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.
* * *
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.
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