking out. Sometimes people say it’s a bad thing to meet your idols, but not in my case—he was so cool!
He was so normal and easy to chat with that I heard myself saying to him, “I spent £200 on tickets for your concert in Dublin and I had to give them up because of The X Factor.” He replied, “Oh man, any time you want tickets for my show just let me know and I’ll get them for you,” but I turned around and said, “No Michael, I just want my £200 back.” He started cracking up and then I got to go to his sound check, so I can’t have offended him too much.
Katy Perry remembered me from my audition too, which was so nice. And throughout the competition we had a good laugh with Cheryl. Louis was always exchanging banter with Cheryl and she loved it. She could take the banter and give it back. She’s so natural. She’s like your normal girl from your area, but a hundred times more beautiful.
CHRISTMAS CRAZINESS
We moved out of the X Factor house the morning after the final and it was a strange atmosphere. Our room was such a mess and there was stuff absolutely everywhere, and we basically had to pack three months of clothes in an hour. There were some Mercedes vans waiting outside for us, and I was like “This is the life! I could get used to this.”
We headed over to West London and checked into a hotel and then had a meeting with our management company to find out what was going to happen in the future. We heard some amazing plans and we couldn’t wait to get started. That night we had the wrap party, and it was a great laugh, but we had to be up at 5 am the next morning so we didn’t go too crazy.
We had a few gigs, and then four days before Christmas I headed home to see my family. And sleep a lot. I completely chilled out at home, but because I hadn’t had time to do any Christmas shopping I had to go out and get all of that done beforehand. People kept stopping me in the street to say congratulations, and all over the place there were posters of me saying “Best of luck Niall” and “Good luck One Direction.” It was so surreal.
It was a weird Christmas in a way. It almost didn’t feel like Christmas because I felt like I’d missed the build-up through being so busy. On the day itself I was so tired I stayed in bed until 11 o’clock, which I never usually do. I’m always the first up. My friends and family didn’t treat me any differently. I got the usual presents I always got from them, but I was grateful to be home, because it was all about to go a bit crazy.
I live with my dad in town because my parents are separated, so I went and had lunch at my mom’s house in the country first. Then I went back home for a second dinner and all of my family came over. As it turned out this wasn’t the best idea as it was so cold that all the pipes were frozen, so we couldn’t even flush the toilet (ha ha, bad times!). In the end we had to move over to my cousin’s house across the road and continue the party there.
The funny thing is that The X Factor brought my parents closer. My mom has remarried now and I get on really well with her husband Chris, but my dad didn’t know him very well. Because they were talking all the time I was in the show and all traveling to London to see me, they started to get along really well. I remember my stepdad being in my house, putting the kettle on and chatting to my dad, and I was saying to my brother Greg, “Is this really happening?” In fact my dad and brother didn’t always get on, but they too are now getting on much better, so the show has kind of brought everyone together. My dad and Matt’s dad have also become good friends, and all of the band’s parents text each other or chat on the phone. It’s the 1D family!
I stayed in touch with all of the boys over Christmas, and I remember calling Louis up on his birthday on Christmas Eve. I was expecting him to be out partying, but it sounded fairly quiet around him. I think he was just so tired he wanted to chill out like the rest of us.
I went out with my friends for New Year and I did get recognized a lot, but I pretty much know everyone back home so no one bothered me in a bad way—they just wanted to chat.
BACK TO WORK WITH A BANG
After New Year’s we played quite a few gigs, at places like Edinburgh, Leeds, Oxford, Hatfield, as well as lots of bar mitzvahs and a Sweet 16 gig. And, of course, we went to LA.
Going over there was mad. They even let us go in the business lounge, and Liam, Harry and I had massages while Louis and Zayn played pool. The whole thing was just unbelievable. It was a very good start to the trip.
Loads of fans had turned up to see us, but they’d gone to Terminal 5 and we were leaving from Terminal 3, so we didn’t get to see them which was annoying. But we did get to see rather a lot of them on the way back, which I’m sure you’ve heard about.
It was an 11-hour flight but I didn’t sleep a wink because I was feeling quite hyper. I just watched loads of movies. We went straight to the hotel when we landed and checked in, then we went down to Jim Henson’s studio. He was the creator of the Muppets, so there were Kermit the Frogs everywhere. The studio was like a massive log cabin.
We met up with RedOne, the production team who work with Lady GaGa and loads of other big artists, and they were just like normal guys. We also met Randy Jackson, and he was so cool. We even found that Cher was working there too. It was great to see her.
I’d been to New York and Boston before
, but I’d never seen anything like LA. Everyone looks so slick—you feel like every person you pass is going to be a celebrity! Plus everyone is so chilled, which suits me down to the ground.
We did get some good work done while we were out there, but we also had time to go out for dinner and do some shopping. By this time us guys all knew each other so much better, so we felt really comfortable around each other and it was like being away with four of my best friends.
We were sad to leave LA but ready to come home, but we weren’t prepared for what faced us when we landed at the airport. There were so many fans there and we only had Paul, our tour manager, with us. Airport security came to help us, but there were loads of paparazzi there as well so it was crazy. I’m really claustrophobic, so I was panicking a bit when we had to run through everyone and then hide in this parking booth. I was so relieved when the police riot van came and got us. I still can’t believe that happened—it feels like it was all some kind of mad dream. It was really exhilarating.
We did our tour rehearsals in London and Wakefield. We rehearsed in London with a live band and also learned new dance moves and ways to move around the stage. We worked with a brilliant choreographer called Beth, and although it was a bit of a struggle for a few of us at first, I think we all did okay with that in the end. I didn’t always get things right away, but once I got used to it all and got the hang of certain moves I did pretty much okay. Zayn’s dancing has got loads better and he’s really good. It’s all about confidence, isn’t it? And his confidence is constantly building.
Light Structures in Wakefield is a massive warehouse where they built the set we’d be using on tour, and there we went through the whole performance over and over without an audience. It was quite weird performing to no one, but it was brilliant for us because it got us used to how everything would look on the opening night. We also got a chance to get to know some of the crew we were going to be traveling with. Luckily they were all great and we had a good crack. I’m good with names so I got to know them all, and I hung out with a lot of them when we were actually on the tour. Shout out to the truck drivers! C’mon Fred and Bobby.
We arrived in Birmingham two days before the tour actually started, and we did a dress rehearsal. Then all of a sudden the first night rolled around, and I was petrified. There were 12,000 people in the arena and I’d never played to a crowd of more than 1,000 in my life. The whole place was packed and the pressure was on—this was our chance to prove ourselves. We were all really looking forward to it, but really nervous at the same time. We wanted to put on a brilliant performance for the fans, because many of them would be seeing us for the first time.
In the end it went brilliantly. I was a bit shocked when I first saw the audience and all the lights, but then I couldn’t stop smiling. None of us could. Afterwards it took us ages to calm down because we were on such a high.
Amazingly we didn’t get into any proper trouble on tour, despite the now notorious fruit fights we had.
Food was a big part of the tour for us. The catering was so good, and every evening before we went to the bar or our rooms we’d go out and get takeout and bring it back, so we had a few good Chinese meals and lots of Nandos. Sometimes if we had a few hours off we would pop out and go shopping or get something to eat before the show. It was nice to be able to see different places. We saw a lot of different Nandos.
Of all the places we went to, Dublin was probably my favorite venue, and not just because I’m from near there. The crowd were just incredible. It was so loud, and when we came out of the arena I felt like I’d been on a plane for seven hours—my ears were popping. We did five shows in Dublin and each one was as loud as the next. My family came to see us there, they got really good seats and afterwards they came back to our hotel to chill out.
From Dublin we drove up to Belfast, where we had a really nice hotel and again the crowds were brilliant. To be fair, the crowds were brilliant everywhere we went. I couldn’t believe how much support we had. Some of the banners were hilarious and we got to meet a lot of the fans. Quite a few of them checked into the same hotels as us, or they’d wait outside to talk to us, and although the security was tight we spent as much time as we could with them.
We were kept pretty busy. We got the odd bit of time off to shop or whatever, but we were doing quite a lot of press interviews or filming for TV shows or having meetings. It’s unbelievable how hectic our lives have got in a short time. I knew it would be busy, but I’m not sure I ever imagined it would get this busy this quickly. We don’t complain, though. We always just remind ourselves how lucky we are to be in this position. It’s what we’ve always dreamed of doing, so it’s worth every early morning or late night. We were literally having the time of our lives.
I went down to the bar most nights when we were on tour, but we weren’t having wild parties; we were mainly just hanging out and talking. When you come off stage you’re still buzzing, and I find it hard to go straight to bed, so that was my way of winding down after a show. Some of the other guys liked going to their rooms and watching TV, but they did also come down to the bar sometimes, and then we’d chat about the show and have a crack.
We spent a lot of time with all the other acts on the tour. There was a lot of pressure when we were on The X Factor, but on the tour everyone was so laid-back. It was a different kind of pressure, so we all chilled a lot more.
We had a good laugh on the tour bus as well. We had a few sing-alongs and messed around a lot. Most of the time on the tour bus we were basically either sleeping or singing.
Wagner was one of the absolute stars of the tour. He was constantly cracking jokes, even if he did sometimes tell the same jokes seven times a day. Paige was fairly quiet on the show, but on the tour he really opened up and was like a different person. He’s really funny. I think everyone had the time of their lives.
We had a few parties in the run-up to the end of the tour, and the wrap party itself was good fun. A few people from our management and record label came down, as well as our friends and family, so there was a good group of us. I stayed at the party until four in the morning, and I had to leave the hotel at five to get to the airport to fly home, so I didn’t get any sleep at all. You can imagine how tired I was the next day.
It wasn’t a crazy party. All we were doing was sitting around talking and saying how much we were going to miss each other. And we still do miss each other. We’ve stayed in touch with loads of people from the tour on BBM and Twitter, because we were a really tight group and we’ll never have that particular experience again.
Afterwards I went on holiday to Spain with my dad and my best friend Sean. We know a few people out there and we met up with them, so it was a good laugh. Sean had his exams coming up and I decided he needed a break, so I paid for him to come and he loved it. It was great to spend all that time with my dad, too, because I didn’t see much of him during the tour. We went to the beach a lot, and hung out by the pool, and we also found an Irish pub to eat in. It was great. Every time I go home I love to chill out with my family or just go out with my friends in town and stuff.
We had such a funny experience one day a few weeks after the tour. Zayn, Liam and I were all in Tesco somewhere—I can’t even remember where it was because we were on our way somewhere in the car and just stopped off—and there was a guy in the line in front of us with a hat on like Matt Cardle’s. We were joking about Matt being in the line and all of a sudden this guy turned around and it was him! It was so random. What are the chances of that happening?
After the tour we carried on working on the album, and getting to work with world-renowned producers who have worked with some of the best artists in the world was an amazing experience. Going to Sweden was incredible, and of course going to LA again was what we’d been waiting for. We had some meetings with some big people, and we carried on working on some of the songs we’d started on the first time we were there.
Our aim with the album was to re-create the boy band soun
d, do something no one else is doing at the moment, and of course enjoy the recording process. We didn’t want to be sitting on stools and singing ballads. We wanted some big songs that would surprise people. The way the co-writing worked was that we would sit around and come up with ideas together. We wanted to be a part of the writing process, because of course you can walk into a studio and record a song, but you may not know what it’s about. It makes a huge difference to be able to sing something that you’ve helped to create. We said from the word go that we wanted to be really involved, and we were very lucky that we got that chance.
Doing the book signings for the Forever Young book was unbelievable. So many people came along and it was so loud that I came out with a headache. There wasn’t a single moment where it was quiet. The support the fans showed us was brilliant. I was given seven pairs of large plastic Shamrock glasses.
We love being able to go places and meet fans, and we also like doing press things like photo shoots and interviews. We’ve been on TV shows and all sorts, and the more we do, the more we feel like we’re getting stronger as a band.
THE FUTURE’S BRIGHT
I didn’t realize how many fans we had until we went on the tour. They were literally everywhere we went, and as soon as they found out where we were staying they would be there. Sometimes there were around 600 fans waiting outside for us when we left to go to the venue. When we were in Dublin they had to close off the whole street, and all the fans were singing “Forever Young” at the tops of their voices outside. It was amazing. Harry was taking video of some of it, and we were equally amazed when we saw those scenes again. I’ve been to see bands like The Script and Westlife in Dublin, but I’d never seen anything like that before.
One Direction: Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction Page 8
