In One Direction, Louis Tomlinson was `the kid at the back´. Now, with his first solo album and his own record label, he´s taking the spotlight and learning to trust himselfComing out of a dissolving boy band must be a bit like being an entrant in one of those dystopian jungle fights - a Hunger Games-style event in which bandmates are scattered across an unknown terrain and challenged to slog their lonely route back to fame. Justin Timberlake, after NSync, enjoyed the unsporting edge of natural talent and crushed his former colleagues. Robbie Williams looked supreme in the Take That scrimmage, at least until Gary Barlow circled back, gathered up the other three, and made the fight a more compelling four-on-one. By the time One Direction announced they were to go on indefinite hiatus in 2015, many of us were familiar enough with the conventions of boy-band bloodsport to start picking favourites for the coming melee.Harry Styles - charming, a grinner - was best placed to succeed on his own. Big-lunged Zayn Malik was already out of the band by that time and had used his head start to good effect, preparing a solo album that went to No 1. Liam Payne and Niall Horan - always second-tier members - were given middling chances. And ranked last in any serious analysis, the most fitfully appreciated member of One Direction, was Louis Tomlinson. Here was a combatant you might expect to find curled up in a fox hole on the battlefield, pale and chain-smoking and wondering how much he really wanted in on such an unequal fight. Continue reading...
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