article from U Magazine, 1 June 2000
Thanks to Melanie - meln_rulez@hotmail.com for this article!
Mubashera Asgher managed to corner Shane (with more charm than anyone in the world ever had), Nicky (take it easy girls, he might be gorgeous, but he's taken) Bryan (he's okay, available, but very shy and quiet. Now that's a challenge!). Read on to find out Westlife secrets you'd dare never ask them ...but of course, we did!
Tell me about your first crush, lads?
Nicky: My first crush was on Kylie Minouge. I loved her. When she used to act in the TV serial Neighbours and she got married, I sat down and cried.
Shane: My first proper crush was on a teacher from school. She was a blond babe, really young, only about 22 or 23. Of course I was much younger. I was about 12 at the time. She was beautiful. I thought she was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.
Bryan: I had a crush on a girl for 10 years. It's over now, but it was agony while it lasted. Imagine being secretly in love with a person for 10 years, without being able to let them know how you feel.
What do you look for in a girl?
Shane: Looks are very important to me. She doesn't have to be perfect, but I like someone who's cute, someone who presents herself well, someone who doesn't wear too much makeup, who doesn't go overboard, someone who's fun to be with, the sorta girl I'd be able to talk to.
Nicky: I go for a girl's eyes ...if she has them. An elegant girl. Someone really sexy. Someone you can have real good fun with.
Bryan: Hair. I love blond girls.
Because you're famous, is it harder to meet girls who fall for you because you're you and not because you're Westlife?
Shane: Yeah, it gets really hard sometimes, but its become a lot easier to meet girls, that's for sure. I mean, we meet beautiful women all over the world. But its hard to say whether they like us because we're Shane or Nicky or Kian, Mark, Bryan or because we're Westlife. Unfortunately though, 90 percent of the girls like us because we're Westlife. You just gotta take a chance and trust a girl. No matter what you do, either way you get hurt, so its very difficult. But we still enjoy ourselves.
How can you not let all this success and dead-gorgeous women literally throwing themselves at you, go to your head?
Nicky: We're very lucky that we're always surrounded by people who never let it go to our heads. We realise that people see us completely different from who we are. People often put us on a pedestal and see us as these huge pop stars, very very famous people. But they don't realise that we come from very very normal backgrounds. For example, when I see someone like Brad Pitt or Celine Dion, I'm in awe. But that's the same way with us. It's just very successful people, people in the limelight, trying to lead normal lives.
Have any of you dated a fan?
Shane: (giggling) Twice
Nicky: Three times.
Shane: Twice!
Nicky: No, three times.
Shane: Really? I thought it was twice. But anyway, it was two different girls, we were about the same age. Just for a few weeks each. It didn't last though cause I was away most of the time and it wasn't easy to develop a relationship based on trust.
Have any of you had girlfriends before you joined Westlife?
Shane: I had a girlfriend for a year and a half.
Nicky: I had a girlfriend for four years.
Shane: He still does. It's six years now.
Bryan: Yeah, I did too.
So did you break up because of Westlife?
Shane: Nah! We broke up anyway. I just meant that before Westlife I had a steady relationship which didn't work out, regardless of the band taking off.
Nicky: She wasn't all that nice though, was she?
Shane: No, she wasn't nice at all. In fact, she was... um, better not say it!
Nicky you've been dating the same girl for six years now. Despite all the travelling and fans and everything, how have you managed to keep it going?
Nicky: She sends me naughty pictures of herself.
Shane: Please let that be a joke.
Nicky: Of course it is. Think I'd ever disclose something like that if it were true.
Shane: Sure you would.
Nicky: Well maybe, but this isn't one of those times. But you know when you know something is so right, there's no point in risking something so valuable and precious for one night of fun and frolic. Why would I want to lose something that I've had for so long, something that I love and cherish, just for the sake of the moment.
So when the rest of the guys go out, you retreat to your hotel room?
Nicky: No, no, no! I have my own fun. I watch the rest of the guys chat up different girls, sometimes successfully, sometimes very, very poorly. I sit there and have a laugh, do my own thing. I don't sit in my room like a dope, you know.
Who pulls the most girls?
Shane: Me
Nicky: Me
Bryan: Me
Shane: Okay, to be honest, it depends on the country we're talking about. But in most European countries its normally Mark or Bryan.
So who gets the most fan mail then?
Shane, Nicky and Bryan: Me!
Shane: Here we go again. Sorry, this is just boys being boys.
Bryan: We all do. Some of us are more popular in certain countries.
Shane: It evens itself out.
Have you met any girls in Dubai?
Shane & Nicky: Oh yeah.
Shane: Lots of them. They were all very nice. We went for a night out to Planetarium and met up with loads of gorgeous birds there.
What's the worst chat-up line you've ever used?
Shane: I never use chat-up lines. Never.
But haven't you ever been in a situation that's backfired?
Shane: Oh, like our night at the Planetarium! I was trying to chat up a girl last night. We were dancing and she was all into these strange, weird steps, so I was like, "Ah, you're not much of a dancer". I meant it as a joke of course, it was meant to be an icebreaker. But she got majorly upset and walked off. I didn't mean it in a bad way but it backfired totally on me. So I was kinda like 'oops'.
Nicky: I never use chat-up lines. That's the worst thing we can do, especially in our position.
So if you meet a girl you like, how do you start a conversation?
Shane: We don't have to. Most of the time, the girls come up to us and chat us up. We're not being big-headed, but being in a band always attracts girls. We still realise that we're normal guys and that's how we'd like to be treated, but you can't help the way people react to you. We don't believe all the hype that surrounds us. A lot of it is true but we try not to believe it.
Can you describe what it's like to be in love?
Nicky: It's when you can't live without somebody. When you can't live without the way she walks, the way she talks, the way she runs her fingers through your hair. You can't be happy when she's not there. No, that's wrong. You might be happy at times, but you can't be fulfilled or complete.