One Direction have hit back at The Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard after he urged fans not to listen to their music.

The 'Naive' singer began the row on Twitter when he slated their new album 'Midnight Memories'.

One Direction hunk Liam Payne responded by tweeting: ''Sad thing is @lukekook we are/where (sic) fans of your band, nice one man verbally attacking your own fans how very rock and roll of you ;).''

After the band's album release launch party, Luke posted: ''Stop this malfunction. World realign please. Artists dying.''

When a fan responded saying she liked both The Kooks and One Direction, the musician wasn't impressed.

He told her: ''How can you be a fan of something that has no life? I honestly feel so depressed that you are into Kooks.

''I'd rather anyone who likes One Direction never follow me. You literally have no idea how upset I am.''

He later backtracked and said he had been drinking and removed the tweets after facing a backlash from One Direction fans.

He then replied to Liam saying: ''Man, I regret having a rant but the machinery of the industry pisses me off. I respect you do your thing.

''This whole thing now has gone too far. Gonna say I have my opinions but meant no offence, that's why I took down them there tweets. Love.''