One Direction: Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction (14 page)

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?