One Direction’s Week in Review: 12/5
The band is on a break, but the boys aren’t.
One Direction last performed together on a Sunday night, Dec. 13th, 2015, on the season finale of the British iteration of “The X Factor.” They sang a single from their fifth album, accepted accolades from Simon Cowell and others, and then vanished into the night to begin a hiatus with no end-date. Between them, in the months since they last took the stage, they have officially announced very little — two solo record deals, the birth of a child, the founding of a golf management company. But each week they are out in the world, doing things, going places. This is what we know.
On Wednesday, Johannah Deakin, mother of Louis Tomlinson, died in Sheffield, England. The cause was leukemia. The mother of seven was 42. On Friday, Dan Deakin, Tomlinson’s stepfather, released a statement announcing the death, thanking her doctors, and asking for privacy for the family; it was also confirmed that Tomlinson would debut his first solo performance on Saturday night at “The X-Factor.” The Daily Mail reported that the performance had been previously scheduled.
On Saturday, Tomlinson tweeted, “All the support has been incredible! Let’s do this together tonight.” That night, in the last minutes of “The X-Factor,” he and Steve Aoki took the stage at Wembley Stadium in London to perform “Just Hold On,” a moving club dirge in honor of his mother (“The sun goes down and it comes back up / The world it turns no matter what /If it all goes wrong /Darling, just hold on”). After the performance, Simon Cowell gave a short speech expressing his admiration for Tomlinson, who held back tears and blew a kiss skyward.
Tomlinson later tweeted, “That was harder than I ever imagined. I want to thank everyone around me and all of the amazing fans out there that made that so special!” and “Feeling so much love around me and my family . Mum would have been so fucking proud ( sorry for swearing mum 😝) love you !” and “Also @steveaoki, you have been such a rock and inspiration throughout this ! Pure talent and a real gent !”
On Monday, he Instagrammed a shot from the performance, writing, “Thank you for the incredible support :)”
On Friday, Niall Horan performed at Jingle Ball in New York and and then flew to London, where, on Saturday, he was spotted backstage at “The X-Factor.” Earlier, he publicly offered his condolences on Twitter (“Very sad news . Louis I love you mate and I’m / all of us are here for you all the way . You’re mum was an incredible person .” and “Thinking of you and your family .love from my family to yours.”).
Liam Payne spent the week in Los Angeles working on his solo album. At some point, he flew to London, where he was also spotted backstage at “The X-Factor.” He publicly offered his condolences via a screenshot of the Notes app (“just know i love you the same from a million miles away as i do right next to you”).
Harry Styles, in London since last week, was on Wednesday seen buying a book at Daunt Books, Diptyque candles at Selfridges and, later, leaving Gucci with 15 bags. On Saturday, he was also spotted backstage at “The X-Factor.” The evening marked the first time the boys have been publicly in the same place since they last performed together — also on “The X-Factor,” exactly one year ago.
Notable Adjacent News
Also in attendance at “The X-Factor”: Lou Teasdale, former hairstylist of the band; Gemma Styles, sister of Harry Styles; Anne Twist, mother of Styles; Lottie, Fizzie, Daisy, and Phoebe Tomlinson Deakin, sisters of Tomlinson; Dan Deakin, stepfather of Tomlinson; Karen and Geoff Payne, parents of Liam Payne; Tomlinson entourage members Oli Wright, Calvin Rodgers, Stan Lucas, Nizam Kabir, and Hot Luke.
Ben Winston, former One Direction music video director and executive producer of “The Late Late Show,” and his wife Meredith Winston welcomed a baby girl last week. Niall Horan met her on Thursday. Her name is Ruby.
