FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BOYZONE AND B*WITCHED
WESTLIFE IRELAND'S HOTTEST NEW POP EXPORTS TALK ABOUT THEIR RISE TO FAME WHILE SHOOTING THEIR VIDEO IN TENERIFE
The are Ronan Keating's proteges - the boy band set to storm the charts following Boyzone's blazing glory. Irish band Westlife have already hit number one with their debut single Swear It Again and are set for a repeat performance with their latest release, If I Let You Go.
OK! went to watch the boys in action, shooting their new video in the glorious surroundings of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Staying in the luxurious Hotel Mencey in the city Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the five boys travelled around the island in search of the perfect location. Visiting the volcano El Teide in Las Canadas Del Teide National Park, the lads started recording their video, before moving on to Playa del Boyullo, a beach on the west coast of the island where they met up with an army of extras ready to perform with them.
As the ocean crashed on to the surrounding black rocks, Nicky Byrne, 20, a former Leeds United FC apprentice, tested his ball skills playing barefoot soccer with the locals, while fellow band member and Dubliner Bryan McFadden, 18, chilled out listening to Mariah Carey on his walkman. The other members, Kian Egan, 18, Mark Feehily, 18, and Shane Filan, 19, all from Sligo, a quiet town two hours west of Dublin, relaxed between breaks under an umbrella shading their fair Irish skin from the burning sun, having learned their lesson in UVA protection at the volcano the previous day.
The lads - who are all single, barring Nicky, who dates Georgina, daughter of Irish Premier Bertie Ahern - are used to being away from home. After their stay in Tenerife they jetted to Europe to join Boyzone on tour and found themselves playing to arenas packed with screaming fans.
You were on tour in Europe with Boyzone when Stephen Gately came out. What was the atmosphere like?
Bryan: When Stephen knew the story about him was going to be in the papers you could see he was very nervous and concerned about the reaction he would get from the fans. But as soon as it appeared in the press the crowd's response was amazing. It blew him away when fans turned up with banners saying they still loved him. After all, it doesn't make his music any different - he still sings the same and makes Boyzone music.
Nicky: Stephen said it felt like the sun had opened up above him and he was on a high for the rest of the tour. He's a lovely guy and a great friend of ours and it was good to see him so happy. He had so much positive press, he was fine and in a great mood.
Shane: His personal life is really his own business, but we do stick beside him in whatever he does. He was so much more relaxed on tour once the news was out.
Has Stephen's revelation made it easier for you to talk about your personal lives?
Kian: Yes, that along with the whole Boyzone image. Nicky always describes us as a modern-day boy band. We're about the music, not about five guys on stage with six-packs and big pecs. We don't hide the facts of one of us is in a relationship, like with Nicky and his girlfriend. The rest of us are single, but looking - definitely!
Shane: I don't know what the situation was with Take That because I was younger, but if they had girlfriends they didn't talk about it. but Boyzone always have done, which is great.
How come the rest of you are single?
Shane: To get a foundation is definitely difficult. I'm just so jealous of Nicky because he and Georgina have a solid basis because they've been dating for four years. That's the perfect situation, but to do that at the moment is nearly impossible. One thing about living this life is that when you are lonely and away from home it would be great to have a girlfriend to ring or go home to. But it is also good because I'm not tied down.
Kian: It's hard, lonely and sad - but it is great to have all the boys around. I suppose if we were on the road alone it would be a hundred times worse. But each time we go away we just try to have as much fun as we can - one girl in every port! That's a joke, by the way!
Bryan: It's just too hard, as Kian said. I'd love to have a girlfriend and I haven't had one since I've been in the band.
Mark: You do get very, very lonely, but you don't have time to start a relationship so you just tend to go with the one-night stands. When we say one-night stands we only mean snogging, though, not sleeping with them - honest!
Nicky, how do you keep your relationship going when you're away so much?
Georgina and I have to thank Siemans who gave us free mobile phones! It's down to them that we can keep in touch. I'm lucky to have Georgina to talk to. She's always the person who shows me the light at the end of the tunnel and she always sees the positive side. If I was on the road and didn't have Georgina to ring I don't know who I'd turn to, because I need to have someone who's there for me. Ronan and Yvonne Keating tell me it's important to talk to each other all the time, and that's not just to your girlfriend, but also to our families. I talk to my mum and dad every day - we all do. We miss simple things, such as going home and having a cup of tea with our families, and our mums' cooking.
Do you feel that you're under pressure to become role models for your fans?
Shane: Because it's mostly kids who buy our records we have to set an example, but we are only human. If we have something to celebrate we'll go out and have a drink and don't see any reason to hide something like that. But we are old enough to drink, so that's not setting an example as such.
Mark: You can't be in the public eye and do things that are politically incorrect.
Victoria and David Beckham say they could fit all their friends into a telephone box. Have you discovered you have fewer real friends now that you've found fame?
Shane: We have a lot more friends in a way and they tend to be older. One thing I don't like about the band is that a lot of people act very insincerely around us and suddenly want to be our friends as we've become successful. But we all have our own individual best mates who don't change and we always treat each other the same. But there are a lot of people who act differently to us now we're in a band. We've become more cautious when we're chatting to people, especially if they start to get friendly with you very quickly.
Mark: We realised very quickly who our friends are. All our different friends from home get on well too so when were back at home in Ireland about 25 of us would go out together.
Kian: Our friends tend to be two or three years older than us, as during the past year we've matured very quickly because we've seen so much of the world and our experience is quite different.
How does this kind of career compare to the types of jobs you had before you became members of Westlife?
Bryan: It's pretty much the same as McDonald's! No, obviously it's totally different.
Nicky: It is quite similar to being in a football team in many ways. I was into fashion and shopping at Harvey Nichols when I lived in Leeds. I warned Kian that he'd soon be a label head, which he has become. And Mark said he would never wear anything because it was designer and now he's as bad as everyone else.
Mark: Nicky gets this totally wrong every time. I said that if I liked something I would wear it even if it wasn't Gucci and I wouldn't just wear something because it was designer. Compared to delivering pizza, this job is pretty good.
Bryan: I was in college studying for accountancy before I joined Westlife. So I look after everyone's money.....
Shane: I was training to be a lawyer, which is a little different to singing for a living.
Kian: I was a sort of strippergram, but I had planned to go into teaching children music. At the moment I'm teaching Nicky the piano and Shane the guitar.
When you signed your recording contract with RCA and put your names on the dotted line, did it feel as if you were signing your lives away?
Bryan: We signed a very, very good record deal. We haven't had to sign to say we won't have girlfriends, but we have a gentlemen's agreement that we won't get married and have kids. Our manager Louis Walsh [who also masterminded Boyzone's success] is only asking us to give him our total dedication for five years. We have a great relationship with Louis, who is both a manager and a friend, and the same goes for Ronan and the record company - we get on with the whole team.