Post by shayne on Nov 30, 2009 17:17:15 GMT 8
Out of the mouths of children! After a year of uninterrupted domestic bliss, Shane Filan wanted to break it gently to his four years old daughter, Nicole, that daddy would soon have to go back to work.
By JIM GRAY
'What work?', the little darling innocently enquired.
"You know, singing with Westlife", dad gently prodded.
"That's not work!" she exclaimed with a dismissive shrug of her slender shoulders.
And so, not for the first time, Shane Filan reflected that what he calls work is something he would gladly do for nothing.
"At the end of the day, it's a job. It is work, and it can be very hard some times. But we've never regarded it as a chore. We've never lost sight of how lucky we are to have this as our job. Nicole's comment just reminded me of how lucky I am," he says.
After a year long sabbatical, Shane and his Westlife colleagues are clearly itching to get back on the road. Bubbling with the same enthusiasm which provided the infectious trademark of the band's earliest days, he talks excitedly about the new Westlife single and album, the exhaustive promotional work which will take them across the globe over the next four months, and the performance tours being lined up for the summer months, which will hopefully include a Sligo concert.
Listening to him, it's hard to believe eleven years have passed since three fresh-faced Sligo teenagers, barely out of their Summerhill College uniforms, embarked on a magical journey which was to bring them unimagined fame and fortune on a global basis.
Along with Dubliners Nicky Byrne and Bryan McFadden, the latter since gone his separate way, Shane, Kian Egan and Mark Feehily have rewritten the music industry record books.
The staggering statistics graphically underline their phenomenal success -the only act in UK history to have their first seven singles go straight to number one; over 43 million records sold worldwide; the biggest selling pop band in the world over the past decade; their achievement of 14 number one singles bettered only by Elvis Presley and The Beatles; and sell out concerts in some of the world's biggest stadia.
But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of that breathtaking success is that it has hardly changed them. Older, wiser, more settled surely --but their personalities remain utterly uncontaminated by the egotistical excesses which engulf much of the music industry.
"I don't think any of us has changed too much. I'd hate to think we ever would," Shane offers. "Obviously, we're much more mature about things, about life generally and about the industry. Being married and having young children gives life a different dimension. So while our lives have changed, I don't think we have."
Life-changing indeed has been the Westlife experience, but Shane's personal life has evolved too. Now the father of two young children, Nicole (4) and Patrick (1), the family is set to be further extended with Gillian expecting the couple's third child in February.
"Next year will certainly be busy, both on the professional and family fronts, with the new baby due and Nicole starting school. Things will certainly be different," he reflects.
Despite the fame and perceived glamour of the pop star life, Shane insists his children will have a normal family life.
"I can't help the fact that I'm in Westlife and that I'm well known. But I don't see that interfering with my family life at all. Both Gillian and myself are grounded people, and like all parents, we want the best for our children.
"They will have a normal life. That's why we decided to set up home in Sligo. It's where we grew up, where our families are, and where our children will be reared. I don't see it being a problem", he maintains.
The affection for his home town and his attachment to the family values which shaped his life are still seared into his psyche.
For instance, while away on tour, he hankers after his mother's bacon and cabbage, a longing that's satisfied almost as soon as he puts his foot across the family threshold.
"My parents have been terrific, always totally supportive. Whenever I come home I'm spoiled. Mum will have the bacon and cabbage on the dinner table and dad will be bringing me down to the horses and the farm. And they're always willing babysitters. In a way, I suppose I will always be their baby", he grins.
Thoughts of his parents bring to mind the one dark cloud which has hovered over the Westlife camp in recent months --the untimely deaths of Kevin Egan and Nicky Byrne Snr.
"It's been a very tough year in that respect. We have shared so much happiness over the past 11 years so we share each other's pain as well.
"It's very tough on Kian and Nicky getting back to work with the loss of their respective dads still so recent for them.
"We performed 'You Raise Me Up' at the respective funerals, so I know that whenever we do that song on stage it will bring back memories for the lads. But the song is a celebration of their dad's lives, and we will all pull together to get them through.
"If anything, the bereavements have made us even closer. We're like four brothers now," Shane reveals. Back on the family front, little Nicole is already a huge Westlife fan and is showing signs of having inherited her father's singing ability. "She's already a bit of singer, a little performer. She knows all about Westlife, loves the songs."
In common with all Westlife fans, Nicole will soon have more new songs to listen to as the eagerly-awaited comeback album, "Where We Are", is released this Friday.
Shane describes it as "the best ever Westlife album" and can't remember a recording on which the band has worked so hard or had as much direct involvement.
Marking as it does the second phase of the band's career, they wanted it to be fresh and dynamic, to define what they have become and where they intend to go.
The challenge was to retain the Westlife brand sound, and yet appeal to a generation of fans who have grown up with the band and others who they want to attract to the more mature style.
"It would be easy to be lazy, because we got to the stage where any Westlife album would be guaranteed to sell three million copies. But we didn't want to rest on that. We didn't want to become complacent.
"We want to sell this album on its quality, rather than merely on our reputation. We deliberately set out to make a top quality record, and I honestly believe we've achieved that. I would definitely say it's our best ever album, and I'm confident when people hear it they'll agree with that assessment," Shane says.
Because of Westlife's reputation, the best songwriters in the world now clamber to have their work included on an album, meaning the boys literally had hundreds of strong songs from which to choose the thirteen tracks.
And they chose carefully, painstakingly sifting through the vast volume of submissions over several months before recording began in America last summer. The clear-headed democracy which they brought to the selection process is reflected in the fact that at least half a dozen of their own compositions were rejected, although a Mark Feehily penned song did make the cut.
"We wanted the album to be so good that all of the tracks would be strong enough to be singles, so there are no fillers, no throwaways. We're delighted to have a song by Mark on the album, and we'd like to have had more of our own stuff, but the quality of the other tracks was so strong that we had to concede that our own songs were not good enough. That's how determined we were to get this right," Shane
explains.
As this will be the only Westlife album until Christmas 2011, Shane expects there will be at least five singles taken from it, the next of which will probably be released next March.
That means there will be a continuous round of promotional trips from one end of the world to the other in the coming months, as well as a concert tour next summer. It's a hectic schedule, but one which Shane and his mates are relishing.
"We absolutely love what we do, and we've never taken it for granted. We know how lucky we are, but we also know that none of this could have happened without hard work. I think we appreciate it more as we get older. We love the challenge of trying to improve rather than resting on what we've already achieved," he confides. And how long will it all last? Eleven years on, Shane sees no end in sight. "Just look at 'Take That' --they've come back stronger than ever, and they're older than us! You never know what's around the corner, but we'd love to do five quality albums over the next ten years, rather than rushing anything. So we plan to be around for quite a while yet."
Credit/Source: www.sligochampion.ie /
By JIM GRAY
'What work?', the little darling innocently enquired.
"You know, singing with Westlife", dad gently prodded.
"That's not work!" she exclaimed with a dismissive shrug of her slender shoulders.
And so, not for the first time, Shane Filan reflected that what he calls work is something he would gladly do for nothing.
"At the end of the day, it's a job. It is work, and it can be very hard some times. But we've never regarded it as a chore. We've never lost sight of how lucky we are to have this as our job. Nicole's comment just reminded me of how lucky I am," he says.
After a year long sabbatical, Shane and his Westlife colleagues are clearly itching to get back on the road. Bubbling with the same enthusiasm which provided the infectious trademark of the band's earliest days, he talks excitedly about the new Westlife single and album, the exhaustive promotional work which will take them across the globe over the next four months, and the performance tours being lined up for the summer months, which will hopefully include a Sligo concert.
Listening to him, it's hard to believe eleven years have passed since three fresh-faced Sligo teenagers, barely out of their Summerhill College uniforms, embarked on a magical journey which was to bring them unimagined fame and fortune on a global basis.
Along with Dubliners Nicky Byrne and Bryan McFadden, the latter since gone his separate way, Shane, Kian Egan and Mark Feehily have rewritten the music industry record books.
The staggering statistics graphically underline their phenomenal success -the only act in UK history to have their first seven singles go straight to number one; over 43 million records sold worldwide; the biggest selling pop band in the world over the past decade; their achievement of 14 number one singles bettered only by Elvis Presley and The Beatles; and sell out concerts in some of the world's biggest stadia.
But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of that breathtaking success is that it has hardly changed them. Older, wiser, more settled surely --but their personalities remain utterly uncontaminated by the egotistical excesses which engulf much of the music industry.
"I don't think any of us has changed too much. I'd hate to think we ever would," Shane offers. "Obviously, we're much more mature about things, about life generally and about the industry. Being married and having young children gives life a different dimension. So while our lives have changed, I don't think we have."
Life-changing indeed has been the Westlife experience, but Shane's personal life has evolved too. Now the father of two young children, Nicole (4) and Patrick (1), the family is set to be further extended with Gillian expecting the couple's third child in February.
"Next year will certainly be busy, both on the professional and family fronts, with the new baby due and Nicole starting school. Things will certainly be different," he reflects.
Despite the fame and perceived glamour of the pop star life, Shane insists his children will have a normal family life.
"I can't help the fact that I'm in Westlife and that I'm well known. But I don't see that interfering with my family life at all. Both Gillian and myself are grounded people, and like all parents, we want the best for our children.
"They will have a normal life. That's why we decided to set up home in Sligo. It's where we grew up, where our families are, and where our children will be reared. I don't see it being a problem", he maintains.
The affection for his home town and his attachment to the family values which shaped his life are still seared into his psyche.
For instance, while away on tour, he hankers after his mother's bacon and cabbage, a longing that's satisfied almost as soon as he puts his foot across the family threshold.
"My parents have been terrific, always totally supportive. Whenever I come home I'm spoiled. Mum will have the bacon and cabbage on the dinner table and dad will be bringing me down to the horses and the farm. And they're always willing babysitters. In a way, I suppose I will always be their baby", he grins.
Thoughts of his parents bring to mind the one dark cloud which has hovered over the Westlife camp in recent months --the untimely deaths of Kevin Egan and Nicky Byrne Snr.
"It's been a very tough year in that respect. We have shared so much happiness over the past 11 years so we share each other's pain as well.
"It's very tough on Kian and Nicky getting back to work with the loss of their respective dads still so recent for them.
"We performed 'You Raise Me Up' at the respective funerals, so I know that whenever we do that song on stage it will bring back memories for the lads. But the song is a celebration of their dad's lives, and we will all pull together to get them through.
"If anything, the bereavements have made us even closer. We're like four brothers now," Shane reveals. Back on the family front, little Nicole is already a huge Westlife fan and is showing signs of having inherited her father's singing ability. "She's already a bit of singer, a little performer. She knows all about Westlife, loves the songs."
In common with all Westlife fans, Nicole will soon have more new songs to listen to as the eagerly-awaited comeback album, "Where We Are", is released this Friday.
Shane describes it as "the best ever Westlife album" and can't remember a recording on which the band has worked so hard or had as much direct involvement.
Marking as it does the second phase of the band's career, they wanted it to be fresh and dynamic, to define what they have become and where they intend to go.
The challenge was to retain the Westlife brand sound, and yet appeal to a generation of fans who have grown up with the band and others who they want to attract to the more mature style.
"It would be easy to be lazy, because we got to the stage where any Westlife album would be guaranteed to sell three million copies. But we didn't want to rest on that. We didn't want to become complacent.
"We want to sell this album on its quality, rather than merely on our reputation. We deliberately set out to make a top quality record, and I honestly believe we've achieved that. I would definitely say it's our best ever album, and I'm confident when people hear it they'll agree with that assessment," Shane says.
Because of Westlife's reputation, the best songwriters in the world now clamber to have their work included on an album, meaning the boys literally had hundreds of strong songs from which to choose the thirteen tracks.
And they chose carefully, painstakingly sifting through the vast volume of submissions over several months before recording began in America last summer. The clear-headed democracy which they brought to the selection process is reflected in the fact that at least half a dozen of their own compositions were rejected, although a Mark Feehily penned song did make the cut.
"We wanted the album to be so good that all of the tracks would be strong enough to be singles, so there are no fillers, no throwaways. We're delighted to have a song by Mark on the album, and we'd like to have had more of our own stuff, but the quality of the other tracks was so strong that we had to concede that our own songs were not good enough. That's how determined we were to get this right," Shane
explains.
As this will be the only Westlife album until Christmas 2011, Shane expects there will be at least five singles taken from it, the next of which will probably be released next March.
That means there will be a continuous round of promotional trips from one end of the world to the other in the coming months, as well as a concert tour next summer. It's a hectic schedule, but one which Shane and his mates are relishing.
"We absolutely love what we do, and we've never taken it for granted. We know how lucky we are, but we also know that none of this could have happened without hard work. I think we appreciate it more as we get older. We love the challenge of trying to improve rather than resting on what we've already achieved," he confides. And how long will it all last? Eleven years on, Shane sees no end in sight. "Just look at 'Take That' --they've come back stronger than ever, and they're older than us! You never know what's around the corner, but we'd love to do five quality albums over the next ten years, rather than rushing anything. So we plan to be around for quite a while yet."
Credit/Source: www.sligochampion.ie /