One Direction, the young British Irish boy band have only been on the scene since 2010 but already they’ve become a massive success and are selling out in the US almost as fast as U2.

As their US DVD tour continues it is amazing to see their faces on the covers of magazines, in newspapers and bombarding twitter and other social networking sites. People young and old are going will for Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and the Westmeath boy, Niall Horan.

But we must remember that the band only have one album. Is this enough to keep a world tour going it would seem so. Thus far they’ve 101 shows booked, leading through to next summer.

Their album “Up All Night” has been a massive success and three of their singles have been in the top ten (“Gotta Be You,” “One Thing” and “What Makes You Beautiful”).

From a more cynical point of view, you may well look on in awe and wonder at how this has happened to music, when a band created by a talent show such as “The X Factor” can become so huge, but it seems to be what the public wants.

Yesterday, one of the most read stories on this site was about Niall Horan hurting his thumb back stage and over the last four weeks there’s been numerous reports about how insane their millions of fans have been acting since the boy band arrived to the US.

The Chicago Sun Times documents a 12-year-old girl called Hope who went to their concert. She said “I just can’t believe it!...They’re in this building right now! They’re breathing the same air I am!”
This is “Beatlemania” with a marketing department!

Mark Campana, the Chicago-based co-president of North American concerts for concert promoter Live Nation compared the ways their tickets are selling to U2. He told the Sun Times, “U2 went on sale over a year in advance, and One Direction shows are selling very strong for 2013…They are all tracking towards easy sellouts.”