Westlife Back In Business - January 2007

By JASON CHEAH

Irish boy band Westlife is on the brink of yet another record-breaking stint with the release of its latest album.

November 2006 marked something of a milestone for Irish quartet Westlife when it released its latest single in Britain, a cover version of The Rose, once made famous in 1980 by US singer Bette Midler.

When the single duly reached the top of the British singles chart, it matched the tally of 14 No.1s that British legendary pop star Cliff Richard achieved in his career, with only The Beatles (17) and Elvis Presley (21) still ahead of the band in the stakes.

But while Cliff took nearly 40 years to reach that milestone, Westlife has done it in a mere span of eight years.

“It is mind-boggling when you think that eight years ago we were just four young lads, and now we’ve sold 30 million records, and equalled Cliff’s record,” said 28-year-old Nicky Byrne, during a brief phone interview from Australia where the band was on a short promotional visit in November.

Mark Feehily, 27, Shane Filan, 27, and Kian Egan, 26, make up the Irish foursome. Former member and co-founder, Bryan McFadden left the group in 2004 for a solo career.

When The Love Album was released a few weeks later, that also reached the top of the album charts in Britain. But with this latest release, the boys have decided to take a 100% cover version route, recording a collection of 11 of the most classic and memorable love songs of all time, chosen by the band members themselves.

Long-term collaborator Steve Mack produced the album, which was recorded in London, Dublin and Sweden during breaks on 2006’s Face To Face tour and, amongst its many highlights, features a duet with Delta Goodrem on All Out of Love.

“We actually wanted to record an original but there was not enough material,” Byrne explained, continuing, “we didn’t want to record seven decent songs and five half-decent ones.

“The songwriters had not come out with enough good songs so we’ve got more work to do.”

The final choice for the first single release was actually a toss up between The Rose and Light up My Life, the Debbie Boone classic.

“It could have easily been that but (our manager) wanted The Rose,” Byrne said.

The rest of the album includes songs such as Total Eclipse of the Heart, Light up My Life, Easy, You are So Beautiful (To Me), Have You Ever Been in Love, Love Can Build a Bridge, The Dance, All or Nothing and You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling.

The Love Album may be Westlife’s eighth release in eight years but that won’t exactly stop the band for a while yet.

In addition to coming up with their next original studio album, the boys aim to come back, stronger and better.

“Next year and after, a collection of greatest hits or No.1s may be in the works,” Byrne said. In the meantime, there’s a new tour to think about, which is scheduled to begin in late February in Perth, Australia, and set to include Australia, South Africa, Britain and Ireland, to begin with.

We wonder if Malaysia might be pencilled in somewhere along the way.

Credit/Source: www.star-ecentral.com