There used to be a rule in pop music, particularly for boy bands : Release
two or three fast songs and then a big ballad to show your sensitive side.
Irish boy band Westlife not only reversed the theory, they’ve never recorded
a particularly up-tempo song.
But, whatever they’re doing, it’s working. In the UK their first three
singles - Swear It Again, If I Let You Go and the epic Flying Without Wings - have all entered the charts at No. 1,
the latter being voted 1999’s Song of the Year in a TV Poll.
And their double A-side of two ballads - ABBA’s I Have A Dream and the 70s hit Season In The Sun -
was not only the UK Christmas No. 1 (beating out Cliff Richard), it was the
first no. 1 of the new millennium. It spent four weeks on top, the longest
chart-topper since Cher’s Believe.
Four no.1s in the same year is something not matched in UK chart history
since the days of The Beatles.
They have done all this without raising a musical sweat.
‘People think we don’t dance or won’t do fast songs but we will on the next
album,’ Nicky Byrne says
‘We’ve taken a path to not be a typical boy band doing up tempo songs, and
it’s worked.’
The band is co-managed by Boyzone’s frontman Ronan Keating, and idol during
their youth because he was an Irish boy who made it big out but retained his
sanity.
‘We’re still the same, five normal lads who slag each other,’ Byrne says.
‘People around you change. You can see them looking at you differently. We
are pop stars, we might be a little bit famous but we feel the same.’
‘Our life style has changed,’ Filan adds. ‘We might want to buy a car or a
house next year. You mature quickly. People treat us better.’
But not everyone. ‘You get criticism all the time,’ Filan admits. ‘People
slag you - we’re the ones who have the success, they want it. They’re jealous.
They’d love to be in our band. Sometimes you do want to smack them though.’
The band made headlines last year when their co-manager Louis Walsh, also
Boyzone’s manager, reportedly insisted they didn’t have girlfriends for two
years. Walsh recently told the UK press he’d reprimanded them for
‘unproffesional’ behaviour, like drinking and smoking.
‘We’re just normal lads, we don’t do anything stupid,’ Filan says. ‘We have
a drink and a laugh, but we’re craeful. You’re setting an example.’
‘But you can’t tell someone not to have a girlfriend. We’re normal human
beings. The day has gone where boy bands don’t have girlfriend or don’t
drink.’
article © The Daily Telegraph, Australia