London, how're we doing? This is the part of the show where we go fucking big for my two incredible supports. Wait, wait, wait... Give it up for The Academic! Give it up for Sea Girls! Go BIG!
Ohhhh, this is fucking crazy. This is crazy. I'm trying to find the right words, but honestly, every song I'm just in awe of what we've fucking created. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don't really have any other words other than thank you very much. This is... Now let me try. I should try a bit harder. This is my time at the O2, I'll give it a go. [Deep breath]
It felt like it took me— Let me just calm my nerves... [Crouches down] It felt like it took me a long time to get here, a long time to get here. And uh, even when I dreamt— and I mean this wholeheartedly— even when I dreamt about what touring might look like, never in a million fucking years did I think I'd play here. NEVER. And I spent like the first three or four songs of this gig, like... I'm always like this, it's fucking annoying… Likes, after every lyric, every moment, I'm cross-referencing in my head 'How was that?', 'How was that?'. Fuck that tonight. FUCK that tonight. I hope you all feel as proud as I do on stage tonight. Alright, before I fucking choke up. Right, this Copy of a Copy of a Copy.”
- Louis Tomlinson talking in front of a sold out audience at The O2 Arena, London [17.11.2023] text via LouisT91Updates, video via elillyats IG story
It's been 2 articles from industry magazines about FITFWT that praise the tour and the people behind the scenes (who all have high praises for Louis), yet there hasn't been any coverage of the tour itself as a major music event where we get to hear Louis talk about his vision and his work as an artist. In case you were wondering.
I was thinking about the Harry Styles/ Ben Winston CBS sitcom, Happy Together.
When I was a Larrie, the show seemed like a vehicle to erase any trace of Louis: the show was saying, Harry and Louis never lived together; Harry always brought girls back to the Winston attic to bang (or as Ben Winston heavily hinted in the GQ Australia interview, Taylor Swift hung out nude in his kitchen).
In retrospect, the show was HSHQ’s transparent myth-making propaganda. Its purpose was to establish the myth that One Direction might have been a passing teen fad, but Mr. Harry Styles was the real deal, the rock ‘n roller, the genuine It Boy, the natural star. He was the looker, the talent, the charisma. He carried it all; the rest were hangers-on.
[btw this strategy is still HSHQ’s modus operandi, and most of the public bought it hook, line, and sinker.]
Unfortunately, Ben Winston’s hamhanded incompetence with the show’s storytelling crippled any chance of popularity with the general public, and of course 1D fans hated this myth (Harry’s fandom was still majority OT5 and Larries back then).
But they tried. How they tried!
Harry had the urtext rock journalist, Cameron Crowe, writing his first Rolling Stone cover story. Rob Sheffield and Shirley Halperin followed up. Harry had one of the decade’s biggest and most accomplished producers, Jeff Bhasker, lushly delivering a blend of Laurel Canyon/ White Stripes lite sound for his first album (Harry’s fandom still can’t tell that HS1 was a complete Rock Lite ripoff). Bhasker invented Harry’s protean musical taste.
The old money men behind Harry Styles tried to fabricate a rock star legend before there was any actual product. They tried to establish the bandleader-boyband-breakout myth before Harry had released a single solo song. Eight months before Harry’s first single, he was interviewed by Sir Paul McCartney, an actual living legend with sixty years of music lore behind him, as if they were already on par.
And yet…
And yet…
Harry just couldn’t land it. He just didn’t have it in himself, not without the hoopla, without the window dressing, without hands inside the puppet moving the wooden parts. He couldn’t get the big awards or sufficient numbers his first round. Harry failed. He was an embarrassment. He couldn’t do it until Louis was sidelined for two years, and Zayn disappeared from media, and Liam’s mental health destroyed.
With dramatic irony, the go-ahead for Happy Together was discovered on the same day (July 14, 2018) that Louis made his Twitter video, announcing he would be a 2018 X Factor judge, and specifically mentioning that this would, in no way, interfere with his musical career. What an interesting, transparently sad way to announce a judging gig.
What an interesting coincidence, as well, that Louis’ very first solo interview was with Dan Wootton, back in 2017, specifically for the purpose of denying Larry— a fact that Wootton heavily promoted. This took precedence over the discussion of Louis’ solo music, his album, his tour, One Direction dirt, his personal history— of anything else, really.
Denying Larry is something that Harry Styles has never done. Not once in 13 years. (Interesting, as well, that Harry had to do an interview with Wootton for the release of HS1, but neither audio nor video were ever released.)
What an interesting coincidence that when offered the chance, during the Cooper Lawrence interview for Sweet Creature, Harry clumsily tried to play both sides instead of denying Larry. He couldn’t bring himself to say the words. It took him six full years to explicitly dedicate it to his sister. Six years! Baiting his fans is far more important to Harry than Gemma ever will be lol.
What an interesting coincidence that Jeremy O. Harris tagged Harry in the infamous Euphoria episode depicting Larry fanfiction, which made Louis angry enough to tweet about his lack of consent, yet Harry stayed silent. Throwing Larry, and by extension Louis Tomlinson, as fresh meat for Harry’s fetishizing, fantasizing, mostly heterosexual female fans was, and is, a major HS marketing strategy.
I think about Harry’s new-found “best friend” Mitch Rowland, the pizza-parlour story sticking around long enough for Harry’s fans to forget he had 1D bandmates, about Harry’s never mentioning 1D except as “the band,” his mocking tone calling Zayn “Ringo.” “They’re not here, are they?” he had said smugly, triumphantly on SNL, “I am.”
I think about Harry’s statement that making his first album in Jamaica was the “happiest” he had ever been in his career. About Sir Paul McCartney “interviewing” Harry in 2016 (for Another Man) as if Harry were already in the pantheon of legends.
In 2023, Harry’s 1D bandmates are supposed to be gone and buried because they are no competition whatsoever for his natural genius, the entertainment supernova, the quadruple threat to music and movies and stage and television, this one-man theme park, a soulful poet and universal gift to womankind. One Direction was supposed to be just a back story for Harry, the way NSYNC was for Justin Timberlake (the parallels), or The Police for Sting, or Fleetwood Mac for Stevie Nicks (same management tricks).
[And yet, despite the industry shutting him out, despite BBC Radio pretending he doesn’t exist, or Billboard’s misleading headlines, or Greg James saying fans bring tomatoes to throw at his concerts, or Roman Kemp making fun of Louis and 1D, despite Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and many other media outlets never reviewing an album that debuted No. 1 in the UK and No. 5 in the USA, despite all of that, Louis Tomlinson has survived. He’s made it. He is an industry presence. He’s thriving, with indie artists and bands appreciating his generosity and genuine support. Louis’ opinions and person are respected. Fans pay attention to what he has to say. Critics can no longer ignore his actual value. His judgment has weight. He has gravitas, personality, intelligence, creative talent. And most important to the music industry— Louis brings with him a big fanbase, and the potential for impressive revenue.]
In retrospect, the contortions Harry went through to be an entertainment juggernaut are both gristly and amusing. His chosen personal friends: James Corden, Ellen Degeneres, Kim Kardashian, Rande Gerber, Irving and Shelly Azoff, Lizzo, Jann Wenner so influential in rock journalism— embody a list of the most entitled, narcissistic, abusive traits of the Hollywood rich, but Harry, famously, habitually, lamentably— stays silent. He sides with the abusers and colonizers, because that’s where the money and fame are.
Has it been worth it for him? Harry is certainly one of the most famous entertainers in the world at the moment, surrounded by hype, desired by millions, someone every media outlet wants to interview. His career is lava hot, yet in the midst of this glory, Harry’s story is built on a core of brutality and cruelty, underhanded behavior, an amoral, depthless hunger for fame, transparent sexism and misogyny, a willingness to smear colleagues and partners on his way to the top, good old classism, a talent for politicking and sucking up to power, and an unblinking drive to steamroll everything and everyone in his way. And his worshipful, gullible, obsessive fanbase often imitate Harry Styles’ ethos. His H/Larrie fans have persistently tried to snuff out solo Louis fans and paint Harry as a victim. Multiple Tumblr, Twitter, IG Harrie accounts follow Louis’ every move and stalk solo Louies and Larries by the second. They attacked Liam Payne to an extent that made him feel suicidal. Harry is still young, but has the face and body language of a middle-aged industry player. How long can he be sustained by negative, rather than positive, motivators for his work? How much is enough for him? For a person who craves to be loved (his TPWK motto is aimed mostly at himself), how long can Harry Styles be satisfied with a manufactured, datamined, inauthentic, pretentious façade of a life, where his every thought and action are aimed toward marketing?
In retrospect, Harry has achieved everything he set out to achieve, and seems very happy with the bed he made for himself. One can argue that nothing is consequential in the world of some celebrities except fame, wealth, and power. We know so little about their motivations other than a tiny fraction of the outcomes of their actions. But we do see this fraction, and the fractions add up over time, no matter the data scrubbing and the Google search manipulations and the second-to-second Columbia Records datamining. One Direction is old history, which also means there are lots of fans who have been here forever, and 1D fans do not forget.
Whatever history has in store for Harry, it can never change Harry himself. Throughout his solo career, Harry has made a habit of passing off other people’s work as his own, conflating personal and business relationships, and siding with oppression and greed. That is a truth— good or bad— he’ll have to live with.
"Faith In The Future also tops the Official Vinyl Albums Chart, proving the most-purchased record on wax this week, and is the week’s biggest album in independent record shops."
I'm not gonna lie the David (Louis) vs Goliath (Bruce/Sony) aspect is added motivation. A man of the people vs a musician who was a man of the people but has gone full corporate greedy fucker. I don't know if the UK will pull it off 🙏🤞🙏 but damn it would be freaking awesome to stick it to Sony, the BBC etc... and more importantly it would make Louis so, so happy, if anybody deserves a win its him.
I'm absolutely gobsmacked at the sheer determination, the passion, the motivation across the Louis Tomlinson fanbase this week.
The stuff I'm seeing across all social media channels is astonishing - fans are working so hard to secure him a UK no1. Everyone pulling together, digging deep in terms of their time, talents and even finances.
The amount of generosity generated in pursuit this common goal could float a fleet of aircraft carriers across the Atlantic.
That this is done for one man, is evidence of the affection and loyalty he inspires in people. I can't begin to imagine how he feels seeing it all happening.
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