Much-hyped teen Australian pop-punk band 5 Seconds of Summer, touted as the new One Direction, arrived at Sydney Airport to a predictably shriek-filled response from about 200 female fans aged between 12 and 20 this morning.
But when the teen sensations finally arrived, fans and the band members were left disappointed thanks to allegedly heavy-handed security.
"We were really disappointed," said 16 year old Kristen Rose from Campbelltown. "So many of us had been waiting for more than five hours. We didn't want to mob them.
"When security marched them through they wouldn't let them interact with us. Ashton stepped forward to give a girl a hug and a big security guard shoved her out of the way. We weren't allowed to even get within conversation distance.
"I don't blame the boys they always go out of their way to do whatever they can for fans."
The band's drummer Ashton Irwin tweeted his upset too, saying he "absolutely hated how that went, I never want that to happen again".
Some fans, like Steph Digby, 20, had been up since 3am readying themselves to face their idols.
She imported and assembled a kitset ukulele then painted it with the band's song lyrics and quotes from its four members – Calum Hood, 18, Luke Hemmings, 17, Michael Clifford, 18 and Irwin, 19, hoping to present it to them.
Digby prefers them to One Direction, the British band who had much to do with raising their profile and whose shadow they are emerging from, because "they play their own instruments".
"And don't call them a boy band," she added. "They hate that."
5SOS (pronounced "fivesoss"), as their 2.6 million twitter fans know them, landed just after 9am but were held back from exiting the airport by security concerned the band would be mobbed by overexcited fans.
"I think I'm gonna pee," said Rachel, 15, who was not alone in being overcome with excitement.
When 5SOS finally appeared around 10.15am it was an all-too brief appearance for tearful fans desperate to chat with or present gifts to the four young men, who looked dazed after a long flight from the US where they completed their Stars, Stripes and Maple Syrup tour.
A squadron of heavies frogmarched the quartet through a side exit from the secure area at the airport and outside into waiting black vans with blacked-out windows giving media and fans little chance to talk with them.
We had time for just one question: how had life changed for them since their single She's So Perfect topped the charts here and in Britain and reached number 2 in the US? "It's been good," frontman Luke Hemmings replied on the run, looking slightly freaked out. The band was in their van within seconds of appearing, with Hemmings tweeting his apologies.
5 Seconds of Summer play the opening show of their sold-out Australian 'There is No Place Like Home' tour on Wednesday at the Enmore Theatre.
