Peter Hook, legendary bass player of Joy Division and New Order, dedicated Atmosphere to Liam. [live at Parr Hall in Warrington (UK), 17/10/24]
According to a review, he dedicated it to Liam the following night as well,
“This business is a blessing, but it can be a s*** business sometimes,” he says sincerely, pausing for a moment with the respectful audience. “Let’s send some love to that boy’s poor family,” he continues, with the crowd applauding before the dramatic bassline for Atmosphere begins. An emotional song at the best of times, it’s a real gut-punch tonight, with Hooky himself noticeably moved and fighting back tears for most of the performance. “RIP Liam, god bless,” he says once the beautiful, yet devastating performance concludes.
You know what really pisses me off? The rewriting of history. People want to pretend like the only reason Liam Payne was getting hate was because of the allegation. But I call bullshit. 99% of the people hating him online had no idea about the allegations or didn’t care. They are bullying him online because they thought he was “cringe.”
The latest wave of bullying online, which I saw weeks before his death, had nothing to do with the allegations. It had to do with him dancing at Niall’s concert. The hate started with the Logan Paul interview, where Liam didn’t say anything that warranted being dogpiled by the internet. And it never stopped.
Now, people want to rewrite history and pretend Liam wasn’t bullied and humiliated for just being himself because it was “cringe.” But you can’t because that’s the truth. Imagine bullying someone online because you thought he danced weirdly or was cringe. Then they get all defensive afterwards, sprouting bullshit about how they’re “allowed to have an opinion.” Yeah, and your opinion has real-life consequences.
Some of you want to pretend like Liam Payne hadn’t been the internet’s punching bag for years. Enough.
some of 1D’s best songs exist because of liam payne, by the way. liam and louis were the dream team. they all wrote some good songs, but man. every time liam and louis joined up together, it ended up being a fucking banger. better than words. end of the day. fireproof. there are so many, so many strong songs that took 1D from being just a silly little “girl band” (which is what they always were and always will be to us, to me) to being something special, something that pierced through the industry whether people liked it or not. that was my band. they were my boys. i will miss liam for the rest of my life, and i’m not exaggerating that. not only because of who he was in the band, not only because of who he could have been once he held himself accountable enough to grow. i will miss his music, his talent. his voice. god. his voice. i’ll just miss him. i miss him already.
let’s be honest. he took the hit when he left. he lost so many of his fans then. but you know what he did?
he showed the boys that there was life after one direction.
he showed them that the hell they were enduring was escapable. that they could make it out and still sing and write songs and be happy.
if they’d really been as happy as they seemed to us, they would’ve come back after the hiatus. they promised us 18 months. its been 9 years.
im sure they loved us with all their hearts. that they enjoyed their time together as a band, as brothers. however, they were exploited and taken advantage of every step of the way.
now, liam’s passing is the fucking culmination of the hell they endured. you can’t argue with me that the liam of 2011 was SO SO FULL OF LIFE. he had so much promise. you just knew this boy was gonna go places.
but somehow, along the way, his light dimmed. that wasn’t the liam we knew. we all subconsiously could see it. that liam hurt so much that he hurt a lot of people. that liam could’ve done better. that liam should’ve been given the chance to make amends.
but the young boy that was so full of life, he didnt deserve any of this. he deserved to have been kept safe and away from the shit that could destroy him.
the boys should have been protected and maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t have to endure this devastating loss. maybe, just maybe, liam would still be alive.
i’d take an unending hiatus over this loss any day.
i did not once ever have a full night’s sleep from 2013-2015. nothing new to say that hasn’t already been said but it was so fucking fun being a one direction fan while they were still releasing albums/touring. can’t even put it into words or describe it. u were constantly terrorized while also having the best time of ur life.
actually I want to write an essay about how all the one direction members have been essentially forced by public expectation to verbalize their grief on social media only a day after liam’s death & then some of them (namely harry! lol) being scrutinized for their posts seeming ’calculated’ / ’written by PR’ / not ’genuine enough’. like. so what if they are? Imagine your childhood best friend dies and millions of people are waiting for you to say something that helps them deal with their parasocial grief. and then that very fame & loss of privacy being the thing that you all went through together as essentially children & the repercussions of that likely being a contributing factor to your friend’s death. the cycle. anyway. none of them owe us shit
thinkin about how niall once talked about how cool it was that a lot of the fans grew up with them and then how in best song ever when they say “i hope you remember how we danced” like…yeah . of course i’ll remember . i grew up with you guys . you were my best friends .
and i guess i had this whimsical idea of all the boys sitting on a porch as old men reminiscing about the good old days in the biggest boy band in the world as five terrible dancers with a whole lot of heart, but life is cruel and just doesn’t work out that way sometimes, and it fucking hurts
