The world's youngest boy band, One Direction, gets into unplugged mode on the eve of the launch of their debut album, Up All Night

For nearly two decades, boy bands have been loved and hated with equal intensity. But they don't get any younger than this. One Direction, the claimant to the title of the youngest boy band in the world has been taking the world of teenage screaming fans by storm with their songs about beautiful girls and love.



Louis Tomlinson (20), Zayn Malik (19), Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Niall Horan (all 18) came together to form One Direction, selected by none other than reality show judge Simon Cowell and singer Nicole Scherzinger on UK's X Factor. The band was born when all the members failed to qualify till the finals as soloist.
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As a group, these young lads (then 16-year-olds) raked up a major fan following in the UK and came in third at the show. Their single What Makes You Beautiful topped UK's charts and the album Up all Night followed.
The album is slotted for its all-India release today. Excerpts from the interview.

Each of you had auditioned solo for X Factor. How did it the idea of working as a group emerge?
One Direction: X Factor gave us the X Factor moment. We were solo performers, who barely made it through the boot camp stage. When we were about to pack up and leave, we were brought together as the show's youngest ever boy band.
Liam: The first thing that struck me was that we don't know each other. How are we going to make this work? It was a shot in the dark.
Zayn: It was unbelievable for me to be part of this group. I never wanted to be in a group. But as time passed I came to know the lads a bit; we simply went with the flow since then.