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?!