Past their bedtime Westlife's youngest fans caught napping


December 28 2007

THEY have sold millions of albums and sold out concert venues worldwide, but the boys from Westlife had difficulty keeping two of their youngest fans entertained during the filming of their 'Late Late' special tribute show.

Nicky Byrne's children, Rocco and Jay, (pictured right) seemed oblivious to the commotion in RTE studio four and fell asleep in the arms of their grandmother, Miriam, instead of listening to their dad and his band mates talk about the group's success over the last 10 years.

The show, which was recorded last Friday but airs tonight, will see the pop supergroup perform a selection of their hits.

They follow in the footsteps of other Irish music giants like Christy Moore and the Dubliners, who also got 'The Late Late Show' tribute treatment in previous years.

Duet

Among the songs the boys from Dublin and Sligo will be performing is a duet with Irish singer Mary Black on the Christmas favourite, 'Walking in the Air'.

And Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, whose daughter Georgina is married to Nicky Byrne, also makes an appearance on the programme, which was recorded hours after his attendance at the Mahon Tribunal last Friday. He is pictured far right with Nicky Byrne.

Mr Ahern's interview with Pat Kenny also deals with the band's career.

"It is a tribute to the band to coincide with the tenth anniversary of their first appearance on the Late Late," an RTE spokesman said yesterday.

"It is one of the special seasonal Late Lates we have each Christmas, and we've had many."


Joining band members Shane Filan, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily and Nicky Byrne in studio will be guests who helped them through their career, including Louis Walsh and Ronan Keating.

Other friends, including Sharon Osbourne, the Sugababes, Shane Ward, the Backstreet Boys, Paul O'Grady, Michael Flatley and Simon Cowell, will send their best wishes to the boys in recorded video messages.

The show has been planned for months by the 'Late Late' team and boasts a live studio choir.



Holiday Habits 2007-12-28 von

Westlife


The chart-topping Irish lads cast their minds back to reveal some of their travelling tales




MARK: The first time I went abroad was on a ferry to the Isle of Man. I was five and kicked up an absolute stink because I seen a stopwatch, you know the ones you wear round your neck? I cried, kicked and screamed until I got it.




SHANE: My first flight was to Manchester, on Ryanair from Knock airport. I would have been 10 or 11. The flight was an absolute novelty but I wanted a pair of Reebok pumps which were about £70. Back then, that was like buying a car for your child. I had to have them, I got them and I was cool for a week!






NICKY: I remember going to Spain on holiday. I dived into our hotel pool and my armbands fell off. I was only about six. Out of nowhere these arms lifted me up and it was my dad. He been keeping an eye on us.






KIAN: My first foreign holiday was to Mauritius after I joined the band. Now I turned into a bit of a surfer so I go to places like Hawaii all the time.



NICKY: Back in the early days of the band we didn,t have time for holidays

SHANE: Yeah it was probably a couple of years before we could have more than a Christmas holiday.

MARK: Still we travelled with the band

NICKY: When we tried to break America the first time around we do a few cities in a day.






MARK: We start off in one city, do our promotional stuff and a gig, then go straight to the airport, fly to another city, do the same and then get going on to another city.

SHANE: We recorded some of this latest album, Back Home, in Stockholm, which I think is the nicest city in the world, after Sydney.

NICKY: I think I prefer Sweden its so fresh, the air, the water

SHANE: Its like it has come out of an Evian bottle.

MARK: Vodka is very expensive.


SHANE: Yeah you wouldn go over there for a weekend with the lads, but if you want to find some good looking women there are handfuls of them on every street corner.

NICKY: Even the average looking women are absolutely amazing

SHANE: Even the men are I,m not gay but Mark is obviously, but

MARK: Obviously? (laughs)

SHANE:...But all the men are models. You know Freddie Ljungberg is from there. Honestly its embarrassing, those cheek bones

MARK: Freddie Lungberg,s cheek bones are so sharp they could be used as a weapon. You can,t take him on the plane.

SHANE: Hmm that,s kinda funny.





Westlife promise to return after a taking a year out



WESTLIFE singer Kian Egan has promised the band legion of fans that they are not splitting up and they will be back after taking a year out.

Westlife announced last Friday that they are going to take a break for a year after they finish their upcoming world tour with new album Back Home.

But Kian Egan promised fans that this did not mean the end for the chart-topping group.

He said: The minute people hear we taking a break, they are going to say we are splitting up for good - which is not true.

Myself and Jodi are going to go and do some travelling and I'm sure the other guys have plans as well.

It will be the first time in years that there hasn,t been a Westlife album vying for the Christmas number one, which will be a bit weird, but I think we have earned the time off.

Kian said he and Jodi plan to hire a camper van and tour Australia, while Nicky and Shane will use the break to spend more time with their families.

Fellow Sligo man Shane Filan has a one-year-old daughter, Nicole, with wife Gillian and lives in Carraroe. While Nicky Bryne,s wife Georgina Ahern gave birth to twin boys earlier this year.

The band has had 14 number one singles and have been at the top of the charts for nine years now.

Westlife formed in 1998 and have sold more than 36 million albums worldwide, as well as winning numerous awards including Record of the Year four times, added Kian.

The band will release their new single Home, a cover of the Michael Buble hit, on Friday, October 26.


Mark Feehily: Coming out felt fantastic
Friday, November 9 2007,






Westlife's Mark Feehily has claimed that coming out about his sexuality "felt fantastic".

The popstar revealed that he has had no negative comments since he announced he was gay during an interview in 2005.

Talking about his experience, he told The Sun: "Life is a million times better since I came out.

"Since the last time I spoke to you my life has changed so much. I,m still the same person, I still do the same job, yet it feels like a lot has changed. It was just a relief to finally say what I said.

um a very honest person so for people to not know about one of the biggest parts of me, my sexuality, felt strange. Once I come out, people knew the real me and it felt fantastic."

On the response of his fans, Feehily added: "They were amazing. Fans, family, friends - no one made a negative comment. I think there still a long way to go until society accepts people,s sexuality but it has come a long way already."





MARK FEEHILY

What the worst thing you done while drunk?
I came back to my apartment in London recently after a party having forgotten my keys. I woke up at about 11am lying outside the front door wondering how many people had taken pictures!

What was your last random act of kindness?
I met an old lady on the train to Newcastle and she said her grandchildren were Westlife's biggest fans. She called them to come and meet us at the station where we had pictures taken.

Have you ever broken anyone's heart?
Not directly, although fans have said in letters that I have

When did you last say I love you?
Earlier today to Kevin on the phone

Have you ever cheated on anyone?
Never, no way. You're either in a relationship or you're not.

What do you dislike about yourself?
I hate seeing photos of myself. I think I really stand out compared to the rest of the band

What's the most extravagant thing you ever bought?
I like property and have a few houses

When was the last time you cried?
A long time ago-my tear ducts have sealed up! Being in this business toughens you up very quickly.

What's the worst lie you ever told?
When I was 15 I took my parents car and hit a pillar, wrecking the front. I said it wasn,t me, even insinuating it might have been one of my cousins!

Which celeb do you secretly fancy?
I wouldn't say I fancy them, but I love Joanna Lumley and Russell Brand because they make me laugh. I'm very lucky because Kevin is beautiful, makes me laugh and has an amazing personality too

What's the biggest thing you ever blagged?
We all get free phone bills as were sponsored by O2 in Ireland.

Who are the most famous celebrities on your mobile?
The lads - obviously - and Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell.

When did you last take public transport?
Kevin and I take the tube in London sometimes as I despise traffic






WESTLIFE INTERVIEW - 2007


"We would rather have knocked the whole fucking thing on the head than record that album." Proof that there is a bit more to Westlife than stools and suits...

Westlife eh? A load of old men singing boring ballads, right? Well, sort of, but at the same time perhaps not. We interviewed Mark and Nicky very recently and they were both very funny and very aware of exactly what people think of them. Here is what they had to tell us about their new album, the dreadful 'Westlife Go To The Movies' record Simon Cowell was pushing them to record and the terror of a chart face-off with the Spice Girls...


Hello Westlife. What do you think people think about you?
Mark: People think stools, suits and cover versions.
Nicky: From the outside in - actually from the inside out as well I can see why people think some of the things they do about Westlife. The black suits and everything, it's as exciting as watching paint dry, but when you get into Westlife, when you know us personally, when you come to see our live shows it's the complete opposite.

What is left for Westlife to achieve?
Mark: There are definitely things that we want to achieve personally and as a band - the main thing is to win over the Popjustice viewers but I don't think we're ever going to achieve that.
Nicky: 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.

Why were you releasing music that wasn't your best?
Nicky: 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 fucking thing on the head than record that 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.

Is the album going to win over non-Westlife fans?
Mark: It's made for Westlife fans. It's not made for people who already hate Westlife and we're not making albums to try and convince fans of trendy pop music that we're cool. We make pop music for our fans.
Nicky: It's safe to say there are people we are never going to win over.
Mark: It's not electro pop, it's not trendy pop, it is commercial Westlife pop music.

So this is not Westlife's 'Rudebox'?
Mark: We definitely went down a certain road for a while but this album and we're not saying the new album is going to be credible or critically acclaimed, we never ever will be, but it's definitely going back to pop music.
Nicky: We've got a good thing going here. We're four lads in our twenties, we sing well together so let's make pop music. Mark is right, we've made one too many cover versions, last year's 'Love' album probably sold more off the title than it did from the quality of the songs, even though we'll stand up for our vocals 100%. People will always expect us to do a love album and that's why this year we had to change things a little bit, because otherwise there'd be no point in us continuing. It was time for us to make a really fucking great pop album.

Would the only way for you to become more famous be for you to split and then announce a comeback tour six months later?
Nicky: There's nothing like a bit of nostalgia and a reunion, Take That were in a win-win situation, they had no idea how big or small it was going to be but hats off to those boys, they have come back and 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 it was good for us not to do a pop album that year. That's another thing that works against us is that we release an album every single year if we didn't release so close together then maybe people wouldn't see it is 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 cliché to come back.

What's going on with this ridiculous Westlife and Spice Girls chart battle?
Mark: We were fans of the Spice Girls at the start but this thing could get really out of hand and I hope it doesn't. Things like this can be fun, a bit tongue in cheek and a bit of a laugh but for some reason I don't think those five girls one of them in particular are going to see the fun side to it. I hope that we can contain ourselves and not lash out because I heard something recently that really wound me up and I've been biting my tongue since then.
Nicky: It would be great to have a normal chart battle with the girls, we were fans of them back in the day when we were young and they were massive.
Mark: They need to come back with a 'Patience' and if they do then it will be huge.
Nicky: I don't know any girl that has patience...

It would take a brave four men to go up against those five.
Nicky: Ah, but we'll have our stools for back up...



Thank you very much Nicky and Mark Westlife.







WESTLIFE singer MARK FEEHILY missed their album launch at Harrods yesterday when fog delayed his flight to London from Dublin.
The result was an empty seat in this horse-drawn carriage bringing the band,s other members to the store.

NICKY BYRNE, SHANE FILAN and KIAN EGAN, performed without Mark for thousands of fans who had queued for TWO DAYS to get into the gig.

The tracks included You Raise Me Up and World Of Our Own, as well as two songs from new album Back Home, which was released yesterday.

Nicky, Shane and Kian then signed copies of their record and Mark turned up in time for fans got a full set of autographs.

Westlife Album Signing Dublin HMV 2nd November 2007 Nick Kian Mark Shane

WOMAN MAGAZINE SCAN 2007 Talk about "old" boybands that refuse to give up. Westlife returns with their latest studio album, Back Home, and a dignified Nicky Byrne tells us that the Irish fab four are survivors. How special is your new album as compared to your last one? This is going to be a comeback album for Westlife, the real follow-up to our best record, World Of Our Own. It has the kind of music that we've always wanted to do -- a good combination of slow and fast numbers. But as usual, you're doing covers.. Not as many as we used to, We put our feet down this time around. We've told our record company that we only want to cover songs that we really like and that are meaningful to us. With all the new pop acts, how do you plan to survive the stiff competition? There will always be people who like simple pop music, people who don't like complicated music. They just want to turn on the radio and hear something catchy, with nice melodies and good harmonies. Westlife is designed to cater to those people and we're happy with it. Honestly, how long do you guys think you can go on? Who knows? We love what we do and we'll stop when we don't enjoy it anymore. Besides, how many good new pop acts do we have today? I mean I grew up listening to good pop acts like Take That, Mariah Carey and Wet, Wet, Wet who have lasted till today. How many of our new talents can be like them? Today's pop music is just about who's the biggest pop star in the world at the moment. What do you say to critics who consider you over the hill? There are cynical people out there who don't want Wetslife to continue. Well, I agree that when we did the swing album (Allow Us To Be Frank), we took a dip and we seemed to be on our way out. But we bounced back with You Raise Me Up (The single from their following album Face To Face) and became the biggest selling pop act in the UK. So as far as the four of us in Westlife are concerned, and our millions of fans out there who have been supporting us all these years, we don't give a s*** about what these people think. ..... ....... MARK FEEHILY has slammed the British media WESTLIFE star MARK FEEHILY has slammed the British media for constantly criticising singer AMY WINEHOUSE and deliberately focusing on her personal life. The Irish singer accuses the media of not recognising the Rehab hitmaker's talent and only reporting on her recent troubles. He says, "I've been a big Amy Winehouse fan for years - way before anyone had really heard of her. It's sad because I've met her and she's a lovely, intelligent, nice person, but the person you read about is the bleeding, drunk, drugged-up Amy Winehouse. There's a lot more to her." Winehouse recently hit the headlines after husband Blake Fielder-Civil was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. 14/11/2007 ......... Westlife and Myleene Klass Variety Club Showbiz Awards, London Hilton Hotel.. London, England - 18.11.07 ......... Westlife visit the Waterfront restaurant Westlife visit the Waterfront restaurant, and insist that fans were not allowed in. The band enjoyed an Italian meal and ordered several bottles of champagne and vodka spending over 4 hours in the upmarket eatery. Leeds, England - 08.12.07 ........ Westlife's Mark Feehily: 'We're Not Splitting Up.' 29-10-2007 Westlife's Mark Feehily is determined that the band will not split after their next tour as predicted by recent reports.We know we're not splitting up," he told Female First last week after fans began to panic over news the guys are taking a year long break after their upcoming tour."The fans are all not sure because that's what Boyzone said and whatever but we're just going to take a lot longer to make this 10th album," he confirmed. Comment on this Article "This is a big tour coming up and then we're actually taking a year off after that. It's a big one for us and a big one for the fans. So it's not like we're taking a year off- we're taking a year away from releasing an album in November because we've done the 9 albums in 9 years.Westlife are also planning some big celebration for their 10 year anniversary: " We're in talks about doing some mega mega gigs in Ireland and possibly in the UK too just to sort of seal off the 10 years with a bang. But we're not sure about them yet. Some are more likely than others," said Mark.Mark also confirmed that ex-member Brian will definitely not be joining them on stage next year: Brian is well and truly gone from Westlife, he said."There's no plans what so ever to have Brain playing any gigs with us because he's not in our band any more.Brian decided to leave and therefore we don't feel bad saying that. We had to get over the fact that he left and get used to it and now we are used to it. We're a 4 piece now and that's that," he added. Brian's decision to leave the band just 2 weeks before Westlife embarked on a world tour in 2004 was perhaps one of the lowest points for Mark and the rest of the band: There was a lot of different emotions. There was fear- fear of the unknown because we didn't know what would happen next, he explains. There was sadness. We all asked him 'don't go, please don't go' and tried to see if there was some other way around this but he was adamant he wanted to leave. When you go through a mental kind of ride that we went through for the 4 or 5 years we went through when he was in the band and then all of a sudden one is just gone it's definitely a weird kind of situation to be in. But there was a very very small element of release. We knew that things weren't happy for the band at that time and that maybe this is what the unhappy thing was and that now that it's gone we could move on and get our act together again. We had a world tour to put out in two weeks and we had to prove more than ever on the first night that we were just as good without Brian so we had to get down to business and get on with it. But despite the initial shock the band managed to battle on through and came out stronger than ever: I'm not cocky or arrogant or anything but I think we totally proved it and I actually think that Brian leaving kicked us into being tighter than ever and more professional than ever.