It was not until he died that I became aware of who Liam Payne was. I know little about One Direction, although I had heard of all its members, except Liam Payne. My bad, perhaps, but in truth I am not part of the demographic that would be aware of the band or their music. It gets worse. I could not even name one of their songs, released by One Direction or the individual members. So, why am I sad at Payne’s passing?
It must be because of his age. 31 is no kind of age and the alleged events leading to his death are not those of an untroubled person. However, I do not wish to join speculation surrounding his fatal fall. I suspect that his family wish they could mourn Payne’s passing in something approaching peace and privacy. I fear that this is unlikely to happen.
The supposed comedian Paddy McGuinness, seemed to set the direction of travel by revealing details of a text he had received from Payne, which went as follows: “Course mate. I don’t have many mates I can trust who know how I feel and since being sober I’m wanting to branch out more instead of hiding away.” So much for respecting privacy there, Paddy, who later admitted that he was such good friends with him that he “really enjoyed the small amount of time I got to hang out with Liam.” Clearly McGuinness couldn’t be trusted enough to keep his private text messages private.
And X Factor supremo Simon Cowell whose tribute went on so long that by the time I’d finished reading it I’d forgotten how it had started. Luvvies gonna luvvie and Cowell is an expert in that field. To my eyes, Cowell’s tribute was all about him and not Payne.
Like Cowell’s tribute, the tributes go on forever and I suppose that’s always the way when someone dies. Perhaps, I should not be so cynical and accept that many of the celebs were doorstepped by hacks angling for a story, but I do wish, as a fellow human being, that a period of silence could be taken by all concerned.
In the days, weeks and months to come, Payne’s life will come under further scrutiny and I fear speculation. As Don Henley put it in his great song Dirty Laundry, “It’s interesting when people die, give us dirty laundry.”
Is this really a price people have to pay in exchange for fame and riches? It seems like it. And if a bit of supposed scandal is unearthed by the gutter press, does anyone really think that they won’t publish it to avoid accusations of bad taste? On the contrary, the opposite will happen because, unfortunately, there are ghouls among us who will buy a paper in order to read about it.
Liam Payne was someone’s partner, someone’s brother, someone’s son, someone’s dad. The superstars we look up to are nothing more than flesh and blood, no matter how special they seem in our eyes. I wish we could just leave him and his family in peace but I fear they may not happen for a while, if it ever does.
