They were not the first, won’t be the last, but while it lasted? Ooh boy, it was golden days around One Direction. Or at least those who benefited from their time in the light. Those inside the 1D beast? Hmm, trickier to say.
And so it was they went in many, not just one, direction, with one of those finding a pretty tragic end last week for Liam Payne.
Let’s look to sunnier – if complex in several ways: as we note now it wasn’t long after this tour that Zayn quit the band – times as Wind Back Wednesday returns to the high volume, high energy, high returns 2015 Australian tour by One Direction.
(And see below for a look further back, to their 2012 tour.)
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ONE DIRECTION
Sydney Football Stadium, February 7, 2015
DESPITE WHAT THEIR PARENTS MAY tell them, One Direction fans know that delayed gratification, a.k.a. “waiting for the right time with the right boy”, ain’t ever going to happen. And not just because the right boy – take your pick of Zayn, Harry, Liam, Niall or the one whose name I never remember* - is right here, right now, right in front of them, omigod, totes, way cool, totally rad, bitchen, like dig it baby, crazy (insert your own aged teen speak for full embarrassment as this list dribbles on).
So 1D don’t build up to the screams but enter to a barrage of high pitch sound that would be outdo 1000 flashbombs going off, even before they sing a note in Clouds; don't save the fireworks to the end but slip them in by the fourth song, in this case Midnight Memories (which no doubt was the case a few hours hence); and don’t leave their thankyous until the encore but scatter them regularly through proceedings.
Not that this methodology is new to them or the form, and I don’t mean the way choruses come galloping over the top of verses in songs such as Broken Hearts (like Bon Jovi had set an exam for the class) or wash over you before you notice it in the still buoyant What Makes You Beautiful (like the Grease megamix which played before the show but as performed by Young Talent Time going “rock”).
This is their first – and you would have to think on the basis of the struggling ticket sales for second shows, and the normal life cycle of your genus teenus bandus their last – stadium tour of Australia. At least until the reunion tour in 2030.
But in the time since we first saw them perform in 2012 they’ve released three more albums (an old school pop impresario policy of get ‘em while they’re hot), acquired more tatts than a rugby league team on a Bali bender (“come at me now mr metal band fan, go on, dare ya”) and grown facial hair in line with gossip column inches that might take lesser mortals five or six years of effort to score (hello Zayn!)
In that spirit their show keeps pushing and pushing these songs at you, from Jovi-esque pop rock to ballads (Night Changes creamily telling us nothing will “change me and you”) to slightly R&B pop back to pop rock (guitars!) and onto giddy pop again.
They don’t do harmonies or dance moves, they are pretty ordinary at banter, the most spectacular set move is a raised platform at the end of the long runway and Harry at least sounded quite, refreshed when he did speak. But they sing well - no, really, they do - there’s enough unalloyed pleasure in the stands to shut up the most grumbling grump and we can go home singing Best Song Ever, which is like, sooooo the best song ever.
*It’s Louis. Obviously. He’s just, like, so gorgeous. Apparently.
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