WHAT IT IS: Liam Payne, who is now managed by Doyen Global (Simon Olivera) and was signed by Jo Charrington and Nick Raphael, was in one of the biggest bands of recent years, One Direction, selling in excess of 20m albums and playing stadiums worldwide. The management and their music consultant, Steve Finan, approached Capitol “and we bit their hand off!,” says Raphael, who adds that ambitions are to break Liam as solo artist throughout the world. The U.S. label is Republic.