It's sold over three million copies worldwide and fuelled a business empire worth somewhere near £50m - yet the pricetag of One Direction's debut album may have been a snip, according to Simon Cowell.

Rumours abound that the cost of Up All Night - recorded across Stockholm, London and Los Angeles with top songwriters such as Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk and Savan Kotecha - spiralled over the seven-figure mark.

But in an interview with yesterday's Evening Standard, Cowell protests that ...