One Direction’s global dominance spread a little further tonight with the world’s first multinational live premiere of the band’s biopic.
The singers themselves – Mullingar's Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson – attended the London event in Leicester Square which took centre stage at the launch of "1D: This is Us".
In Dublin, 400 fans crammed into two screenings at Cineworld where a live video link beamed in greetings from the band members. The ecstatic scenes were simultaneously transmitted to screens in other countries across the world.
“I just love them; they are my life. It’s not even funny. I have been crying already because Harry kissed the camera,” said Lea Le-Guilloux (15) from Cork, in a typical show of excitement.
The behind-the-scenes documentary charts the meteoric rise of a boy band who have become international stars since being put together during the X-Factor TV series in 2010.
Directioners – as the band’s die-hard fans are known – began arriving outside the Dublin cinema from about 2pm, waiting three hours for their chance to get into the venue.
They wore slipper socks and carried their high-heels in their hands for a stroll along the red carpet.
“How much further can they go,” said 23-year-old Robyn Harling from Finglas, pondering the same question as everybody else taken aback by the scale of this popularity.
“Look how far they have come in three years. Every generation has a boy band but the difference with this generation is social media; everything goes viral immediately.”
In London, many of the 70,000 fans began queuing hours before the ceremony kicked-off, eager for a prized position in front of the assembled group.
Since emerging onto the scene, the band’s two albums released to date have shifted some 30 million copies with further spectacular figures anticipated with the release of a pending third record.
