ONE DIRECTION MADE £27 MILLION EACH BEFORE THEY SPLIT. AND SEE WHO THEY SPENT IT ON

Each of the five members - Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, who left earlier this year - is believed to have earned somewhere in the region of £27 million during their five years in the band. Of course, much has been blown on fast cars, flash watches and mansions in the Home Counties, but behind the scenes they've also each been spending a small fortune on something else - their families. For despite the tattoos and the rumours of drug-taking and cheating on girlfriends, all the boys - who are from working-class families - are exceptionally close to their parents and siblings. Indeed each has bought, or tried to buy, a new house for their mum or dad. Harry's mum Anne is installed in a huge £500,000 parkland house, Zayn bought a four-bedroom home in Bradford for mum Tricia, Liam bought a new £400,000 detached house for his father Geoff and mother Karen, Louis has bought his mother a £430,000 Yorkshire home and Niall paid off his mother Maura's mortgage.

The history of One Direction has been one of a prolonged assault upon the wallets of teenagers and their parents globally, with albums, tours and merchandising released in an incessant, giddy cycle.

But the real winners have been their record label Syco — owned by Simon Cowell — and its parent company Sony. Sony is thought to have earned around £550 million from the band so far.

How much Cowell has pocketed personally is not known. But their management — that is Sony and Syco — take 20 per cent of their gross earnings.

And, on top, Sony deducts its development costs and marketing spend from the pot before the band get to take a cut of what remains, as is standard practice.

Paul Williams, head of business analysis at Music Week magazine told me: ‘We haven’t seen a British band as big as this for more than a decade. They are globally successful on a grand scale. For once, the comparisons with The Beatles are justified.’

Since being formed for The X Factor in 2010 — they came third — concert ticket sales account for around £300 million, plus around £200 million from music sales, and a further £50 million at least from merchandising.

They have been sold with utter ruthlessness: the band released their fourth fragrance earlier this summer and will keep going until they release their fifth album later this year.

You can buy almost everything and anything ‘1D’ — watches, pillows, backpacks, action figures, bracelets, pencils and so on.