Boyband One Direction make pop history in US

One Direction – featuring Wolverhampton's Liam Payne – have made history today as the first UK pop group to debut at number one on America's Billboard album chart.

Up All Night has gone straight into the top spot on the 200-album chart.

The achievement outperforms the likes of The Beatles and Coldplay. Liam's father Geoff Payne, of Bushbury, said today he "nearly cried" tears of pride when his 18-year-old son phoned to tell him the news. The band's mentor Simon Cowell described it as an "incredible achievement".

The previous highest entry for a UK group's first album in the Billboard charts was number six, when the Spice Girls entered the charts with Spice in 1997. They then saw it climb to the top spot 14 weeks later.

One Direction – the X Factor boyband also featuring Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson – are signed to Simon Cowell's label Syco.

The music mogul said today: "I couldn't be happier for One Direction. It is an incredible achievement. They deserve it. They have the best fans in the world."

The band's album sold 176,000 copies in the US in the space of a week. It also topped the digital charts within minutes of its release last week. Harry, 18, said today: "We simply cannot believe that we are number one in America.

"It's beyond a dream come true for us. We want to thank each and every one of our fans in the US who bought our album and we would also like to thank the American public for being so supportive of us."

Bandmate Niall added: "We just found out that we are number one in America and as you can imagine, we are over the moon."

One Direction have already found huge fame among teen fans in the UK after starring in the 2010 X Factor. Up All Night went straight to number one in the UK and in 12 other countries with global sales at more than 4.2 million.