No band can compare to Westlife’s remarkable success. In their eleven years on top they have sold over 37 million records globally. In the UK alone they have scored nine multi-platinum albums and a record breaking 14 Number 1 hits (only behind The Beatles and Elvis). Forming in July 1998, Westlife are the only act in UK history to have their first seven singles go straight in at Number 1.
They have also picked up innumerable awards and appeared on hundreds of magazine covers around the world. They are the only recording artists to win the prestigious ‘Record Of The Year’ an incredible four times (other top awards include two BRITS and an MTV Europe Award). Westlife are also the biggest selling Arena act ever, holding the record for the most concerts held at Wembley Arena - an incredible 23 dates.
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 hasn’t been a new model to outshine them. On the straight-up 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 haven’t already outlived, you could put a pretty safe bet on the rest bowing out before them. 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 doesn’t 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.
Let’s allow Nicky to continue the story:
“Even though we’ve looked at other bands that are similar to us, we’ve 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’d all know about it. Nobody’s after the solo deal. Everyone has the band’s 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’t get me wrong, when it might’ve happened, particularly when Bryan went, but we re-grouped, 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’ll show on the outside. You can never really say you haven’t had a fight if you have, because your audience will spot that you’re lying.”
Kian puts it more simply:
“I think that the success is very different to the reason that we’re still here today. I think that we’ve 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’s no bullshit. In Westlife you say what you feel and you don’t hold back.”
Mark is circumspect about the reasons for this:
“I 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 you’re 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. It’s 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 (“amazing”) and lowered his golf handicap (“almost as amazing”). Kian has bought a house near his new wife Jodi’s family just outside London, opened a Juice Bar called the Monkey Tree in his surfing paradise hometown of Sligo, “and generally acted like a bit of a bum down the pub”. Mark has renovated the house he shares with partner, Kevin, in County Sligo.
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. The latter half of 2008 saw an extended hiatus for the band following their sell-out Croke Park show in June of that year. However work has begun on their newest studio album with the guys already recording in London and most recently L.A. Batteries fully recharged and the hunger for success greater than ever, Shane, Mark, Kian and Nicky are all set to reclaim their pop crown and show the current crop of pretenders how it’s really done!
