Post by shayne on Dec 4, 2010 9:00:44 GMT 8
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WESTLIFE STORY
RSVP Magazine December 2010
The bestselling foursome tell Showbiz editor Paul Martin about their busy year, Christmas with their loved ones, maintaining their image and why Brian McFadden will never be part of the band again.
Christmas can’t come soon enough for the Westlife boys – because for a few blissful days, they’ll be able to take a rare trip back to normality. The endless flights, interviews, TV appearances and frantic fans will grind to a halt and Shane, Nicky, Kian and Mark will return home to Ireland for a dream festive period. Today those dreamy afternoons by their open fires hanging decorations on the tree seem like a million miles away, as countless camera crews, stylists, pretty PR girls and hairdressers battle for space in the plush Morgan Hotel penthouse suite. But finally, amid the organised chaos, the lads emerge looking every bit the pop icons with the leather and designer fabrics and perfectly groomed hair. The quartet cosy up on the white leather sofa and dish all the life in the band, as they prepare for a Christmas homecoming and a frantic 2011.
You are busier than ever boys, you must be dying for a nice Christmas at home?
Shane: I really can’t wait for Christmas. I’m going to be home with Gillian and the children. It’s the first Christmas with Shane Junior so it’s going to be a big Santa Claus Christmas this year. We’ll have a traditional day and all the trimmings. The whole family will come over from all corners of Sligo, so there’ll be a great atmosphere in the Filan household.
Mark: I’m spending it home with Kevin’s family – “The Geordies” as we call them. It will be a really frantic Christmas. Kevin’s brother is a professional chef so he’ll cooking up a treat, and Kevin will be getting stuck in too so it will be a great feast if last year is anything to go by.
Tell us about your perfect Christmas Day
Nicky: Life has changed so much with children, so it’s all about the Santa presents and seeing their little faces. It’s amazing. Last year was the first year the twins understood Santa and all that, and they were so excited. This year it’s another step further and the build-up is so exciting. We have Georgina’s mum and the whole family coming for dinner, so it’ll be chaos and wrapping paper everywhere!
Kian: Christmas Day for Jodi and I always starts with a nice hot chocolate with marshmallows, and a nice Disney movie in the background. We go for a walk on the beach or I go for a Christmas Day surf. If we’re in Sligo, we go to my mum’s house or if it’s in London I cook the dinner!
Nicky: I love spiced beef! That’s my ultimate must-have on Christmas Day.
Shane: For me, it’s eight bags of Tayto, mini cans of Coke, then Back To The Future. Perfection.
Tell us about the new album Gravity. It’s already made a huge impact on the charts.
Shane: We are so happy with the success of the album. It’s the most exciting album we’ve had in years – we’ve been trying to make something like this for five years.
Nicky: I think we have become a real band on this album to be honest. We’re so much more creative and experimental in the studios, and the whole experience has been more fulfilling.
Shane: Everything about this album is exactly how we envisioned it. It’s a total result!
Have you picked out presents for your other halves yet or do you leave it to the last minute?
Nicky: Buying presents is more of a challenge now, because we can’t get away with splashing the cash on a handbag or something. There has to be a meaning behind it, so it’s definitely not all about the money.
Kian: I’m eying up something nice and cosy for Jodi. She loves her PJ’s and comforting things, so I usually go for something like that. She’s not into the big flamboyant things.
Shane: Yes, at the start we used to spend money, but you soon get bored of that and it’s far more meaningful to put thought and effort into something. I’d rather have a gift that cost nothing and had loads of thought put into it.
Mark, you’re engaged to your boyfriend Kevin. Any wedding plans yet?
Mark: There are no plans yet, but we’re always brainstorming different ideas, and it’s very exciting but nothing yet. It’s about finding a gap in our band schedule, and I don’t want to rush it and not put enough care and attention into it. I don’t know what kind of ceremony we will go for – obviously it will be something a bit different that the conventional “straight” couple ceremony.
Take That have brought Robbie back amid a blaze of publicity – would you ever consider having Brian McFadden back?
Mark: There is a very simple one word answer and it’s NO.
Shane: It would be no way as interesting as Robbie coming back to Take That. Brian left the band because he didn’t like being in Westlife anymore, and he still wouldn’t.
Mark: We’ve rebuilt our walls up now, so there’s no space for Brian or someone on the street.
Nicky: Maybe if Justin Timberlake wanted in, we’d let him in for a day. That would be pretty cool. But only for a day.
Looking back over the years of Westlife is there anything you regret or would change?
Shane: Everyone regrets, but you live and learn from songs like The Rose or Hey Whatever, which really didn’t hit the mark for us. I don’t think we’d do those kind of songs again.
Nicky: We learned from that, and we knew we couldn’t do it all ourselves in terms of picking songs and all – you need really good people working with you.
Mark: There’s no rule book and there’s no definite path in this business so you are learning all the time. We’ve made loads of mistakes over the years.
You’re all looking in great shape. Did you worry more about your image when you started out or now?
Shane: Now to be honest. When we look back at stuff during some of the stages of the band, I thought I looked terrible. I wasn’t eating healthy food, and never went to the gym for five or six years. I want to be a fitter person. So I put a lot more effort in now.
Nicky: The older you get the more conscious you get. Nobody can me Mr White and stop eating bad food, however the last four years I would have tried really harder to be healthy and train more. Image wise, we’re not in the competition with Take That or anything though. We have to look as good as we can because we’re in the public eye. Yes we’re vain because we’re in TV, but that’s only natural!
We’re looking forward to seeing you on stage again next year in Ireland. What can we expect?
Shane: We’ve never played the O2 in Dublin before, so we’re really excited. We’re going to do as many nights as possible.
Kian: The tour is going to be a big extravaganza. The last few years we’ve been doing less pyrotechnics, and it’s more about the visuals. So maybe a bit more glitz and glam. This album has much bigger live feel to it. We have some great up tempo numbers too so it’s going to be great to do them.
Nicky: Touring for me has always been the best part. It’s getting out there and giving everything to the fans.
Shane: It will be spectacular!
What’s different about the Westlife we see today compared to five years ago?
We felt recently that we haven’t been at our best. Songs like “Flying Without Wings” and “World Of Our Own” really enabled us to become a long-serving pop band, and this year we put our foot down with the label and said that we wanted to get back to where we were, making great pop songs and that’s what we did this album. We’ve got a formula with Westlife and we’ve got Simon Cowell behind us. He knows what the public wants to a certain extent, but what we’ve learned to do with Simon is to force a compromise and we’ve done that on this album. Simon didn’t want us to make an original pop album. Simon and Sony/BMG wanted us to make a “Westlife Go To The Movies” album which would have been cover songs like “Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun, but that really wasn’t up our street. We would rather have knocked the whole f***ing thing on the head than record the album. I hope we get three or four singles off this album too – I hope we don’t just stick with one or two before Christmas. This is a good album.
Take That have sold out two nights at Croke Park – what’s the secret of their success?
Nicky: There’s nothing like a bit of nostalgia and a reunion. Take That were a win-win situation, as they had no idea how big or small it was going to be, but hats off to those boys. They have brought back something that has been missing for years.
Mark: When we made our swing album a few years ago, we took two years between pop albums, but the feeling coming back to pop music and the reaction from the fans was so obvious that year. Another thing that works against us it that e release an album every single year – if we didn’t release so close together then maybe people wouldn’t see it as the same old thing over and over. The whole comeback thing has become a bit of a trend. When Take That did it, it was a new thing, and now it’s just a cliché to come back.
Who’s the biggest partier in Westlife?
Kian: Probably me and Mark, as the others have kids.
Shane: I like having a drink once a week, or if there’s an event on. I love getting drunk, but the hangovers are a f***ing nightmare.
Kian: I probably get the most drunk out of everybody. Nicky doesn’t get hammered anymore.
Mark: I can’t drink anymore when I’m recording as it ruins my voice. Although I did record one single on the new album Shadows after being out until 5.30 am, and it sounded great!
Tell us about some of your craziest drunken nights out.
Shane: Nicky and I were in Belgium once, and I was so drunk I was lying on the floor of this bar and Nicky wouldn’t let me go up. He kept putting his foot on my chest to stop me, and I was lying there, rolling around and laughing. Then he had a row with the barman because he was refusing to serve him at 3.30 am, so he told him to f**k off and stormed out, leaving me with three very angry men. I was like, “Thanks, Nicky.”
Nicky: Shane rang me saying he thought these guys were going to kick his head in, so I had to run back and save him.
What was your best drunken night out?
Kian: When we were in a chip shop in South Africa years ago, and were so drunk. I filmed the others abusing the sh** out of each other. [laughing] Nicky and Shane were picking up sauce and splatting it all in Mark’s face and he just sat there taking it. Then they started throwing things at each other and their eyes were all over the place. I still piss myself when I watch the video back.
How do you manage to get through a year on the road together without falling out?
Shane: To be honest we are getting on better than ever. I think we’ve all grown up a lot since the early days of the band. We all have families now and our own lives outside the band, so that means when we get back together it’s like being back with your mates and we enjoy every second of it. If we disagree on something, we are very democratic – we put it to a vote. Whoever has the majority gets their way.
What’s it like having Simon Cowell as a boss, I would imagine he’s quite demanding?
Nicky: That’s something we never shy away from. He’s the most powerful man in the music industry, and that opens a lot of doors. He’s always been great with us. When you are in a room with Simon Cowell, you can have a debate about what songs you should and shouldn’t do, but at the end of it all he usually wins – he is Simon Cowell after all. He knows the music business inside out, and he has helped us reach the top. Having Simon Cowell in your camp is a massive advantage, and we owe so much to him.
You’ve all made your millions and live incredible lifestyles. Can you still enjoy the normal things in life or does it all have to be bling bling now?
Nicky: I was out with my mates during the year off. We’d been out, had a proper and a mad night, and we were walking back from a pub we had been in, when a lad came up to me. He said “I know you, you shouldn’t be round here, you should be in the bling bling bars”. It made me laugh. I’m not really into the whole celeb lifestyle. I’d rather be in an ordinary pub or a bar than somewhere bling bling.
Shane: My biggest passions beside my family are golf and snooker. So you don’t need millions to be able to play those sports! It’s just the simple things in life that are the best.
From NickyGirl (TheCommitted)
WESTLIFE STORY
RSVP Magazine December 2010
The bestselling foursome tell Showbiz editor Paul Martin about their busy year, Christmas with their loved ones, maintaining their image and why Brian McFadden will never be part of the band again.
Christmas can’t come soon enough for the Westlife boys – because for a few blissful days, they’ll be able to take a rare trip back to normality. The endless flights, interviews, TV appearances and frantic fans will grind to a halt and Shane, Nicky, Kian and Mark will return home to Ireland for a dream festive period. Today those dreamy afternoons by their open fires hanging decorations on the tree seem like a million miles away, as countless camera crews, stylists, pretty PR girls and hairdressers battle for space in the plush Morgan Hotel penthouse suite. But finally, amid the organised chaos, the lads emerge looking every bit the pop icons with the leather and designer fabrics and perfectly groomed hair. The quartet cosy up on the white leather sofa and dish all the life in the band, as they prepare for a Christmas homecoming and a frantic 2011.
You are busier than ever boys, you must be dying for a nice Christmas at home?
Shane: I really can’t wait for Christmas. I’m going to be home with Gillian and the children. It’s the first Christmas with Shane Junior so it’s going to be a big Santa Claus Christmas this year. We’ll have a traditional day and all the trimmings. The whole family will come over from all corners of Sligo, so there’ll be a great atmosphere in the Filan household.
Mark: I’m spending it home with Kevin’s family – “The Geordies” as we call them. It will be a really frantic Christmas. Kevin’s brother is a professional chef so he’ll cooking up a treat, and Kevin will be getting stuck in too so it will be a great feast if last year is anything to go by.
Tell us about your perfect Christmas Day
Nicky: Life has changed so much with children, so it’s all about the Santa presents and seeing their little faces. It’s amazing. Last year was the first year the twins understood Santa and all that, and they were so excited. This year it’s another step further and the build-up is so exciting. We have Georgina’s mum and the whole family coming for dinner, so it’ll be chaos and wrapping paper everywhere!
Kian: Christmas Day for Jodi and I always starts with a nice hot chocolate with marshmallows, and a nice Disney movie in the background. We go for a walk on the beach or I go for a Christmas Day surf. If we’re in Sligo, we go to my mum’s house or if it’s in London I cook the dinner!
Nicky: I love spiced beef! That’s my ultimate must-have on Christmas Day.
Shane: For me, it’s eight bags of Tayto, mini cans of Coke, then Back To The Future. Perfection.
Tell us about the new album Gravity. It’s already made a huge impact on the charts.
Shane: We are so happy with the success of the album. It’s the most exciting album we’ve had in years – we’ve been trying to make something like this for five years.
Nicky: I think we have become a real band on this album to be honest. We’re so much more creative and experimental in the studios, and the whole experience has been more fulfilling.
Shane: Everything about this album is exactly how we envisioned it. It’s a total result!
Have you picked out presents for your other halves yet or do you leave it to the last minute?
Nicky: Buying presents is more of a challenge now, because we can’t get away with splashing the cash on a handbag or something. There has to be a meaning behind it, so it’s definitely not all about the money.
Kian: I’m eying up something nice and cosy for Jodi. She loves her PJ’s and comforting things, so I usually go for something like that. She’s not into the big flamboyant things.
Shane: Yes, at the start we used to spend money, but you soon get bored of that and it’s far more meaningful to put thought and effort into something. I’d rather have a gift that cost nothing and had loads of thought put into it.
Mark, you’re engaged to your boyfriend Kevin. Any wedding plans yet?
Mark: There are no plans yet, but we’re always brainstorming different ideas, and it’s very exciting but nothing yet. It’s about finding a gap in our band schedule, and I don’t want to rush it and not put enough care and attention into it. I don’t know what kind of ceremony we will go for – obviously it will be something a bit different that the conventional “straight” couple ceremony.
Take That have brought Robbie back amid a blaze of publicity – would you ever consider having Brian McFadden back?
Mark: There is a very simple one word answer and it’s NO.
Shane: It would be no way as interesting as Robbie coming back to Take That. Brian left the band because he didn’t like being in Westlife anymore, and he still wouldn’t.
Mark: We’ve rebuilt our walls up now, so there’s no space for Brian or someone on the street.
Nicky: Maybe if Justin Timberlake wanted in, we’d let him in for a day. That would be pretty cool. But only for a day.
Looking back over the years of Westlife is there anything you regret or would change?
Shane: Everyone regrets, but you live and learn from songs like The Rose or Hey Whatever, which really didn’t hit the mark for us. I don’t think we’d do those kind of songs again.
Nicky: We learned from that, and we knew we couldn’t do it all ourselves in terms of picking songs and all – you need really good people working with you.
Mark: There’s no rule book and there’s no definite path in this business so you are learning all the time. We’ve made loads of mistakes over the years.
You’re all looking in great shape. Did you worry more about your image when you started out or now?
Shane: Now to be honest. When we look back at stuff during some of the stages of the band, I thought I looked terrible. I wasn’t eating healthy food, and never went to the gym for five or six years. I want to be a fitter person. So I put a lot more effort in now.
Nicky: The older you get the more conscious you get. Nobody can me Mr White and stop eating bad food, however the last four years I would have tried really harder to be healthy and train more. Image wise, we’re not in the competition with Take That or anything though. We have to look as good as we can because we’re in the public eye. Yes we’re vain because we’re in TV, but that’s only natural!
We’re looking forward to seeing you on stage again next year in Ireland. What can we expect?
Shane: We’ve never played the O2 in Dublin before, so we’re really excited. We’re going to do as many nights as possible.
Kian: The tour is going to be a big extravaganza. The last few years we’ve been doing less pyrotechnics, and it’s more about the visuals. So maybe a bit more glitz and glam. This album has much bigger live feel to it. We have some great up tempo numbers too so it’s going to be great to do them.
Nicky: Touring for me has always been the best part. It’s getting out there and giving everything to the fans.
Shane: It will be spectacular!
What’s different about the Westlife we see today compared to five years ago?
We felt recently that we haven’t been at our best. Songs like “Flying Without Wings” and “World Of Our Own” really enabled us to become a long-serving pop band, and this year we put our foot down with the label and said that we wanted to get back to where we were, making great pop songs and that’s what we did this album. We’ve got a formula with Westlife and we’ve got Simon Cowell behind us. He knows what the public wants to a certain extent, but what we’ve learned to do with Simon is to force a compromise and we’ve done that on this album. Simon didn’t want us to make an original pop album. Simon and Sony/BMG wanted us to make a “Westlife Go To The Movies” album which would have been cover songs like “Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun, but that really wasn’t up our street. We would rather have knocked the whole f***ing thing on the head than record the album. I hope we get three or four singles off this album too – I hope we don’t just stick with one or two before Christmas. This is a good album.
Take That have sold out two nights at Croke Park – what’s the secret of their success?
Nicky: There’s nothing like a bit of nostalgia and a reunion. Take That were a win-win situation, as they had no idea how big or small it was going to be, but hats off to those boys. They have brought back something that has been missing for years.
Mark: When we made our swing album a few years ago, we took two years between pop albums, but the feeling coming back to pop music and the reaction from the fans was so obvious that year. Another thing that works against us it that e release an album every single year – if we didn’t release so close together then maybe people wouldn’t see it as the same old thing over and over. The whole comeback thing has become a bit of a trend. When Take That did it, it was a new thing, and now it’s just a cliché to come back.
Who’s the biggest partier in Westlife?
Kian: Probably me and Mark, as the others have kids.
Shane: I like having a drink once a week, or if there’s an event on. I love getting drunk, but the hangovers are a f***ing nightmare.
Kian: I probably get the most drunk out of everybody. Nicky doesn’t get hammered anymore.
Mark: I can’t drink anymore when I’m recording as it ruins my voice. Although I did record one single on the new album Shadows after being out until 5.30 am, and it sounded great!
Tell us about some of your craziest drunken nights out.
Shane: Nicky and I were in Belgium once, and I was so drunk I was lying on the floor of this bar and Nicky wouldn’t let me go up. He kept putting his foot on my chest to stop me, and I was lying there, rolling around and laughing. Then he had a row with the barman because he was refusing to serve him at 3.30 am, so he told him to f**k off and stormed out, leaving me with three very angry men. I was like, “Thanks, Nicky.”
Nicky: Shane rang me saying he thought these guys were going to kick his head in, so I had to run back and save him.
What was your best drunken night out?
Kian: When we were in a chip shop in South Africa years ago, and were so drunk. I filmed the others abusing the sh** out of each other. [laughing] Nicky and Shane were picking up sauce and splatting it all in Mark’s face and he just sat there taking it. Then they started throwing things at each other and their eyes were all over the place. I still piss myself when I watch the video back.
How do you manage to get through a year on the road together without falling out?
Shane: To be honest we are getting on better than ever. I think we’ve all grown up a lot since the early days of the band. We all have families now and our own lives outside the band, so that means when we get back together it’s like being back with your mates and we enjoy every second of it. If we disagree on something, we are very democratic – we put it to a vote. Whoever has the majority gets their way.
What’s it like having Simon Cowell as a boss, I would imagine he’s quite demanding?
Nicky: That’s something we never shy away from. He’s the most powerful man in the music industry, and that opens a lot of doors. He’s always been great with us. When you are in a room with Simon Cowell, you can have a debate about what songs you should and shouldn’t do, but at the end of it all he usually wins – he is Simon Cowell after all. He knows the music business inside out, and he has helped us reach the top. Having Simon Cowell in your camp is a massive advantage, and we owe so much to him.
You’ve all made your millions and live incredible lifestyles. Can you still enjoy the normal things in life or does it all have to be bling bling now?
Nicky: I was out with my mates during the year off. We’d been out, had a proper and a mad night, and we were walking back from a pub we had been in, when a lad came up to me. He said “I know you, you shouldn’t be round here, you should be in the bling bling bars”. It made me laugh. I’m not really into the whole celeb lifestyle. I’d rather be in an ordinary pub or a bar than somewhere bling bling.
Shane: My biggest passions beside my family are golf and snooker. So you don’t need millions to be able to play those sports! It’s just the simple things in life that are the best.
From NickyGirl (TheCommitted)