In the autumn of 2011, I was invited to Sony Music’s headquarters in west London to meet the UK’s newest boy band. A few months prior, five aspiring teenagers had auditioned for ITV’s X Factor talent show, where music mogul Simon Cowell brought them together to form One Direction.

These emerging stars had already garnered a massive global following, with millions of fans comparing their rise to the Beatlemania of the 1960s, even before they had released any music.

That was about to change, as their debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” was set to launch the following week, and I was there to interview the boys behind it.

While they had appeared as sweet, innocent young men during our brief encounter at Wembley’s Fountain Studios during the live X Factor shows the previous year, I anticipated that these confident adolescents would now be brimming with self-importance due to their newfound fame.

I couldn’t have been more mistaken.

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I arrived to find five handsome young men politely waiting to greet me, but one of them stood out thanks to his cute curly hair and his charming, talkative manner.

No, not Harry Styles – the only ex-1D member who has gone on to forge a successful, long-term solo career – but Liam Payne. Dressed down in a navy hoodie and jeans, Liam wrapped me in a warm hug and excitedly introduced me to his bandmates – Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik – in his strong Wolverhampton accent.