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.

                 

                       *                   *                  *

                       

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.

                          *                   *                    *

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.

                 *                           *                           *

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.

Chapter six: The biggest pub band in the world

Even though I was still young when I left Leeds United, recalls Nicky, I'd become used to a nice lifestyle. Also, I'm a very proud person and I didn't want anyone to think I'd failed. I especially didn't want my mam and dad thinking I'd failed. But I didn't know what I wanted to do next. Ever since I was a kid, apart from football, I'd wanted to be a copper. But I wasn't really sure what was going to happen next.

I did a repeat year at Plunkett College in White Hall and started playing for Shelbourne FC, one of the big clubs in Ireland ("Shelbourne Sign Irish Ace!" read their bulletin headline, then people read it and thought, Who the fuck is he?) But I was doing too much - working, studying, training. It was no good.

I'd landed back in Ireland with about ten grand in my bank account. Despite my disappointment at the way things had turned out, at least the money meant I didn't have to rush my next move. I got a job at Alias Tom's clothes shop in Dublin city centre which paid £150 a week and toyed with the idea of buying a Suzuki Vitara Jeep with mots of the ten grand, but ended up spending £400 to insure me dad's Seat Cordova. Dad loved it because I was able to drive him to his gigs at night and he could have a drink, and I loved it because once I'd dropped him off, usually about 7 p.m., I had a car for the evening.

While I was passing my exams, I'd started singing in karaoke bars. I'd be working late in Alias Tom's, get home, have my dinner, get changed, miss football training and go to karaoke instead. After a while, I was confident enough to enter some karaoke competitions and I did OK, getting to some semi-finals and the odd final. Funnily enough, I was almost always singing Take That and Boyzone songs. I'd played Boyzone a lot when I was at Leeds United. Songs like "Father and Son" really made me miss home. The players used to take the piss out of me and call me Ronan, even. Georgina's dad had met the band somewhere and he'd even got her a signed album, which we listened to non-stop. They were the songs I knew, they were the songs I was listening to. I didn't really listen to the Backstreet Boys. It wasn't that I didn't like them, I just didn't know much about them and I liked backing the Irish boys. A lot of fellas were into Boyzone; it wasn't uncool to like them. 

One day I rang my dad and said, "Listen, if I buy a karaoke machine and some discs out of the money I've got left over from Leeds, will you come around with me when you're not gigging your own shows? We'll try and book a few venues that do karaoke."

He loved the idea, so we started playing shows where I'd present and sing two songs, then he'd do two songs, then we'd start asking the audience to come up and do a song. Suddenly I was working the clubs. 

I got all these "business" cars printed. We were called - genius idea - Father and Son Karaoke.

I was honestly starting to think about going down the road my dad had taken. I was looking to get a band together too and hopefully start working like that.

My normal day would consist of dropping Dad off to work, going to school, finishing there mid-afternoon, then heading up to the suburbs of north Dublin, where I doorstepped pretty much every pub in the area. I'd meet the manager, give them my card, tell them we'd been doing this for years and years, chat about playing for Leeds and just generally use a bit of banter to get work. We got a couple of college socials through friends, then we got our first ever Friday night at the local pub, Gibneys, in Malahide, through a friend of mine and Georgina's at school.

One day Georgina phoned me and said, "My auntie's just heard something about auditions for a new band."

It turned out someone was forming a traditional Irish boy band playing old instruments and singing classic Irish folk songs. I got all the info and it just asked for a picture and a demo tape and stated that playing an instrument would be preferable but not essential.

Georgina's sister, the novelist Cecelia Ahern, had been a big Take That fan, so that meant I'd been listening to more and more of this boy band stuff. I remember watching Take That on Top of the Pops and that's the first time I started to admite to liking the idea of being in a boy band. I sat there and thought to myself, Five lads, touring the world, making loads of money, girls everywhere, they must be having a right craic. I even went to the barbers one day and asked for Jason Orange's haircut.

So now, a few years later, I decided to give it a go. I don't know if it was the fame game or money or success or all of it rolled into one that I craved. I was definitely into the music thing by this point, even though I didn't have a lot of experience.

Funnily enough, I'd recently seen a photo in the Evening Herald of this new boy band - six lads called IOYOU. I didn't recognize any of them and didn't think anything more of it. It just said Louis Walsh had given them a slot supporting the Backstreet Boys. It sounded like they would do well. I thought, Lucky bastards.

Back in the week before my audition for the traditional band, I didn't have a demo tape, so my dad got our karaoke microphones out and set them up in the front room. Dad, Georgina and my little brother Adam were there. They kept laughing at me and I was getting really irate. I kept pressing "Stop" halfway through a song and starting again.

Eventually I got a demo finished. It was a pretty rough recording, but it was good enough. It included "Scorn Not his Simplicity", a pretty sad song about a Down's Syndrome child, and "Father and Son" by Boyzone. Previously, I'd paid £100 to have some photos taken for a modelling agency who then never called me back, so I used those professional shots for this audition package and sent it all off.

Then one day this guy phoned the house and asked me along to the auditions at the Pod. My mam was going for a test on her throat that day, so I was a bit worried about her, and I hadn't told anyone I was going for the audition. So I just got on the train into town wearing a black shiny suit and a royal blue tie, I really dressed smart. I like dressing up for certain occasions and I figured that with Boyzone, every time you saw them they were wearing shirts and ties.

There were hundreds of lads in the queue for the audition with numbers stuck to them, just like you see on the X Factor auditions nowadays. I was number 18, and number 12 was a lad called Brian McFadden. I'd seen this tall, bleached blong guy already - he just stood out a mile. He looked a little like Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys and he just seemed a little more funky than the rest of the queue. I stood there and thought, Shite, he already looks like a member of a boy band. It's weird, because I don't remember anyone else in the whole room.

Brian came over to me - which was equally weird, because I'd never met him before - and said, "You sing out in the Swords Manor, don't you?" It turned out he'd seen me doing karaoke in the pubs out there. "A couple of the lads over there are talking about you. They've heard you sing."

Brian got up and sang before me and he was good. He was very good. He had the look, he was confident and I thought to myself, Jesus, he's good. I wouldn't mind being in a band with him. Prior to Brian, guys had been up there playing violins and pianos, slaughtering Corrs songs, so he stood out a mile.

When it came to my turn, I stood up ready to sing "Father and Son". There's a four bar intro before the opening line; now, I'd sung this a thousand times in karaoke bars, I knew it inside out, but for some reason, I completely fluffed it by coming in after two bars. I wasn't experienced enough to recover it, so I just blocked out the music and carried on singing. I could see a man standing on the judging panel waving his hand at his throat, gesturing to cut the audition music, but I just kept singing.

And the judges kept listening.

Then they cut the music.

I kept singing, a capella.

They kept listening. For most of the song.

I knew it was a good sign, because some of the previous auditioners hadn't lasted a verse before the dreaded, "Thank you very much. Next!"

I'd heard one of the men on the panel was Louis Walsh. I knew his name, but I didn't know what he looked like. He'd been asked by the man forming the traditional boy band to help him, given Boyzone's huge profile at the time. In fact, what Louis had also done was take the opportunity to scout for new talent to complete the line-up for Westlife.

Louis had invited me to these auditions after we'd cut Graham, explains Kian. I was sitting there watching all these lads singing, armed with my Filofax, all organized, taking the numbers of the guys we liked. Louis really liked Nicky straight away. He was dressed in a suit, he looked quite smart and he had a really good attitude about him and a great look. You could tell he knew what he wanted and he came across as being a wee bit more mature than some of the others.

Brian seemed as mas as a hatter - but in a good way! He had these big baggy jeans on and a funky jacket and was all blah, blah, blah, talking 500 miles an hour. Both of those lads were brilliant.

I was walking up the stairs to leave, continues Nicky, when someone said, "They want you to stay behind a while, if you don't mind."

I was taken to another part of the club and there, already waiting, was Brian McFadden. Then a security man came over and explained that Louis Walsh wanted to talk to me. I knew then that I was in with a chance, this had to be a good sign. 

I'd never met Louis before and he came right up to me, talking really fast. I tried to catch what he was saying.

"Hello, Nicky, how are you? My name's Louis Walsh and I'm putting together a new pub band and I'd like you to be in it."

I didn't want to be in a pub band, but this was Louis Walsh, you know, yer man with Boyzone.

"OK, great. Yes."

Louis was off again, speaking like a machine gun, and all I could do was say, "Yes", while all the time thinking, I don't want to be in a pub band. My mates don't know I'm here, there seems to be a film crew outside and I'm gonna go home and announce I've got a job in a pub band.

"... so if you'd wait around please, Nicky," Louis continued, "we'd like to get some photos of you before you leave.

The photographer came over and Louis said, as bold as brass, "This is Nicky Byrne and he's going to be in my new pub band," and with that, he left. It was like a whirlwind leaving the building..

Then Kian Egan walked over and introduced himself.

I didn't know him from Adam. It was the first time I'd set eyes on him.

"Hi, I'm Kian Egan and I'm in a band called IOYOU. Louis is going to manage us and we are looking for one other person."

"Is this the pub band Louis has been telling me about?" I asked.

"No, no, away with ya, we're a pop band."

"Aaahhhh, a pop band. Fucking hell, that's a big difference!"

"Louis really likes you," said Kian, "and we're going to be holding auditions. There are a few other people here he likes, but he really likes you, you're his favourite. What's your plan for the rest of the day...?"

Shane: So Louis had scaled it down to about 60 lads and then we had to go and audition them in Dublin. It was exactly like X Factor - we all sat there in front of these guys who came in and sang for us.

Brian McFadden was the first person on stage and Nicky Byrne was the second.

Every single lad who came on after that, we all just kept comparing them to Brian and Nicky. There were plenty of good-looking fellas, and great singers too, but none of them made as much impact as Brian and Nicky. Louis felt that myseld and Mark had lead vocals, so we wanted two lads who could sing, but also there was a lot of pressure on them to fit in with the look that he wanted. The few that we chose then came and spoke to us and it was still just between Nicky and Brian.

I really got on with Brian while we were auditioning, continues Nicky, so we'd swapped phone numbers. Then he rang and we arranged to meet up. The night before singing in front of IOYOU, Brian and me had done karaoke together at a local pub and he was brilliant. He sang the Backstreet Boys song "Quit Playing Games" and I was after singing Boyzone numbers. I put my money on Boyzone coming up the next day.

So then at the audition all the lads from Sligo - Kian, Shane, Mark and Michael - said to me, "Right, come upstairs, just us lot. We're going to do some songs with you."

I was thinking, Please be Boyzone songs, please be Boyzone songs...

"Right," said Kian, "we're gonna be singing some Backstreet Boys songs..."

Shite

"Do you know 'Quit Playing Game'?

Thank God for that.

I sang melody with them and then Brian went up and he sang too. He was very good. 

Brian had blond curtains for hair, remembers Kian, so he did indeed look like Nick Carter. This was the way we were thinking: we weren't thinking small scale at all, we were thinking of the big fish. I loved Brian's vibe and look, and he could really sing, but I was unsure about him being so lively, "I don't know", I said, "he's mand!"

Fortunately, the rest of the band persuaded me that he could be brilliant - and they were right. I was all for Nicky - he was great, sang well, looked perfect, he was the one as far as I was concerned. It was those two by a mile we wanted to choose the new member from, but there was a complication: Shane and Mark favoured Brian; Louis and myself favoured Nicky.

They were both good-looking lads and Brian gave us that bass harmony while Nicky sang melody brilliantly. We just couldn't decide between them, so Louis suddenly said, "Well, why don't we have both of them?"

Someone pointed out that we'd then be back to six members.

"Well, in that case," said Louis, "we'll include them both and take a vote on the final five."

I spoke to Nicky and said, "What we want to do to make up our mind is this: will you come down to Sligo with Brian and live with us for a while? We'll rehearse, hang out, get to know each other better. Then we'll take a vote on the final five."

He didn't know us at all and I know he'd been with Georgina three years at this stage, but he was very keen. He said yes, and so did Brian.

It's interesting, looking back, because Louis really let us pick to a certain extent. He gave us a lot of power in that decision. I knew why too. Louis had done the Boyzone thing and that was a band that had come together for the project. We were a band that had already started and had this tight camaraderie; we were proper mates. Louis liked that. He didn't want it to be "his" band, he wanted it to be "our" band. He thought that was a better way of approaching it.

So I came back home to me man and dad's, explains Nicky, and tell them that I'm now going to move to Sligo to live with an unsigned boy band. I remember my mam's face. I could sense she was thinking, "What are you doing now, love?"

I got the train down there with Brian. It was quite awkward, because they sent me to live with Michael at his parent's house and Brian went to stay with Shane. I'd heard that Louis was quite keen to get rid of Michael, so I felt very uncomfortable sleeping under his roof, if that was the case. I remember standing outside his sitting room and he was talking to his parents, explaining about these two Dublin boys and what was going to happen. Then I heard his mum say, "Well, are they any good?" You could tell alarm bells were ringing for her. To be fair, Michael said, "Yes, they are both very good."

We all went out for a beer that night and I told Shane it was just too uncomfortable, it didn't feel right being at Michael's. He was really cool about it and afterwards made up some reason why it would be easier for me to stay over at his parent's café.

Louis had said to the lads, "I'm not making that call from six to five, because I've already got rid of Derek and Graham." People might think Louis is a cut-throat music biz manager, but he isn't like that. Because of the family connection with Shane's mum in Kiltimagh, I don't think he felt comfortable being that harsh with them. That's why he said it had to go to a vote. He did have a vote himself, but it was only one of five. He had always given the band a lot of power, which was fantastic for me to see, coming from football, where you were given none.

In the meantime, continues Kian, Louis had organized several showcases for UK record labels and people were flying in to see us. We rehearsed for several weeks and got really tight. Then we all swapped places and left Sligo to live with Brian and Nicky in Dublin (Mark stayed with his aunty in Black Rock).

The label Louis really wanted this time around was Virgin. The Spice Girls were massive at the time with them and on the day we auditioned for them, their act Billie Piper had gone to number 1 and Louis was dead set on getting them.

Michael knew he was under pressure and at that audition he'd pulled a chair up beside the two girls from Virgin and was being really friendly, talking about the Spice Girls and all that. I think perhaps he sold himself a bit too much, though. It was awkward to see, but to be fair he wanted to impress, he knew the pressure was on.

At one point, Louis took Michael to one side and used one of his all-time favourite sayings: "Michael, you're trying too hard."

We did an entire dance routine, says Shane, and then five a capella songs, and I think we sang it all very well.

They didn't like us.

Louis was gutted.

We couldn't believe it, because we were really confident in what we were doing and in our ability. It really bothered Louis.

Although I'd head I had a good chance, recalls Nicky, and that Michael's position was weak, I was still very nervous when the day came to take a vote on the final five members of the band. We met at the Red Box and all went to a room where Louis was waiting for us. He announced that there was to be a vote to decide which one out of three lads were going to get cut. 

"It's between Nicky, Michael and Brian," he said.

We were all sitting round a circular table and it was pretty tense. I would imagine Kian, Mark and Shane were pretty relieved, although it had been fairly common knowledge that they were going to be safe.

Graham, who'd been in the band but then been cut and made tour manager, said, "Right, the majority want Brian to be in the band at the moment."

I kind of knew this was the way it was heading, so now it was down to just me and Michael. Still, I was devastated. Michael was too, he just put his head down. I was looking around nervously, unsure what to think. Shane had spoken to me previously and pretty much said Louis had an issue with Michael but here we were, nonetheless...

Louis said, "I'll leave it up to you, I don't want to make this call, lads."

Michael never moved. His head was still bowed.

So Graham said, "We are going to have a secret ballot in the toilet..." and as he was talking, Louis Walsh was looking at me, sticking his thumb up and pointing at me.

We all voted and then Graham, God bless him, came out with the bits of paper. He stood at the table and then spoke: "The members of IOYOU are: Shane Filan, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Brian McFadden and Nicky Byrne."

Michael just sank. His shoulders fell, he was devastated. Then his phone rang and he just threw it across the room and walked away from the table. Some of the lads went to give him a pat on the back and talk to him, but he was too upset, he wasn't really having any of it.

I went over and said, "Look, Michael, I'm probably the last person you want to hear say this, but I got a proper kick in the bollocks when I left Leeds. You've just got to pick yourself up and move on."

He didn't even acknowledge me. I don't blame him, to be fair - it was a really hard situation to be in.

The atmosphere was really sombre and although I was delighted, it didn't feel right to jump up and down and shout and all that. I shook all the lads' hands and they congratulated me. Then I made for the door. 

I opened it and there was Louis Walsh, grinning from ear to ear like an excited schoolboy, holding his mobile phone towards me, saying, "Ring your mother, ring your mother!"

It was so hard for Michael, reflects Shane. It was difficult for us, but I can't imagine how gutted he must have been. It was so harsh on him. 

At the time, Gillian's best friend Helena was dating Michael and the girls had been on a two-week holiday to America together. So Michael and myself went off to the airport to pick them up and it was so weird, so uncomfortable, like. Poor Nicky was the driver! I was meeting my girlfriend and I was in the band; Michael was meeting his girlfriend and he wasn't. It was terrible. He was crying, he was disappointed, and I can totally understand that.

Michael was a good-looking lad, he was a sound man, he was great, but he probably had the weakest voice out of all of us. We knew it and maybe Michael knew it too. His personality was great - he was a cracking fella - but it came down to him and it was terrible again.

Michael went on to become a copper in Ireland, says Nicky, which was ironic for me. I'd done my school exams and then some exams for the Irish police force, the Gardaí, and I was waiting on a medical to be called when I was chosen to be in IOYOU. My mam got a letter not long afterwards giving me a date for my Garda medical and a start day for training. She wrote back and said I was "otherwise engaged".