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12/27/02

Nicky and Shane to marry

From BBC

Westlife have been nicknamed 'Wedlife' after heartthrob duo Nicky Byrne and Shane Filan popped the question to their long-term girlfriends. Dubliner Nicky is to marry childhood sweetheart Georgina Ahern, daughter of Taoiseach Bertie, while Sligo-born Shane proposed to partner Gillian Walsh.

And it was diamond engagement rings at the double. Nicky (24) and Shane (23) surprised their girlfriends when they produced the rings on Christmas Day. According to the Irish Daily Star, neither bandmate knew of the other's plans to announce their engagement. Now, fans will be wondering if there will be a fairytale double wedding next year.

Nicky and Georgina, the Taoiseach's eldest daughter, started dating at school - and have been inseparable ever since. They celebrated their eighth anniversary as a couple on October 8.

Georgina graduated with a degree in business studies earlier in the year. Shane has also been together with his partner for some time.

Mum Mae and dad Peter were said to be "delighted" with their son's news.

Nicky has recently bought a new home in Malahide, north Dublin, while Shane has been building a dream lovenest for himself and Gillian in Carrone, Sligo, this year.

Meanwhile, Westlife's incredible success shows no sign of waning.

The five-piece recently scored their 11th UK number one single with the ballad Unbreakable, giving them more chart-toppers than pop legends like The Rolling Stones, Abba and Madonna.

More than 3,000 fans turned out for Westlife's in-store appearance at HMV in Belfast last month.

During their World Of Our Own tour earlier in 2002, Westlife performed a record-breaking string of 12 dates in Belfast. And the band was hoping to smash that number in 2003.

From the Daily Star

Westlife hunks Nicky and Shane gave their girlfriends a mega Christmas surprise when they both asked: “Will you marry me?”

The two stars handed over gleaming diamond engagement rings to seal their love. And when both girls said “yes” their homes erupted into a massive Christmas Day celebration.

Last night it was revealed the double wedding whammy was pure coincidence. Neither knew the other was about to pop the question. A pal said: “The timing was immaculate.”

Nicky, will marry Georgina, daughter of Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. He asked her at their new £1.7 million home in posh Malahide, a Seaside resort outside Dublin. And Shane, will tie the knot with Gillian – after asking her at their new £1m home in Sligo.

A pal told the Daily Star: “The first Shane knew about Nicky and Georgina’s engagement was when he rang manger, Louis Walsh, to tell him his good news.

“The next call he made was to Nicky to congratulate him and to tell him he was engaged to Gillian!”

Nicky, who has been dating Georgina for eight years, moved into the same millionaire’s row development as pop Ronan, just weeks ago. Georgina’s mum and dad are said to be “delighted”. Shane has been dating Gillian for two years. She is a first cousin of bandmate Kian.

He said recently: “I’ve known her since I was 12 and we were in musicals together: she was one of my first girlfriends when we were teenagers and dated for a few weeks. But she’s really great and I’m crazy about her.”

Nicky and Georgina are also childhood sweethearts. Their 8th anniversary as an official couple was on October 8th. Nicky said; “I first set eyes on Georgina the first day I went to school when I was 12 or 13. I told my mother I’d seen the girl I was going to marry. She laughed at me.”

Talented soccer player Nicky, who was on Leeds United’s books as a teenager: said after arranging a date his next big hurdle was her politician father. He said: “Her dad was Minister for Finance at the time. I felt like I was living in an episode of Beverly Hills 90210.”

12/24/02

Happy Holidays (and Merry Christmas!)

Bryan as a magician

Westlife thrilled kids at the Royal Marsden cancer hospital in Sutton, southern England on the weekend of Dec 14-15. They signed autographs and posed for pictures. Bryan had an extra trick up his sleeve to keep the ill children entertained - he performed magic tricks for them.

The singer says of the visit, "It's amazing to be able to come here and see the children's faces light up. They get really excited and it's nice to make them happy."

Westlife add extra Lansdowne date

Westlife have added an extra date at Dublin's Lansdowne Road after selling out their June 27 show within hours. They will now also play on June 28. Westlife now join U2 and Robbie Williams as the only artists ever to perform two concerts at Lansdowne Road Stadium.

Kian said, "The Lansdowne concerts are set to be the highlight of our career. We've never done a stadium concert on this scale before. It is going to be our most spectacular show ever."

Due to touring schedules no further shows can be added. Tickets priced €44.50 are limited to 6 per person and are on sale from the special 24hr Westlife Hotlines 1890 719 889 or 1890 925 100 and from Ticketmaster nationwide.

Westlife's Shane To Go Solo?

Westlife hunk Shane Filanwill embark on a solo career when the Irish boy band call it a day. The Flying Without Wings hitmakers, who have recently released their greatest hits album Unbreakable, are preparing to cool things after three-and-a-half years. Though they will not officially split, they are preparing to go their separate ways.

An insider says, "Although the boys plan to be around for a while yet, bosses have decided Shane will be the big solo star. They think he has a great voice and is top of the song-writing talent."

Bryan and that TV

Westlife may be determined to prove they enjoy the rock 'n' roll lifestyle - but they failed to even manage that basic staple of the rock star by trashing their hotel room. Bryan says he tried to throw a TV out of the window of an American hotel two years ago but ended up messing it up.

He says, "It just landed on top of me! I was a bit merry and I picked it up and fell backwards and woke up with the TV on my chest! It was a really bad time - I was stressed out, we'd been working for weeks and I hadn't seen (now-wife) Kerry or my family, then one of my friends got arrested for drunk driving. I just thought, 'Aaargh!'"

Westlife scrap release of "Miss you Nights"

Miss You Nights was due to go on sale in January. However, as both Shane and Nicky are unwell (Shane with mono). Instead, it will be a b-side to the single "Tonight" to be released in March.

12/13/02

Westlife announce 5 more tour dates

4/15/03 Cardiff International Arena
5/16/03 Nottingham Arena
5/23/03 Glasgow SECC
6/07/03 London Wembley Arena
6/12/03 Manchester Evening News Arena

Ticket price: £25.00, except in London, where it's £27.50. Tickets are on sale now.

A house for Mark

Shane has already built his own mansion for himself and girlfriend Gillian Walsh in Sligo. He now intends to add a 30,000 euro snooker room and bar to the property.

Now Mark intends to move out of his Mom's three bedroom apartment and into a seven bed house in Sligo. He also intends to purchase an apartment in London.

Bryan writes for Popstars group "Girls Aloud"

Louis Walsh is certainly hoping for big things with his new band, Popstars - The Rivals winners Girls Aloud. Even though their debut single, Sounds Of The Underground, isn't even in the shops yet, the pop supremo has revealed that their second's been written by Bryan.

Bryan has already penned several songs for his own group plus tunes for Irish Popstars winners Six. The title of Girls Aloud's second single, which will appear on their debut album next year, is being kept a closely-guarded secret. Sounds Of The Underground will be released on December 16th.

CNN interviews Westlife

Those choreographed dance moves. Those shiny shirts and candy-coated lyrics. Hordes of adoring teenage girls scrambling for front-row seats and autographs. Honestly, where would the music world be without boy bands?

If New Kids on the Block had only known what they were starting back in the 1980s when they burst onto the scene in all their boy band glory. With infectious dance moves and clean-cut looks, those five boys from Boston, Massachusetts established a winning music formula that has been repeated in all corners of the globe.

Groups like N'Sync, The Backstreet Boys, Take That and Boyzone all followed suit and all at some point established themselves as dominating forces in the pop market. And Westlife, arguably Ireland's biggest boy band at the moment, is no exception.

When the group's latest single, "Unbreakable," reached No. 1 in the UK singles chart in November, it marked the 11th time the band had reached the top slot. That's a feat beaten only by Elvis, The Beatles and Cliff Richard.

Formed in the late '90s with help from former Boyzone member Ronan Keating, Westlife tasted success instantly when its first single, "Swear it Again," went to No. 1 in April 1999. The group has since sold more than 12 million albums worldwide and was voted best pop act at the Brit Awards in 2001.

Last month Westlife released "Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits," a collection of the best hits from the band's first three albums, its ten chart-topping hits as well as the title track, Unbreakable.

The 5 fresh-faced twenty-somethings are featured on this week's special Pop edition of CNN's The Music Room. Here's what members Bryan McFadden and Kian Egan had to say about the new album:

Kian: "Unbreakable" is the first single off our greatest hits album. As far as we are concerned, we feel that this song is another landmark song for Westlife. Hopefully it's a song that people will remember us for in a few years time, along with "Flying Without Wings" and "World of Our Own".

We've called the album "Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits" for the simple reason we don't want people to think it's over for Westlife.

Bryan: At the moment things are really promising. Everything we are doing now is a step up. Our videos are now big videos compared to what we used to have. It feels good, and it's just a good time for Westlife at the moment.

Kian: We are very hungry. We feel young, we feel fresh, and we are looking forward to touring the world. We're looking forward to seeing countries we haven't seen in a long time. We are not just going to concentrate on the UK anymore and the United States. We are taking ourselves to Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America. It's really a worldwide promotional trip. We are going to be touring the world now for the next six months, doing promotion and letting people know our album is out there.

editor's note: this last paragraph made me none too happy...especially that sentence from Kian "We are not just going to concentrate on the UK anymore and the United States."...exactly when did they ever "concentrate" on the US? Also note that Westlife apparently intends on visiting Australia and NZ this time around.

Westlife adds 2 shows in Belfast

5/21/03 and 6/21/03 are added, brining the total number of shows in Belfast to 12. Tickets wen ton sale Dec. 7 at 8am

Westlife's Landsdowne concert

It's about time! Westlife are finally doing a stadium concert, where the expected capacity will be 40,000. This outdoor concert will be at Landsdowne Road at the Dublin rugby stadium. The concert date in on July 27. Tickets go on sale this Saturday (12/14/02) and are limited to 6 per person. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster locations nationwide.

Kian said, "The Lansdowne Road concert is set to be one of the highlights of our career...It really is a dream come true for Westlife and the fact that we're getting to perform the biggest event of our lives in Ireland is all the sweeter."

Westlife have sold over 25 million records worldwide and last performed in Dublin for a record breaking 13 nights at the Point June 2002.

Westlife add more dates to Greatest Hits tour

4/14/03 - Cardiff International Arena
4/17/03 - London Arena
5/31/03 - Birmingham's NEC Arena
7/03/03 - Newcastle's Telewest Arena on July 3.

Shane is sick

Westlife singer Shane Filan has glandular fever and has been told to rest till after Christmas. (I see the British like to use the term "Glandular fever", which is a term never used by the US medical profession, so I have no idea what that means)

Westlife have been thrown into turmoil with Shane forced to bow out of all forthcoming engagements after contracting a serious virus. The chart-toppers are stunned at the news that Filan has caught glandular fever and will not be able to rejoin his band mates until after Christmas (02).

Even more worrying for them is the news that they will now have to re-record their new single "Miss You Nights" due to Shane's unforeseen absence. The group are currently in the midst of a hectic schedule promoting their Unbreakable greatest hits collection and were hoping to bag the lucrative British Christmas number one spot with their compendium of hits.

A record label insider says, "It knocked them for six initially, because this is exactly what you don't need in the middle of a big push. They're so used to doing everything together and they suddenly lost the guy who's probably their most important member. But they've rallied and worked out a way of getting by without Shane for a while."

The boys initially did not want to continue without Shane, but Bryan roused his band mates to the difficult task ahead. A source explains, "They've re-recorded the track Miss You Nights for any TV performances they're not doing live and they've split Shane's vocal duties between Kian and Nicky."

read at your own risk

Three members of Westlife apparently caused a scene at a London bar - by using a champagne bucket as a toilet. Kian, Nicky and Mark stooped to the disgusting behaviour after spending the evening swigging champagne and lager at London's Lunasa bar.

The three stayed seated all evening and appeared to be acting impeccably. But when the bar staff started to clear up they uncovered the horrific secret. An insider says, "He went over to the stools to retrieve the champagne bucket the boys had been using all night. But when he picked it up and looked inside, it was full of wee. It seemed like the reason nobody saw them move from their seats is because the bucket was doing the job quite nicely. It was gross. The manager went and tipped it down the toilet and threw away the bucket."

Westlife win at Smash Hits Winners Party Awards

Westlife took the top awards at Smash Hits Awards (Nov 24) in London. They were named Best band on Planet Pop and Best International Act. Gareth Gates was named Best Male Solo, Pink was Best Female Solo and Blue won Best UK Band.

The day's two big losers were Christina Aguilera and former Big Brother housemate Jade Goody. Aguilera picked up gongs for having the worst dress sense and worst haircut in pop, while Jade's accolades included the Most Hideous award.

Westlife capped a winning afternoon by being inducted into the Smash Hits Hall of Fame.

The full list of winners:

Best Band On Planet Pop - Westlife
Best UK Band - Blue
Best International Act - Westlife
Woolworths Best Newcomer On Planet Pop - Gareth Gates
Best Live Act - Blue
Best Male Solo - Gareth Gates
Best Female Solo - Pink
Best Dance Act - Lasgo
Best Rock Act - The Calling
Best R&B/Garage Act - So Solid Crew
Woolworths Best Single - Liberty X: Just A Little
Best Album - Sugababes: Angels With Dirty Faces
Most Fanciable Male - Gareth Gates
Most Fanciable Female - Holly Valance
Party Mentalist of the Year - Bryan, Westlife
Mouth Almighty of the Year - Jade Goody
Top of Mop Award - Gareth Gates
Flop Mop Award - Christina Aguilera
Best Dressed Male In Pop - Darius
Best Dressed Female In Pop - Liz Kitten
Worst Dressed Person In Pop - Christina Aguilera
Top TV Programme of the Year - EastEnders
Top Movie of the Year - Goldmember
Most Evil Man in Pop - Simon Cowell
Most Hideous (The Most Minging Thing Ever) - Jade Goody
Special Award: Smash Hits Cover of the Year - Westlife
Top Pop Pair Award (for the perfect couple) - Harvey So Solid and Alesha Mis-Teeq
Best Music Video - Will Young: Light My Fire
Hall of Fame - Westlife.

Bryan Trashes Breakup Rumours...

Bryan McFadden finally spoke out this weekend about the ridiculous rumours that he was leaving Westlife to start a TV career with his wife Kerry. The press was full of stories last week claiming that Bryan and Kerry had visions of becoming the next big husband and wife chat show hosts to rival Richard and Judy... Well, it just aint true.

Bryan categorically stated in the Westlife / Sunday World journal:

"No matter how many times we say it, there are still some badly informed journalists out there printing stories that are completely untrue. I don't know where they get the idea that I'm leaving. Let me stress it one more time, BRYAN MCFADDEN IS NOT LEAVING WESTLIFE FOR A SOLO CAREER."

He also hinted that Westlife will be recording a new album next year, "We're back on tour next year, with sold out shows in Belfast and a big event happening in Dublin. And we'll also be going back into the recording studio to dream up a brand new album."

And what of him and Kerry? "Kerry and myself are expecting another little daughter, a sister for Molly," he proudly said.

The overall official UK calendar sales chart:

1. Kylie Minogue.
2. David Beckham.
3. Gareth Gates.
4. Robbie Williams.
5. Blue.
6. Cliff Richard.
7. The Simpsons.
8. Westlife.
9. Manchester United.
10. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets movie

BT Presents Interactive Music Awards - Westlife.com wins

The BT Openworld Interactive Music Awards were presented last night, with mobile phone recognition service Shazam a surprise winner.

The awards were set up this year to recognise excellence in online music provision and promotion. Pop music dominated the field, with no purely classical service making it past the nomination stage.

The most hotly contested category was the dotmusic People’s Choice Award, which has received entries from more than 1,300 web sites. The award was open to any music site, with big name official sites such as Westlife.com rubbing shoulders with unofficial fan sites like Greenplastic.com (Radiohead). More than 100,000 fans are thought to have voted, with Westlife.com declared the clear winner.

Shazam's surprise win will come as vote of confidence for the fledgling company, which uses mobile technology to tell customers what piece of music they are listening to.

The Best Pop Artist award went to Darius, a former contestant on UK TV shows Popstars and Pop Idol. When he was thrown off Popstars, he vowed to the judges that he would have a number one single by the time he was 30, a promise on which he has more than made good. The awards, presented by rap star and online innovator Chuck D at London's BT tower, were followed by a star studded bash at London's exclusive Sway bar.

The complete list of winners is as follows:

Best Pop Artist: Darius
Best Rock / Indie Artist – in association with Peoplesound & Vitaminic: Supergrass
Best Dance / Urban Artist - in association with MP3.com Europe: The Streets
Best Major Label: BMG
Best Independent Label: Ninja Tune
Best Promotional Campaign – in association with IPT: Eric Winbolt of EMI, Chrysalis for Pink Floyd
Best Use of Broadband: Playlouder @ Glastonbury 2002
Best Innovation – in association with Revolution: Shazam
Best Shop – in association with MSN: Groovetech
The dotmusic People’s Choice Award: www.westlife.com
Artist of the Year: Blue

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