Harry Styles & Niall Horan: The Biography - Choose Your Favourite Member of One Direction. Sarah Oliver
while the rest of the children in his school sang a song about him. In another play, he had to dress up as Buzz Lightyear and pretend to be a toy.
DID YOU KNOW?
Harry admitted in an interview with KansasCity.com that he had been bullied when he was five or six years old. He said: ‘I think the most important thing is to make sure you tell somebody. Make sure you talk to your parents or let somebody know.’
Harry left a lasting impression on his teachers, and in their autumn 2010 newsletter they wrote: ‘We all remember Harry for a fantastic performance as the Pharaoh (“Elvis”) in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in Year 6. He certainly brought his own “style” to the role!’
While Harry was at Hermitage Primary School his parents broke up. He was only seven at the time and it really upset him. His dad Des can still remember Harry crying as he told him the news; it’s something he will never forget. He hated hurting Harry and Gemma. They wanted their parents to stay together but that was impossible, and Des and Anne broke the news to them in the living room of their home. Des lived with them for two more years but eventually left; Anne took Harry and Gemma and moved to the countryside, becoming the landlady of a pub with a new partner. Des didn’t like the man but when she started to date Robin, who is now Harry’s stepdad, he approved because he thought Robin was a nice bloke. Harry was about 12 when his mum began seeing Robin and they had moved back to Holmes Chapel by then.
Des told the Daily Record: ‘Of course, I missed him [Harry] and Gemma, as you would unless you were some sort of monster. It was tough. I used to feed him every night at half 10, change his nappy, put him to bed when he was a baby, and then I was no longer living with them.’
Des only saw Harry every two weeks once he had left, but he gave Anne money towards the children’s upkeep. Harry and Des have a good relationship, with Des telling the newspaper: ‘I’m not an estranged dad. It was a tough time to leave them but these things happen.’
Anne gave Harry a fantastic childhood and Des credits her with the way Harry turned out. Harry had some amazing holidays when he was younger, both when his dad was with them and after his parents had separated. He can still remember when he went with his family to Disney World and the strange dreams he had back then – he used to dream that rats had eaten his toes. He can also remember going ice skating and keeping a tight grip on the sides so that he didn’t fall.
Harry started acting and performing at primary school, and confessed to the X Factor backstage cameras: ‘The first time I sang properly was in a school production – the rush that I got was something that I really enjoyed and wanted to do more of.’
Harry doesn’t come from a musical family as such but his dad loves Elvis, and Harry would sing along to his Elvis tapes when he was growing up. Harry has never been shy and when his granddad gave him a karaoke machine he had great fun pretending to be a singer. As well as singing he loved sport and was a goalie for the Holmes Chapel Hurricanes Football team. They wore red and black kits and Harry was popular with his teammates.
When he was 11, Harry left Hermitage Primary School and went to Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School; he already knew a lot of people there because of playing in the football team. He made lots of new friends as well as having the friends he had had in primary school. At break times he would have a laugh with his friends. One day, 10 of them decided to build a human pyramid. There were four lads on the bottom kneeling down, then three on top of them, then two (including Harry) and one balanced on the top. Another friend quickly took a photo before they collapsed in a heap.
At that time, Harry used to wear quite a few bracelets on his wrists, which made him stand out from the crowd; he wore a navy polo shirt with the school crest for PE, and a white polo shirt with a black sweater for the rest of the time.
DID YOU KNOW?
Harry didn’t always have curly hair; he went through a phase of having his hair straight while at school. When he was still in primary school he had blond streaks added – he thought he looked great but looking back, he’s no longer so convinced. He prefers his hair as it is now.
Harry is still in touch with a lot of his friends from school and from growing up in Holmes Chapel. His best lad mates are Will, Jon, Nick and Ben and his best girl mates are Ashley, Naomi, Emilie, Ellis, Lydia and Sophie. Harry was popular with the girls at school – not because they wanted to date him but because he was a genuinely nice guy. He did date his friend Emilie for a while, though, when they were 12, and had another girlfriend called Abi.
Harry really enjoyed his English classes and went on lots of trips to see the musical Blood Brothers and the play The Woman in Black. A straight-A student, Harry was very talented at sport, too. He is a quick learner and is especially good at badminton, football and cricket.
Harry used to have loads of fun with his friends. When he was 14, during a school trip to Paris, they were messing around and Harry threw a cake in his friend’s face for a laugh. Another time they wrapped him in cling film (plastic wrap) so he couldn’t walk, he just had to hop; on another day they put makeup on him when he was fast asleep and they also filmed a video of him singing the song ‘Look After You’ upside down, with eyes and a nose drawn onto his chin. And one night, Harry nearly got into trouble with his friend’s mum, as he explained to We Love Pop magazine: ‘At my friend’s birthday party a few years ago I got dared to go and get in bed with his mum. She was asleep and she woke up when I got in, so I just ran back down the stairs.’
Harry’s school prom was held at Portal Golf Club, Tarporley and he looked dashing in his suit with a pink flower in his buttonhole. He posed for photos with lots of his female friends.
Harry joined a band when he was in Year 8 (12/13 years old). His best friend Will and another friend Hayden were the original members of the band that was to become White Eskimo; they practised at Will’s house because he had a drum kit and his family didn’t mind them making lots of noise. Will and Hayden thought they needed a bass player and singer if they were to become a proper band, so Will asked Harry if he wanted to learn the bass. Harry said he would, but then Will found out their other friend Nick could already play bass so he had experience. Will still wanted Harry to be in the band and so he suggested that he should sing instead. Harry told him, ‘No, I can’t sing’, but Will convinced him to give it a go. Harry didn’t think he was good enough because he’d only ever sung in the shower before but it turned out he was actually very good. In their practice sessions Harry would play the kazoo and the tambourine during some songs.
They didn’t have a name but needed one as they wanted to enter a ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition at school. Harry came up with the perfect name – White Eskimo. It didn’t mean anything; it was just something random that popped into his head. They were influenced by rock bands rather than boy bands and would listen to tracks by blink-182, You Me At Six, Paramore, +44, Travis Barker, Kings of Leon, The Offspring, Green Day and Jimmy Eat World.
The band’s first performance was in their school canteen on 2 July 2009. Keen to do well in the Battle of the Bands competition, they had rehearsed lots and picked songs that they thought people would like. They performed the Bryan Adams’ classic ‘Summer of ’69’and ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl?’ by the rock band Jet. The songs went down a storm: people were cheering and taking photos, they couldn’t get enough. Harry looked gorgeous; he was wearing a white shirt with a black tie, grey trousers and a large tan-coloured belt. The bandmates were so happy when they found out they’d won, especially as they hadn’t been together for long at all.
Winning the competition had a big impact on Harry, as he later revealed to X Factor host Dermot O’Leary in his first interview: ‘Winning Battle of the Bands and playing in front of that many people really showed me that’s what I wanted to do. I got such a thrill when I was in front of people singing, it made me want to do more and more.’
After they’d won, White Eskimo performed at lots of school assemblies, and even a wedding. If you want to see some of their performances just type ‘White Eskimo’