One Direction

Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction


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when the Black Eyed Peas single ‘I Gotta Feeling’ came out in 2009 it was the song of the summer. When everyone heard it, it reminded them of all the good times they’d had. We wanted our first single to be like that and be the song that everyone would remember.

      The people we got to work with on the album were incredible. Steve Robson is very, very talented and has worked with James Morrison and Take That and all sorts of people. Working with RedOne and Rami was very cool too because they’re legendary. It feels so odd to be working in all of these studios that we would never have even dreamed of walking into before we were in the band. It was quite surreal.

      Having our first book go to number one in the book charts was also pretty unbelievable. We were excited about it being out there and hoped that some fans would buy it, but we didn’t realise just how many would get it. It was a complete shock and really exciting. The fans that came along to the book signings were incredible. I got given a lot of turtles because I once said I liked them, and it’s so cool when people remember little things you’ve said and chat to you about them.

      We’ve done so many brilliant things this year. Filming the documentary was an interesting experience, but we are used to the cameras now so we all felt pretty chilled out about it. Photo shoots are always cool too. Even though we’ve done them before, each time it feels like a new experience.

      Going on the Alan Titchmarsh show was a good laugh, because it’s one of those shows that everyone has seen. And he was a really nice guy. That was the first proper TV thing we did after The X Factor, so it’s one that we’ll always remember.

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      LOOKING FORWARD

      One of the surprising things about being in the band is how committed fans are to us. Some of them came to loads of dates on the tour. People still don’t expect you to recognise them, though. There was a girl who was in our hotel one day who had been on loads of the tour, and she was really shocked that we’d remembered her name and knew who she was – but of course we do. We remember people just like anyone else would, and it’s nice to have the chance to get to know them properly.

      I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to the press attention. It still feels very strange when I pick up a newspaper and something has been written about me. It sometimes feels like I’m reading about someone else. But as long as people carry on writing nice things about us I don’t mind.

      As a band, we’re having the absolute best time ever. We’ve become better friends than I could ever have imagined and it’s so nice to have four other lads to share this experience with. If ever one of us is down the others pick him up, and we’ve got really good at coming up with ideas and putting things into practice as a group. I think we’re going to get tighter and tighter as time goes on.

      Out of all the things that we have coming up, what we’re most excited about is getting out on the One Direction tour. We can see a lot more of the fans and they can see us performing our songs. It’s down to us to show what we’re all about, and we’re looking forward to doing exactly that.

      We’ve got a lot of big dreams. We want to have number ones, travel a lot, go back to America and have as much fun as possible. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

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      QUICKFIRE

      DOB: 1/02/1994

      STAR SIGN: Aquarius

      favourite …

      FILM: Love Actually, The Notebook, Titanic – there are so many (but I tell everyone it’s Fight Club)

      BODY PART: My hands, because I’ve always been told that they’re soft

      FOOD: I love sweetcorn

      ALBUM: 21 by Adele

      FRIEND: Louis Tomlinson

      CELEBRITY LADY: Frankie Sandford

      SHOP: Selfridges

      DRINK: I’ve been trying to just drink water but I love apple juice

      COLOUR: Orange

      TV SHOW: Family Guy

      AFTERSHAVE: Blue by Chanel

      PERFUME: Alien by Thierry Mugler

      COMPUTER GAME: Fifa

      IPHONE APP: Texts From Last Night, where people send in texts that people have sent them when they’re drunk. My friend Ali and I send good ones to each and some of them are so funny

      WAY TO SPEND A SUNDAY: Asleep or chilling out

      DATE VENUE: Restaurant

      COUNTRY: England

      RESTAURANT: TGI Fridays

      WAY TO RELAX: I love getting massages because I’ve always had a really bad back

      MODE OF TRANSPORT: Dog sleigh

      NIGHT OUT: Going for dinner with all of my mates

      BAND: The Beatles, Queen

      WHAT COLOUR IS YOUR DUVET COVER? Brown or pink and blue

      WHAT KIND OF PANTS DO YOU WEAR? Boxer shorts. I like Calvin Klein

      FIRST PET: A dog called Max

      DO YOU LIKE YOUR OWN COMPANY OR OTHER PEOPLE’S? The company of people. I like being around friends and family

      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.

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      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 round, 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 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 per cent 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 footballs 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