Читать книгу Harry Styles & Niall Horan: The Biography - Choose Your Favourite Member of One Direction - Sarah Oliver - Страница 15

If you try to find Harry on Facebook you won’t be able to find him because he had to delete his account once his X Factor audition had been shown on TV. He did try to set up a secret account after the band started touring but ended up having to delete that as well because fans and journalists found out. He doesn’t mind sharing things on Twitter but he wanted to have a private Facebook page so that he could just be Harry from Holmes Chapel and chat to his old mates. He might try again in the future and only tell a handful of people about it.

Harry might have impressed at his first audition but he knew he had to raise his game at the bootcamp stage if he was going to progress. More than 200 people had made it through to the bootcamp round, which was held at Wembley Arena in London over five days in July 2010.

Harry arrived nice and early on the morning of 22 July; he couldn’t afford to be late because he had to register and then prepare for the first challenge. On arrival, he was told to stand with the other boys who had made it through as the judges wanted everyone in four categories: Boys, Girls, Over-25s and Groups. Harry didn’t have a clue about his closest competition; up until that point none of their first auditions had been aired on TV. It must have been quite isolating because he didn’t have his family and friends there to support him.

Harry and the rest of the boys were told to rehearse Michael Jackson’s ‘Man In The Mirror’, the girls were given Beyoncé’s track, ‘If I Were A Boy’, the over-25s sang Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ and the groups were given ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ by Starship. All of the singers knew they had to come up with their own interpretation of the song, or risk Simon telling them they were karaoke singers or just mimicking the original artists.

Harry must have felt under so much pressure when Simon said, ‘By the end of the day, half of you are going home. Today, you’re going to be put in your categories and you’re going to sing one song. There are literally no second chances today.’ Harry didn’t want to return to Holmes Chapel early, he didn’t want his dreams to be over.

For the first challenge, Simon was going to be judging them alongside Louis Walsh. Louis had already said that he felt Harry was too young and had said no in his first audition. Now Harry had to do his best to blow him away and make him change his mind otherwise it could all be over.

In forcing everyone to sing the same song, Simon was putting them under pressure to see who was good enough – he wanted them to be able to learn the words off by heart, and put in an amazing performance on top of that. In the past Harry had learnt lots of songs by heart for White Eskimo but they had been mostly rock songs. Some of the stronger singers from the first auditions couldn’t cope under the pressure and failed to sing in tune or remember the lines. Dermot O’Leary was shocked that some of those singers had no idea how badly they had done and would talk to him afterwards as if they had nailed it. Harry wasn’t one of them, he had put in a solid performance, and Dermot must have been impressed. After being told that he had made it through to Bootcamp Day Two, Harry was so relieved.

Harry and some of the other contestants had a bit of a celebration that night but Harry didn’t stay up too late; he needed to be fresh for the morning. As soon as he arrived at Wembley the next day he was told to go on the stage with the other singers. Simon and Louis then revealed a twist: they were going to be taught how to dance by one of the best choreographers in the business, Brian Friedman. Brian has worked with Britney Spears, Beyoncé Knowles, Usher, Mariah Carey and many more top artists, so Harry and the rest of the singers felt very privileged.

Brian wanted to reassure the contestants. ‘I don’t want you to be scared,’ he told them. ‘What we are going to work on is your stage presence and choreography.’ Simon just wanted to see how the singers handled the challenge he had set them and he wasn’t going to eliminate someone if they were not very good at dancing; he just wanted to see them give it a try. Harry was keen to learn and picked the routine up quite quickly, laughing and joking behind the scenes. He had never had dance lessons before but you couldn’t tell because he moved so well. If you want to see him practising, go on YouTube and search ‘Harry Styles dancing at bootcamp’.

Harry hadn’t properly met Liam, Louis, Niall or Zayn at this point, but he did stand behind Zayn during their performance in front of the judges. Zayn was a lot less confident and had initially refused to dance because he didn’t want to look like an idiot on TV. Simon had gone behind the scenes and convinced him to give it a go, telling him he would regret it if he didn’t at least try. It’s a good job Zayn took Simon’s advice: One Direction might have been made up of four members instead of five.

Although Harry was doing well, he was conscious that his dream could be over any minute. ‘As you go through bootcamp you kind of realise how big the prize is,’ he explained during a backstage interview. ‘So being here the last few days has made me realise how much I wanna stay – I really don’t want to go home now.’

Simon and Louis were joined by a third judge on the third day: former Pussycat Dolls’ singer Nicole Scherzinger. She was replacing Cheryl Cole, who was recovering from malaria and had been too ill to attend bootcamp for the first two days. Nicole had been impressed with Harry when he sang ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ in the first audition, so he must have been excited to see her back. However, Nicole might have liked Harry first time around but he was going to have to impress her even more if he was to get through to the judges’ houses round; there were so many talented singers still left in the competition.

Harry and the rest of the contestants had been expecting to perform in front of a live audience in the final days of bootcamp, but X Factor producers decided that because Cheryl wasn’t going to be there they would cancel the live element of the bootcamp week. They tweeted on the official X Factor Twitter: ‘Due to the unusual circumstances, we are not inviting an audience to watch the contestants perform at The X Factor bootcamp.’ Thousands of fans were gutted as they’d been looking forward to seeing the performances. This must have been disappointing for Harry, too, because he loves performing in front of a crowd, and had been boosted by their cheers before he started singing at his first audition.

Harry and the rest of the contestants had 40 songs to choose from for their last performance at bootcamp, and they had been practising hard since the third day. Everyone wanted to choose the perfect song for themselves, which was a big test – they didn’t want to go for something that lots of other people would pick, or something that wasn’t challenging enough. Harry chose ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’ by Oasis. He didn’t know it at the time but Liam had chosen the same song! Sadly Harry’s performance was never shown on TV, so fans can only see Liam perform his version on YouTube.

The final, fifth day of bootcamp was the most nerve-wracking for the surviving contestants. They had seen so many people leave the competition and were dreading the moment when they would be called onstage. The vast majority felt sick and had hardly slept; they just had to wait and see who Simon, Nicole and Louis decided to put through. The judges were going to take their time and make sure they got it right, so it meant waiting around for hours.

In previous series of The X Factor the judges put six acts in each category through to the judges’ houses round, but for the 2010 series they decided to put through a total of 32 (eight in each category). This was good news for Harry as he had more chance of getting through.

Nicole, Simon and Louis had such a hard task ahead of them; the standard was so high that they decided to increase the age of the over-25s category so that it became the over-28s. They thought that by doing this the talented 20-somethings could be more evenly spread out. This meant that Harry was up against more people than he originally thought, and there were now 30 remaining boys (including himself).

By the time the boys were called onto the stage tensions were running high. No one wanted to go home but they knew that 22 of them would be. Simon started by calling out the first name. Harry must have felt sick to the stomach, desperate for his name to be called out.

Simon announced: ‘The first person through to the judges’ houses is… John Wilding.’

Nicole was next: ‘Nicolo Festa.’

Then Louis: ‘Paije Richardson.’

Simon: ‘Aiden Grimshaw.’

Louis: ‘Marlon McKenzie.’

Louis: ‘Karl Brown.’

Nicole: ‘Matt Cardle.’

With one final place up for grabs Harry’s heart must have been beating so fast.

Simon: ‘The final contestant who’s made it through is Tom Richards. That’s it, guys – I’m really sorry.’

The 22 boys who hadn’t made it walked offstage. Harry was devastated, thinking that his hard work over the week was all for nothing. ‘I’m really gutted,’ he cried into his hat. Liam was welling up, telling Dermot O’Leary, ‘I just don’t want to go home, I just don’t want to go.’ Niall was inconsolable, telling the camera, ‘Standing there, waiting for your name to be called – and then it’s not.’ Harry hid his face under his sweater and moved away from the camera; he didn’t want to talk any more.

The boys got ready to leave, but before they could go a member of staff came and called our five favourite lads back. Harry covered his face in shock, thinking that maybe things weren’t over after all. They were asked to go back on the stage with Esther Campbell, Rebecca Creighton, Sophia Wardman and Geneva Lane. None of them knew what was happening, but they didn’t have long to wait. Nicole spoke first, saying, ‘Hello, thank you so much for coming back. Judging from some of your faces, this is really hard. We’ve thought long and hard about it, and we’ve thought of each of you as individuals, and we just feel that you’re too talented to let go of. We think it would be a great idea to have two separate groups.’

Simon then suggested that they should form groups and might meet again in the future, before adding, ‘We’ve decided to put you both through. This is a lifeline – you’ve got to work 10, 12, 14 hours a day, every single day, and take this opportunity. You’ve got a real shot here, guys.’

Up until then, Harry and the rest of the boys had been thinking that the judges wanted them to re-audition the following year. Getting a pass to the judges’ houses round was unbelievable, as they hadn’t even sung together yet. They had to decide, though, whether they wanted to become a band, as they’d all wanted to be solo artists to begin with.

Harry knew straight away that he wanted to do it; after all, he’d been with White Eskimo and knew that performing with others was great fun. Liam wasn’t sure and wanted to think about it first. After a quick think, he said yes, he was going to give it his all. Zayn, Niall and Louis were all up for it, too, and they weren’t going to let Simon, Nicole and Louis down. They were going to be the best group ever to appear on The X Factor.