Former Pop Idol contestant Mark Rhodes has told how Liam Payne called him for advice on handling fame after they met early in the One Direction star’s career.

The singer, TV and radio presenter said the pair had exchanged numbers as “fellow Wolverhampton lads” and he later rang asking what fame would be like.

Rhodes, one half of the Sam and Mark duo, said he told the singer to “surround yourself with people who’ve got your best interests at heart”.

After Payne’s death in Argentina at the age of 31, he added: “I just feel really sorry for the people he’s left behind.”

Rhodes, now a presenter on BBC Radio WM, appeared with co-star Sam Nixon on Pop Idol in 2003.

The pair came second and third in the ITV singing contest, going on to forge a TV and radio presenting career together.

They met Payne when hosting a corporate event at which One Direction were appearing after their run on the network’s X-Factor series in 2010.

“I’ve never seen so many girls in my life for one band – it was incredible,” said Rhodes.

After they exchanged numbers, he took a call from the young star “while I was waiting for a flight”.

“He just said: ‘What’s it like? What’s it going to be like?’.”

• Listen to Mark Rhodes talking about Liam getting in touch

Rhodes said his advice to surround himself with people who had his best interests at heart was “the main thing for staying in the pop industry, because it’s really cut-throat”.

Payne’s childhood was spent in Wolverhampton, not too far from Rhodes’s own family home and he remained involved in the city after his rise to fame.

Reacting to Payne’s death, Rhodes said: “I was really sad about what happened, but I don’t think I’m shocked any more… People get into these states because they haven’t got the support around them.”

He added: “When I was doing it, there was no social media… but for that lad, goodness me, he got catapulted into the stratosphere pretty much straight away with the band, and it just feels like it was all too much too soon for him.

“I got nowhere near what that lad achieved and we should all be incredibly proud of what he did for the city.”

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