Latest Westlife News

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

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. Also send any Westlife news we might have missed to that address above!

The Westlife news archives can be found at the bottom of the page

Westlife in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Westlife in Mexico!

12/26/01

Lucky winners of a Westlife concert

St Killian's School in Cork is the lucky winner of a Westlife concert! Westlife will be performing a show for a group of 50 schoolchildren. The school was entered into the contest for its efforts in the Pennies from Heaven campaign - a charity drive to collect IR£5 million in spare coins before the euro changeover on January 1. Westlife chose the group out of 1500 school on Ireland's Den TV. Headteacher Mary Minihan said that excitement was running high among the pupils and that, "A lot of the children were Westlife fans before this - they all are now." Bryan and Nicky drew the school's name out of a hat on the television show. The concert will take place early next year.

12/23/01

Happy Holidays / Merry Christmas =)
As our present to you...news from the last 2 weeks all caught up! Plus a few more features.

The Greatest Hits album

Nicky commented on the next ablum...a greatest hits album...with this quote, "[It's due] next year, but there are no plans to split. We want to do a fourth studio album and more tours. We love being in front of our fans. We're happy, our attitude is let's enjoy it for what it is, it won't last forever. Westlife maybe only have three or five years left together. It'll carry on as long as we enjoy it and [the fans] enjoy us."

Smash Hits not rigged (supposedly)

A message from Smash Hits magazine editor, Emma Jones: "You may have seen a newspaper article claiming that the Most Fanciable Male Award in the Smash Hits Poll was rigged. If the paper in question had bothered to call us we could have explained that there's no truth whatsoever in the allegation. All the votes in the poll, from the website and the magazine, were counted fairly and the award went to the winner, Ben from A1. Thanks to the millions of you who voted. All of us here at Smash Hits hope you really enjoyed the two TV shows on Channel 4."

Westlife's ever expanding franchise

You can add "cartoons" to the ever expanding Westlife franchise that has included chocolates and computer games. The creators of South Park are creating a cartoon series with Westlife as the stars. And the best news of all? The cartoon will be hitting US TV screens in 2002. Nicky said, "The idea came from our manager Louis Walsh. He thought it would be a great way of making it in America." Shane added, "If (the pilot show) goes well it will be shown on Fox TV in the US and then at home." The band hope the cartoon will be screened on British television next summer. As a side note, S Club 7 got its fame in the US from their ongoing show on FOX Family Channel (now owned by ABC)...they landed a top 10 smash hit earlier this year with "Never Had a Dream Come True".

Yet another dissatisfied group

Add the Pet Shop Boys to the ever growing list of pop bashers. The pop veterans have spoken out about today's pop scene as meaningless, particularly singling out Steps and Hear'say as the worst examples. Chris Lowe, a member of the group said, "When we started as a pop group in the 80s we were a pop group and very proud to be a pop group. But that doesn't really exist anymore - look at S Club 7, Westlife, etc. Everyone wants to be taken seriously rather than as a pop group. Yet most of them don't even write their own songs! In our time, we always did and still do - so did Soft Cell, Culture Club, Heaven 17, etc. Pop music had some sort of integrity then. Pop music then was all about writing your songs and doing the whole thing for yourself. We didn't even have stylists! That's what we looked like! It meant something. But now it's just a career. You go to stage school and you come out either wanting to be a television presenter or in some crap band. I mean, three of Steps don't even like the music they sing! Yet they expect you to pay to hear it! Or Hear'say. They just treat it as a job. I hate that. We still believe in pop music." At least they didn't personally take out Westlife.

Westlife's Vatican Experience

Last weekend, Westlife flew over to the Vatican to put on a private show for the Pope. The show will be broadcast around the world on Christmas Eve. Westlife sang "World of Our Own" and then joined The Cranberries for the song "Little Drummer Boy".

Westlife said earlier that performing the Pope would be the ultimate honor. The private performance was organized when the Vatican contacted the band to tell them of the Pope's admiration for their chart topping music. The boys were asked if they would be willing to sing for the Pope and obviously they were ecstatic about the opportunity. Nicky said, "We are incredibly honoured to be performing in front of the Pope. Our parents are so proud. I only told my mum recently and she couldn't believe it. For an Irish band this really is the ultimate honour because it's a holy country. We're going to sing Queen of My Heart and Little Drummer Boy because that's what the Vatican wanted - the only problem is that I don't know the words." Kian added: "We hope our music will get him on to his feet dancing. That would be funny."

It turns out Westlife needed to thank Dolores of The Cranberries for helping make their "duet" a success. At rehearsals, the boys found that The Little Drummer Boy was in a key that they could not sing, and by then it was a bit too late to alter the orchestral arrangement. So, Dolores did a solo on the verses and Westlife sand the chorus. Mark said, "Dolores came to our rescue and we'll be forever grateful." He also brought his parents to meet the Pope and when he finally did he said, "I had planned to say something specials, but I got tongue-tied."

Nicky's Memory Loss

Touring is a tough job, and Nicky was exhausted after their last tour of Europe. He was so exhausted that he suffered so temporary memory loss. He woke up one day with no idea where he was in the world. He needed to call Georgina to figure it out. Nicky said, "One night I woke up at about three in the morning without a clue where I was. I felt like I had been asleep for days. I went into a panic. I hit redial on my phone, knowing Georgina would have been the last person I spoke to. She was back in Dublin and when she answered the phone, I said: 'Georgina, I'm in a state, where am I?' She was great. She said: 'Relax, Nicky, it's OK, you're in Poland.' Then I remembered flying to Warsaw. But we had been travelling for weeks."

That's what parents are for =)

Kian still asks his parents' permission to purchase large ticket items. Kian couldn't buy his US$56,000 Porsche without getting permission from his mom and dad. He said, "I knew my dad wouldn't be happy. He was saying, 'Why do you want a car like that son? You are only 21.' I said, 'This is what I have been working for, something I can look forward to when I come home. I know you have got to be careful with money. But you have got to enjoy it - otherwise, what's the point?"

Bryan's pre-wedding party

Bryan and Kerry are getting ready for their big wedding day on January 5. And Bryan's friends are preparing a big pre-wedding bash for Bryan...that will last 3 days. Bryan said of the party, which kicked off on Dec 16, "About 72 guys are coming along. It's going to last at least a couple of days and will involve lots of drinking. It's got to be a secret but it's going to be a real craic. We'll make a mark in Ireland!"

Tim of Ash...

seems to have a love/hate relationship with Westlife. About 10 days ago, Tim Wheeler of Ash continued his ongoing Westlife saga. Speaking onstage at Brixton Academy, Tim revealed that the pair were now on decent speaking terms, and even exchanging Christmas cards. "We met Westlife the other day and believe it or not they actually have a sense of humour. They were staying next to us and we sent them a Christmas card saying 'Merry Christmas you bunch of c*nts'. They're also drug addicts."

Mark vs. Nicky - Battle of the Hair

As we reported earlier, Mark was quite unhappy that Nicky ended up with a Smash Hits award for his hair, when he got nary a comment from his same hair style earlier this year. As the following article comes from a tabloid, it makes for a fun read.

Mark said, "He only shaved his hair off and won the prize. I did the same last year and I didn't get awarded anything." The rift now looks set to permanently damage and hurt the band who in the past have avoided any problems. A key insider said, "It doesn't look good. I'm not sure if I can emphasise enough the problem here. This hair prize literally amounts to a coup d'etat. It would not have been clearer had Nicky gone to Mark and punched him full in the face with the might of his fist. When Mark had his hair cut so short last year, Nicky was the first to snigger. And he made all the others snigger and told Mark he looked like a big baldy. And then when Nicky had his cut, he told all the others to snigger at Mark because he had long hair and no girls liked him anymore because he was ugly and he had man-breasts. It literally really hurt Mark - but not as much as the prize. That should have been Mark's, it really should. He'll be good about it, but I don't think he'll be pulling on a specially crafted titanium suit and stepping into a cage with a 90 tonne grizzly bear, ready to fight and win. The wind's out of his sails and I think it'll take something really special to allow the genie out of the bottle ready to call time on his mixed up insides."

12/18/01

Check out our forum. I made two posts which I will turn into a site feature in the next week. The first is: Tell us what your top 5 Westlife news/headlines/stories of 2001 are. The second is: What do you think will be a Westlife headline in 2002. Make your own up and see if it comes true sometime next year!

Bryan and Kerry

Bryan recently said that the current success of his band is down to girlfriend Kerry. In an interview with a UK tabloid, McFadden explains that without the former Atomic Kitten, he would be on drugs. "Without her coming into my life, Westlife wouldn't be here as it is today," he explained. He said of the band's gruelling schedule: "It was changing me. We had been travelling so much and doing endless promotion and all the spirit in me was being sucked out. I wasn't happy anymore." "If Kerry hadn't come into my life I would have been on drugs by now. I was so unhappy that I would probably have needed something like that." Bryan says the couple, who are due to marry next month, are planning to have a second child sometime next year. He added: "Kerry put my feet back on the ground and brought back all the happiness. I'm high on life again because she is there with me."

Smash Hits Poll Fixed?

According to News of the World, last week's Smash Hits Poll Winners Party was a fix. Shane was due to win the Most Fanciable Male award. But, just 24 hours before the big bash, organizers rang his record company to say they were taking it back! They told RCA bosses they were withdrawing the gong and giving it to A1's Ben Adams—because the band hadn't won anything.

The awards were meant to be voted for by the magazine's readers, who could either fill in a form and post it to the publication or vote on the mag's website. But Westlife's furious manager Louis Walsh assured me: "It's a complete fix." He said: "One minute we're told that Shane had won the award, the next they change their minds. It's outrageous. The awards have played an important part in the pop industry for years. I've had a very good relationship with the magazine's editors in the past who helped launch my bands, Boyzone and, of course, Westlife. The current editor of the magazine rang me two weeks ago to tell me what the boys had won. She even rang RCA's general manager just days before the show to repeat the awards that Westlife had won. They were supposed to get four gongs—Best Album, Best Male Haircut, Best Band and Most Fanciable Male. The producer of the awards even showed the band a clipboard on Saturday, during rehearsals, which had Shane as the winner of Most Fanciable Male. Then, a few hours later, I was told they'd given it to Ben from A1 instead. I rang the editor — who refused to change it back. What kind of awards are they? I thought the magazine's readers were supposed to vote for the winners."

The ceremony, which was televised live from Wembley Arena in London on Channel 4 last Sunday afternoon, saw fans jeering when it was announced Ben had won. Louis added: "It was so obvious to the fans that Shane was the outright winner. I feel extremely sorry for A1 because they didn't win any awards. But this is a tough business. It just goes to show you that Westlife are a far more popular band. After all they've had nine #1 singles and two #1 albums."

(note: Smash Hits denied the story a few days later)

Westlife monthly news archives

December 2001 (2)
December 2001 (1)
November 2001 (2)
November 2001 (1)
October 2001 (2)
October 2001 (1)
September 2001 (2)
September 2001 (1)
August 2001
July 2001
June 2001
May 2001
April 2001
March 2001
February 2001
January 2001
August 2000