REVIEW: One Direction's Going Our Way documentary

This is a review I wrote for the North Devon Journal:

THE world premiere of One Direction’s movie This Is Us takes place in London’s Leicester Square this evening. Those who can’t wait to see the film might like to get their hands on a recent documentary about the boys called Going Our Way. Chloe Nichols reviews it.

IT’S safe to say that 2013 is the year of One Direction. Going Our Way, a recent documentary about the band, tells the story of their astonishing rise to stardom.

Not to be confused with One Direction: This Is Us (the new film directed by Morgan Spurlock), Going Our Way looks at how five wide-eyed young boys, who took to the X-Factor stage in 2010 as separate acts, found themselves thrust together by judge and former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger to become arguably the world’s biggest boy band of today.

With gossip from music insiders, journalists and celebrity fans, the documentary shows you how One Direction have become a pop phenomenon and taken the world by storm.

It features a tidy mix of both the boys clowning around together and just being One Direction with a range of celebrity know-it-alls discussing their global social media takeover and why they are so popular.

In the documentary, Samia Khan, an American internet personality, describes them as “vocally not the greatest of the boy bands”. However, nobody can argue that a modern version of Beatlemania has swept the music industry.

“First there were the Beatles, then the Rolling Stones and tonight, One Direction” are the words of Australian celebrity journalist Brad Blanks.

One Direction’s twitter account has more than 14 million followers but the boys themselves have millions of fans on their personal accounts.

Jodi Jill, an American celebrity columnist, tells how the boys themselves write their tweets and are not controlled by management so fans feel as if they’re connecting to them.

“I think that’s a really big issue right now. You could be one of the biggest superstars right now but if you aren’t tweeting yourself, no one’s really going to care.”

The film also skims over the short-lived romance between the band’s pretty boy Harry Stylers and singer Taylor Swift, who is also well known for emotive bubble gum pop. The Midas touch of One Direction managed to boost her career too.

Going Our Way tells the band’s story in under an hour, highlighting most of the significant points in their career. It’s suitable for people who have never even heard of them but will also appeal to the hard-core Directioner. The DVD is available on Amazon.

Abe's Adventure - A step forward for Spastic Diplegia

Abe Astur, a two year old toddler from Winchester, suffers from a rare form of cerebral palsy called spastic diplegia.

Spastic diplegia causes the sufferer to have tight and stiff muscles, particularly in the limbs.

Therefore, this makes walking for Abe very difficult so he has the help of a walker. Not all spastic diplegia sufferers exhibit the same symptoms.

The family is raising money for a pioneering treatment in America called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy. The aim of SDR is to relieve muscle spasticity.

The operation costs around £40,000 but physiotherapy, travel expenses and accommodation will cost an extra £10,000 so they are raising a total of £50,000.

The operation will be at St Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri.

A sponsored walk was held at Abby Gardens in Winchester, which gave his parents, Leigh and Gavin, a chance to raise awareness of the condition.

Abe and his family, followed by many friends and supporters of the campaign, joined in too and walked a lap around the park. A stall with cakes and coffee was also there to help raise extra money.

Gavin, his father, said: “Despite the illness, we are a normal happy family. There isn’t much impact on our daily life.”

They have created their own website for the cause which features a blog, a donation page and a gallery. So far they have raised over £25,000.

Good luck Abe!

http://abes-adventure.co.uk/about

Update: Since the sponsored walk last year, Abe has raised just under £40,000.

Update: Abe has had his operation and is recovering.