Latest News

note: thanks to the following websites for providing some of the news items found on this site - Worldpop | MTVasia | Music365 | The Sun | BBC

If you want to share your positive concert experiences, feel free to send it to us at westlife@previewstock.com and we will post it on this site and share it with other Westlife fans. Please include the date/concert venue that you attended.

3/28/01

To clarify on some questions I received about the AOL UK contest:

(1) The contest is only open to UK residents (2) The contest is on AOL UK's proprietary service (i.e. you must be a subscriber to AOL UK). It is not accessible through http://www.aol.co.uk.

Westlife's main "rival", 5ive, went to Dublin on Tuesday for a secret 3 week recording session. Abs and Sean went to the Westlife concert on Wednesday night at The Point. Afterwards, they joined Westlife at an after show party at Lillies Bordello.

3/27/01

Westlife, along with Gabriel, Roger Daltrey of the Who, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, will participate in the June 29 gala tribute to songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The event will benefit the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, a charitable foundation supported by the U.K. music business. Tickets for the show at the Hammersmith Apollo in west London go on sale this Friday.

This is old news, but it seems a lot of other music sites are finally picking up on it. As you know, Westlife is making a Christmas album...and they have set their eyes on a remake of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" as this year's Christmas single. A record company spokesman said, "A lot of planning goes into finding the right song and 'White Christmas' is it. It will be snapped up by young and older fans alike."

3/26/01 - update 2

contest #1 - AOL UK is holding a Westlife contest. To enter, you must think of "the most original,inspired or even outrageous questions you would ask Westlife". The prize? Travel to the 4/18/01 Birmingham, UK show, meet Westlife, ask them your question, see the show and hotel with breakfast. Sounds like a nifty deal!

To enter, you must post your question on the message board at the AOL UK subsite (it's clear when you get there). Every day, they will read your submitted questions and post up the daily best on the intro page of westlife.co.uk - the official site. Questions must be received by 4/09/01. From these Daily Best questions, the two very best will be chosen. If you are one of these two winners, you will be informed by E-mail by April 10 and receive tickets to travel Birmingham with your friend of choice (or supervising adult if you are under 18) on 4/18/01.

If you are an AOL UK user: it is keyword "Westlife"

If you are a curious AOL user (say from the US) you can see the very same page by doing the following: From the Channels menu at the top of your AOL 5.0 screen (that's the version I use), click on International. Once that page loads, click on AOL UK. Then click on Entertainment. The Westlife contest will be on the upper right screen.

Contest #2: The Mail is offering tickets to the April 26 Rotterdam, Holland concert at the Ahoy Arena. The winner will win 2 tickets and meet Westlife before the concert and stay overnight at a 4 star hotel. To access that contest, visit the same AOL area I described above and you will see the link. This contest ends April 8.

3/26/01

In the current issue of BRAVO (German teen magazine) there's a report and many photos about the COAST TO COAST tour. [thanks to Stephan of a-teensweb.de]

Remember that fight in a Dublin bar that Five's Ritchie and J got into because of a Westlife comment last December? The final results are in. Ritchie pleaded guilty to assault charges in a Dublin court today and weas let off with a fine of £3,000 as a charitable donation to the court's poor box. J couldn't attend the hearing because of his sick mother.

3/25/01

"Uptown Girl" lost some momentum this week. The song ended up #3 in its second week on the UK charts. Hear'say was #1 with "Pure and Simple" and Shaggy was at #2. Also Westlife was the highest new entry in the top 100 this week in Holland with "I Lay My Love on You" [thanks to Tamara for the info from Holland]

Nicky and Georgina are set to get £50,000 each for telling OK! magazine on how they met and fell in love (as well as for a few photos). The couple have been together for 5 years now and first met in secondary school. Back then, Nicky fancied Georgina while she didn't think much of him, but gave him a go anyway. And as we all know, Nicky ended up being a superstar.

3/20/01

Uptown Girl #2 this week

Looks like Hear'say will have the #1 single for the 2nd week in a row, while "Uptown Girl" will lock in #2 for the 2nd week as well.

Kian attacked

Misfortune struck Kian on Monday when he was the victim of a vicious assault by former classmates. The attack occurred outside Abrakebabra, a chip shop, in his home town of Sligo. Kian and a few of his friends were attacked while they were eating chips in the street at 4am. One witness said that, "One stopped Kian and said, 'How would you like to play The Point with a black eye?'" Although The Sun claimed that he had lost a tooth and suffered a broken nose, Kian has denied those claims, saying he only suffered a small cut on this nose.

Kian commmented, "Myself and two friends were just outside the restaurant when the two guys jumped me from behind. I got several digs and my friend got one or two. There is no truth that I lost a tooth or had my nose broken. I'm 100 per cent. All I have is a small cut on my nose - that's all. They were classmates. It's very disappointing, because it was my very first night out in Sligo since Christmas and this happened. I didn't get a chance to hit back. The staff in Abrakebabra saw what was happening and they called the police. But, by the time the police got there, the two lads had run away. So the police took us to the hospital, but they didn't even have to give me a check up. As I said, it was just very disappointing."

Later on Kian said, "One of my friends got a dig (a thump) in the head and I got six or seven punches. It wasn't serious. All I got was a cut on my nose...But I was surprised because they were two guys I knew. It's just a bit disappointing because it was the first time I had been in Ireland and Sligo since Christmas, and it's a bit sad when this happens."

Kian also said, "I'm really annoyed. This is one of the biggest gigs of our lives. but now it has been marred. "And I've got a hell of a swollen nose."

But kudos to Kian for shaking off the incident and performing the following day in Dublin, Ireland, the first of 11 concerts at The Point. 6,500 fans attended Monday's sold out concert. As for the investigation, that is still on going at this point in time.

And by the way: to the naive person who sent us a Westlife death treat by e-mail. E-mail is quite traceable by the authorities. And at least in this country, that could result in a prison sentence...so don't do anything stupid.

3/18/01

Small Tidbits

Westlife was awarded the Best Selling Pop Album at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards earlier this week in Dublin at the Point Theatre. Other awards winners included U2, Christy Moore and JJ72.

Westlife is in a court battle over who owns videos of the boys before they made it big. They are to be in court to give evidence. The films were shot by Ciaran Carthy, a classmate of Shane, Kian and Mark.

Lionel Richie and Westlife?

Lionel Richie says he's a big fan of Westlife and would love to record a song with the group. Last year, Lionel Richie recorded "Cinderella" with the Backstreet Boys for his latest solo album. But the Backstreet Boys backed out of the arrangement. Lionel said, "It would be a nice mid-tempo song, just the type of song the boys would love. I've met them several times and I think they're a great bunch. They're really good singers and have wonderful personalities as well. Sure people knock them but in this business there's always some angle people will find to discredit a group. But, I would love to work with Westlife, if the opportunity arose, I'd definitely be up for it."

More on Bryan and his part-time soccer ambitions

As we told you earlier, Bryan expects to take time off from Westlife later this year to play soccer (football). He will playing midfield with Ireland's Aer Lingus team, a squad made up of ex-professional footballers. Club spokesman Bryan McGuninnes says, "He's a very useful player and we're happy to welcome him on board. He'll be our midfield general. We've only just signed him up so it's too early to say whether he's going to raise our game at all -- we hope so because we've started this season badly. Last year he played in a testimonial with the team and we wanted to sign him then and there but we've only just been able to clinch the deal now." Westlife's Bryan said, "I've never said that I was great at football, but I watch it all the time on TV. I don't think I'll be threatening any of the positions in the Manchester United squad!"

Westlife in Belfast

Westlife proves to be as popular as ever. Around 9,000 screaming fans packed the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The foot-and-mouth scare and freezing cold weather didn't stop fans to come and see Westlife. It was the first of three Belfast concerts. They descended from nowhere onto the stage to begin with "Dreams Come True". Nicky promised everyone they were in for something different and the band was true to their word. He said, "We've taken some stick in the past for sitting on stools, dressed in black and singing ballads. Well tonight we're going to show you some rock 'n' roll." It was an up tempo performance as the boys gyrated with female dancers. And Bryan sure got the crowd worked up when he said, "I don't know what it is about you Belfast girls, but you're the sexiest lasses." At one point, Kian appeared on stage on his own, complete with guitar, to sing Wild Thing, before the rest of the group joined in for a Motown mix. As usual, the crowd loved the performance for "Uptown Girl" and the last song of the night, "Flying Without Wings."

If you want to share your positive concert experiences, feel free to send it to us at westlife@previewstock.com and we will post it on this site and share it with other Westlife fans. Please include the date/concert venue that you attended.

This news is a bit dated, but here it is nonetheless: During the Brits after party, Shane talked to ShowBizIreland to clear up some facts about his love life. Shane said that he was not engaged to anyone...and was actually looking for love. He said, "My mother woke me up when the papers said I had got engaged giving out to me. I had to tell her it wasn't true. The girl I was with leaving the hotel in Dublin was a friend of Nicky's girlfriend Georgina. We dated a few times but that was it. I'm totally single and I guess you could say I am looking for love." With no love life just quite yet, Shane has been pursuing some other interests...including acquiring cars and property. Shane said, "I've asked my father to take care of my property in Sligo. I've invested a lot of my money in property down there and I'm building a house like you've never seen before for my parents. I'm also car mad and have just ordered a £160,000 Porsche 911 which I should have by the end of the year." Now that's sweet!

3/14/01

"Uptown Girl" - #1 in the UK
"I Lay My Love on You" - #2 on MTV Asia

To holls (and anyone else wondering): This site is based in the U.S (east coast). And not related to that, Westlife's support acts are Reel, Fixate, Bellefire and Masai. Not one of them I have heard of. Also, I don't have time to update the TV page (big finals this week)...but for those of you in the UK who didn't get to go to one of their concerts, Westlife is airing one of their concerts on Sky for £9.99 on March 31. I'll put the details up in a few days.

MTVasia is giving away 5 mousepads as part of their "celebration" of having Westlife as their artist of the month. Contest ends 3/31/01.

"Uptown Girl" has been the best single Westlife single release ever. It sold 292,000 copies in its first week. As you all know by now, the song went straight to #1 on the UK charts. Westlife are hoping to raise £1 million ($1.46 million) for the charity Comic Relief. But unfortunately, it'll be a brief stay at #1. Hear'say (that Popstars group) are set to be the new #1 with "Pure and Simple". The group sold an astounding 160,000 copies in its 1st day, while Westlife sold 43,000 copies.

To help out the charity further, Westlife are auctioning off the shirts they wore for the cover of Uptown Girl at the website QXL.com. Each T-shirt is signed by its respective Westlife owner on the front, while the rest of the band has signed on the back. With the T-shirt comes a autographed photo and CD copy of Uptown Girl. So far, Shane's winning, with a bid of is £421 ($614) for his T-Shirt. Westlife said: "It's great we've been able to raise money through Uptown Girl for Comic Relief and this auction gives us another opportunity to help the charity. We're really grateful to the thousands of people who showed their support in giving us the number one record for Comic Relief. Now let's get together and try to make this a number one auction." Bidding ends March 19.

In addition, the DVD/VHS single of Uptown Girl has just been released.

Shane's got the money and ambition...but governments can still ruin plans. Shane was refused permission to build his dream home for his parents. Local council officials in Sligo (Ireland) told him that the proposed house was way too big for the area and wouldn't fit in. Shane had personally helped design the house. Building will still go ahead, albeit at a much smaller scale. A friend said, "Shane was really annoyed at the start, but eventually saw the council's point of view. He's just delighted that he can go ahead now with the project on a smaller scale."

As many of you probably know, Nicky and his girlfriend, Georgina, were involved in a car crash while in a taxi in central London. They had had just left the Home House nightclub and were heading back to their hotel when the accident happened. They had been out after Westlife's first London tour date. Although shocked by the incident, they emerged unscathed, thankfully. Georgina was in tears after the accident. A friend said, "Nicky was shaken up. He was shocked and Georgina was in tears. It was really scary and they avoided any serious injury. Even so, it'll take them time to get over this."

3/09/01

Here's the big end-of-week update you all have been waiting for. As always, Westlife continues to amaze us with the amount of publicity (good or bad) that they generate.

The Mirror has got this Westlife tip: Nicky was spotted getting his ears pierced at Claire's Accessories in Sheffield.

Ah yes, more Westlife bashing. This time it is Blur frontman Damon Albarn attacking "Uptown Girl". Damon calls the cover version as mind-numbingly dull. He stated, "It's for a good cause, but why not do something intelligent for a good cause? Instead of something so mind-numbingly dull." But, there is always a motive for dissing Westlife these days. You see, Blur teamed up with with The Gorillaz for the single Clint Eastwood...and that song also made it's debut this week. Only problem for them is that "Uptown Girl" is most likely the #1 UK hit this week. Pity...not!

Promotional touring IS difficult and takes much energy. Singer, Caprice, quit here UK promotional tour this week saying she's exhausted. She admitted that she doesn't know how Westlife or the Spice Girls can do so much promotional work. And as you all know, Westlife does a huge amount of promotional work around the world. As a side note, looks like Westlife won the fall 2000 verbal war against the Spice Girls - bye bye Spice Girls...they're breaking up!

Westlife's plan for the rest of the year (including US plans)

Westlife will be taking a much deserved 4 weeks vacation while Kerry gives birth in September. After that, they'll be spending 4-5 months in the United States to do promotional work [it's about time =)].

As to his soon expanding family, Bryan said, "It will be like any other family, the daddy will go out to work, I will see Kerry and the baby as much as I can but the baby will be based at home in Ireland with her. I'm not having my baby coming on tour buses and going to places like Asia." And then he joked, "It will be like 'Bye, bye, Daddy will see you next September." As for the other Westlife members being godparents, Bryan sputtered, "No, absolutely not. I'll get someone responsible!" Now that's cute!

Ah yes, a new verbal war could be on the horizon...this time with Hear'say, the winners of the British Popstars tv show. Westlife are confident that "Uptown Girl" will be the #1 hit, trouncing the new single released next week (March 12) this week by Hear'say, "Pure and Simple". Kian said, "We're not worried about them. 'Uptown Girl' will still be number one even after they release their single. "They are no match for us -- no match at all!" [a side note about this Popstars thing...who thinks it's going a BIT way too far? There's an Australian Popstars show, a UK Popstars show and now a US Popstars show...that's 3 more new pop groups...overload in my opinion].

Bryan McFadden has written a song with Bryan Adams...but don't worry, it's not a solo track from Bryan McFadden. Bryan M. explained, "Our producer Ray Hedges works with Chicane who worked with Bryan Adams. Ray played Bryan Adams a Westlife demo and he was really impressed and asked to meet us. We went out to dinner with him. It was mad going to his house to work with him. We've written a really good song. It's not rock though, it's actually another ballad! It's like a cross between Westlife and Bryan Adams' early songs like Everything I Do." Now, if Bryan could put his song-writing skills into making future tracks for Westlife too =)

3/07/01

Quick update here:

Uptown Girl is set to be Westlife's 8th #1. It has sold over 91,000 copies so far this week.

Not again - this is what Kian said according to The Sun: "She’s boring. We only had her in it because she did it for free." The "she" is Claudia Schiffer, the super model that appeared in the video for Uptown Girl.

Got an e-mail from schoolsnet.com about a Westlife contest that they are holding. They just got 2 pairs of tickets to the Westlife concert at Wembley Arena on March 13. Because they just got the tickets, not as many people will be entering the contest because of the short notice...and that means you might have a better chance of winning! The contest ends on March 11, and to enter all you have to do is in 50 words or less, describe one thing you think would most help in eliminating poverty. Two lucky winners will receive a pair of tickets to see Westlife. Ten runners up will receive a copy of the Westlife CD.

3/05/01

UK/Ireland fans: Don't forget to support Westlife and Comic Relief by going out and buying the "Uptown Girl" CD! That's make it Westlife's 8th #1 hit. It hits stores today!

Westlife announced its final date for their 40 date UK tour. They are going to be performing at Sheffield Arena on April 4th.

Seems as if Europe's "Foot and Mouth disease" fears are becoming quite rampant. There's a distinct possibility that even Westlife's concerts in Dublin could be affected. Shane explained, "Everything's been cancelled back home, all the Saint Patrick's day parades and stuff are off. It's really bad".

Life for Westlife has been quite hectic this past month, to say the least. Shane said, "We have to go to Italy to film a TV show as we've got a single out in Europe at the moment." Bryan added, "On Friday night we drove down from performing in Birmingham, arrived at cd:uk at 4.30am and slept outside in the tour bus until it was time for the show. Kian has no idea where we are. The last thing he remembers was being in the bar in Birmingham!

3/04/01

If you live in London, be sure to tune into London's Heart 106.2 FM for a chance to win tickets to a private/intimate concert for less than 100 fans. Winners will be treated to a private performance, and will get to go backstage and meet the band before the March 11 concert at Wembley Arena. To win, listeners are being asked to ring the station when they hear the "Cue to call".

Westlife recently announced that they had added an extra tour date. The new show is on April 15 at Wembley Arena. Tickets went onsale yesterday (3/3/01) and each ticket costs £23.00 (~$34.50).

3/03/01

Not much "new" news on Westlife these past few days...so here's a bit more from the Brit Awards =) Also, I got e-mails from Sonia and Sergio letting me know that Westlife performed in Italy at the San Remo Festival a few days back. It was televised, and they performed "I Lay My Love on YOu" dressed in Dolce&Gabbana.

The day of the Brit Awards

It has to be difficult to do concerts in Manchester and then have to come back to London to prepare for the Brit Awards. Westlife left Manchester at 12:30am after their Manchester concert and slept on their bus before checking into a hotel room in the early morning. Bryan was bouncing around in his tracksuit bottoms and trainers. Mark was a bit more subdued, but became much more animated when he talked about Eminem. "I think he's a genius and I can't wait to see him tonight. I'm so excited about sitting at our table watching him perform. And there are so many other brilliant acts on as well. I'll be in my element!"

As for the performance, Westlife was accompanied by 57 dancers on the stage...the most of any act (2nd closest was Sonique with 31). The dancers were all wearing identical black dresses and wigs. As for performances, Kian, Bryan and Mark ran out of their dressing room to catch Eminem's performance. From what I hear, Eminem's performance at the Brits was a bit more profane than the one he gave at the Grammy's.

click here for all the Westlife news from March 2001

click here for all the Westlife news from February 2001

click here for all the Westlife news from January 2001