Читать книгу Harry Styles & Niall Horan: The Biography - Choose Your Favourite Member of One Direction - Sarah Oliver - Страница 36

In week eight – Rock week – Simon didn’t choose the song ‘Summer of ’69’ for the boys to sing, Harry did! He picked it because it was the first song that he ever performed with his band, White Eskimo. It means a lot to him and he thought One Direction could do a great version. He also chose The Lion King song, ‘Something About the Way You Look Tonight’, for Elton John week (week six) because it’s a song he really loves.

After sailing through the semi-final after nine long weeks (and 11 amazing performances) the boys made it to the final, along with Matt Cardle, Cher Lloyd and Rebecca Ferguson. Harry’s whole family were ecstatic; they’d been to every live show to cheer him on and put up with butterflies in their stomachs every Sunday night while they waited to hear if One Direction were in the bottom two or whether they’d be staying in for another week. Gemma was so proud of Harry that she didn’t want to take off the special wristband she was given each week, but she had to in the end because her arm was full of them! She kept the week one wristband on, though.

In the days leading up to the final they got to visit home, and for Harry that meant going back to Holmes Chapel. The head teacher of Hermitage Primary School, Helen Jarrold, was so excited she allowed all the pupils from the school to walk down in their class groups to the village so they could support Harry; the cameras filmed at the school as the children waved flags they had made. Afterwards, they put up photos on the school website and had them up on a flat screen in the school’s entrance for any visitors or parents to see.

In the final they sang ‘Your Song’, ‘She’s the One’ and ‘Torn’. Sadly for Harry and the rest of One Direction they didn’t win the show but finished in third place. The boys were all gutted and although they didn’t cry on stage they shed plenty of tears afterwards. They really thought they were going to be the X Factor winners for 2010, but it wasn’t to be.

The band might have been gutted that they lost but they didn’t have much time to think about what was going to happen next because Simon Cowell told them to meet him in his office – and offered them an amazing £2-million recording contract with Syco, his record label. The actual winner of X Factor, Matt Cardle, only got a £1-million contract – so to be offered a £2-million contract was awesome. They couldn’t tell anyone but Anne must have guessed when she saw Harry beaming from ear to ear that night. If he hadn’t got a record deal, he definitely wouldn’t have been in the mood to party.

Harry and the boys got to go home for Christmas, but they had to move permanently to London. There was no way Harry was going to college to do his A-levels! The boys knew that 2011 was to be an amazing year for them and they were looking forward to going on The X Factor Live Tour to perform at major arenas in the UK and Ireland. Before they went on the tour the boys were flown out to Los Angeles to start working on their album. There was no time to waste because their fans couldn’t wait to rush out and buy their music.

It was strange for Harry to go from freezing England to sunny America; he didn’t need his coats and sweaters, that’s for sure. The boys weren’t recognised abroad so they could chill out by the hotel swimming pool or go shopping if they had some free time; they could do the things that would now have been impossible in London.

After less than a week of recording, they had to fly back home as there were some important tour rehearsals for the X Factor Live Tour that they couldn’t afford to miss. They would be performing for up to 20,000 people on some nights and the stage was massive, so they had a lot to learn in a relatively short space of time. The performances would be a lot more physical than their X Factor performances as they had to do some dance routines, which had to be learnt before the first night in Birmingham’s LG Arena on 19 February. They would also be singing one song they hadn’t performed before, ‘Forever Young’, as well as ‘Only Girl’, ‘Chasing Cars’, ‘Kids in America’ and ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’.

On the opening night Louis told the audience, ‘Can you believe, five months ago we didn’t even know each other, so thank you for making this happen. Thank you.’ To come onstage and see fans holding up One Direction banners was something our favourite boy band will never forget. The tour got really good reviews, with theTelegraph reviewer noting that, ‘The main draw for the girl-dominated crowd were Cowell-mentored boy band One Direction. Hysterical screams greeted their every move. Hyperventilating ensued when they ran through the crowd. When cheekily cherubic heart-throb Harry Styles danced to the front, squeals reached fever pitch. The merchandise sellers knew their market – judging by their stalls, you’d think this was a One Direction concert.’

As soon as the tour dates had been announced many teachers, parents and pupils from Harry’s old primary school had booked tickets. Mrs Jarrold wrote in her head teacher’s blog on Saturday, 12 March 2011: ‘What an evening we had at the MEN Arena watching the X Factor tour and of course One Direction. I know many of you went to the show in the afternoon and the evening one too. We all felt very proud and happy for Harry Styles!’