Do you know someone who has what it takes to be a globally successful boy band? It could even be you.

Simon Cowell has revealed he is searching for the next One Direction across the UK and he is holding auditions in the North East next month.

The music mogul is embarking on a hunt for a group to rival the success achieved by Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne, 14 years after forming One Direction on The X Factor in 2010.

Cowell explained he wants to go “back to basics” with the search, in contrast to the auditions in front of large crowds on The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, but the process will be filmed for a potential future documentary series.

He told the PA news agency: “I would pray to find a band as good as One Direction and to find the records as good as they made, there are so many factors involved to make a band successful all over the world.

“You can’t fake this, even though I’m the one going out to do the auditions, it really depends on the individuals. If you find the right people I’m not someone who says dress like this, say this, do this, it is just not my style and I never once did that with One Direction.”

He said One Direction were “lightning in a bottle” but he is hopeful a new group can emulate their success, saying the recent decline in UK artists breaking internationally is “shocking”.

When is Simon Cowell holding auditions in the North East?

Cowell will be holding auditions to find the next One Direction in Newcastle on July 4 and 5 – you can sign up here.

The Northern Echo: One Direction were formed 14 years agoOne Direction were formed 14 years ago (Image: David Parry Media Assignments)

He is seeking talented males aged 16-18 who possess the passion, charisma, and star quality to form the next boyband sensation.

Cowell will be joined for the auditions by people he trusts from his record label and TV company, who he believes “genuinely made a difference in One Direction’s career”.

The search is being documented by a TV crew from Box To Box Films, the company behind Formula 1: Drive To Survive, and Cowell said he is “getting close” to announcing the format it will take.

Simon Cowell explains why he rejected The X Factor format for auditions

Cowell commented: “Bands never knock on your front door, it’s never happened in my career, someone has to go out and put them together – and the truth is since One Direction there hasn’t been a successful UK boyband.

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“The only way to do it is do what I used to do, go out and do it and audition and do it face to face and don’t have any pre-casting.

“In other words, don’t have people choose people in advance, it really is first come first served.

“You have to see a lot of people, the auditions are quick and you have to pray and hope enough people turn up and the right people turn up.”

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Asked why he was rejecting The X Factor format for the search, he said: “Because I wanted to show the process of what really, really happens when we do this.

“I’ve been in the music business for a long, long time and I’ve never seen anything that portrays what really, really happens when you go out and audition.

“You have to make an awful lot of decisions and a lot happens which we’ve never really showed. So I thought, apart from anything else, it will be really interesting to document the process and then hope also along the way that we get lucky enough to find the right people, because if we don’t get enough people turn up we are screwed.”

“If we are lucky enough to find the right people then there has never been a better time to be in a band right now.”