The Life Of 5 Seconds Of Summer

History of 5 seconds of summer

2011 - 2014: Origin and debut

5 seconds of summer were formed in 2011 when Luke hemmings, Michael Clifford and Callum Hood, who all attended Norwest Christian college, began osting videos of themselves singing covers of oular songs together on Lukes hemmings youtube channel. In December 2011, they invited Ashton Irwin to be the drummer and the band was completed. The bands name was created by Michael Clifford. On 3rd December 2011, the band played their first show at sydney pub, Ammadale Hotel, playing for only 12 people. In 2020, the band paid homage to their first performance in their 'Old me' music video, which showed a video clip of their Ammadale Hotel performance and a recreation of the show.

The band attracted interest from major music labels and publishers and also signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Despite having no promotion apart from on facebook and twitter, their first music release, an EP titled 'Unplugged', reached number 3 on the iTunes chart in Australia and the top 20 in both New Zeland and Sweden. 5 seconds of summer spent the second half of 2012 writing and developing their sound with  Christian Lo Russo and Joel Chapman of Asutralian band Amy Meredith, with whom they wrote two songs. The band released thier second single on 19th November 2012. The video clip reached over 100,000 views within the first 24 hours. In December 2012, the band embarked on a songwriting trip to london where they wrote with various artists including McFly, Roy Stride for Scouting for girls, Nick Hodgeson of Kaiser Chiefs, Jamie Scott, Jake Grosling, Steve Robson and James Bourne of Busted.

As their fame and dedication to the band grew, the band members eventually dropped out of school, with Michael Cliffors having left school two years before in year 10 and later completing a year at TAFE. Callum Hood dropped out in year 11 in 2012 due to the bands move to london. Ashton Irwin had already graduated from Richmond high school in 2012, and studied music performance at a TAFE college, before choosing to leave to pursue the band. Luke Hemmings continued with distance education up until 2013, when he dropped out in the final year of secondary school due to the commitment of the band.

On 14th February 2013, it was announced that 5 seconds of summer would support One Direction on their worldwide Take Me Home Tour. The tour kicked off at the O2 Arena in London on 23rd February 2013, and 5 seconds of summer joined One Direction for shows in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, including seven shows at Allphones Arena in 5 seconds of summer's home town of sydney. While on a break from the Take Me Home Tour, 5 seconds of summer returned home to Australia where they played a national headlining tour, with all dates selling out within minutes. It was around the time when the band began to gain popularity and became more well known. On 21st February 2014, 5 seconds of summer listed their debut major label single 'She looks so perfect' for the pre-order on the iTunes store. On 5th March 2014, it was announced that 5 seconds of summer would join One Direction again, supporting them on their Where We Are Tour in the US, Canada, UK and Europe.

2014 - 5 Seconds Of Summer and LIVESOS

In late March 2014, the bands singles 'she looks so perfect' wasreleased in the UK. Despite spending only one day on top in theBritish iTunes store and ending its week in the lower end of the top10, 5 seconds of summer became the fourth Australian band to have aUK number one single, and the first to do so in 14 years. On 9th April 2014, 'She Looks So Perfect' debuted at number 2 on theBillboard 200 Chart. On 9th May 2014, they released their third single 'Don't Stop', which peakedat number one in 4 countries, debuted at number 2 in the UK SinglesChart and was in the top 10 of 8 countries overall.