Chapter ten: Too much Torro Rosso

Coast to Coast was an insane period, says Kian. That second album was huge. Millions of copies were selling around the world. In the UK, we literally could not walk down the street. Our hotels were mobbed, we were on all the TV shows, all over the radio, the press - it was nuts.

Sonny Takhar had a brilliant idea ahead of the album's release. They hired a private jet, had "Westlife" splashed down the side and booked in signings in four different cities in one day. We were due to visit Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London. The Spice Girls were releasing their "comeback" album, Forever, after Geri Halliwell had left and there was this big chart "battle" between us and them. So this city-hopping promo jaunt was perfectly designed to ramp up our PR that week. Great idea.

The record label invited a load of media onto the jet to fly around with us - it was great craic. The whole stunt was high profile and we had thousands and thousands of fans turning up in each city. It was insane, proper popstar stuff. There were thousands of people in the streets, they were closing off roads all over the place, the traffic was jammed, it was mental.

I was playing junior-team football at Leeds, remembers Nicky, when the Spice Girls were first coming out. All the lads were talking about which Spice Girl they fancied, that was the talk of the football team. They just seemed so famous. Then there I was, in this brilliant band with these brilliant lads, only a few years later, going up against them in a battle of the bands...

... and beating them hands down, continues Kian.

When the charts were announced, we'd creamed the Spice Girls.

We'd shifted nearly 250,000 copies and outsold them three to one. 

That week was probably the absolute height of Westlife hysteria in the UK. No one could touch us... 

... apart from Bob the Builder, says Shane. "What Makes a Man" was our Christmas single and it was one of our best songs, definitely Top Five Westlife or so. We do it every single year on tour because we still love singing it live so much. It's a cool song - great lyrics and melody, brilliant. So it's a real shame that this was to be our first single that didn't enter at the top.

Those midweek phone calls with our likely chart position were like a ritual by then. And we'd had so many number 1s that there was a burden on us to keep getting the top spot. During the early days, a number 2 became unthinkable.

Oh my God, I couldn't sleep the night before a midweek. I'd be lying in bed at three or four in the morning, thinking about it. Then you'd get the midweek and it would be number 1 and you'd be like, "Oh Jesus, the heat's off now... till the next single.!

That might sound extreme, but we didn't know any different, we had to get number 1s. When we beat the Beatles record that was weird enough, but then we got five, six, seven in a row - it was ludicrous.

And then we only hit number 2 with "What Makes a Man", because of the Bob the Builder Christmas song. The day we found out our midweek, we were gutted. We knew Bob was gonna be big. What was even more frustating was that it was the biggest first-week sales we'd ever had.

That was such a shock, our first number 2. It was the first time that something hadn't gone perfectly, the first time we'd thought it wasn't all going to be plain sailing.

It was a pity because - I know I'm being greedy now - the next three singles after "What Makes a Man" also went to number 1, so if Bob hadn't stuck his oar in, we'd have had 11 in a row.

Nevertheless, we're all proud of those seven consecutive number 1 singles, and given the changing climate with downloads and all that, I don't think anyone will ever beat that record. You never know, but it'll be some mighty effort.

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We didn't tour the first album, says Shane, which sold 1.5 million copies in the UK alone. Simon Cowell had wanted it this way. Then he didn't want us to tour before the second album. He wanted us to get even bigger first. And he was right. By the time we came to the first headline shows, Coast to Coast was selling millions of copies around the world and Westlife was massive.

We set up the "Where Dreams Come True" world tour.

It was completely sold out within minutes of the tickets going on sale.

That first night in Newcastle was amazing - our first headline arena tour and 11,000 people there, just for Westlife.

They'd been waiting two years to see our show. We were a big band and although we'd supported Boyzone at big venues and done the Smash Hits Roadshow tour, which was also to big crowds, we'd just been a support act. So now the anticipation was immense.

It was for us too. I'd been looking forward to it all my life.

I'll never forget it. I couldn't breathe for about three songs - I literally couldn't catch my breath. It was unbelievable. And the heat - it was so intense. Standing on stage in our first stage outfits for the first number was an insane feeling. I was singing the words quite well, but I was gasping, I really couldn't get my breathing right. The adrenaline was racing through me so much that I could almost feel it in my veins.

I didn't really smile that much for the first three songs because I was having to concentrate so hard just to remember the routines and breathe. Then a couple of ballads calmed things down and I managed, finally, to catch my breath. I relaxed hugely and, I'm glad to say, have stayed relaxed on stage ever since.

There's a real difference between singing in front of 3,000 people and, say, 15,000. When there are that many people there, sometimes some of them are so high up you can hardly see them. When you're singing away to the audience in front of you, you sometimes forget there's a whole other tier at the top. When there are loads of people, there are a lot more things to look at, that's for sure!

For our first two headline tours, says Mark, I couldn't really hear myself sing because of the screaming. We hadn't really had any coaching with regards to the mics or monitors; there was an element being thrown in at the deep end. So for those two tours I pretty much just shouted. You get this weird feeling of trying to project your voice to he back of this huge arena - but shouting ins't going to do it!

Eventually you learn how to work the microphone and the sound system, but that takes time and we kinda learned as we went along. The expectation among some of us was that there would be dozens of people to help with vocal technique, styling, performances, studio work, all that. None of us were from that stage school and maybe those sort of people have that head start on us, they've already been trained with their voice, in performance, all that. We'd only really sung at school and in musicals, and then on the Boyzone dates we'd be on stage early when the venues weren't full, and then suddenly, it seemed, we were on stage in front of 15,000 people. I'd be standing there, eyes staring, mouth as wide as possible, thinking, Fuck me, 15,000 people need to hear this! I must have looked like I was on drugs! 

I later developed a trick, or technique if you like, that I use to this day, particularly with TV appearances where I feel awkward. I'll see someone in the room or in the crowd and I'll go, Right, you're the one I'm going to impress now, and I'll pretty much sing to that person. I won't look at them all the time, and they probably won't even notice I'm doing it, but it helps me focus and perform. I might just see a fan in the crowd who looks like someone who I know, for instance, and I'll pick them.

It doesnt happen every night, by the way. Some nights I don't see a person, but then the next night I will see someone and the whole gig will be based on what they are going to say when they get home. Maybe it'll be someone who just looks like they are enjoying themselves or someone who's singing along, and that person will make me go for it. It really helps.

One funny aside from that is when we first started I had a bit of an issue with waving. Where I come from, if someone waved to you in the street, you wave back - simple manners. So we'd be playing to, say 15,000 people and the first 50 rows would be waving. Especially down the very front, girls would wave every time you walked by. So I just had to keep waving back to all of them. I thought how I would feel if I'd waved at Prince or Mariah and they'd caught my eye and then not flickered and not waved but moved on. So I would wave and wave and wave and wave, all night. It was getting ridiculous - there were times when I was spending more time waving back - so as not to be rude - than I was holding the mic!

On our very first concert tour, laughs Kian, once we were offstage, we went ballistic. We felt like superstars and we drank like fucking nut jobs. I'm not even sure I want to explain what went on! We'd been doing two years' solid promo with no tour and virtually no days off since it'd all started. Then, in typical Westlife fashion, the first tour we ever did was humongous - we did nine Wembleys, thirteen nights in Dublin, six Newcastles, six Manchesters, six nights in Glasgow, three in Birmingham, three in Sheffield and then were overseas for nearly three months. It was four months of the most massive shows.

That was only the half of it, though.

Behind the scenes, there was just an explosion of pent-up energy. Young lads, well known, in all the magazines, songs in the charts, money coming in, out on the road together - to be totally honest, we went ga-ga!

We drank very heavily every single night. Vodka and Red Bull was our favoured tipple and we sank it by the gallon. Our security man Paul Higgins reckons Shane and myself drank ourselves into oblivion for over 50 nights straight.

We were like caged animals being let loose. The situation was so different from promo - there was no record company telling us to get to bed or behave ourselves. We never needed to get up early. You'd have all day to relax before the show the following night. All the people on the tour were being paid by us. We were the bossed, so we did what we wanted, when we wanted.

And what we wanted was to party.

Mark: Actually, we were sponsored by Red Bull, so really we were just doint the right thing by our sponsors...

A memorable day in the history of Westlife, says Kian, was in Sheffield on that first tour. I'll never forget it. We had a run of three shows so it felt like a mini-residence. We found this little bar around the corner from the venue which seemed ideal for our parties after each show. One of our security team went around and spoke to the manager and enquired about letting us use the bar for our after-shows.

It was a great little pub, full of weird and wonderful characters, mostly big stocky dudes who all drove Ferraris. They made us very welcome and we partied there every single night of our Sheffield stay. On one particular night, a lot of us had brought friends over and everyone was absolutely steaming drunk. Even the truck drivers, man, they loved us because they would joke and say, "Where's the party tonight" and we'd say, "Follow us!" so we'd race over to this bar followed by all these massive truck drivers ready to get wrecked.

It was pure carnage. Someone was going around on a leash; one of Nicky's best friends, Skinner, was drunkenly pretending to be a priest, taking a bucket of water around and blessing people; folks were running around absolutely slammed on the bar, music was on full blast all night; Nicky was standing on the bar with shades on pretending to be Bono - it was nuts. All our dancers, all our crew, all of us, all our friends and family went mad. The barmen were just chucking drinks at us and we were chucking them down our gob. By throwing out time, we were cuckoo.

One of the bar owners offered to give me and my brother Gavin a lift home in his Ferrari as he hadn't been drinking. It was only a two-seater, but we weren't missing out on this.
"Come on, Gav, lesh get in, it'll be fucking greeaaatt!"

Gavin sat in the passenger seat first and I basically sat on top of him, completely bladdered. Then I had one of those moments of seriousness that you only get when you're blind drunk.

"Hey, Gav, whereshfuckingsheatbelt...?" I wrapped it around him and me and said, "At least if we die at 150 milesss and hour, we'll die together, eh, Gav?"

This didn't seem to comfort him too much.

The bar owner then proceeded to do about 130 mph down the motorway with me and Gavin absolutely ossified out of our faces in the passenger seat.

We made it back to the hotel and continued the drinking at full tilt. Gav was actually a secondary school teacher and by about 4 a.m., he was absolutely fucked. We bundled him off to bed - for a guy who is ten years older, he did pretty well!

We got up around one in the afternoon very much the worse for wear. I had to abandon some promo interviews because I couldn't stop giggling and I was still drunk. I knew Shane was doing some interviews in his dressing room, so I heade for there, thinking he would be organized and sober and might calm me down and get me back on track.

I walked in to find him sitting slumped in the corner on his own, wearing only his boxer shorts and a pair of white sunglasses with blacked-out lenses... and on his head was a pair of deely-boppers with flashing stars at the end of each bouncy wire.

"Hey, Kian, what's the craic?" was all he could muster.

We were due on stage in about five hours.

He was still completely twisted from the night before, off his chops on 20 shots of vodka and Red Bull. I sat next to him, laughing out loud, and thought we could both sit there and sober up together, when Paul Higgins, our security man, raced in and said, "Kian, Kian, you've got to come, Brian's acting all weird, you've got to sort him out..."

To be fair, I was in no fit state to sort anyone out, but if the choice was either me or Shane, then it was gonna be me. I went out to the tour bus to find Brian also twisted on vodka and Red Bull, telling everyone that the walls were closing in on him and that there was something wrong with him.

"You fucking eejit, sit down will ya...?"

We walked around a bit and Shame came out of his dressing room, still with his bouncy stars on, saying, "I think I need some sleep..."

Eventually, we all surfaced from the drunken stupor and prepared ourselves for the show that night. Shane got some sleep, we all sobered up and started to feel human again.

As I followed Shane up the steps to the stage, where 12,500 people were waiting for us, he leaned over a bucket and vomited.

"Shit, are you OK to go on, Shane?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah, it's OK, it's all about of me now. Let's go."

He jumped up onto the stage, said, "Hello Sheffield!" and we all proceeded to play a blistering show.

I have to say, in my opinion, the partying never affected our shows. We were kids - well, 21 - and we were bullet-proof. Plus, we were from the west coast of Ireland, so we had a background of heavy drinking, you know.

The drinking carried on the next day.

And the next.

And the next, and so on for the whole tour.

And the tour after that.

Shane: I don't recall being sick right before I went on stage, but perhaps I was still in no fit state to remember. I didn't learn my lesson, either. We just went on drinking, as Kian says.

That night in Sheffield, I had trouble breathing in some of the songs and I probably should have gone to hospital and got it all pumped out of my system. I remember being in an interview with Sky News the next day and I had big dark glasses on. People probably thought I was on drugs, but I wasn't, I was still very, very drunk from the vodka and Red Bull.

Vodka and Red Bull is a mad drink. I was a nutbag on it. I'd go out with Gillian to a club and I'd be drinking it and forget about her for an hour and a half, just be chatting to people, having a laugh, and eventually Gillian would be like, "Where were you?" So, eventually I stopped drinking it, because it just didn't agree with me. 

But, come on, we were young fellas, we were 20, 21 out having a laugh and we were famous,. We were in this band, it was amazing, we were selling out everywhere, we had money in our pockets, it was like pure joy.

What's the point doing all the work if you can't enjoy the benefits?

We just kinda enjoyed them a bit too much. 

Chapter nine: Buzzing with the Queen Bee

                                 

                      

We need to make one thing perfectly clear, explains Mark. We never agreed to be "single" or "available". Nicky had been with Georgina for some time, likewise Shane with Gillian.

Gillian was going to college at the time, recounts Shane, and was very keen not to have Westlife affect that. She wanted a normal college life. As I remember it, no one ever said to us, "You can't have a girlfriend." If they'd have said that was essential it would have been the end of the band, like. Without a doubt, because for me I wanted Gilliant in my life above everything else.

It was her idea really, not to publicize it so much. She wanted her own friends, her own time at college. Her best friends knew, obviously, but she didn't just want to be the girl who was going out with the guy in Westlife. Later on, people started realizing, but by then she'd managed to enjoy a normal life at college.

Whatever she wanted, I wanted. This was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, long before Westlife or college or any of this. I loved her then and I just wanted to do whatever she wanted. I knew her personality, what she loved, what she didn't like, her pastimes. Remember, I'd admired her from afar in Sligo and we'd even written a song about her, as you know. I'd been a friend of hers for maybe seven years before we got together.

She got Westlife. She understood what it meant - that there'd be attention from girls - and she knew how to handle it all, she had no problem with that. There's no other woman in the world who comes close to her. I'd fallen in love with her and that was that. So the band situation really didn't affect us, to be honest.

From Day One, Nicky was known to be going out with the Taoiseach's daughter, says Kian. He never kept it a secret, never discussed saying otherwise. It was as simple as that. Even when he auditioned, next to his picture it stated who he was dating. He never went out the back door of a nightclub with Georgina to keep it quiet. We've always been adamant that's one thing we're not going to bluff anyone about. If someone had said to us, "You all have to be single and available," I'm convinced we would have said, "Shove your contract."

I seem to remember Louis saying something about us not publicizing any girlfriends, though. He didn't say we couldn't have any, it was more about not making a big public show of them.

It didn't bother me one way or the other, to be honest with you. I had a few girlfriends here and there, nothing too serious. I wasn't about to run off and get married. I know Nicky and Shane had different situations, but for me it wasn't really a big deal.

Louis leaked stories at the beginning that I was going out with Bertie Ahern's daughter, says Nicky, because it was a huge story in Ireland, so it was another spin for him at the beginning when Westlife needed press. I didn't really mind either way. I'd found somebody that I loved and wanted to spend the rest of my life with and that was it. It was perfect for me that Georgina's dad was in the public eye, because the record company couldn't ignore that fact, so I didn't have to hide her, which I think can be difficult. There was never a question of "I can't have a girlfriend" it was more a question of "How do I make everything in my life balanced?" First and foremost I wanted my girlfriend to be my wife and then I wanted my career to be the biggest it could be.

                 

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We didn't tour the first album, recalls Mark, so it was straight into summer recording sessions for the follow-up, to be called Coast to Coast and set for a November 2000 release.

We'd been nominated for an MTV Award in early 2000 for Best UK and Ireland Act, which was brilliant. And we won. Mariah Carey had also been nominated for an award, We all went down to London for the press call for the nominations and it was a suitably star-studded event. Then I heard someone whisper that Mariah Carey was in the building. I couldn't believe it. I was so excited, I can't tell you. Now, because I listen to so much music and hear so many songs from other artists, Mariah is by no means the only artist in my record collection, but back then she was still someone I'd always wanted to meet.

There we were, standing around backstage waiting for stuff to get started, and then she walked past. My eyes were on stalks. She looked absolutely gorgeous and just floated by. For me, that was a huge moment. Here was this woman who had inspired me to start singing seriously, whose voice I'd so admired, whose songs I'd learned every note of - here she was, walking past me at an awards press call that my own band was involved in. It was bizarre.

Within about 20 secons of her walking past, I was scouring the building looking for our record company person, saying, "Please, this might never happen again, you've got to sort it out so I can say hello to Mariah Carey, please!" Even though I was a huge fan at the time, I was obviously aware of all the rumours that she was supposed to be difficult, a diva, demanding and all that, so I didn't expect much. Also I was a little concerned that if she was dismissive it would tarnish one of my all-time idols. But at the same time, I had to ask. I thought if I could just say "Hello" and get a picture, I'd be a happy man.

Then the world came back saying that Mariah would love to meet me.

All the lads were delighted for me and were egging me on. They were brilliant. I followed Mariah's representative down some corridors and finally through a door, then I sort of paused momentarily, aware I was about to meet her. The woman beckoned me through the door... And I walked into a room packed with media, a full-blown press conference, with Mariah lounging on an extravagant chaise longue with 100 flashbulbs taking pictures of her.

This was where they'd arranged for me to meet her, right there and then in front of the asssembled press pack. I was too nervous to back out of it, but it was so embarrassing going up onto what was basically a stage with a chair on it and Mariah Carey perched there in front of 100 tabloid journalists.

I introduced myself and said how nice it was to meet her, slightly apprehensive about what she would be like and if she would be mean to me in front of the press. But do you know what? She was lovely. She couldn't have been nicer. She looked me straight in the eye all the time we talked, she gave me her full attention, and she was really kind. I'd managed to get hold of a copy of her album somehow and she signed that and was very gracious about me being a fan. Then suddenly it was all over. I was so pleased she'd been so lovely to me. It was great.

A few weeks later we were in a hotel in South East Asia on a promotional trip, when the door to my room burst open and the rest of the band tumbled in, laughing, shouting, waving and saying, "Mark! Mark! We're going to do a song with Mariah Carey!" I think they were almost as excited for me as I was myself, which was really nice. They knew how much it meant to me. I don't know how to describe the excitement at hearing that news. It was unreal.

We all knew how much Mark had wanted to meet Mariah properly, says Nicky. We knew he had met her previously, albeit briefly. So when we heard about the song with her, we were bursting to tell him. Kian took the call from Louis and I have to admit my exact words when he told me were "Fuck off, no way!"

It was to be "Against All Odds", the Phill Collins track, and it would be eventually give us our sixt number 1 in 17 months. What's more, we were pencilled in to record the single and video with Mariah Carey in Capri, an island just off Italy.

We had a tiny window of 48 hours to record the single, shoot the video and get it all done.

Kian lost his passport. I felt really sorry for him, because he ended up shooting his parts of the video on his own. Mariah had shot hers on the own, mind you, then we had gone out and done our clips, but because Kian wasn't there, they'd filmed shots of us separately and then spliced it all in later. There were shots of a car with "Kian" in it, but they were from a distance and cleverly done to hide the fact he wasn't actually there yet and was still desperately trying to get his passport sorted.

We were to have dinner with Mariah in a beautiful Italian restaurant in the most amazing location and we all got there nice and early. The sense of anticipation among the lads was huge. Then suddenly, there she was, like the Queen Bee, gliding in wearing a flowing chiffon outfit. I don't even think her feet were touching the floor, she was gliding that much. It was a real spetacle and obviously everyone in the restaurant was staring at her. She just had that presence. She was probably giving it some for effect, but she definitely had a colossal X factor.

We all sat down and I was trying to eat my pasta but it was just too weird, sitting around a table eating dinner with Mariah Carey. Every now and then I'd relax and chat to one of the lads, then I'd turn my head and think, Holy shit! That's Mariah Carey! She was surrounded by "her people", but actually they kept a distance and let us chat happily with her. I have to say, once we'd got over our nerves, she was an absolute pleasture to talk to. She wasn't at all like the demanding diva you read about in the tabloids.

We shared a beer and had a bit of craic and I even remember, for some reason, that the food was sensational. It was very hard to really be yourself, though. I kept trying to open up and even teall a few jokes, but in the end, I thought, The less said, the better. You don't want to ruin the night. You don't want Mariah Carey to think you're a knob. 

We hadn't recorded the song at this point, so I think we were all on tenterhooks in case she came away from that meal and said she didn't want to work with us. But that didn't happen, she said she loved our company and I thought she made a huge effort.

Obviously, the best part for me, recounts Mark, was singing with Mariah in the studio. I kept thinking back to when I was a kid listening to "Hero" and all those other great vocals, then pinching myself because I couldn't believe that I was in a studio in Capri with her in person. What's more, she was basically producing us. She had her engineers and all that, but she was sitting behind the desk using the faders and the talk back, telling us to do another take and giving me guidance on a few points. It was incredible.

I have to be honest and say it was actually a bit of a blur! It was all very strange, but good strange, amazing strange. I was really pleased, too, because I wasn't freaking out, I sang my parts calmly and I was proud of them, I wasn't overwhelmed. I was actually very composed and thoroughly enjoying myself. That goes back to what I said about being self-conscious, reserved, anxious to get approval in most parts of my early life except singing, where I just opened my mouth and felt completely liberated. I was definitely a bit nervous, but I realized in those two days that I didn't care who I sang in front of, even Mariah Carey.

And, of course, hearing that voice in person so close was a dream come true.

Personally, I enjoyed the studio time, continues Nicky, but I did find it a little intimidating. For a start, there were these three backing singers who were phenomenal, and then you had Mariah Carey, one of the most gifted vocalists in history. The studio was at the top of about 300 stone steps, there was a terrace overhanging a cliff down to the Mediterranean and she had some food brought out for us. It was lovely. I'd set my mind on looking really cool when we first got there, but by the time I'd walked up the 300 steps, I was fucking gasping! It took us like half an hour to get up to the bloody place. 

I don't think we had much of a say in any of the video, as she'd decided she wanted her personal videographer to make the clip. We didn't mind - this was Mariah Carey. I definitely don't remember anyone complaining!

Mariah wore a luminous pink dress, and we had to walk along by her. It was surreal - she was walking all light-footed, fluttering her eyelashes at the camera, pure Mariah, and we were all walking alongside, trying to look cool and not look at her and go, "Jesus, lads, look, Mariah Carey!" I also remember she was brilliantly well lit and we hardly seemed to be lit at all, which made me laugh.

Whatever people say, Mariah was really approachable and although she does that mwah, mwah, mwah kissing thing when you meet her, she is genuine and she is always lovely to us whenever we bump into her. It's always, "Hello again, my Irish boys!"

My favourite story from the various times when we've been lucky enough to meet Mariah has to be when we were all sitting with her after a charity event in Manchester, where we'd sung our duet together. While we were chatting away, from just out of my line of vision a person walked over with a glass of mineral water which had a straw in it. While Mariah was still talking, a hand silently came in from the right and placed the straw directly under her lips. Without even looking at it, Mariah took a few sips from the straw, then the hand silently moved the glass away.

Then another hand, also silently gliding in, came from the left and dabbed the corner of her mouth before sliding away. Mariah was looking straight at me all the time, chatting, and I swear she looked at me with a half-wink, as if to say, I know you think this is nuts, but this is what I do. And she did, she had this diva-like presence, this aura, there was certainly none of the unpleasantness that you hear about, nothing at all, and you could see she was playing up to her reputation because it was all part of the show. I smiled about that straw for days.

Chapter eight: The first of many

From the phone call in the pub from Louis, saying he'd got us a slot supporting the Backstreet Boys, remembers Shane, to our first single, which was released in April 1999, it was just 13 months. The pace of it all was insane. And it was about to get much more insane...

Next thing we know, says Nicky, we're on a plane to Sweden to being recording our debut album. It was moving so fast. It seemed that even before the ink was dry on the record contract, the pace of our lives flipped to light-speed.

There was one more name change to come: we discovered that there were several overseas acts already using the name Westside, so we altered it once again, this time to Westlife. It was between this and West High, which I preferred, but all the other lads wanted Westlife. 

We made our way to the Cheiron studio, all incredibly excited. All the big American pop bands recorded at that place in Sweden. The Backstreet Boys had been there a week before we flew out for the debut album sessions. Fans would circle around the reception and entrance to the studio and when we walked out they'd be like, "Who are you?!" But instead of laughing or taking offence, we would introduce ourselves and tell them we were Westlife, what we were doing and that we were going to be a big new boy band, and that's how we started building up our fanbase.

Other than that, I remember those first album sessions to be full of sickness. It was freezing cold in Stockholm, absolutely bitter, and in fact I got so sick I was eventually flown home.

Our first single was to be a song called "Swear It Again" and it was due for release in late April 1999. I remember that earlier Shane came back to the house we were all staying at in Dublin and excitedly played us this demo. It was a version of "Swear It Again" sung by session vocalist. I think it was maybe even Mac's co-writer, Wayne Hector, singing. I distinctly remember thinking, Wow, this is a great song. It's a big chorus, great harmonies. This is exactly what we want to be recording.

We shot the video for "Swear It Again", explains Kian, and Cowell hated it, he tore it to pieces. He'd spent £150,000 on it and he just threw it in the bin. We reshot the video completely and did five or six different photo shoots with five or six different stylists. It was really a case of no expense spared by Simon and the label.

Between them, Simon and Louis got us on all the front covers of magazines before we'd even released a single. We were the first band to ever be on the front cover of Smash Hits without releasing a single.

In the lead-up to the single's release, remembers Shane, we were hearing good things from the record company. Radio was loving it, the record shops were ordering good numbers of copies... It sounded good to us, but to be fair, we had never done it before, so we actually had no idea what it all meant.

As the week of release approached, they kept saying, "Lads, it's going to be a big song." They told us that all the signs were there for a Top Ten. Top Ten! We thought this was brilliant. We'd have taken number 10 any day of the week.

Then it came to the actual week of release and we were all sitting in Peter Waterman's studio doing more work on the debut album. 

The phone rang and it was Louis with the update.

"Lads, you're going to be number 1."

It was incredible. We couldn't believe what we were hearing. We were jumping up and down, hugging each other, shouting, just hysterically happy. Pete Waterman came down with a bottle of champagne. It was mental. When we finally heard the official charts and we were indeed on top, I know this sounds silly now, but I remember looking out of the window and pointing at all the streets, going, "We're number 1 there, there... and there... and there!"

It got better. "Swear It Again" stayed at number 1 for the next week too. 

We got to do Top of the Pops two weeks running, which was brilliant, a dream came true. It was a fairytale. I don't want to sound clichéd, but it literally was the stuff dreams are made of.

Within just over 12 months, our lives had been totally turned upside down. We'd wanted to be a famous band, we'd wanted a record deal, we'd wanted to be number 1, and now it had all happened. And it had happened so fast. From being six in the band to being five, to meeting Simon, signing the record deal, officially becoming Westlife, recording a single and the hitting number 1, it was a year and two weeks - as quick as that.

Unbelievable.

The single didn't stop there either - it was a massive hit all around the world.

Suddenly, everyone was talking about Westlife.

From that moment, it was pure insanity, says Kian. We were in Tenerife a week later shooting a video for our second single, "If I Let You Go", and then we came back and released that and it went to number 1 as well. Then we went to Mexico to shoot another video and in between all this we were doing all the TV shows, promo in and out of Europe and the Far East, and flying everywhere, just go, go, go, go, go!

That opening single started a record-breaking run of singles going in at number 1. It stretched from April 1999 to November 2000, when our seventh single, "My Love", hit the top spot. It was only with our eightg single, "What Makes A Man", and certain kids' TV character, that we failed to enter straight at the top. But we'll come to that.

For now, it was sheer pandemonium. After our second single had gone straight to the top, next up came one of Westlife's biggest ever song: "Flying Without Wings". There's a story to tell behinf that massive track.

We've always enjoyed a great relationship with Simon Cowell, explains Nicky. Back in the day, before X Factor and American Idol, before he became a huge celebrity, he was an A&R man at a record company working 9 to 5 (and then some). At that point, when he was intimately involved, there was no one to touch him. He'd call you up on your mobile out of the blue and say, "Nicky, I just didn't like what you were wearing on GMTV today, have a word with the boys." He'd also call the other lads at times and say stuff like "You looked tired, you looked overweight, you seemed uninterested" and so on. That might sound negative, but what he was very clever at was making you all feel special, because he'd comment on your performance or appearance in a way that was constructive. It was more of an observation than a criticism. We knew he was trying to get the band to sound its best, look its best, perform its best. 

You'd sit in a meeting and I noticed after a while that during the course of the discussion he'd make direct eye contact with every single one of us, or maybe give a nod, a look or a friendly wink to each of us. No one felt left out. In complete contrast to the public perception of "Nasty" Simon Cowell, he's an expert at making people feel special.

He was the character with the high waist-band and low-necked T-shirt, says Kian. You know, "Darling, look..." We used to rip the piss out of him, we'd sit in meetings and just be like, "Love the shoes, Simon. Love the trousers. D'ya want to pull them up a wee bit higher?" But do you know what? He's not wrong very often. If you're like me, you'll sit there and watch these talent shows where he's knocking people, and if the truth is known, it's what most of us are thinking.

In terms of being your A&R man, which is, after all, what our relationship with him is, I think he gets what people like. That's the only way I can describe it: he gets what people like. We wanted to learn and I think he taught us well. Without him, we wouldn't be Westlife and we wouldn't be where we are today, in my opinion.

In those very early days, and I'm very honest here, we were, "What do you want us to do? Yes, sir, no, sir, three bags full, sir." That sounds terrible, but actually we liked what they were suggesting. We weren't puppets who did stuff against our wishes, we wanted to do these things, so it was a happy partnership. Later, we wanted more involvement in all sorts of decisions, of course. I guess that's natural, but at first that's how it was.

Simon is a perfectionist. If he doesn't like a video when he sees the final clip, he'll just say, "Reshoot it," almost regardless of cost, just as he did with "Swear It Again" and has done many times since. One time we did a big awards ceremony and he'd asked one of the stylists not to glisten us up with loads of glitters and stuff. He did, so Simon sacked him the next day.

He knows how to get people excited and interested and involved and to make an idea feel like their baby. He has the amazing power to sit in that office and make you feel like you are the man, and then you walk out of there and do it the way he wants it done! He is a clever, clever man. We've gone into so many meetings with Simon saying, "Right, we can't let him do that to us again," and 30 minutes later, he's won us round yet again.

Back then, we knew that he was a big hitter, says Shane. There's a famous music business story that shows the lengths Simon will go to for his artists. As we were starting our careers, his boy band Five were very big news. Simon had heard of a song written by the pop songwriting legend Max Martin, who has penned tracks for the likes of the Backstreet Boys, N*Sync and latterly Kelly Clarkson. It was a track called "Hit Me Baby, One More Time". We all know this now, of course, as Britney Spears's breakthrough tune, a very famous pop song. But back then, Simon wanted it for Five. The rumour went that he was so keen to get it that he even offered Max Martin a Ferrari.

Max didn't take the gift and didn't give Five the song, but it shows you how passionate Cowell is about getting the right songs for his artists. We knew that he knew he would get us the songs we needed to make it big.

And when he heard "Flying Without Wings", he had to have it for Westlife.

So he did, simple as that.

We first heard the song in demo form in a meeting with Simon, Sonny, Steve Mac, his co-writer Wayne Hector and Louis. It was obviously a great tune, even in that early form. We'd heard that several singers were after it, including, I believe, Stephen Gateley. Steve Mac knew the potential Westlife had at this point - we had become massive within just a few months of 1999, so he could see the sense in giving it to us. It must have felt good for him to sit there with that monster song up his sleeve.

Simon made all sorts of fantastic offers to secure this song. I think it was part of the package that Steve and Wayne were made executive producers on the album alongside himself, not least because so many of their tunes were on the album. Thankfully, they chose to let us record it and in doing so gave us one of our signature tracks.

In the early days, that song presented me with a little bit of an issue, recalls Mark. There's a part in "Flying Without Wings" which everyone calls "the high note". It's not actually that high, but everyone goes on about it. For the longest time when we were singing it live, I'd be like, Oh, here comes that bastard note, I'm going to have to try and hit it and everyone is waiting to see if I can do it live and... here we go, here we go, here it comes...

It was becoming a real issue, even though I knew I could hit this note in my sleep. Eventually, Shane sat me down to talk about it. He just said, "Stop thinking about it, just shout it out and who cares if you fluff it, whatever". He was so confident about it, so practical, it was brilliant advice. It was only after I stopped worrying about that note that I was able to sing it properly on stage. 

It's probably fair to say I sometimes suffer lows more than I enjoy highs. When something good happens, I think, Great, and move on quite quickly, but if something bad happens, I tend to dwell on it. I don't actually think that's a bad thing, though, especially when you're talking about singing, because it drives you on to be good and keeps you on your toes.

Shane: "Flying Without Wings" sold 350,000 copies on its way to number 1 and was a massive international hit. It was on the radio everywhere. A sign of how it is now seen as a pop classic is that when we released a live version in 2004, it became the first ever download number 1 nearly five years after its original release. Perhaps most importantly for us at the time, "Flying Without Wings" was a definite turning-point in our career. It took us from being seen as a pop boy band to a vocal group.

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Before our next single, we released our self-titled debut album in November 1999, Shane continues. By this point, Ronan had stepped away from the management side of Westlife. He was a great adviser and a good friend, but he was happy to move away now we'd become a big concern.

One of the biggest misconceptions about Westlife, explains Nicky, is that we are a covers band. Our first three singles were originals. The first cover we did was the double A-side "I have a Dream/Seasons in The Sun" in December 1999. It felt right to do a cover at that point, because Christmas is that type of market. That release went straight in at number 1 again, the fourth time we'd done this. Plus, it kept selling for several weeks after Christmas, making it the last number 1 of the old century and the first number 1 of the new millennium.

Just before this, we were nominated for Record of the Year for "Flying Without Wings"... We couldn't believe it.

We were in ridiculously high-profile company: Ronan Keating had "When You Say Nothing At All", and Shania Twain was also nominated; it was mad. We thought we had no chance of winning the thing, we were just naïve and very excited to have been nominated. To be totally honest, we assumed we were there to make up the numbers and have a piss-up.

As long as we don't come last...

We performed the song and Simon Cowell and Sonny Takhar were really on the ball, as always. They put us on stage with a gospel choir and a beautiful set, no expense spared.

Then, when everyone had perfomed, the vote counting began in the various regional centres, much like on Eurovision. At first, Ronan and Britney were streets ahead and we were down in fifth, still happy to be there, still happy to be having a piss-up. Just happy to get some free drinks, really ... As long as we don't come last... 

Then we went to Northern Ireland and we cleaned up.

Then we went around parts of the north and were cleaning up again. Suddenly, we weren't fifth, we were fourth, then third, then second. Manchester loved us, so did Newcastle, and we were drinking free beer. It was great craic.

Then, bang, we were in first place and it was all over.

We'd won Record of the Year.

We've won it a further three times since.

I know Ronan well now and I still take the piss out of him about this first win, but to be fair, he must have been gutted.

We couldn't believe it. Brian picked Denise van Outenn up on his shoulders and spun her around when she handed us the trophy. I was made up. I love winning trophies. I'm very competitive - it doesn't matter if it's a game of tiddly winks or an arm wrestle or football or PlayStation. The lads will tell you. I remember winning Best Goalkeeper at quite an important European tournament for the Home Farm team in Dublin, and I have a picture of me and my parents at Dublin airport, hugging and holding on to the trophy like it was the World Cup. So to win something like this with Westlife was amazing. 

Brian gave me the trophy, a lovely gold statue of a woman holding a glass record aloft above her slender shoulders.

We had to sing the song again,, then as soon as we'd finished, I jumped off the stage and ran over to Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, who'd written the winning song.

I threw my arms around Steve and smashed the trophy in half across his back.

I'd only had the thing five minutes.

When we went home that first Christmas, we realized our lives had changed forever, continues Nicky. I walked home, went to the local pub for Christmas Eve, and bang, it literally hit me. Let me explain.

I had this thing with my mates which dated back to when I was 16, coming back from Leeds and wanting to makde sure I saw them all at Christmas time. We'd all go for a pint at the local and have a laugh. This Christmas Eve, I noticed straight away I was getting a lof ot attention.

I was with the lads in the International Bar in Dublin and we were actually starting to think about going home when this girl came up to me. She had a tattoo on her arm, but it was one of those that looked very DIY, home-made even. It was pretty rough. Some of the letters looked blurred, a bit scribbled out, so one of my mates, just being cheeky, having a laugh and said, "Did you not like your tattoo? Why don't you get some Tippex?" This girl took offence, but instead of answering back to my mate, she turned around and slapped me!

In the early days, we used to get a fair bit of verbal too. Blokes on the street would shout "Queers!", all that sort of crap. At first, you're a bit taken aback, but you get used to it and, to be fair, it doesn't happen anymore.

One time we were doing a photo shoot on an open-topped bus in Dublin and it was attracting quite a bit of attention. We stopped at some traffic lights and a white Transit van pulled up alongside us. The bloke driving it looked up at us, all dressed immaculately for the shoot, shouted, "Westlife! Arse bandits!" and drove off.

We fell about laughing. Not a lot you can say to that, is there?!

Chapter seven: The power of Louis Walsh

Louis started phoning me to talk about the band, explains Kian, and I would then relay the information on to the rest of the boys. It saved him making five identical calls, I suppose, and I was always very excitable, enthusiastic. I would give him an opinion and be keen to go and tell all the lads whatever the news was. I think he got a buzz off that.

I would never have spoken back to him in a million years. That was Louis Walsh on the telephone to me, here, whatever he says is God, because he'd made the biggest boy band in Ireland. 

Louis Walsh is an A+ in music, he knows every song that's ever been written. That man's a walking encyclopaedia of music.

Minutes after Simon Cowell had left the first audition, recalls Shane, when I'd been drunk the night before and performed so badly, Louis took me to one side and said, "Listen, dye your hair blond for the next time Cowell comes."

"What?"

"Dye your hair blond, then he won't recognize you."

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Absolutely. Shane, he auditions dozens of people every week. He saw you for about five minutes. He's not going to remember you." 

He was serious.

The next audition for Simon, we actually had mics and backing tracks, says Mark. We'd even got a stylist, a local Dublin woman, who'd made us look like characters out of Grand Theft Auto! This was back in the day when we didn't really know what style we were going to be. I remember Louis saying he wanted us to be a male All Saints.

So the day came when we were due to perform for Simon, continues Kian, this time with the full latterday Westlife line-up: Shane, Nicky, Brian, me and Mark. It was in the Pod nightclub, so at least it was a bit bigger than the last audition. Shane's hair was longer and blond, as per Louis' cunning plan, and he'd been on a couple of sunbeds so he was browner. As we were about to start, Simon pointed at Shane and said to Louis - I swear to God - "Who's the new guy?"

Louis came over to us, laughing quietly, and said to Shane, "He hasn't got a clue who you are. It's worked - he thinks Nicky, Brian and you are the new boys... And I'm not going to tell him either."

We were all extremely rehearsed and ready for this.

The first song was called "Everybody Knows", a really strong ballad. We started it and immediately we were on top form, the harmonies were superb, we nailed it.

Only 30 seconds into that first song we noticed Simon leaning over to Louis and whispering something into his ear.

Later on, we found out what he'd said.

"Louis, I'll sign them."

Although Simon told Louis he's sign us after 30 seconds, says Shane, we carried on and sang about six songs, some Boyzone, some Boyz II Men and some Backstreet Boys tunes. We were half-singing, half-watching Simon, who was nodding with an approving look on his face, exactly as you now see him do on X Factor. Remember, we didn't know he'd already said he'd sign us, so I was just seeing this and thinking, I don't reckon he thinks we're shite...

Afterwards, he came and sat down with us.

"I really like you guys. You've got great looks, good harmonies. You're a bit unique. You're not like Boyzone and you're not like the Backstreet Boys, I see you as a genuine male vocal pop group."

He liked the combination of my vocal with Mark's - mine is a more pop voice, it has an edgier tone, while Mark's has that incredible R&B vibe to it, not what you'd expect from a white Irish kid - and he loved Kian, Nicky and Brian's melodies and harmonies.

We liked the idea of being a male vocal group; we knew we weren't brilliant dancers so we didn't want to be jumping round the place doing body rolls. It was more about the vocal for us, and he'd already kinda seen what we wanted to be. He was saying all the right things as far as we were concerned.

Then he started talking about songwriters and producers he was thinking of, explains Kian, people like Max Martin, Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, all these massive songwriters who'd had huge hits for massive bands.

As soon as he'd left, Louis came bouncing over.

"He loved you guys! He wants to sign you! You were all brilliant!" He was so excited. "Simon's the one I wanted to sign you, he's the man that will make what I want to happen with you happen."

We totally put our trust in Louis.

He knew Simon Cowell was the right man to go with.

The main reason I really committed to doing the band, says Nicky, was because Louis was behind it and we all knew what he'd done with Boyzone. I'm not saying I wouldn't have done it without Louis being involved, but I've been far more sceptical. It just always felt like it was going to work with him involved. One thing about Louis that people don't realize is he does it because he loves it - he wouldn't do it for free, of course, but he doesn't do it for the money. So when he said Cowell was the man for the job, we trusted him.

Mark continues, Shortly after that, they wanted to get us in the studio. I knew Cowell liked my voice and Shane's a lot, but the next step was to see if our live voices worked as well on tape, because that's not always the case - as Cowell says on American Idol a lot, you may not have a "recording voice". So they flew me and Shane to Sweden to make a few samplers. They must have liked what they heard, because the record label Simon Cowell worked for, Sony-BMG, soon confirmed they were offering us a major five-album record deal.

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Kian: While the lawyers got busy, Louis pulled two masterstrokes. We were all still in Sligo and Dublin at this point, so we had to live out of suitcases while this was all being sorted out. What we didn't know is that those same suitcases would soon be our way of life. We had no money, so I think Louis paid for a lot of expenses for us.

One day Louis gave us all £500 each to go and get some new clothes for an important photo shoot we had coming up in the Evening Herald. That was great fun; it seemed like so much money. He'd also got us a photo shoot for Levis and we got a pair of free jeans each. Already the papers were talking about us as "the new Boyzone", so it was a very exciting time.

Louis had kept dropping hints that he wanted Ronan Keating involved in the management side of the band, explains Shane. He and Louis were tight, really close, and Ronan came to see us rehearse and really liked us. Why wouldn't we want Ronan involved? He was a superstar! So eventually we went to a meeting with him. He was a total gentleman. He offered us some advice and then it was agreed that it would be announced that he was our co-manager. Ronan received half of the management commission, but it was a stroke of genius by yer man Louis. It created such a buzz around the band, it was a very clever publicity stunt, and we benefited from it hugely.

You've got to hand it to Louis, agrees Nicky, it was a masterstroke announcing Ronan was co-manager. Obviously, Ronan didn't do the majority of the day-to-day managing; he was never going to, that was Louis. But the impact that had within Boyzone fan circles was huge.

Louis wasn't afraid to play up to "the new Boyzone" tag. He explained to us that when that band had first started, they had hogged Take That gigs in Dublin. They had literally stood outside with photos of themselves, meeting the Take That fans going in, chatting to them, charming them and telling them all about their new band. So, when Boyzone were massive, we did the very same thing, standing outside handing out leaflets and walking up and down the queue until the doors were opened. Very cleverly, Louis and Sony-BMG had these business cards printed with Ronan's details on there as co-manager. The girls would stop and chat and we'd give them our little card, saying we were going to be the next big boy band and, pretty soon, we were having pictures taken with these fans. Of course, if they saw Ronan's name on the card, that made a huge difference. It was hard graft, but we loved it. You have to be into what you do and we loved it. We worked our asses off to be in with a chance. 

Let me tell you about a funny incident during these early days. We were staying at Castle Leslie, County Monaghan, and it was supposed to be haunted. We all had a few drinks then went back to our rooms for some kip. Now we'd already had the hotel tour and they'd said some rooms were more haunted than others. We were all shiteing ourselves, I'm telling you.

Before Shane got to his room, I slipped in there and hid in a chest at the base of his bed. I must have had to wait about 20 minutes - I kept lifting the lid up and doing, Where the fuck is he? - before I finally heard the door handle turn and Shane come in. I peeped out from under the lid, and he was just kind of looking around the room. You could see he was uneasy. Then I just jumped out and went "Aaarrrggghhh!!"

He fell to the floor, shit himself and then he went after me! He didn't do anything, obviously, but he was furious.

Then he said the funniest thing: "Nicky, you bastard, I could have had a stroke!"

That comment made me laugh even more. I was pissing myself - he was only 19, and he was saying he could have had a stroke!

Yeah, says Shane, I was fuming. I nearly killed him I did, I could have strangled him there and then! I said sorry, like... Fucker!

Before Louis pulled his second masterstroke, we changed our name, continues Kian. Simon thought IOYOU was wrong. "If I'm being perfectly honest, " he said, "it's terrible, absolutely terrible." He suggested the name Westside, as he felt it fitted our west of Ireland roots.

Then Louis told us that we would be going on tour with Boyzone. We were so excited.

So excited, we almost died! says Shane. Well, not exactly, but on the way up to their Belfast show I thought my end had come. Mark's dad Ollie was driving us up from Sligo - me, Mark and Kian - and there'd been some really icy weather. The road was black with ice; it was awful. The road of Sligo towards Belfast isn't the best - it's very windy and narrow - and we were slipping and skidding all over the place. There was nothing Ollie could do about it, it was like an ice-skating rink. We were laughing at first because it was comical, the car having a mind of its own. Then there was one particular corner that we skidded towards with a vertical drop of about 100 feet the other side, and we weren't laughing then. I really thought my time was up. I remember thinking, Aaahh! I'm not gonna get to support Boyzone! Aaahh!

We ended up driving at about 15 mph and I thought we were going to die on at least 25 separate occasions! It took over six hours to get there - the longest six hours of my life.

Going on tour with Boyzone in all these massive arenas was insane, recalls Mark. Even though they weren't always full to capacity when we sang, it was brilliant. We did some shows with Boyzone in Europe, quite a few in the UK and then it sort of intertwined with a Smash Hits tour as well.

That was when it started to sink in that I wasn't going to be able to pop back to Sligo all the time. I remember asking one of the girls out of B*Witched when they'd last been home and she said, "Two months." That was a real reality check. But although that worried me, I was having a great time. 

There we were, on tour supporting Boyzone without a record deal, says Kian. Next thing we know, we were on the big Saturday TV show CD:UK without a record deal. Next thing up, we got a slot playing on the Smash Hits Radioshow, which then led to us winning a Smash Hits award for Best New Touring Act - the power of Louis Walsh.

Mark: I remember an incident with Louis way back then that showed me how serious he was about his bands being totally professional. We were doing a TV appearance in Ireland and there was another Irish boy band in the green room beforehand, getting a bit lairy and drunk. They weren't terrible, but they were having a few.

Louis was standing next to us and he said, "If I ever see you doing that, I'll leave in a second. If I see you hanging around in the green room drinking beer before you go on TV, I'm finished."

                     *                   *                   *

Signing the actual record contract was amazing, recounts Nicky. It was in the first week of November 1998, while we were still on tour with Boyzone. A lot of the lads hadn't even been to London before; I was a little more experienced in that I'd been to America, Canada and much of Europe with family holidays and football tournaments.

Louis was travelling to the record label seperately, so it was literally the five of us travelling over on a plane to meet him there. We made our way from the airport to this big office block where the record company was based. I remember that standing there, ready to go in, we were just giddy kids. Looking back, as soon as we entered that doorway, all of our lives changed beyond recognition.

We went into a big meeting room that is now Simon Cowell's private office but back then was just a huge conference room. Sonny Takhar was also there, Simon's right-hand man who has also been instrumental in our career.

We knew it was a big record deal - we signed for five albums on a contract worth several millions pounds, so, understandably at that age, we all thought that once we'd signed this piece of paper, we'd be millionaires. Of course that money is split over the albums and it has to go towards paying for some incredibly expensive stuff like accommodation, clothes, cars, video shoots, recording costs and so on. It's funny, looking back, because we'd all been looking at what cars we could afford. Rather than get proper carried away, I was thinking of buying maybe a Toyota MR2, you know, for 15 grand, say - nothing too ridiculous. That's how you think at that age.

Signing that record deal was all my dreams come true, says Kian. It really was a lifelong dream and here we were, signing the contract, about to record an album, put singles out, travel the world in a band and make music. It was just amazing.

It was the stuff of dreams, absolutely, recalls Shane. All my life I'd been looking forward to this moment. It was one of my major goals in life, but I never thought it would happen. I knew I wanted to get married and I hoped I'd be a father, but I never thought I'd get a massive record deal. It's such a prized achievement for a band.

I can't really ever forget that excitement, that moment sitting in that office, all the thoughts buzzing around my head: We are going to be pop stars! We might have a hit single! Then the teenage thoughts kick in, like Maybe I'm going to be a millionaire! Then, most importantly of all, I can go and buy a new car!

Signing the record deal was a huge decision for me, says Mark. I can clearly remember actually putting the pen on the page where I was supposed to sign. I can see it now, the pen moving in slow motion as I signed my name.

At that precise second, a thousand thoughts were buzzing through my brain. I was excited about the deal, naturally, but I was very nervous about what it meant for my life back in Sligo. I was really scared that it might change things.

Of course it changed everything beyong recognition.

Subconsciously, I must have known this and that is why signing that piece of paper was such a big deal for me. There I was, an 18-year-old country boy, flying into this big corporate office in the middle of London, being surrounded by all these big names in the business, working for this worldwide company, sitting by accountants lawyers, managers - it felt insane. I think in the back of my mind I'd been preparing to go to collage, like a lot of kids do from around Sligo, then suddenly here I was signing a multi-million pound record deal with all the heavy responsibility that comes with that. Maybe for a kid brought up in Camden, it would have been an easy day out, but for me the contrast was so severe. Exciting, thrilling, scary, daunting, all at once. I'm just trying to be really honest here.

As I signed, the noise of the city outside was as far from my idylic country childhood as you can imagine. I could feel that distance sitting there in that room, writing my name on that sheet of paper.

Right there and then, I put a barrier up.

This is not going to change me, this is not going to change my life, I kept saying to myself. It was important at that point to have that feeling. It reassured me. I hadn't travelled like Nicky, I didn't have the confidence of Shane, Kian and Brian. But, ultimately, the draw to sing was greater than the desire for my life not to change, so I signed the contract.

But I just kept telling myself it wouldn't really change anything. 

How wrong can you be?

The business side of it hit us instantly, says Nicky. We had to set up a company, we hired an accountant, Alan McEvoy, and we got lawyers and tour managers lined up, all sorts. It was explained to us that the company, Blue Net, should own the band name because if any member were to leave then the band could continue without legal problems. We just agreed - it sounded reasonable and besides, no onas was going to leave Westlife, were they?

As soon as we signed the deal, we spoke with Louis and he said, "Right, you're going straight into a recording studio."

Game on.