One Direction's Louis: 'Fans are making me deaf'
One Direction star Louis Tomlinson has revealed that all the screaming from the band's fans has left him partially deaf in one ear. The 20-year-old What Makes You Beautiful singer and his bandmates are bombarded with screams from excited followers when they perform and Louis admitted it is taking its toll, reports the Daily Mirror. One Direction performed in Liverpool last week and before the show he said: "I am going slightly deaf in my right ear. It's tinnitus... something like that." He added that the band's fans were always 'very loud, especially Scousers'. Louis and his bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Liam Payne - who found fame on The X Factor in 2010 - are now wearing protective earpieces when they hit the stage. A source said: "Screams during gigs have started affecting the boys on stage. They are only young and still developing, so management insist they wear hi-tech earpieces and filters to reduce the volume of the screaming and the music." The insider said that when Louis spoke out about his hearing troubles he was suffering from earache, and added: "Thankfully, this has now cleared up, but he knows to be careful in future."
Get the What to Watch Newsletter
The latest updates, reviews and unmissable series to watch and more!
Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.