In the beginning

      Liam: I first started to sing when I was about six. We used to go to my grandad’s in Cornwall or to holiday camps and I used to sing on the karaoke all the time. I loved singing Oasis, but my favourite track to perform was Robbie Williams’s ‘Angels’. I was in school choirs back home in Wolverhampton as well, and I went to a small local performing arts group called Pink Productions, so I was singing and also dancing.

      I’ve got two older sisters, Nicole, who’s 22, and Ruth, who’s 20. I get on really well with them. They both like performing too, so we used to sing and dance around the house. That sounds a bit ridiculous, doesn’t it?

      I had a really nice upbringing. I come from a typical working-class background. My dad works in a factory, building aeroplanes, and my mum is a nursery nurse. I was planning to go and work in the factory with my dad, to do an apprenticeship, but my dad wasn’t all that keen. He wanted me to sing! I was actually about to start the apprenticeship when I tried out for The X Factor the first time around, so the show kind of got in the way, but in a good way.

      At one stage I wanted to become a boxer. I used to box three times a week, but had to give that up for The X Factor, as you can’t turn up on stage with bruises. I was also the best 1500-metres runner for my age group in Wolverhampton and nearly ran for the country, so becoming an athlete was another career option. I liked the idea of becoming a fireman too. I’ve always liked helping people, so I was going to do the training course when I was 18. But although I was drawn to all of these, music was still my first love.

      I was 14 when I first auditioned for The X Factor back in 2008. I made it all the way to Judges’ Houses with Simon in Barbados and sang Take That’s ‘A Million Love Songs’. But Simon didn’t take me through, because he didn’t think I was ready for it. He said to me at the time, ‘You need to go and get your GCSEs,’ so that’s what I did.

      It was a terrible disappointment, but I was up against a lot of stiff competition. It was the year that Diana Vickers, JLS and Alexandra Burke were in it, so it was a tough year. And looking back, it was probably a good thing I got kicked out, otherwise I wouldn’t be in One Direction now. I love being in a boyband and I think it really suits me. I also don’t know how I would have handled something on that scale at 14. It would have been scary.

      It was tough to go back to school afterwards, though, having been on TV in front of 16 million people. All of a sudden you’re in a Spanish lesson you don’t want to be in, so it’s a bit of a comedown. Not that I ever got bullied because of the show. I was just always the boy who had been on The X Factor, so if anything it was cool.

      For the next couple of years after my first audition I tried to make it on my own as a singer. I went through publishers and producers, but it felt like every time I was getting somewhere it fell through for some reason. You need a lot of time and money, and I wasn’t living in London, which made it even harder.

      I did manage to get some public appearances off the back of The X Factor, though. I’d be singing for 200 people one week, and for 30 thousand people at a football stadium the next. The X Factor definitely opened a lot of doors.

      Liam has been performing on stage from a young age

      Harry as a toddler

      Harry: I grew up in Cheshire and I’ve got one older sister called Jemma, who is 20. We get on pretty well.

      I was quite cheeky at school and got up to a little bit of mischief, but nothing too terrible. I liked to get my work done, but I also liked hanging out with my mates. I was good at English, RE and Drama, I think because they were the subjects I enjoyed most. All I ever wanted was to do something that was well paid. I could never really pinpoint what that would be, though. I really liked the idea of being a singer, but I had no idea how to go about it.

      I started singing in primary

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