Conor Maynard: I won't kiss & tell

Conor Maynard might be back with a new song about an ex-girlfriend he needs to vent about, but he refuses to name and shame his former lovers.

The Brighton lad, 20, has brought out a bit of attitude with his infectious new tune R U Crazy, but he draws the line at how bad ass he will be.

‘I would never kiss and tell. I’m not that kind of person,’ he told Guilty Pleasures in an exclusive chat.

‘I think everyone has got their crazy ex relationships they need to vent about,’ he said explaining the lyrics of the tune, adding: ‘It’s about the situation where if you try to rekindle a relationship it becomes apparent it’s not going to work.’

While Conor might be keeping mum about his former conquests, he already has the perfect deflection plan should any unscrupulous ladies attempt to accuse him of writing the track about them.

‘I can pass the blame to Labrinth!’ he laughs, name checking the London record producer, adding: ‘I co-wrote the track with him so I can pass it to him and say it was all his idea. That’s my way out.’

Currently single Conor may be licking his wounds following a secret relationship that recently ended badly (‘It’s still a bit fresh’), would be admirers can start lining up as he wouldn’t dismiss a new squeeze in the near future.

‘For me it’s more about a connection,’ he told us, dismissing any preference for blondes over brunettes.

‘If they like the same humour or music, then it can work. The only thing I’m not too keen on is if they are taller than me. I’m five ten – so it can be embarrassing if they have heels on.

Relationships aside, the singer is looking forward to the release of his new single (out in October) and is hoping to match the success of his first album, in the new year.

‘There is a bit of pressure for the second album. You can’t top number 1, you can only match it. But the response for the new single so far has definitely been positive.’

With his debut album being titled Contrast, the star is also considering another pun-tinged title for his follow up.

‘I was thinking about calling the second album Continued, but can I really do that? He laughed, adding: ‘Or Contraception. Only joking.’

[Originally published Metro Guilty Pleasures 28 August 2013]

One Direction: Our tour bus stinks!

If you’ve ever wanted to know exactly what a One Direction star smells like it’s a mix between crisps and damp grass.

Liam, Louis and Zayn have revealed the smells that permeate their tour bus.

‘It sometimes smells of crisps,’ Liam said.

‘And it might smell damp because we always play football,’ added Louis – who was recently signed to Doncaster Rovers.

‘It’s the dew from the grass. It’s got a musky smell,’ he added.

While the band agreed there is a definite ‘man’ scent to the bus in general, Irish band member Niall Horan, 19, added to the conversation by lovingly telling Louis: ‘You smell!’

The band might want to spritz up their rolling quarters by spraying a bit of their debut fragrance, Our Moment, around the bus which finally hits stores this week.

‘There was a fan on Twitter who tweeted about it and started a petition for us to make one, and we thought why not,’ Liam said, revealing the origins of the fragrance.

With its pleasant tones of grapefruit and jasmine (among others), the bottled fragrance has much more of an appeal than the smell of the tour bus – although the boys said a lot of sweat went into creating their signature scent.

‘We’ve never had so many meetings, not even about the album. Not even about anything - to do this it takes so much work,’ Liam said about the creation process.

‘We were heavily involved. You wouldn’t believe,’ Louis added.

Meanwhile 19-year-old Harry Styles added: ‘It’s been a long and exciting process and we’re really proud to have made a One Direction fragrance.’

[Originally published Metro Guilty Pleasures 27 August 2013]

One Direction: Acting is not for us

After making their movie debut, One Direction are split over a future in Hollywood.

Their debut film, This Is Us, hits screens at the end of the month with the fab five’s every move being documented by controversial film maker Morgan Spurlock, but any fans concerned they might not see the real band on the big screen can be rest assured by Zayn.

‘We’re not acting in this film, it’s us. We’re just being ourselves,’ he said.

With Liam saying he would rule out a career as an actor saying ‘I’d be too nervous’ (despite his fair attempt in the Best Song Ever video), fellow singers Louis and Zayn say they might be up for it.

‘It’s something that intrigues me,’ said Louis.

While Zayn said: ‘it’s something I’m interested in but I wouldn’t see that as a direct relation between the movie we’re doing and acting.’

As the documentary follows the bands life on the road it also gives the boys a chance to see what all the fuss is about their stage shows.

‘It’s nice in a way it’s the thing of watching ourselves and we never get to watch our own shows,’ said Louis, adding: ‘so it’s good to see that.’

And while Zayn says he didn’t mind having the cameras following him around for months during the making of the movie, a line had to be drawn somewhere.

‘They’re filming us in our dressing rooms, then going from the dressing room to the stage. But they don’t follow us into the toilet or anything like that.’

[Originally published Metro Guilty Pleasures 27 August 2013]

Liam Payne: An obsessive fan tried to rip off my ear

One Direction saying getting stuck in amongst a throng of hysterical ‘Directioners’ can get a little, er, eerie.  

‘One girl tried to pull my ear off in a shopping centre in Amsterdam,’ said Liam Payne, who recalled the alarming incident while in Europe with the Take Me Home world tour.

‘Sometimes you’re just going through a crowd and they grab what they can. One girl got my ear and just went for it,’ he continued.

‘I was like “That’s mine! I’ll be keeping it”,’ he added, although understands why fans scramble to get close.

‘European fans don’t get to see us often and there’s a lot of places we’ve never been to and there will be places where there are people who have waited 3 years to see us,’ he said.

Having already endured months of live shows and hysterical fans in the UK, Europe and USA, 1D will next be hitting up Australasia before their current world tour ends at the end of October.

Preparing to get back on the road again after a brief stop back in London for the premiere of their This Is Us documentary, Liam is ready for what the fans down under might throw at him.

‘It gets frantic. But it is fun though,’ he said.

[Originally published Metro Guilty Pleasures 27 August 2013]

Louis Tomlinson: I let my girlfriend Eleanor Calder hear our grungier new tracks first

Louis Tomlinson says his most important critic is his girlfriend Eleanor Calder.

After the group took turns in writing duties for their new album, loved-up Louis made sure his 21-year-old girlfriend was the first to doll out the feedback.

‘I’m always showing Eleanor our new songs and I’m always proud of saying that – “we wrote this”,’ he said.

With the first single from their third album riding high in the charts around the world, the 1D boys said fans should prepare themselves for a grungier sound for their next studio offering due later this autumn.

‘It is a bit risky. It’s an implied risk. We’ve thought about it,’ Liam says of the new direction the band’s sound is travelling in.

With Best Song Ever drawing comparisons to iconic British rock band The Who’s Baba O’Riley it would seem more homages to classic rock acts might be in the works.

‘It is old school, actually, and I like that. It’s grungier. Not like Nirvanna. More like a 60s kind of sound,’ Liam added.

Fellow bandmate Zayn also revealed he has enjoyed shaking off the more commercial sound of their music to date.

‘I think we’ve kind of taken away the glitter of our music,’ he said, adding: ‘It’s got that groovy kind of feel to it. And it’s not as poppy.’

Liam agreed, saying he’s enjoying the fact the band are more hands on with the music this time round.

‘We’re so involved. We’ve all done writing. It’s our take on things and we’re old enough to do what we want now,’ he said.

[Originally published Metro Guilty Pleasures 27 August 2013]

Zayn Malik: Perrie and I keep our love life alive via Skype

Keeping a relationship alive is tricky business when you’re one fifth of the biggest boyband of all time. Zayn Malik thanks technology for keeping things steamy with his Little Mix fiancé Perrie Edwards.

The Little Things singer has settled for Skype dates with 20-year-old Perrie when they are driven apart by their hectic work schedules.

‘I think she’s coming back as I leave,’ the 20-year-old said as his group prepare to continue their Take Me Home tour, while Little Mix are out performing in the States.

‘We miss each other,’ admitted the pining star.

‘We’ve got Skype as well. That helps,’ he said – to the amusement of band mates Louis Tomlinson, 21 and Liam Payne, 19.

‘Alright!’ Louis said with a stifled laugh after Zayn hinted his Skype activity may keep his love-life with Perrie spicy.

Meanwhile Liam added: ‘I don’t wanna know what you’re doing in your personal time!’

Zayn and Perrie met after both finding fame on The X Factor and began dating after meeting back stage on the ITV talent show in 2011.

And while the lovers are now looking to make their love permanent by tying the knot, Zayn has already made a permanent declaration of his affections in June this year when he had a cartoon image of his future wife tattooed onto his arm.

The Bradford lad has also explained he loves to use his down time between 1D gigs to add to his body art – but refused to say if he would get more in honour of Perrie.

‘Our manager is going to draw a graph comparing the correlation of time off with getting more tattoos,’ he said. ‘It will go up.’

[Originally published Metro Guilty Pleasures 27 August 2013]

District3: We don’t mind when our ‘free spirited’ fans tweet us their boobs

Former X Factor boyband District3 have revealed that their legions of female fans have become rather over familiar when it comes to communicating over social media.

Dan Ferrari-Lane and Greg West – both 19 – joined Guilty Pleasures for a chat (fellow bandmate, 18-year-old Micky Parsons, was out of action with Flu) as they celebrate the release of their debut EP (simply titled EP – and performing surprisingly well on downloads), when they discussed their fanbase which regularly gets the band name trending worldwide on Twitter.

‘We have amazing fans. They’re all pretty nutty – but in a really great way,’ Greg told us.

‘They can be very, very, dirty on Twitter. We never have a clean time line. We’ve had boobs,’ he went on with Dan swiftly adding: ‘And that’s the soft stuff!’

‘They’re very free spirited,’ Greg continued, defending the honour of the group’s female admirers, but is glad the more persistent fans haven’t managed to stalk them just yet.

‘None of them have tracked us down to our doorstep… but they’re in the area. We’ve been quite lucky with that,’ he said.

As the only member of the band to be taken, Greg (who has dating a school friend named Heather for two years) is also glad not to suffer the abuse that fellow boyband One Direction endure whenever they go public with a squeeze.

‘The fans are really nice and respecting our privacy etcetera,’ he said of the fan response to his love life, adding: ‘We’ve had a very smooth run of things which has been very nice.’

Meanwhile singleton Dan says he is on the lookout for love, and even suggested he might be up for dating a fan.

‘I am single. I am not looking for love, but if love finds me I won’t be running away. In a girl I just look for someone who likes to go out and party and have fun,’ he said before adding with a knowing laugh: ‘Someone who is… free spirited!’

As Micky was not present to defend his choice in women, his bandmates decided to seize the opportunity to have a joke at his expense.

‘If it’s got a pulse, it’s Micky’s type!’ Greg laughed.

The debut EP by District3 is out now.

[Originally published Metro Guilty Pleasures 22 August 2013]