'I knew Liam Payne from the beginning – he was different away from the spotlight and missed home'

Running towards me like over-excited puppies, One Direction were brimming with happiness and the thought of what lay ahead of them. It was early 2011 and they'd just come third on The X Factor, behind winner Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson in second place. But everyone knew they were the standout stars of the show – and as editor of a popular teen pop magazine, my postbag and email inbox was already full of excited messages from fans.

In fact, I'd never seen hysteria like it – and I just had to meet the band. Nobody could have predicted the twists and turns these young mens' lives would take over the following years, sadly culminating in band member Liam Payne's tragic death in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday, 16 October, at just 31 years old.

The singer is reported to have fallen from the third floor of a hotel, with police initially at the scene after receiving w orried calls from hotel workers. After hearing a loud sound from an internal courtyard, they sadly discovered Liam's broken body.

But some 13 years earlier, One Direction didn't even really know what fame was. I was gathered with the band – comprising Liam, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson – in a lavish south east London mansion for their first-ever magazine photoshoot and they just couldn't contain themselves. Startlingly younger in the flesh than they'd seemed on TV during their X Factor journey, full of naivety and the farting-and-burping punch-you-on-the-arm silliness of teenage boys.

Louis was the eldest at 19, Zayn was 18, and Liam, Harry and Niall were the babies of the band, at 17 years old. Liam instantly stood out to me – for not standing out at all. Of course they were all good-looking lads, but once the initial