Westlife Interview In Hello! Magazine (February 2006)

© Typed by Josie

In the changeable climate of pop, Westlife stand out for their longevity and enduring success. In their eight years at the top, they've sold 34 million albums- with five multi-platinum albums in the UK alone - achieved 13 UK number ones, sold out 5 worldwide tours and won numerous accolades, including two Brit Awards.

After Brian Mcfadden's shock exit two years ago, critics speculated they'd reached the end of their career, but their current album face to Face, is their biggest seller yet, with over 1.5 million sales. The album spawned the No.1 hit You raise me up, which became ITV's 2005 Record of the year, as well as the Diana Ross duet When you tell me that you love me.

Fans, along with the band, would argue they are now better than ever. The Irish lads- Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan, and Kian Egan - who have just released their 20th single, Amazing, are as passionate about their music as ever.

"As a band, we're definitely at our height," Shane, 26, tells HELLO!! As he relaxes with the others in the bar of The Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire, a country retreat just an hour from London. "This is the best album of songs that we have recorded and we feel confident going forward. With our next album, we’ll try to go out there and make an even better one."

Amazingly, the guys haven’t been tarnished by their success. "We've kept our heads crewed on," explains Nicky, 27, who married Georgina, daughter of Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, two years ago. "Our upbringing has a lot to do with it, but we’ve always known how quickly it can go and how lucky we are, so we work hard."

"We're just decent people", adds Kian, 25, who lives with his girlfriend, former Hollyoaks star Jodi Albert. "You’re not going to get dirty stories on us because there are none out there. We're just normal and maybe that’s what appeals to people.

All (bar Dublin born Nicky) grew up together as friends in their hometown Sligo. "We’re closer to being brothers than four guys who went through auditions and are from completely different walks of life," says Mark 25, "Its like family- from the word go we've had that bond"

"We’ve all looked after each other,." adds Shane, whose wife Gillian(Kian’s cousin), gave birth to baby Nicole seven months ago. "If anyone starts to go a bit weird we sit with them down and talk to them. We’ve always had that level of respect for each other, where we can speak our feelings and that’s kept us level-headed."

The guys were among the first to know that Mark was gay, long before he came out publicly last summer, and he knew he could count on their support. Says Mark, who has been dating Kevin McDaid of boyband V for over a year, "Once I came to terms with it I had to say it, It was all over the papers for 2 days then that was it. Just standing up and saying it made me feel a lot better. Other people’s opinions don’t matter in the long run, but it’s nice to be shown support.

Westlife have never been ones to pay much attention to critics, although Face to face has certainly put paid to them ."You'll never silence them," says Mark. "We've stopped being affected by reviews a long time ago. Because what matters to us are our fans."

The only time they were worried about the future of the band was when Brian left 2 years ago. "We didn’t know what to expect, it was a whole new chapter for us." says Shane. "We had an emergency meeting with our manager Louis Walsh until 4am. We asked each other whether we wanted to do it after Brian left, and we said yes. We were nervous but we had the strength to go forward and it made us closer. We had a point to prove to ourselves, friends, family and our fans.

Brian leaving gave us a kick in the behind we needed. It made us realise it could all be gone tomorrow and you’ve got to work at it. We became a better group without him.

In 2006, Westlife are more excited than ever about their music. “It’s our nature to be hungry” says Mark. "We always aim high, no matter how much success we have."

"We don’t see westlife as a little sprint", adds Kian.

"We enjoy it and we're too young to stop." says Nicky. “We're in a successful band that is all we've know since the age of 16-17. People on the outside may think, they’ve made a few quid, had a few no.1s, surely to God they just want to have an easy life and get away from it." But we want to keep going. We enjoy making new songs for people to enjoy. It gives us a buzz- it makes us feel we’ve achieved something.

"You’ve got to take it year by year. It’s a very difficult way of life, travelling around the world and being away from loved ones," says Kian. "Most people can only do it for a set amount of time, but others like Rod Stewart and Elton John still do it after 30 years. You can only tell with time. We’re at the stage where we feel we've still got a few years left in us."

Meanwhile, they're busy promoting their new single Amazing and looking forward to a UK arena tour in April and a possible collaboration with Lionel Ritchie. Then they'll record their next album, and a Greatest Hits, Volume 2 is sure to follow, but they're in the lucky position of making things up as they go.

"Originally, we signed our record deal for five albums. After our second album renegotiated for two more. We're almost at the end of that contract, which is unusual because boybands never manage to do that.", says Nicky.

"At first, it was easy because we had other bands to look to in terms of gauging what to do next," says Mark. "But now decisions are a lot harder because we’re not following anyone else’s career oath, writing our own story. “That’s great".

When asked what the highlight of the Westlife ride has been, they all have a different response. For Kian, there was the first time he went on an aeroplane. Nicky cites meeting Pope John Paul 11, while Mark is proud to have met Stevie Wonder. For Shane it was doing sell out gigs in Dublin in front of 80,000 people.

But as Kian says, "You can’t pinpoint one thing. You could pick memories from each year."

Then Nicky stumbles upon a great idea when he says" We could make a film about it. It’s an amazing story, and it’s still not over."

It looks like that film could turn into an epic at this rate!!

Credit/Source: Hello! magazine