‘No matter what, there was this feeling of togetherness’

Louis Tomlinson opens up to Roisin O'Connor about his struggles with the spotlight, and why he might never be able to accept the death of 1D bandmate and friend Liam Payne

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While checking into the hospitality area at Glastonbury Festival this summer, the entertainment journalist Ellise Shafer heard a stranger behind her yelling: “Glastoooo!” Only it wasn’t really a stranger, she later wrote.

It was an exuberant Louis Tomlinson with a gaggle of friends, hauling a rucksack and primed for a week of live music.

Tomlinson laughs when I tell him about this. The solo artist and former One Direction member has become a regular fixture at Glastonbury - last year he was heralded as a “hero” when he brought a TV to the campsite so revellers could watch England play Slovakia in the Euros. “It’s the kind of place [where] I’m just in a better mood,” he says. “People might see me out and about looking a bit grumpy. At Glastonbury? Definitely not.”

You can understand why he might balk at the idea of going anywhere with large crowds. It’s just over 15 years since One Direction formed on The X Factor and became a global phenomenon, producing four No 1 albums and selling more than 70 million records. Its five members couldn’t go anywhere without being mobbed; their hotels were surrounded; cars blockaded; concerts rammed. Almost 10 years after the band split, the jitters remain. “It’s not about how many times you get recognised - it could just be once, or not at all,” explains Tomlinson. “It’s the potential of being.”

When One Direction split in 2016, he and his fellow band member Liam Payne - who died last year after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires - appeared to be the ones who struggled most. “I felt a bit petulant about it at the time,” Tomlinson told