Liam Payne: One Direction member’s difficult Gold Coast visit in 2013

Late One Direction pop star Liam Payne opened up about his ‘quite difficult’ trip to the Gold Coast with the boy band as fans stalked his every move online. FULL STORY

Liam Payne was on top of the world when he arrived on the Gold Coast 11 years ago this week.

The One Direction star, who died on Thursday morning at age 31 after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Argentina, was at the height of his fame during the boy band’s 2013 tour, which brought them to southeast Queensland.

While One Direction was playing three sold-out gigs at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, the boys decided to relax and spend their off-time at the Intercontinental Sanctuary Cove.

And fans were loving it.

Anticipation had been high in the months leading up to their arrival, with fans Tia Schwalger and Littly Dutton, both 13 at the time, posing up for the Bulletin with posters of One Direction.

One direction fever hit the Gold Coast and Tia Schwalger and Littly Dutton were both excited.

The five-member band arrived on October 18, 2013 and were immediately tracked down by teen fans.

“Obsessed teenage girls – and their mums – scoured the streets for the band yesterday, trying to get a photo with the teen-pop heart-throbs,” the Bulletin reported at the time.

“At least three of the band members were photographed on the Gold Coast … social media lit up throughout the day with rumours of sightings at several different McDonald’s restaurants on the Coast and local fans flooded their Twitter feeds with suggestions of what they should do if they were here.”

“We got tips on Twitter that they were staying at the Intercontinental, so we wanted to give it a shot,’’ fan Sky Holford, then-15 said at the time.

“We went at the back of the hotel looking for them.

Gold Coast One Direction fans meeting with Harry Styles and other members of the band at Sanctuary Cove in October 2013. Picture: Gold Coast Bulletin

“I couldn’t believe it but a while later, Harry, his stylist and a few security walked past us.

“My friend Demmi and I got photos with him before security asked us to move on.’’

Payne himself expressed dismay at the attention from fans.

“To be fair it has been quite difficult in Australia this time,’’ he said at the time.

“In the grand scheme of things worldwide I have gone out a lot less in Australia than anywhere else. I tried to go shopping one day and literally within minutes there were 60 girls following me.

“If one picture of you gets tweeted, everyone knows exactly where you are and that’s you done for the day then you’re stuck with people following you around.

“We are just normal lads – we do want our privacy sometimes just to throw a football around and let off a bit of steam, rather than constantly being in the public eye.’’

Originally published as Liam Payne: One Direction member’s difficult Gold Coast visit in 2013