One Direction and the ties to Sony/ Syco and Modest Management
The Ties that Bind.
This is an article for everyone who’s convinced the One Direction boys are free, for those of us who don’t know about what still links them, for those out there who haven’t any knowledge about the music industry or how these contracts work. I’ve spent more hours than I care to count on this article, and this has been the toughest one to write, to fact check and to try to explore.
I knew there were still ties between the boys, their obvious affection for each other and closeness showed a bond that is deeper than most bands I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, but was there more to their ties than just genuine love and affection? The answer unsurprisingly is yes. There are so many ties between the boys, those contracts they signed so long ago and the people responsible for crafting and enforcing those contracts on boys who were barely adults.
To start this off I’m going to state plainly and for the record that this research is all readily available on the internet if you take the time to search for it, some aspects of their management or contracts hidden, but this should expose some of this. Some things will be speculation and I will explain why when it comes time for those instances, however it is backed up by facts that are too coincidental to be merely coincidences.
Okay and so, we begin. As we all know the One Direction boys were signed to Sony, post X Factor through Syco music which was Simon Cowell's label. They were managed by Modest Management until they each went their separate ways in 2016 for the hiatus, or so we thought.
Louis was still signed to Syco and therefore Sony, until July 11th 2020, when he announced that they had agreed to part ways. Every other member of One Direction was, at this time, under different music labels. Harry was still signed to Columbia, which was the One Direction boys American label, Liam was at Capitol, as was Niall, and Zayn was at RCA.
RCA records and Columbia records were still part of the Sony family of Labels, as was Epic and Arista which Louis was moved to while still signed under Sony. However, Capitol is a Universal label and Universal is where Liam, Niall and Zayn are at present. Niall is at Capitol Records, Liam at Republic and Zayn has recently moved to Mercury Records. Louis is currently signed under BMG which isn’t part of either Sony or Universal- or is it?
These are important as they show the boys moving away from Sony, or at least one would think they do; however, Simon Cowell has moved to Universal and is working with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) which Harry is registered under. Liam and Niall are also registered under the publishing arm of Universal, and BMG have just signed a deal with them, so they too are under UMPG.
Management wise Niall is still signed to Modest Management which is the same management company all of the One Direction boys were signed to post X Factor. Zayn’s current manager is a girl called Nicola Carson and guess where she worked? Yep, you probably guessed- Modest Management. Louis is currently managed by Seven Management, but he’s not free from the Sony grip either. We know this because one of his current managers, Chris Frewin, followed him from Syco to Seven management. He began working there in 2021 when Louis was no longer signed with Sony music. Liam’s management is Steve Finnan (Joseph) O’Connor; however this is 90% speculation as they are still linked together professionally, through Companies House, but the information on Liam’s management isn’t readily available and took a lot of time to figure out who Liam was currently being managed by.
Harry, however, has been kept close with Rob Stringer and although his management team are different now from the Modest Management side, we still see the exact same publicity pattern around Harry to this day. Yes, he’s freer on stage, but Harry (and the rest of One Direction are by no means free.) Harry’s label is still Columbia and if we take a look back to 2012, we can see the changes One Direction went through in terms of look, mannerisms and relationships within the band.
By the end of 2012 we rarely, if ever, saw Louis and Harry interact publicly at all. Louis seemed darker in personality than before and gone was the flamboyant ball of sunshine we all fell in love with, to be replaced with someone who was frighteningly different. Mike Navarra, of Columbia, was present through all of those changes and he’s still involved in Harry’s career through the label to this day. Mike was there right from the beginning of One Direction and was the head of Columbia’s publicity team at the label, so in many ways he oversaw those and approved those changes.
Chris Frewin also worked with one of the One Direction team at Modest before his move to Seven Management. He worked with someone by the name of Katie Ray who was well known to certain fans of the boys because when there was any public shows of relationships or affection between the boys and a female, Katie was there, overseeing it and ensuring that the boys did their part to sell the given narratives.
Looking deeper into the legal side of One Direction and the boys as solo artists has shown that they are still represented by the same legal teams and accountants as they were back in the One Direction days. This shows that they aren’t free to break free from those contracts and the cleanliness clauses that are still in effect to this day. Lawrence Engel still represents Louis, Harry and Niall, and did represent Liam, but I’m not sure if this is still accurate. Zayn’s legal team I couldn’t find but he was removed from all One Direction accounts in 2016, years before any of the other boys, so I’m not sure if he’s still represented by Lee and Thompson, or if he was removed as a client after his exit from the band.
We have testimony from other X Factor contestants that they were never asked to sign cleanliness clauses as part of their contracts, yet we know the One Direction boys were made to sign those. How, you may ask, do we know? Through Harry, of course. Harry in his Better Homes and Gardens interview spoke about signing a contract free of those clauses and how freeing it felt, but that doesn’t mean those clauses vanished. Just because his new contract didn’t include them, doesn’t mean that those clauses aren’t still in effect to this day.
Another side to the hold that Simon Cowell, Modest Management and Sony still have on the boys is through PR. Louis and Niall are still signed to Simon Jones for PR. Simon Jones was the One Direction PR person, along with Sara Lee (and if you haven’t seen Harry’s skit on Sara Lee then you need to check it out).
While Liam’s management team is harder to find, it is also clear that he’s under a very similar contract to the other boys, especially because at Louis’ All of Those Voices premiere last year in London, I personally witnessed Sara Lee, former X Factor PR person- with Liam heading up to the premiere. This shows that while it’s harder to find evidence for Liam, the same people are still involved.
The boys moving laterally to Universal also makes a lot of sense because that is where Simon Cowell is now based, and he owns them. I know that might not be easy to read and it’s certainly not something I say lightly, but in my interpretation, Simon owns their public images, and they have little to no choice but to follow him.
Even when people come into their public lives, it’s rarely through choice and usually through the label choosing to have that person in the public eye with them. Whether it’s for a PR relationship, PR friendship or public feud, most, if not all of their public life is dictated by the labels they are signed to.
Even someone as innocuous as a personal trainer, for example, could be there at the whim of Sony, especially when there is an older person of the exact same surname who was based in London and works for Sony currently. Now I’m not saying Brad Gould is a Sony plant, however I do find it very odd that there is a Sony Exec based in New York, formerly of London who is named David Gould. Read into that what you will. It wouldn’t be the first time a person in the boy’s life has a similar name to a Sony exec, looking at you Clive Calder…
There are many coincidences around the boys, but could it be that they aren’t free, that their freedom is a myth, and they are still tied into the same awful contracts that they were in the beginning of their careers. Could they be being traded like products and moved to where it makes Simon Cowell, Sony Music and now Universal the most amount of money?
It’s not inconceivable because when you are worth as much as those incredibly talented men are, then it makes sense to me that they are treated as commodities and not as people. We all need to open our eyes and look for ourselves because there are links there between each of the boys, you just need to take the time enough to find them.
I hope I’m wrong and I’d gladly take a tinfoil hat, if it meant that each former member of One Direction could be free. Will it happen? I hope one day soon, but we all need to work together and expose these ties, expose the corruption and the falseness of the industry before another generation are lost to the soullessness that is the music industry.
Thanks for reading and again this is my personal interpretation of my hours of research.
Behind The Curtains
Sources for my research
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiedavid/
https://www.legal500.com/firms/2033-lee-thompson-llp/310-london-england/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-frewin-088367147/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicola-carson-94a4b868/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-navarra-4382a816/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/d4vidgould/
https://www.bhg.com/better-homes-and-garden-magazine/harry-styles/
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