One Direction | Brighton Centre | 8 January 2012

A review by Gary Marlowe

They’d been screaming for hours. Hundreds of young girls. Most were holding home made banners and many sporting painted ‘1D’s’ on their faces.  All had come to see their heroes in the flesh. And this was even before they’d been allowed into the venue. Some had been outside, waiting in the January cold, since early that morning. That shows the devotion Directioners, as 1D fans refer to themselves, have for Britain’s most popular boy band. Once inside, even the two support acts struggled to be heard over the screams. By the time One Direction took the stage, it was reminiscent of the scenes we associate from the early days of The Beatles. So how did Harry, Liam, Nialll, Louis and Zayn fare?  Well, the answer to that is...surprisingly well. Bearing in mind, this was their first ever tour, they put on a remarkably good show. And, unlike a lot of bands, they really did put on a show.  Admittedly, they only had an album’s worth of material, so they included a few covers, notably, Kings of Leon’s ‘Use Somebody’ and they needed quite a few filmed sequences to cover several costume changes. But everything they did, they did well. They sang well (all five had their moments in the spotlight) they connected with their audience (even using Twitter to respond to questions) and they appeared to really enjoy themselves. All n all, it was the epitome of a thoroughly modern concert. A band manufactured from a TV talent show, a fan base built through the adroit use of social media and a feel-good stage show that felt at times like a Boden catalogue come to life (it was themed to the seasons, with clips of the boys cycling in an English summer garden and breakfasting in an Alpine chalet)  And unlike boy bands before them, they’re not about choreographed moves or key changes, there’s a lot more spontaneity about their performance. But above all, One Direction showed they’re not going to be one hit wonders. They’ve got better than average pop songs, some of which they’ve written themselves, and they can all sing. They may well be huge already, but for them, one thing’s for sure, the only direction they’re heading is to the top!