THE sudden death of any young person is a tragedy, with all that potential, all those years of experiences and enjoyments, wiped out.

And so it is with Liam Payne, only 31 when he fell to his death in Argentina. His legions of fans from his One Direction days will miss him terribly – in fact, for many young people, this will be their first brush with the bereavement of someone they invited into their rooms, into their ears, and it will take some getting used to.

There’s an old French phrase about people having 15 minutes of fame but increasingly, the vast numbers of reality TV shows are giving 15 seconds of fame.

One Direction actually did extraordinarily well, selling 70m records worldwide and becoming the first band to have their first four albums debut at No 1 in the US charts.

But after working the treadmill of success for six years from such a young age, it all ended in 2016. Other members of the band, like Harry Styles, went on to individual acclaim but Liam was still waiting to discover his path.

Rebecca Ferguson, who came second on 2010’s X Factor when One Direction came third, has spoken of the “exploitation and profiteering of young stars” and said that many of them are suffering from something like post traumatic stress disorder because overnight mega-stardom hits incredibly hard and brings incredible highs – and then it can all be gone.

It looks as if it left Liam with demons involving drink and drugs which the on-going investigation seems likely to find contributed to his death. We feel especially sorry for his family, his seven-year-old son and his friends who knew and loved him as a person, and for his fans to whom he meant so much as a pop idol, and we grieve for his lost years of potential.