Oprichting (1998)
Voor de oprichting van Westlife maakten Egan, Feehily en Filan samen met de in Sligo geboren Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron en Michael "Miggles" Garrett deel uit van de zeskoppige zanggroep "IOYOU" (soms afgekort tot "IOU"). Choreograaf Mark McDonagh was met twee anderen de manager van de groep en hun eerste single heette Together Girl Forever. Louis Walsh, de manager van de in 1990 ontstane boyband Boyzone, werd door Filans moeder op de hoogte gebracht van de band. Omdat IOYOU van Simon Corwell geen goedkeuring kreeg voor een platencontract met BMG, was het duidelijk dat er veranderingen moesten worden doorgevoerd. Twee leden van IOYOU konden vertrekken en in Dublin werden audities gehouden, waarbij Byrne en McFadden werden gekozen. Ook Michael Garrett, een van de oorspronkelijke bandleden moest de groep verlaten. De nieuwe groep, die op 3 juli 1998 werd opgericht, kreeg de nieuwe naam "Westside", maar omdat deze naam al door een andere band werd gebruikt, veranderde het naar Westlife. Boyzone-zanger Ronan Keating nam samen met Walsh het co-managementschap op zich.

Vertrek Brian McFadden (2004)
Op 9 maart 2004, de groep heeft inmiddels vijf albums uitgebracht en zal drie weken later aan hun vierde wereldtour beginnen, verlaat Brian McFadden de groep om meer tijd met zijn gezin door te kunnen brengen en te werken aan een solocarrière. Op die dag werd een persconferentie gehouden waarin alle bandleden een persoonlijke toespraak hielden. McFadden's laatste optreden met Westlife vond plaats op 27 februari 2004 in de nachtclub "Newcastle Upon Tyne's Powerhouse". Samen met tekstschrijver Guy Chambers (bekend van Robbie Williams' succesalbum Escapology) zet hij vervolgens een solocarrière op poten onder zijn oorspronkelijke naam Brian; met Westlife trad hij altijd op als "Bryan". Zijn eerste single, Real To Me werd een nummer één hit in het Verenigd Koninkrijk, en stond zeven weken in de Nederlandse Top 40, waarbij het piekte op de 16e positie. Kort daarna bracht hij zijn eerste solo-album uit, Irish Son, dat tevens de titel was van een van zijn singles. Later kwamen meerdere singles uit, maar deze werden geen groot succes. Het leidde zelfs tot een contractbreuk met Sony BMG, die McFadden ontsloeg vanwege slechte verkoopresultaten van zijn albums.

In maart 2007 werd bekend dat McFadden terug wilde keren bij Westlife, omdat zijn solocarrière was geflopt en hij was ontslagen door zijn platenmaatschappij. Shane, Mark, Kian en Nicky lieten echter weten zo te zijn ingespeeld op elkaar, dat Brian niet meer terug hoeft te komen. Ze verklaarden aan New! Magazine direct na zijn vertrek "veranderingen doorgevoerd te hebben, waardoor ze een andere band met andere muziekstijlen zijn geworden. Daarbij is geen plaats meer voor Brian".

Nieuwe tijdperk (2005-heden)
Het eerst album dat daarna uitkomt, Allow us to be Frank, is een ode aan de Rat Pack, maar wordt in Nederland geen succes. In oktober 2005 het nieuwe album Face to Face uit, met de singles "You Raise Me Up", "When You Tell Me That You Love Me", een duet met Diana Ross, en "Amazing", die geen van allen de Nederlandse Top 40 halen. You Raise Me Up was echter een grote hit in Ierland en het Verenigd Koninkrijk, waar het 2 weken op 1 stond

In november 2006 kwam The Love Album uit, waarop ook een duet met Delta Goodrem. Zij heeft een relatie met ex-band lid Brian McFadden. De single The Rose, beroemd gemaakt door Bette Midler, werd een nummer 1-hit in het Verenigd Koninkrijk.

In 2007 verscheen er ook een nieuw album, namelijk Back home, met onder andere daarop het nummer Home.

Awards they won
Westlife are 10 years bizzy now and they have won a lot of awards here you find what awards they have won.

1998
Smash Hits : Best New Tour Act

1999
MTV Europe Music Awards : Best UK and Ireland Act

TMF Awards : Best Breakthrough Artist/Newcomer

Top Of The Pops Awards : Best Band Of The Year


: Best Love Song (Swear It Again)

Heineken/Hot Press : Best New Act

TV Hits Awards : Best New Act

ITV's Record of the Year : Record of the Year (Flying Without Wings)
2000
ITV's Record of the Year : Record of the Year (My Love)

Disney Channel Kids : Best Male Group
Awards

Hit Awards : Best International Group

Celebrity Awards Pop : Stars Of The Year

TMF Awards : Best International Band

Smash Hits : Best Album
: Best Single (My Love)

: Best Non - British Band

: Best Band On Planet Pop

: Best Hair Cut (Kian Egan)

: Most Fancied Male (Shane Filan)

: Best Band

MTV Europe Music : Best UK And Ireland Act
Awards

Capital FM Awards : Best International New Comer

Meteor Awards : Best Irish Pop Act

TV Hits Awards : Best Band

: Best Looking Pop Star (Shane Filan)

: Best World Artist Of 2000

: Voice Of The 21st Century (Shane Filan
2001
Capital FM Awards : Best International Group

Disney Channel Kids : Best Male Group
Awards : Group Of The Year

Pepsi Chart People's : Best Breakthrough Video (Uptown Girl)
Choise

Smash Hits : Best Band On Planet PopBest Album (World Of
Our Own)
: Best Hair Cut (Nicky Byrne)

Top Of The Pops Awards : Best Pop Act

Online Music Awards : People's Choice

RIA Singapore : Best Top Ten Selling Album

Radio Music Awards : Listerner's Choise Best Group
VIVA Comet : Zuschauer Comet

Brit Awards : Best Pop Act

Meteor Awards : Best Irish Pop Act

MTV Asia Awards : Best International Pop Act

Top Of The Pops : Awards Top Pop Act

RAV Awards : Most Column Inches

RAV Awards : You Pretend To Hate Them But Know All Their Songs

Clear Top 10 : international Hitmaker

2002
NRJ Awards : Best Foreign Band

Hot Press Irish Music : Outstanding Achievement In Popular Music
Awards

Irish Buzz WKD Awards : Best Irish Band

IFPI Hong Kong : Top Sales Music Award (World Of Our Own)

Smash Hits : Hall Of Fame
: Best Pop Band

: Best International
: Best Cover Of The Year

: Party Mentalist Of The Year (Bryan McFadden)

Brit Awards : Best Pop Act

TMF Awards : Best International Pop Act

Meteor Awards : Best Irish Pop Single (Uptown Girl)

: Best Irish Pop Album (World of Our Own)

: Best Irish Pop Act

National Music Awards : Favorite UK Band

MTV Asia Awards : Favorite Pop Act

Capital FM Awards : Best International Group

Digital Awards : : People's Choice Award for Best Official Website

2003
ITV's Record of the Year : Record of the Year (Mandy)

TMF Awards : Best Pop Act

Capital Radio Awards : Best International Group

Capital Radio Awards : Best Website (www.westlife.com)

Meteor Awards : Best Irish Pop Act

MTV Immies : Best Male International Pop Act

Smash Hits Poll : Best International Act

: Celebrity Dad Of The Year (Bryan McFadden)



Sponsors

2004
Smash Hits T4's : Favorite Download (Flying Without Wings)
Pollwinner Party

Digital Awards : People's Choice Award for Best Officiele Website
(www.westlife.com)

Meteor Awards : Best Irish Pop Act

World Music Awards : World Best-Selling UK/Ireland Act

NRJ Awards : Best Pop Band

Nordic Music Awards : Best International Pop Act

: Gold of Top Band/Group

: Top 10 International Gold Songs




2005
TV's Record of the : Record of the Year (You Raise Me Up)
Year

Meteor Awards : Best Irish Pop Act

2006
Meteor Awards : Best Irish Pop Act

2007
Meteor Awards : Best Irish Pop Act

Variety Club Showbiz : Best Recording Artist
Awards

2008
Meteor Awards : Best Irish Pop Act

In the last few years of their success, Westlife have refused to follow the toe-path of the regulation boyband. Are we even a boyband anymore? I have absolutely no idea, says Nicky Byrne, with disarming candour. Tradition has it that after the first five years, absolute maximum, the boyband must by default implode to make way for the new model. With Westlife, there simply hasnt been a new model to outshine them. On the straight up British pop roster, Westlife have existed since before SClub7, B*Witched, Blue, Girls Aloud, Atomic Kitten, Busted, Misteeq, McFly, Liberty X and all the countless other record company follies that have disappeared without trace. Of those that they havent already outlived, you could put a pretty safe fiver on the rest bowing out before they. As a functioning, multi-purpose, thoroughbred pop operation, they are now twice as old as Take That were when they split for the first time and three times as old as Wham! were when they went forever

One of the reasons for this is their unnerving agility and ability in rendering music that cuts straight to the primary core of a largely forgotten pop audience. Tuneful, melodic, simply structured music that doesnt stray from the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle eight-chorus recipe of timeless tunes. But the other is because they are four distinct individuals who come together and make something that is whole.

Another reason is that the four boys cannot help but be themselves. People like that. Sometimes talking with Westlife is like talking to four kindred spirits who have bungled their through becoming the third biggest selling act in the British Isles, ever (pipped only by The Beatles and U2). Sometimes it is like talking with four squaddies on a night off down the boozer. Sometimes it is like talking to a naughty classroom, particularly when Mark Feehily gets onto the subject of one particular Spice Girl. Always it is like talking to a bunch of best friends. And just occasionally that memory comes back to you, amidst their tireless Irish banter, that even after almost a decade at it, these boys are four of the most popular pop stars Britain,s ever seen. Now take that.

So who are Westlife? Their success is not in question. Despite a rampaging media campaign against their favour at Christmastime last year, they managed to trounce the competition in a four way battle of album releases between themselves, U2, The Beatles and Oasis. Three of these bands were presenting bullet-proof, failsafe, platinum plated greatest hits packages. Westlife were the only ones that weren ut, with their sweetly rendered covers set, The Love Album. They couldve waited until the more appropriately Valentines Day release, but after their enormous tenure at the top of the business, they have a formidable lack of fear of playing with the big game. Theyre not cocky, like. But they are a force of British musical nature. And, frankly, they won.

In some ways the Westlife tale is one of simple, old fashioned camaraderie. Allow Nicky to take up the story:

Even though we looked at other bands that are similar to us, we looked at bands like the Rolling Stones and U2, bands of men that have stood by one another over a long period of time. Those boys have been in dressing rooms and on tour with one another for so long that they know each other inside out and upside down. If there was a hidden agenda with anyone in Westlife then we all know about it. Nobody us after the solo deal. Everyone has the bands interest at heart first. We always said that we wanted to be the ones to change and break the mould. We had our rocky times, don get me wrong, when it might happened, particularly when Bryan went, but we regrouped, stuck together and made a great album that got us out of the shit, effectively. Amongst ourselves and with a band like ours it s always from the inside out. Internally these things can break easily and as soon as the cracks show on the inside inevitably they show on the outside. You can never really say you havent had a fight if you have because your audience will spot that your lying.

Kian puts it more simply: think that the success is very different to the reason that we still here today. I think that we been very lucky to have people around us to pick out great pop songs when there seems to be none around. The reason we are still around is a very simple reason: communication. We have no holds barred honesty. There no bullshit. In Westlife you say what you feel and you don,t hold back.

In their enduring tenure at the top of the pop tree, Westlife have earned themselves the right to a few months off every year. It,s a sort of payback time, if you like, for the years they put in at the beginning when they would get a week per annum off and squeeze in things like hernia operations into it.

Mark is circumspect about the reasons for this. bought a house a couple of years ago and I was doing a lot of renovating. In Sligo. I live out in the countryside. I like getting away from the madness and the pace of when youre in the band. I think that every time I go home for a long time I remember how easy it is to get caught up in the madness and the lifestyle that is being in Westlife. Its important to step back from it and let it go for a while. The greed of the business can constantly pull you down. It,s nice to get home and to remind yourself of the things that are very important in life. That,s something that I go through every time we have a big break. It doesn,t hurt anyone to take a bit of time out. You come back a stronger person.

And it would seem, a stronger band. The four counterpoints of Westlife have had their varying shares of thrills and spills in the time that they had apart from one another this year. Nicky has had twins the most breathtaking experience a man can go through. Shane has watched his two year old daughter turning into a little person and lowered his golf handicap . Kian has bought a new house near his girlfriend Jodi,s family just outside London, opened a Juice Bar called the Monkey Tree in his surfing paradise hometown of Sligo, Cand generally acted like a bit of a bum down the pub. Mark has renovated the house he shares with partner, Kevin, in County Sligo. All things considered, it is no wonder they have opted for the title Back Home for their new collection of songs.

They are righteously proud of the new set. The record label now as famous as the boys itself given the phenomenal success of MD Simon Cowell on X Factor and American Idol, and Louis Walsh on the former (they do a mean impression of him on telly, too, and offer him belated wardrobe advice on a weekly basis) wanted another covers set. But the boys stood strong. They all think it,s their best yet. very Westlife, says Shane, righteously and unapologetically, but Westlife needed to step into 2007.To this end, and under the boys own instruction, new producers have been brought in, the sound reconfigured and the suits and stools gone for the time being. But it,s pop music. It,s not pop electro or pop rock,adds Mark, we know what Westlife is and we love that thing.

There,s no arguing with that really, is there?

XL Video Celebrates 10 Years of Westlife
Louise Stickland April 18th, 2008

XL Video supplied video equipment and crew for Westlife Back Hometour, celebrating 10 years as a pop phenomenon.


The live show one of the most dynamic and visually exciting of their careers so far has been designed and directed by William Baker.


Westlife shows have always had a strong video element, and this one was no exception, with 7 Stealth Mk2 LED screens being instrumental in the look and feel of the show, bringing, texture, depth, movement and colour to every area of the stage.


Custom video playback ran throughout the show, all of it commissioned by Baker and produced by Blink TV. The tour was produced by Production North and production managed by Karen Ringland, with XL Video Phil Mercer project managing.


Mercer comments, Westlife have toured prolifically for the last 10 years, and it is always a good challenge keeping the look of the show fresh and varied from one year to the next.


Downstage there was a curved section of Stealth measuring 27 modules wide by 8 high, which flew in and out and was used for an innovative video reveal at the top of the show. This sequence was carefully crafted in collaboration with LD Baz Halpin, so the video content and lighting worked seamlessly in a gradually reveal of the band standing behind the screen.


Upstage, near the back of the shaped stage set, were 2 portrait formatted Stealth surfaces measuring 13 modules high by 7 wide, angled in a 45 degree V. To each side of these were a total of 4 landscape Stealth panels, all measuring 9 x 7 modules and in 3:2 aspect ratio, which flew in and out through the performance.



The Stealth was used almost exclusively for showing VT playback material. IMAG appeared on the central curved screen just once, during the unplugged section of the show. This was in black and white to contrast with the generally very rich colouration throughout the rest of the performance and the screen was divided into 4 sections, each showing a tight head shot of Nicky, Shane, Kian and Mark.



The live camera mix was directed by Billy Robinson. XL supplied four Sony D50 cameras, which were positioned one at FOH, one in the pit on track & dolly and two off in the wings of the audience. Robinson cut the mix using a GV Kayak switcher, and this was beamed up onto two side 14 x 10 ft screens each fed by a Barco SLM12 projector from XL.

All the playback footage was stored on 2 Doremi hard drives and triggered by MIDI timecode from the backline, controlled via Barco Events Manager. This was programmed and formatted for all the screens by Richard Turner during production rehearsals at Lite Structures in Wakefield.



XL supplied 7 crew for the tour, under the direction of crew chief Stuart Heaney - systems engineer Graham Hollwil, Stealth tech,s Andy Tonks and Patrick Vansteelant and camera operators Luke Levitt, Thomas Levitt and Mark Cruickshank.



Playback footage was created by Blink TV Marcus Viner, Tom Colbourne and Helen Stringer. They worked on the project at Blink,s studios for about 2 months, including a 2 day video shoot with the band at Centre Stage Studios in Islington, London.



Working with cinematographer Angus Hudson, this produced material that was used in the beauty shots for Swear It Again along with footage for other songs, and they also filmed a dancer and a pole dancer. The dancer was shot with a series of different brass instruments, the footage was then composited and layered to create the eye-catching multi-coloured pop art style brass band for Easy Way.



The pole dancer was treated with chrome and gold effects and appeared in spectacular James Bond style fashion in I Let You Go.


Westlife tour again throughout May, culminating in a massive show at Croke Park stadium, Dublin, after which they will take a year break.

 

 

Westlife are still the kings of pop

THE biggest pop band in the land, Westlife have defied the odds of the genre's life expectancy, simply because no new upstarts have been able to come along and topple them from their throne.
While they may have fun poked at them for their cheesy dance routines, those clichéd ballad stool sessions and their lack of cool in an indie-dominated world, the fact is that 10 years after Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh first got their signatures on the dotted line Nicky Byrne, Kain Egan, Mark Feehily and Shane Filan are collectively still the biggest and the best at what they do.
Their 10th anniversary celebration concert earlier this month saw them pack out the fourth biggest arena in Europe, the 83,300 capacity Croke Park; their autobiography, Westlife Our Story, released a week later, will shift copies by the lorryload, and who knows how many fans will be wearing their perfume, X (Get it? The Roman numeral) to mark the their decade milestone.
The boys are at Home Park tomorrow night. Simply to have survived where others have fallen by the wayside Blue, Busted, SClub7 and B*Witched, to name but a few is remarkable. They're twice as old as Take That were when they called it a day first time around, and three times as old as Wham! when George and Andrew went their separate ways.
With a cool 40 million record sales worldwide under their collective belts, they've also scored 14 number one UK singles