About to launch his first album as a solo artist, Niall Horan has recalled that the worst night of his life was another first – the debut gig from One Direction six years ago.

In a new wide-ranging interview with the BBC, the 24 year old Irish singer revealed that 1D’s first ever live performance, in Watford Colosseum way back in December 2011, was “a disaster”.

“I never want to talk about that gig again,” Horan winced. “Worst night of my life. The worst One Direction show ever.”

The band had been formed on ‘The X Factor’ less than 12 months before, and they had recently hit the top of the charts with ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ but, despite all the rehearsals on the ITV talent show and the weeks of preparation for their official live unveiling, the five-piece apparently weren’t prepared for it.

Niall HoranNiall Horan says 1D's first ever gig was "the worst night of my life"

“We've refused to talk about it ever since,” he said, remembering the night with pain, despite the show itself actually getting pretty decent reviews. “It was a disaster. We were just a joke.”

More: Niall Horan describes One Direction as being “like a circus”

“Anything we rehearsed just went out the window. It was our first ever gig and we just didn't know what the f*** was going on.”

Elsewhere, Horan told Nick Grimshaw on Radio 1’s breakfast show on Friday morning (September 15th) that his debut album, Flicker, will be released in October. However, he said in the BBC interview that after 1D went on hiatus at the end of 2015, he wasn’t keen on being inactive for very long.

“I didn't really want to do anything at all,” he added. “In my head, it was like, 'Jesus Christ, this is going to be brilliant, I can actually not work for a while.' I swear to God, I had no plan at all. I just wanted to get out and see the world from a different angle. It was a bit of a shock to the system. I was sitting at home watching ‘Jeremy Kyle’ every day and I was like, 'Get me out of here!'”

More: Louis Tomlinson reveals that being a solo singer is harder than being in One Direction