People gathered outside the town hall in Sheffield this afternoon, to pay their respects to the former One Direction band member Liam Payne, who tragically died on Wednesday after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires.

A group of over 60 people turned up to lay flowers, sing songs, make friends and share memories about what Payne meant to them. 

One attendee Harmony Jenson, 19, said: “Some people just don’t understand how we are feeling at all, they think it’s stupid, but he meant everything to us. Even though we don’t know him, it feels like we do.”

Tiana Patten, 23, was one of the organisers of the memorial, she explained that she saw other cities were holding them on TikTok, and wanted fans in Sheffield to be able to come together to do the same.

She met the other girls who helped organise the memorial on a One Direction group chat years ago. 

“We’ve all come together to support one another, and I can feel that this will grow into friendships past the memorial, you know, life long friendships and connections.

“It’s been a hard time for all of us, people on Facebook and even people we know think it’s strange for us to mourn, but it’s been fourteen years of watching Liam change and grow, so they might not understand it but we do, so we will keep supporting each other.”

Another attendee Olivia Jenson, 16, said: “People don’t understand the grief of losing someone who you grew up with, he helped me through so much, I’ve been listening to One Direction for as long as I can remember. 

“We have so many memories and have made so many friends through him, so it’s good to be able to come here and be with other people who feel the same.”

Grace Bower, 19, said: “It feels like I’ve lost a friend; I’ve never been this bothered about a celebrity’s death before, but because I watched One Direction from the beginning I feel like that’s given me an attachment to them, I feel like I grew up with them.”

Self-proclaimed One Direction super-fan, Cerys Harrison, 15, explained that when she heard the news, she was so upset she couldn’t go into school.

She said: “When I found out he died it didn’t feel real, I just started crying and I couldn’t sleep at night, me and my friend were just balling our eyes out on a call.

“I just hope Liam understood how much he meant to us all, and his family can get some comfort from seeing that people care so much about him.”