Jealous is not even the word. Really. I texted him saying I couldn’t even believe he didn’t tell me it was happening. It would have been unbelievable to see that. I know how much he loves Fleetwood Mac as well. Now that we’re talking about this, me and Harry had one of the craziest moments of all time in 1D, we were in Seattle playing a show and I’m in the dressing room and having a few drinks with Eddie Vedder who we know quite well; he’d bring his kids to come see our shows. Harry has this knack of not telling you things, just surprising you and he comes in, starts saying he wanted to introduce me to someone but I don’t think he’d even got to the end of the sentence before Lindsey Buckingham walks in behind him. In my head, I was ‘Oh my f---ing god.’ There’s six people in the room and four of them are me, Harry, Eddie Vedder and Lindsey Buckingham. Me and Harry just looked at each … This is happening. I couldn’t believe what was happening, that these people would even think to come to the show.

Right at the start, I was 16 and very naive, so I was just like: ‘Well, he’s a better singer than me.’ So I took it. Back then I wasn’t vocally trained and I’m quite realistic and carefree, so at the time I was just happy to be a part of one of the biggest bands in pop. I was happy to be anywhere that wasn’t sitting in school!” Today there’s a grown-up rasp to his vocal “I think it’s acid reflux, to be honest,” he jokes.

I wouldn’t stick a date on it, but it’s a no-brainer really, isn’t it? We’d be stupid not to. I don’t know. I can see it, definitely. I think we all can. It’s the most rewarding thing we’ve ever done, the biggest part of our lives, so we’d be silly not going back to it, especially with the way we finished it. To come back potentially to that again would just be great craic. I’m addicted to music and the buzz of walking on to the stage. I love being part of the movement. As One Direction, we were part of that surge of British and Irish music with Adele and Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. We were all doing it at the same time, and it was class.

No!” (he says instantly) Some people are like that – some people want kids. Louis loves kids. He’s got, like, seven brothers and sisters or something and he’s brilliant with them, so that was a no-brainer. Same with Payno – he’s always loved kids. So do I, but I don’t particularly want one right now. I’m fine where I am.