Simon Cowell launches search for new boyband

Music mogul aims to replicate success of previous charges One Direction, but acknowledges ‘high degree of risk’ in venture

Nearly a decade on from the end of his blockbusting global phenomenon One Direction, Simon Cowell is going back into the fray to discover a new boyband.

His campaign was launched in London with a billboard featuring a sunglasses-clad Cowell evoking Lord Kitchener’s 1914 recruitment poster with the words: “Simon needs you! Future megastars wanted for new boyband. No time wasters.”