They've got the looks, the moves and the songs have even been given the nod of approval by their idols of Boyzone. Now with a clutch of chart-topping hits under their belts, Westlife are on the road at the start of their campaign for world domination, The Irish quintet who boy-band king Ronan Keating of Boyzone called the best band since, well, Boyzone, took a break from their whirl-wind schedule to talk to The Voice. We met the lads after a one-off showcase where they treated fans to a handful og their hits and signed copies of their smash album 'Westlife'.

Where have you been on this promotional tour and where will you be going in the next 2 months?
We've been all over Asia, spent a lot of time in Europe, been to Australia and in January we will go to America.

Do you have any concert dates planned for Hong Kong?
The aim of Westlife is to have big world tours and we realise you need to be a big band like Backstreet Boys or Boyzone to stage a tour on that scale. We want to be as big as them so we can take a tour to Asia and Australia. We do plan to visit Hong Kong as well as Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan - there are so many places we haven't toured.

Nicky, you dressed up as Elvis at your recent birthday party. How was that?
Very good, I really enjoyed it. We had a party in Dublin and the theme and music was 60's and 70's, I was dressed as Elvis and the rest of the boys were dressed as the Beatles. The drove a VW Beetle and they had all the guitars and the shades and I drove in a big white limousine. A good night, a very good night.

Are the Beatles one of your musical influences?
They are part of our influences, but the main bacnd we look up to is the Backstreet Boys because they are huge and known world-wide. We've worked with the same producers as the Backstreet Boys although we are totally different vocally, but hopefully in five or six years time we will be on a par with them or even better. We hope to have shows as big as they have. We went to see them in Germany and they were absolutely massive - an amazing show and it was such a buzz just to watch and we can only dream of what it would be like to be on stage performing like that, The big shows are our main aim and obviously album sales will dictate where we will tour. Naturally, Boyzone are our other influence and we can only dream of what they have accomplished.

Have you started the new album?
No not yet, we just finished out first album and are promoting it and the next one will be around March sometime.

What artists would you like to work with in the future?
Michael Jackson , Shania Twain, Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey and Lauryn Hill.

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