Kent reacts to death of One Direction's Liam Payne

The singer fell from a hotel balcony in Argentina last night.  Oliver Leader de Saxe reports.

Transcript

00:00The voice of a childhood star for many in Kent and one gone too soon.

00:10Last night One Direction's Liam Payne fell from a hotel balcony.

00:16The singer, just 31 years old, was on holiday with his girlfriend in Argentina at the time.

00:31Many here in the county will remember how he shot to fame on The X Factor back in 2010

00:38alongside his bandmates.

00:41And soon the group became one of the biggest in music history, selling 70 million records

00:47worldwide.

00:50And even after the band went on hiatus in 2016, he still had time for listeners here

00:57in the county.

00:58And your life doesn't stop when you have a baby unfortunately, although I'd love to spend

01:02every second with him, but then what am I really teaching him that you can just sit

01:05on your laurels after a bit of success and not go to work.

01:07So my thing is I have to work as hard as possible and get the most success for him

01:11that I can so that he can understand.

01:13To get a sense of just how much Liam Payne means to people here in the county, I've come

01:18down to the University of Kent, Medway campus.

01:23Many of the students here grew up with One Direction.

01:26They saw Liam Payne rise to fame.

01:28They also saw him struggle with alcohol.

01:32All of them say they were devastated by the news of his passing.

01:36It's really sad because I was probably about seven or eight when he was on X Factor, so

01:40I do remember that.

01:42And obviously he's been in the press a lot, you know, with his relationship with Cheryl

01:47and things like that.

01:48So I remember a lot of his career and he's not that much older than me in reality.

01:53So it is quite, it's really upsetting because he's so young.

01:57Not even going to lie, I cried.

01:59Like you're mourning not only the person that he is now, but the person you grew up with.

02:05I've been a fan of his since 2008, 2010 when he first auditioned and the second time.

02:11And even with everything that's gone on recently, it's so tragic still.

02:16He was only 31.

02:17I listen to this song every day.

02:19So yeah, with these songs in mind, he actually passed away very young.

02:25Liam Payne may be gone, but speaking to young people here in Kent today, it's clear his

02:32music is the stuff of history.

02:35Oliver Leader of the Sats reporting for KMTV.