Post by shayne on Oct 23, 2007 16:22:55 GMT 8
In A Taxi With... Westlife - 22 October 2007
After nearly ten years together the boyband tell how “natural fun” keeps them in harmony.
Interview Maureen Paton
Photograph Dean Beicher
Those Irish boys always wanna have fun, which is why I’m whisking Westlife away from the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane for some R and R at private London club 50 St James in Piccadilly, during a break from their hectic schedule.
Tony Bennett is the only pop cargo that our Essex taxi driver has carried before, so he doesn’t know quite what’s hit him when three lively Sligo men - Kian Egan 27, Mark Feehily, 27, and Shane Filan, 28 - and an equally talkative Dubliner, Nicky Byrne, pie nicely into the back of his cab. ‘Normally we don’t all travel in a cab together - we’re like the royal family, we travel separately so that if an accident happened, the rest of us could carry on’, quips Nicky, the cheeky one with the blond quiff.
Well the tour have managed pretty well so far without the original fifth member self-confessed former vodkaheed Brian McFadden, who left Westlife after five years in 2004. The industry predicted that the remaining quartet’s days were numbered comparing it to when Robbie Williams left rival boyband Take That.
But the industry turned out to be wrong about the group that took the charts by storm with hits such as ‘Flying Without Wings’.
‘We don’t miss Brian. He was never going to be another Robbie Williams because Robbie is unique,’ says the diplomatic Mark.
Within tour months of Brian’s departure, Westlife had released their stylish album tribute to Frank Sinatra, Allow Us To Be Frank, and served notice that their timeless brand of soulful pop was here to stay.
As Mark shrewdly puts it, ‘That allowed us to regroup, come back and throw people off the scent. We were never a manufactured band and we were never a one-hit wonder, something that must be almost worse than not having a career in the first place.’
In their nine-year history, Westlife, who begun life in the west of Ireland at Summerhil College, a catholic school, have sold more than 36 million albums worldwide and had 14 number one UK singles which ranks them behind only Elvis and the Beatles. They have sung with Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Mariah Carey and Donna Summer, cite such classic Motown influences as the Temptations lament that there are no new pop music icons to replace Madonna or Michael Jackson. But they’re doing their best to fill the gap with their latest single - ‘Home’, a new version of the Michael Buble song - showing the same devastatingly commercial acumen as their heroes.
Unfortunately for their lovelorn fans, this is one band that’s all spoken for.
Nicky is married to Irish premier Bertie Ahern’s daughter, Georgina, who gave birth prematurely to their twins in April; Shane is married to Kian’s cousin Gillian, with a two-year-old daughter; Kian is dating former Hollyoaks actress Jodi Albert, and Mark has a long-term relationship with Kevin McDaid, former member of boy band V.
There is a clean-cut image which Nicky ascribes to ‘Irish family values. A lot of bands get caught up in the lifestyle, glitz and glamour but we were a bit afraid of that,’ he says. ‘And when my twins were born early at seven months, it put everything in perspective, it was a big shock and opened my eyes to the little bubble of celebrity we live in.’
Shane adds with deadly seriousness: ‘I’ve been offered drugs twice, but I never took them - I promised my mother I never would’.
As Mark puts it, ‘Our background is having fun in a more natural way’
And it has to be said they look pretty good on it as we sit in the bar at 50 St James and their focus on work hasn’t wavered, they still have a burning desire to crack the American market, Nicky admits.
‘It would be the cherry on top of the icing’ adds Kian, ‘But then, we’ve always got the icing.’
Westlife’s latest single ‘Home’ will be released on 29 October, their new album will be out in early October.
Credit/Source: Mail On Sunday / Thanx Joanie for scanning the picture and the article
After nearly ten years together the boyband tell how “natural fun” keeps them in harmony.
Interview Maureen Paton
Photograph Dean Beicher
Those Irish boys always wanna have fun, which is why I’m whisking Westlife away from the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane for some R and R at private London club 50 St James in Piccadilly, during a break from their hectic schedule.
Tony Bennett is the only pop cargo that our Essex taxi driver has carried before, so he doesn’t know quite what’s hit him when three lively Sligo men - Kian Egan 27, Mark Feehily, 27, and Shane Filan, 28 - and an equally talkative Dubliner, Nicky Byrne, pie nicely into the back of his cab. ‘Normally we don’t all travel in a cab together - we’re like the royal family, we travel separately so that if an accident happened, the rest of us could carry on’, quips Nicky, the cheeky one with the blond quiff.
Well the tour have managed pretty well so far without the original fifth member self-confessed former vodkaheed Brian McFadden, who left Westlife after five years in 2004. The industry predicted that the remaining quartet’s days were numbered comparing it to when Robbie Williams left rival boyband Take That.
But the industry turned out to be wrong about the group that took the charts by storm with hits such as ‘Flying Without Wings’.
‘We don’t miss Brian. He was never going to be another Robbie Williams because Robbie is unique,’ says the diplomatic Mark.
Within tour months of Brian’s departure, Westlife had released their stylish album tribute to Frank Sinatra, Allow Us To Be Frank, and served notice that their timeless brand of soulful pop was here to stay.
As Mark shrewdly puts it, ‘That allowed us to regroup, come back and throw people off the scent. We were never a manufactured band and we were never a one-hit wonder, something that must be almost worse than not having a career in the first place.’
In their nine-year history, Westlife, who begun life in the west of Ireland at Summerhil College, a catholic school, have sold more than 36 million albums worldwide and had 14 number one UK singles which ranks them behind only Elvis and the Beatles. They have sung with Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Mariah Carey and Donna Summer, cite such classic Motown influences as the Temptations lament that there are no new pop music icons to replace Madonna or Michael Jackson. But they’re doing their best to fill the gap with their latest single - ‘Home’, a new version of the Michael Buble song - showing the same devastatingly commercial acumen as their heroes.
Unfortunately for their lovelorn fans, this is one band that’s all spoken for.
Nicky is married to Irish premier Bertie Ahern’s daughter, Georgina, who gave birth prematurely to their twins in April; Shane is married to Kian’s cousin Gillian, with a two-year-old daughter; Kian is dating former Hollyoaks actress Jodi Albert, and Mark has a long-term relationship with Kevin McDaid, former member of boy band V.
There is a clean-cut image which Nicky ascribes to ‘Irish family values. A lot of bands get caught up in the lifestyle, glitz and glamour but we were a bit afraid of that,’ he says. ‘And when my twins were born early at seven months, it put everything in perspective, it was a big shock and opened my eyes to the little bubble of celebrity we live in.’
Shane adds with deadly seriousness: ‘I’ve been offered drugs twice, but I never took them - I promised my mother I never would’.
As Mark puts it, ‘Our background is having fun in a more natural way’
And it has to be said they look pretty good on it as we sit in the bar at 50 St James and their focus on work hasn’t wavered, they still have a burning desire to crack the American market, Nicky admits.
‘It would be the cherry on top of the icing’ adds Kian, ‘But then, we’ve always got the icing.’
Westlife’s latest single ‘Home’ will be released on 29 October, their new album will be out in early October.
Credit/Source: Mail On Sunday / Thanx Joanie for scanning the picture and the article