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GETTING LOW DOWN AND DIRTY
Just like Five, Westlife are contradicting the long-touted view that boybands are namby-pamby, clean-living lads. But the band are just as comfortable with riotous parties as they are with ballads and cliff-top videos.
"People just assumed we were clean-shaven mammy-s boys because that's always been the easy thing to slag boybands off for," says Nicky. "Just look at Robbie," add Kian. "He's always been wild - it's just that no-one looked for that side of him when he was in Take That. Nobody saw them as hard lads, they just assumed they were nice. It's the same with us."
The boys admit they're partly to blame for cultivating that image. "At first, we always wanted to say the right thing," says Kian. "Reporters would ask if we argued with each other and we'd say, 'Never! We're great mates!' But of course we fight! We kill each other sometimes! We're the same as any 21-year-old lads. When Five called us a pack of pussies, we laughed and thought, 'OK, bring it on'!"
Any bad feeling between the two bands has evaporated - as proven on the famous hotel-wrecking night out in Tel Aviv earlier in the year. "It was drinks, it was parties, it was shaving foam everywhere, it was madness," says Nicky, as Kian chuckles at the memory, "Abs was in a wardrobe for ten hours trying to whistle. Shane's got this special whistle and Abs just could not do it. If you could have seen the room... we really didn't mean to, but we ended up completely trashing it."
But for one member of the band, the hell raising has had to be postponed for a while. "Bryan was always up for a laugh," says Nicky. "But now he's straight off home to look after Kerry..."
"Nah, the truth is he's not allowed out any more!" laughs Kian. "It's matured him", continues Nicky. "He's more serious now - which is a good thing 'cos he was a messed. He still is, but not as much now. When the baby's born he's going to be so relieved and excited, he'll be out on the gaggle for a week! He's not been able to go out that much but once he knows the baby is healthy and Kerry's fine then he'll be able to relax."
SPLITTING UP AND GOING SOLO
While the 'Life believe they can match any of their boyband peers at hard living, they're even more confident they can outlife them in the charts. Four years into their career and they're aiming to stick around for many more to come.
"We don't want to come and go like other pop acts," says Nicky. "Even the most successful acts of recent times didn't last that long. Take That were only together for about six or seven years."
"We look at ourselves as singers rather than your everyday boyband," explains Kian. "Our music is timeless, like the Beach Boys or the Bee Gees. We concentrate on what sounds good in the long run."
But didn't those particular bands dare to dabble in something a bit more energetic than your average Westlife ballad once in a while?
"Hey, listen!" says Kian. "This new album we've recorded is easily our best yet. The ballads and the up-tempo songs are the best we've ever done. It's not necessarily about making the music we like - we're writing and recording songs the fans want, that's what's important."
"The other thing we've got is a great bond. We're like a family with the same goals and ideas, whereas I know for a fact that there are other bands whose members can't stand the sight of each other."
"Look at what happened to Boyzone. Their ideas changed. Ronan wanted to do his own thing and the whole thing just ended up dwindling away."
But how can they be sure that Westlife won't go the same way? After all, the tabloids tell us that Brian's leaving to look after Kerry and the baby, and Shane's going solo...
"That's just a load of rubbish," scoffs Nicky. "We're sick of these stories. We'll go out when we've reached our peak, end it all with a big farewell gig. We'll leave with a bang. I would say that's another five years away, at least."
"I would hate to go solo," adds Kian. "It's hard enough to tour all the time and be away from your family when you're with your mates in the band, but it would be much worse on your own. We asked Ronan what it's like and he said that it's really lonely."
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