Westlife Concert Experience - as reviewed by MTVAsia

venue: Thailand
date: May 2001

Finally we have a top foreign pop band choosing Thailand as the very first leg of their Asian tour and what happens? This correspondent is out of the country and misses out on Westlife's bombastic Bangkok concert. Well, at least my contact at organizing company Maximage was kind enough to brief me on this super event which took place on March 22nd in the Thai capital's huge and cavernous Huamark Indoor Stadium.

Although the Irish boys have been brandished by vicious music journalists as "the band with the smallest combined IQ," it didn't deter some 9,000 fans to swamp the concert venue. In fact, the original ticket allocation was sold out within a few days and an additional batch had to be printed on short notice in order to prevent a riot outbreak among fans who were left out in the cold. Not surprisingly, some 80% of the frenzied audience comprised screaming teenage girls as Westlife seem to enjoy a certain bona fide status with the fairer gender not only in Thailand but also elsewhere in the region. Apparently, the five lads issued very favorable comments about the well-behaved fans and vowed to return again soon before they took off for Indonesia, the second leg of their tour.