One Direction: Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction (10 page)

Every song we did that week was sung in unison and we tried some terrible harmonies, which is funny looking back. We really didn’t know what we were doing, but I think it was really important for us to have that time together before Judges’ Houses. It would have been so hard to go to Spain as a five-piece band when we didn’t even know each other and had barely performed together.

Going out to Marbella was another really good time for us. We all bonded even more and it was so nice being in the sun. We had fun, ate a lot of pizza and because Niall can speak really good Spanish, he could translate things for us.

Even though Simon Cowell is one of the most famous people you can meet I never felt starstruck by him, because he makes you feel so comfortable.

The low point for me during our time in Spain was when I got stung by a sea urchin. My foot swelled up incredibly, it was embarrassing to be seen hobbling along, and the first time I was shown on screen it looked absolutely massive. The timing wasn’t exactly great.

Getting through to the live shows was an amazing feeling, and we were all on a massive high on the flight home. But we didn’t celebrate or anything because we were sharing the flight with all of the people who didn’t get through as well as those who did, and the last thing we wanted to do was rub people’s faces in it when everyone had worked so hard.

We all got to go back home for a little while before we moved into the contestants’ house, and my granddad took me shopping for clothes again so I had some new things to wear. I was so excited about seeing where we were going to be living because I knew it would be great, and it was.

We didn’t get to spend as much time in the house as I’d have liked because we were so busy, but the time we did have there was such a laugh and we played a lot of table tennis.

Obviously there were times when things did get a bit much. When you’ve got five guys sharing one tiny room you can imagine what it’s like. We had the smallest room in the house so sometimes when we were tired it could be a bit awkward. I did miss my own bed at times, and when things got really
manic I missed my old life and friends. But I would not change anything that’s happened for the world.

I’m a complete mommy’s boy and I have a really good relationship with my mom, but we were kept so busy I didn’t get time to miss home that much. I did speak to my family a lot on the phone, and I got to see them every week on the show, so that made things a lot easier.

The first week of the show was something I’ll never forget. What an experience! The whole thing was amazing. My favorite performance of all was “Torn,” and it was brilliant meeting Robbie Williams. He’s such a hero of mine—I’m a massive fan—and he lived up to all of my expectations. Michael Bublé is also a really nice guy, and being around Cheryl Cole wasn’t a bad thing either. She was so lovely to us. I honestly can’t think of one bad thing to say about the whole experience. And at the end of it, of course, we landed a record deal. Although we may not have won the competition, we still feel like we’ve done ourselves proud.

IT’S CHRIIIIIIISTMAS!

We only had about four or five days off for Christmas, but we didn’t mind that because it was a really exciting time. I had a little bit of money to spend on presents for the family, and it was so nice that I could splash out a bit.

It’s my birthday on Christmas Eve so we had some family around during the day and then I went to see my friends in the evening, but I didn’t do anything too crazy. I was quite tired and I wanted to take the time off to relax.

The fact that I was better known now didn’t make it feel any different from any other Christmas, although I guess I appreciated being at home more because
I’d been away for so long. As presents I got things like clothes, some money, a laptop bag and an iPod. I did well! But I still had to help clean up and do other things around the house, so nothing had changed.

We didn’t talk endlessly about the show. I think my elder sisters found it weird that I’d been on the show and friends of theirs at school were asking for autographs, but I don’t think the twins really understood it fully because they’re still quite young.

Being back there brought home to me how much my life had changed in such a short space of time. I’m so lucky that I got into the band because I don’t know how I would have managed to get through my A-levels. I didn’t have the motivation to do them, but with the band I’m so motivated that I’m constantly working on stuff and thinking up ideas. I’m so passionate about it. I’d go as far as to say that I’m really organized with the band, and I’ve never been organized with anything in my life!

I kept in touch with the boys by text a lot over Christmas, and Harry and I spoke over the phone a few times. The guys also got in touch to say happy birthday, which was so nice. All of our families are friends now too, and my mom and Harry’s have become really close. During the tour they even came to the Newcastle gig together for my mom’s birthday.

When I got back to Doncaster I heard that a few guys I knew were talking about me behind my back and saying that I didn’t deserve to be where I was. Certainly I’ve had a lot of luck to be in the place I am now, but at the end of the day I worked really, really hard, so regardless of whether or not they think I’m good enough, I am here for a reason.

A few fans came over to the house while I was home for Christmas, and people go to my granddad’s house and knock on his door sometimes. I just feel bad if
I’m not there. One time some people waited eight hours for me, but I was out all day so I missed them, and I felt terrible.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get fully used to the attention from the fans. It’s been happening for a while now so we are getting a bit more used to it, and we appreciate the support so much, but it’s still easy to forget that people know who you are. Even if you pop out to the shop at 11:30 at night after a busy day you can find that people are taking pictures of you, and that’s a very strange feeling.

Things I never used to think twice about doing I now have to give thought to. Even the simple things like going to buy toiletries. Mainly we just have to be a bit careful if we go somewhere that’s busy, because things can be totally calm one minute, and then it can go a bit crazy.

I spent New Year’s just going out with my friends and I had a really good laugh. Most of my friends don’t treat me any differently from how they always have, and that’s so important to me. They mean a lot to me and I would hate our friendships to change.

We all loved having some time off, but we knew we had a record deal so we were all excited about getting back to work and seeing what was around the corner.

NEW YEAR, NEW CHALLENGES

When we went back to work we knew we had a busy January ahead of us, and we were all ready for it. I’d had a really good rest, but I missed performing live and I was kind of itching to get back into it. Now we had some gigs coming up, so I was really looking forward to getting back out there and seeing all the fans.

January was also spent talking about plans for the future, and we were all set to start working on our album, so whenever we had a spare moment we were coming up with ideas about how we wanted it to sound and what kind of influences we wanted in there. We all knew that we wanted to be as involved in it as we could. That meant a lot of song writing, so we would bounce ideas off each other a lot.

When we were on
The X Factor
we absolutely loved being in the recording studio, so we were really excited about getting back in there. The studio is a great place to be because we get to hang out with each other, and we always get to order in good takeout. As anyone who knows us will know, we like our food. Then we heard that we were going to be heading to LA for work, which was a massive surprise, but a brilliant one. One of the first things I thought about, I admit, was how good the shopping would be over there. I love buying clothes, so I was already mentally planning what I would buy.

We went over for five days, of which we spent two traveling, so we were quite tired for some of it, but being in the sun made me feel much more energized and we made the most of the time we had. When we finally got to go shopping I was actually a bit disappointed. I bought a few things but I can get my Toms in England and that’s the most important thing!

While we were there we went for dinner with a big producer called Max Martin, which was a bit daunting. He looked like a really normal guy with jeans and t-shirt, but we were still quite intimidated. We also recorded a track over there with RedOne’s team and it feels very cool to say that we went to LA to record.

When we flew back from LA we had one of the best fan moments we’ve ever had. We had hundreds of fans waiting for us at the airport. We had to run through them all to try and get to our cars, but there was no chance of getting away. There’s only one way out of the airport terminal and that’s where everyone
was waiting, and as much as we wanted to see the fans it would have been crazy to try to go out there and sign autographs.