Back To School Memories

16 Magazine, September 2000

article thanks to Catherine Mammano

Two of the hottest new bands across the Atlantic are taking America by storm and are being spotted everywhere you look. The british boys from BBmak and those eye catching Irish cuties from Westlife are huge superstars all over the world, but they truely are just normal guys who, even though they are from different countries, grew up relatively just like you! We asked the guys from both groups to share their personal memories from their school days.

What to Wear Woes! Most kids heading back to school these days might hit the shopping malls before the first day of school and make sure that their closet is full of the latest styles. But then there are those unlucky few who are faced with the dilemma of wearing their older siblings' clothes like BBmak's Ste. I've got two older brothers and we all went to the same school," he says. "My one brother is alot bigger than me; he's like 6'3". And I'm 5'9". So I got his hand me-downs and I had to roll up the sleeves and everything."

But Ste faired beter than Westlife's Nicky Byrne. "I actually had a jogging suite that was a turquoise blue - a girly blue," he says. "My sister had the exact same thing in pink and it said 'New York, New York' on it."

Read on to learn more about heading back to school the Irish English way!

Westlife
Hard to Believe but Shane was a little shy on his first day of school. "My Mum brought me to school and I was outside crying but I got over it and eventually decided to go in after about 2 hours, " He says. Then my oldest brother came up to my [classroom] window and started making faces at me [to make me feel beter] and I guess it worked."

Nicky's very first day of school was delayed a bit due to an unfortunate turn of events. "I was knocked down by a bike just before I started school," he says. "So I was in the hospital for a week - for the first week of school."

Even on the first day of school Kian was Mr.Popularity. "I remember my first day of school. I went there with my cousin and we had a big fight over the best seat because my cousin wanted to sit beside me but I wanted my best friend to sit beside me," he says. "There was a big, big fight and everybody straight away went [to school] mad that day. It was funny."

Believe it or not, sweet and shy Mark was a bit of a trouble maker in school. We really find that hard to believe. Don't you?

Bryan didn't remember much about his first day of school but did remember singing his days away. "I really wasn't into school. I did study and stuff but I was more interested in Music so I used to get in trouble for singing in class a lot, " he says. "[I would sing] whatever I heard on the radio that day on the way to school in the car."

BBmak
Outgoing and fun-loving Christian may seem totally at ease now , but when he was in high school he was a shy guy. "I was really, really quiet. I was into my music and drama and cooking. I wanted to be a chef," he says. " I wasn't the tough one in the gang but I was the one who made all the tough ones lagh."

Balieve it or not, the stylish and clean-cut looking Ste went through a "Heavy-metal" phase when he was younger. "I grew my hair long. wore the leather jacket, had the guitar on his back," he says. "Then I was a "jock," as you put it. Lifting weights and working out. I was training and getting strong. School was cool though, I enjoyed it."

Mark on the other hand was Mr.Cool in high school. "First couple of years I had my hair long and school was loads of fun, like a youth club really," he says. "I wasn't a bad lot, but I had loads of friends and loads of distractions."

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