Post by mylove74 on Nov 8, 2007 21:54:43 GMT 8
'Simon's bigger than Brad'
interview by Victoria
The Sun, November 8, 2007
THEY have sold 40million albums and this week are on course to notch up their seventh No1 album with new release Back Home.
But WESTLIFE heart-throb NICKY BYRNE insists it is their boss who is the real star — a certain SIMON COWELL.
In an exclusive interview Nicky, 29, told me: “Simon is bigger than BRAD PITT in America. Ever since he started American Idol he’s become a megastar.
“We met up with him in the States a couple of years ago but we couldn’t get near him because he was so busy signing autographs.
“We take the mickey out of him. In his office he has a mirror that says, ‘Yes, Simon, you look terrific’.
“He wasn’t famous when we first met him but he hasn’t changed. How you see him behave on The X Factor is how he has always been.”
Simon, the band’s record company boss, is responsible for creating one of the most successful pop bands ever in Westlife.
Nicky and bandmates SHANE FILAN, 28, KIAN EGAN, 27, and MARK FEEHILY, 27, are managed by Simon’s fellow X Factor judge LOUIS WALSH.
With 14 UK No1 singles, the boys are behind only ELVIS and THE BEATLES for chart-topping successes — a record they have every chance of beating.
And they are still going strong after ten years, an incredible achievement in the fickle pop world.
Laugh
In the past I’ve made no secret of the fact I’m not a fan of the cheesy cover songs they’ve put out.
Last year I launched a campaign to “Stop The thingys” beating OASIS in the album charts, in reference to Oasis’ greatest hits album Stop The Clocks.
Needless to say Westlife’s army of fans bought The Love Album by the bucketload, beating Oasis hands down and forcing me to concede defeat.
So the Irish lads invited me to Dublin to make peace with them as they celebrate a decade at the top with their Back Home album.
Dad-of-two Nicky — married to Irish PM Bertie Ahern’s daughter Georgina — and the lads had the last laugh.
But here, in Day One of a special on the band, they admit they too are a bit embarrassed about some of their music.
Nicky explained: “The Love Album was a bit soul-less and afterwards we decided we needed to make a great pop album. The reason we are still around today is because of good, original songs like Flying Without Wings and World Of Our Own.”
In person Nicky is charming, funny and self-deprecating. He said: “The public see four stools and four guys sitting on their arses with no personality. But we have loads.
“When we started out ten years ago we were falling out of clubs, Kian had a different bird on his arm every night and he got into a fight. But we weren’t into the showbiz scene and weren’t the types to shove cocaine up our noses.
“We’re more grown-up now. I met Georgina when I was young and got married and had kids, so did Shane. Kian is settled with his girlfriend. But we were never as squeaky clean as people thought.”
Having spent a night out on the lash with the band I can vouch for that.
The lads downed shots, pints, and pink champagne until the early hours.
The two dads in the band — Nicky and Shane — were taking advantage of a rare night out.
But Nicky reckons, despite the knocking the lads sometimes take, he’d never want to swap lives with Oasis’ wildman LIAM GALLAGHER.
He explained: “I love Oasis, they are proper musicians and songwriters and I’m a fan of their music.
“But I’d never want to be Liam — I could never be as obnoxious as him and I couldn’t lead his lifestyle.
“I met him once. We’d only just started out and we assumed all pop and rock stars would be nice to each other. We were naive.
"We were at the opening of a Tommy Hilfiger store in London and we saw Liam and said, ‘We’re from Westlife, Ronan Keating’s new band’.
“He looked at us, and just went, ‘F*** off’. Nowadays I’d probably give something back but I was just left speechless.”
But the lads could get one over on the likes of Liam by going on for years to come.
Split
Midweek sales for Back Home are strong and there’s no sign of the appetite for pop drying up.
It nearly all came crashing down in 2004, though, when BRIAN MCFADDEN, 27, walked out on the band.
He quit just as they were about to go on tour — leaving them devastated at the thought of a split. Nicky said: “We’ve been nearly four years without Brian so we don’t want him back. If he asked we would say no — I thought we were finished when he left.
“Simon was great. He told us to pull ourselves together and gave us the confidence to go out on the tour.
“We took a few months off and I went to New York to do an acting course just in case it didn’t work out. I was preparing myself for the end.
“Then Louis came up with an idea to do You Raise Me Up as a comeback single and it was huge. The label signed us to a new deal on the back of it.”
And with yet another No1 album on the way, the boys haven’t looked back.
**********
Sidebar: Shane: I'm glad Take That are back (sorry, can't copy and paste the article!)
interview by Victoria
The Sun, November 8, 2007
THEY have sold 40million albums and this week are on course to notch up their seventh No1 album with new release Back Home.
But WESTLIFE heart-throb NICKY BYRNE insists it is their boss who is the real star — a certain SIMON COWELL.
In an exclusive interview Nicky, 29, told me: “Simon is bigger than BRAD PITT in America. Ever since he started American Idol he’s become a megastar.
“We met up with him in the States a couple of years ago but we couldn’t get near him because he was so busy signing autographs.
“We take the mickey out of him. In his office he has a mirror that says, ‘Yes, Simon, you look terrific’.
“He wasn’t famous when we first met him but he hasn’t changed. How you see him behave on The X Factor is how he has always been.”
Simon, the band’s record company boss, is responsible for creating one of the most successful pop bands ever in Westlife.
Nicky and bandmates SHANE FILAN, 28, KIAN EGAN, 27, and MARK FEEHILY, 27, are managed by Simon’s fellow X Factor judge LOUIS WALSH.
With 14 UK No1 singles, the boys are behind only ELVIS and THE BEATLES for chart-topping successes — a record they have every chance of beating.
And they are still going strong after ten years, an incredible achievement in the fickle pop world.
Laugh
In the past I’ve made no secret of the fact I’m not a fan of the cheesy cover songs they’ve put out.
Last year I launched a campaign to “Stop The thingys” beating OASIS in the album charts, in reference to Oasis’ greatest hits album Stop The Clocks.
Needless to say Westlife’s army of fans bought The Love Album by the bucketload, beating Oasis hands down and forcing me to concede defeat.
So the Irish lads invited me to Dublin to make peace with them as they celebrate a decade at the top with their Back Home album.
Dad-of-two Nicky — married to Irish PM Bertie Ahern’s daughter Georgina — and the lads had the last laugh.
But here, in Day One of a special on the band, they admit they too are a bit embarrassed about some of their music.
Nicky explained: “The Love Album was a bit soul-less and afterwards we decided we needed to make a great pop album. The reason we are still around today is because of good, original songs like Flying Without Wings and World Of Our Own.”
In person Nicky is charming, funny and self-deprecating. He said: “The public see four stools and four guys sitting on their arses with no personality. But we have loads.
“When we started out ten years ago we were falling out of clubs, Kian had a different bird on his arm every night and he got into a fight. But we weren’t into the showbiz scene and weren’t the types to shove cocaine up our noses.
“We’re more grown-up now. I met Georgina when I was young and got married and had kids, so did Shane. Kian is settled with his girlfriend. But we were never as squeaky clean as people thought.”
Having spent a night out on the lash with the band I can vouch for that.
The lads downed shots, pints, and pink champagne until the early hours.
The two dads in the band — Nicky and Shane — were taking advantage of a rare night out.
But Nicky reckons, despite the knocking the lads sometimes take, he’d never want to swap lives with Oasis’ wildman LIAM GALLAGHER.
He explained: “I love Oasis, they are proper musicians and songwriters and I’m a fan of their music.
“But I’d never want to be Liam — I could never be as obnoxious as him and I couldn’t lead his lifestyle.
“I met him once. We’d only just started out and we assumed all pop and rock stars would be nice to each other. We were naive.
"We were at the opening of a Tommy Hilfiger store in London and we saw Liam and said, ‘We’re from Westlife, Ronan Keating’s new band’.
“He looked at us, and just went, ‘F*** off’. Nowadays I’d probably give something back but I was just left speechless.”
But the lads could get one over on the likes of Liam by going on for years to come.
Split
Midweek sales for Back Home are strong and there’s no sign of the appetite for pop drying up.
It nearly all came crashing down in 2004, though, when BRIAN MCFADDEN, 27, walked out on the band.
He quit just as they were about to go on tour — leaving them devastated at the thought of a split. Nicky said: “We’ve been nearly four years without Brian so we don’t want him back. If he asked we would say no — I thought we were finished when he left.
“Simon was great. He told us to pull ourselves together and gave us the confidence to go out on the tour.
“We took a few months off and I went to New York to do an acting course just in case it didn’t work out. I was preparing myself for the end.
“Then Louis came up with an idea to do You Raise Me Up as a comeback single and it was huge. The label signed us to a new deal on the back of it.”
And with yet another No1 album on the way, the boys haven’t looked back.
**********
Sidebar: Shane: I'm glad Take That are back (sorry, can't copy and paste the article!)