Sunday, 22 December 2024
Sunday, 22 December 2024
The year was 2012. A few of us had just gained access to smartphones. You had 2G internet, and recharged your phone every week. Twelve rupees got you 60MB data, valid for 24 hours. If spent judiciously, you downloaded four or five high-quality MP3s of songs.
There was no Spotify then – not for us third-world proles, yet. VH1 and Songslover served as vehicles of cultural osmosis and provided a link between you and international pop songs, and stars who were also in their teenage years at the time.
One Direction was a boy band my generation grew up listening to and with. They released only five albums, but smashed records and gained envious popularity worldwide to the point that some dared argue that 1D were the next-best thing to emerge from Britain after The Beatles.
I’ve just let these little things slip out of my mouth
In the early days, it was always Liam Payne who would sing the opening verses and set the tone for others. As a group of growing lads, their music was ever evolving. But, if someone said ‘One Direction,’ I would always think of What Makes You Beautiful - the single that kicked off an unforgettable journey in 2011.
And it would always be Liam’s flattering lines:
“You’re insecure, don’t know what for
You’re turnin’ heads when you walk through the door
Don’t need makeup to cover up
Bein’ the way that you are is enough”
I’ll love them endlessly: Liam’s dad would boast his little son could sing
In the 2013 documentary This is Us, a group of female fans are asked why they love 1D. “We love them because they sing our feelings. They say what we want to hear and no boys, no one, says to us,” one of them answers.
Another fan says, “I know they love me even though they don’t know me.”
Such was the connection Directioners felt with 1D. 1D songs made you feel wanted and appreciated for who you were.
But when Liam was a kid, he would mostly “imagine things like winning the lottery”. It was his father who recognised Liam’s aptitude for music. “Wherever I went, my dad used to tell people that I could sing,” Liam had recalled.
The boys considered themselves a group of regular guys - “just normal guys, but terrible terrible dancers,” as Louis would joke. Similarly, they embraced and celebrated the beauty in being ordinary. As Liam sung in Little Things:
“I know you've never loved
The crinkles by your eyes when you smile
You've never loved your stomach or your thighs
The dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine
But I'll love them endlessly”
Liam’s mom never thought her son would perform at Madison Square Garden
After The X Factor rejected Liam in 2008, he returned to the show two years later “with a bit of point to prove”. He got a standing ovation from judge Simon Cowell at his audition for his performance of Cry Me a River.
A few years later, when the boy band was performing at Madison Square Garden, the legendary New York venue, Liam Payne’s mother, Karen, was in disbelief.
“I always believed that Liam would make it, but never this big. Never in my wildest dream would I think he’d be this big,” she had said.
“He goes away for so long,” she added with tears in her eyes, referring to the tours he would go on.
Hole in the middle of my heart like a Polo: 300,000 tickets sold in one day
300,000 tickets were sold within a day after the Take Me Home tour was officially announced. There were six sell-out dates only at London’s renowned O2 Arena.
Although “nerve-wrecking,” Liam was excited to tell that he saw Kanye West perform “the other week” at the same venue. “And now, we’re here,” he had added during rehearsals before the tour kicked off.
The boys delivered a memorable performance of their hit Over Again:
“Now she's feeling so low since she went solo
Hole in the middle of my heart like a Polo
And it's no joke to me”
A heart is compared to a polo mint to express the void left by a beloved. A classic One Direction simile.
Nothing can come between you and I: They balanced each other out
During the filming of This is Us, the boys went camping. As they sat around a bonfire they started, Liam had asked his bandmates, “Do you think if one of us wasn’t in the band, the band would be this big?”
All the other four members answered no. “I don’t think so either. I think we balance each other out,” Liam said spontaneously.
Certainly, they did for as long as they were together. Who had ever thought that a few young adults could look so cool in identical sweaters, just walking along the Clevedon Pier?
Winds blowing, billowing hair, acoustic guitar in the background - Nial transitions into Liam, Liam transitions into Harry, and Harry into Zayn. Many faces, one direction. On a personal note, I believe You and I is the most stylish short film the lads ever shot.
And about the song, it was innocently audacious:
“Did they ever hold each other tight like us?
Did they ever fight like us?
You and I, we don't wanna be like them
We can make it 'til the end
Nothing can come between you and I”
You make my heart race: Over 100,000 fans overwhelmed Liam
A total of 107,317 people were in attendance at Foro Sol when One Direction performed in Mexico City in 2013. Hours before the show, Liam got up on the massive stage to catch a glimpse of the arrangement and the fans who had arrived.
He just gasped: “This is mad.”
“This is absolutely mad. I can’t wait to get out here and play. I just wanna get on with it. I really wish my parents were here, actually, to see it.”
Story of my life: One Direction was formed in 10 minutes
Although they initially impressed the judges, the boys were rejected as solo artists. “We were absolutely gutted when we got kicked off,” Liam recalled their feelings.
Soon, judge Simon Cowell, whose record label would later sign the group, made a decision. “I made a decision, and I did this in about 10 minutes. Why don’t we put these five boys into a group?” recalled Cowell.
By 2013, the group matured immensely to release Story of My Life, which has one billion views on YouTube:
“The story of my life, I give her hope
I spend her love until she's broke inside
The story of my life”
Love is spoken of like it is a currency one shall spend. And while most of the words here are monosyllabic to express solitude, “hope” interestingly rhymes with “broke" to denote a promising relationship that ultimately leads to heartbreak.
Now that you think of it, Liam's lines hit hard:
"She told me in the mornin' she don't feel the same about us in her bones
It seems to me that when I die, these words will be written on my stone"
With your love, nobody can drag me down
Zayn Malik was the first one to leave the group. He released his solo album Mind of Mine in 2016. With Zayn and his high notes gone, the band was never the same.
Yet, when Drag Me Down dropped, it seemed like the remaining four were still reassuring the Directioners that the group would gather the strength to stay intact and “make it till the end” - as Liam and Nial’s hook went -
“All my life, you stood by me
When no one else was ever behind me
All these lights, they can't blind me
With your love, nobody can drag me down.”
I wanna write you a song
Although it might not be “the best song ever,” one of the most beautiful tracks was "I Want To Write You A Song” from their last album Made in the A.M. (2015). This was their way of saying goodbye.
Liam’s verse almost sounded like a lullaby here:
“I want to lend you my coat
One that's as soft as your cheek
So when the world is cold
You'll have a hiding place you can go
I want to lend you my coat”
When the group completely broke up in 2015, the members said they were only taking some time off to focus on “individual projects,” and would return in the future. But, with Liam’s tragic death, the prospect of One Direction’s reunion is now gone forever. Say what you will, the band will have a special place in the hearts of thousands.
To reply to those who frown at your love for 1D, you might as well just say:
“If only you saw what I can see…”
