1D In Leicester & My Crazy Obsession...

So I've been a fan of One Direction since day one… And I mean day one. As soon as they performed as a group on the X Factor way back in July 2010, me and my friend Nyree were hooked. We spent that whole night googling images of them, downloading their audition songs from YouTube and making Twitter accounts in support of them - @weheart1D was mine. How cool was I? 

We supported them every week on the X Factor and watched their every move via their video diaries, the X Factor magazine and begging them for follows on Twitter. We watched their fan base grow and grow to an incredible amount of support to where they finished X Factor and decided to do a few little gigs around the country by popular demand. I begged my Dad to get us tickets and as he rolled his eyes, we went along to the Oxford Regal Centre and watched these very new to the business teenage lads perform for about 10 minutes doing covers of the songs they sang during the live shows - but it was worth every penny for us 16 year olds to see their little faces!

And it started from there. We then went to the 2011 X Factor Tour in Nottingham and Cardiff, the 2012 Up All Night Tour in Nottingham and Birmingham, the 2013 Take Me Home tour in Birmingham, Manchester and the London O2 (twice), random trips to radio stations in Birmingham, up to Doncaster for Louis' charity football match and down to London to Alan Carr's Chatty Man studios where I first met them and got a hideous selfie of myself with Zayn and a signature from Niall!! Touched Harry's hand and hair - yeah… - and embarrassingly shouted thanks to Liam for following me on Twitter. Oh c'mon, I was 17… Yeah okay, all of this is still incredibly embarrassing.

After spending hundreds of pounds on travelling and tickets all around the UK to see the lads, and after nearly 4 whole years of being truly dedicated to them, they finally decided to come over to my little hometown of Leicester as Niall announced a celebrity charity football match in order to raise money for Irish Autism. I jumped on the chance of getting tickets at Leicester City's ground - who are championship champions and newly promoted to the premiership may I add - and managed to get into the executive suite seats. It was very fancy.

It brought swarms of fangirls to Leicester as they squashed up next to the barriers near the players' entrance and screamed every time a blacked out vehicle arrived. Was strange to be watching it all from the executive lounge's window rather than down there and amongst them like I most likely would have been doing if I was my 16/17 year old self (mental, I was mental). 

As we went to find our seats, I thought I was going to be so much more calm than I have always been in the past. If I had even seen a glimpse of one of them before at an event I had been to, I almost screamed myself to the point of nearly passing out. But I felt a lot more composed now being 19, nearly 20, and having seen them so many times before, I was sure that I'd only make the odd 'woo' and clap.

Yeah, that wasn't the case. As soon as Niall, Louis and Liam appeared on the pitch to warm up, I was gone. I had suddenly time travelled back to being 16 and lost all dignity that I thought I had gained from going to University and finally taking down my thousands of 1D posters. And when Harry Styles appeared… Well that chucked me way over the edge. I ended up taking over 100 photos and 'woooooo'ing way more than I imagined - especially when Harry scored a penalty and ran into the arms of Player-Manager Niall. 

It was such a great day out and Niall managed to get loads of celebs involved from ex-football players like Robbie Savage and David James to the likes of Jack Whitehall, James Corden, Ronan Keating, Olly Murs, John Bishop and rival Player-Manager Piers Morgan. Who unfortunately managed to beat Team Niall in a penalty shoot-out. 

The lads looked like they had a great laugh throughout the day, especially when Harry pulled down Piers Morgan's shorts - a sight I'll never un-see - Liam trying to put Piers off on the pitch and Niall and Piers having a battle with words during mini interviews. Niall also managed to raise a whopping £300,000 for Irish Autism which is lovely for the band to be able to show with the controversial stories that seem to be arising lately.

I had the best time and have managed to add the ticket to my One Direction collection (rhymes nicely that). It was crazy having them in Leicester but it definitely made me realise that I'm so not over them. I don't think I ever will be in all honesty… Even when they do their reunion tour in years to come, you can count on me being front row dragging my kids along.

I'm off to see 1D play at Wembley Stadium on June 8th for their 2014 Where We Are Tour and think I'll fill you in with how it all goes. I'm standing in the red zone so pray for me.

Do you follow a band or artist? Been to crazy lengths for your favourite celebs? Let me know any funny stories!

Hannah 

♥

    Twitter? @hannahgriffX      Instagram? @hannahgriffX