Liam Payne recalls ‘rowdy’ early days of One Direction: ‘In hotel rooms, plates would be thrown out the window’

‘It was crazy to be involved with this group,’ says singer

Liam Payne has been looking back on the early days of One Direction, who formed 10 years ago today.

The group – which consists of Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik – were formed on The X Factor in 2010.

All five members had auditioned separately before judges Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger asked them to compete as a collective.

Speaking on Capital Breakfast about his earliest memories of being in the band, who went on extended hiatus in 2018, Payne said: "It was crazy to be involved with this group of really rowdy boys. For me, I'd never really had that many loud – like, all my friends are quite quiet – but then you'd put Louis and Zayn into a room and it used to go off all the time."

He continued: "I remember being in hotel rooms and plates were being thrown out the window, mattresses down the stairs. It was a crazy, crazy time and a lot to get used to.”

Payne, who was 16 years old when the band formed, also spoke about how naive he was at the time.

He said: "At first I don't know why it was so confusing to me that Niall was from Ireland, because I was thinking, 'How is this going to work, he's from like a whole other country, he's not even from nearby, how is this going to happen?!'"

"Then I remember we had a conversation straight off the bat, we decided to measure each other's heights because that's how it would be in photos of who would be in the middle... we were so young though."

The band found global success in 2012 with the release of debut single “What Makes You Beautiful”.

Since 2010, the group have released five studio albums, which featured hit songs including “Best Song Ever”, “Story of My Life” and “Kiss You”.

Here are the essential tracks to mark 10 years since band's X Factor formation.