Up is only Direction for new boy band

NEW YORK — One Direction’s Niall Horan was in a taxi when he learned that the group’s first album, “Up All Night,” debuted at the top of the latest Billboard Top 200 albums chart.

So he did what any 18-year-old would do in that situation: “I freaked out.”

He immediately started spreading the news with phone calls, hoping to keep the news from his mom to play a joke on her. “I wanted to say we had lost out and that whole thing, but Billboard had posted it on their website so my cover was blown,” he said.

Horan and his band mates have a right to be excited. They sold more than 176,000 copies of the album in its first week of release to reach No. 1. It makes them the first British act to debut at No. 1 with their first album.

Harry Styles, 18, called the news “humbling” in a phone interview.

“We’re just five normal boys from the U.K. who’ve been given this opportunity, so we’re having a great time working very hard.”

The fans of One Direction have been hard at work as well. Thanks to social media, the group’s followers have helped to spread the word about their music.

“It’s played a massive part,” said Styles. “Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have been a large percentage of the reason we’ve been known outside of the U.K. ... We owe a massive thank you to the fans.”

One Direction first came together when they all tried out individually for U.K. edition of “The X Factor” in 2010. Judge and mentor Simon Cowell thought they would make an interesting combination instead. The group ended up in third place that season, and Cowell signed them to his Syco music label.

Cowell said the group’s success so far makes him proud. “I desperately wanted [a No. 1 record] for the boys more than anything else,” he said. “I’m probably more excited about this than I have been about anything for a long, long time.”

Tickets for a June 2 concert at Rosemont’s Allstate Arena go on sale at 10 a.m. today (www.LiveNation.com; 800-745-3000).

Liam Payne, 18, hopes the tour will lead to even more opportunities. “The ultimate goal would be to do a big, worldwide tour. That would be the most amazing thing we could do.”