This Will Be The Last Time...

After 14 years, Westlife finally call it a day next week with two final concerts in Croke Park, performing before over 100,000 no doubt tearful fans. It’s been a long but hugely successful career for the Irish boy band. Masterminded and managed by Louis Walsh and signed originally by Simon Cowell, they have sold over 40 million albums, enjoyed 20 top five hits, including 14 number ones. They have broken numerous industry records in terms of sales and live audience figures, and received literally dozens of industry accolades and awards.
For the four members of Westlife: Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily and Kian Egan, life will probably never be the same again.

COLM O’HARE: How are you feeling now that the final Westlife shows are almost upon you?
KIAN EGAN: We’re all very excited and starting to feel the nerves and the nostalgia. We did our last London gig the other night which I think was probably the most emotional we’ve gotten so far on this tour. To me, London was always a second home. My wife is from London and the first property I ever bought was in London. Saying goodbye to the O2 in London was pretty emotional. So we’re all going to be in floods of tears at Croke Park. We’re going to end our career in our national stadium, with our heads held high and all of our fans, family and friends around us. We’ve been partying on this tour like nobody else – just the four of us – and it’s been brilliant. We’ll be up ‘til all hours after Croke Park but it’ll probably be me and Mark hanging in ‘till the bitter end, as usual (laughs).
Is there anything special planned for the final gigs?
Yeah, we’re throwing the kitchen sink at it, basically. I think the emotion is what matters most, not what special effects we’ll have around us. It’s about the four of us standing on that stage, singing those songs for those people, for the very last time. We’re never going to feel the same as we’re going to feel in Croke Park on June 23. There’s no doubt about that.
How does Louis Walsh feel about the break up of the band? Is he for, or against it?
Louis didn’t want it to happen. He understands why it needed to happen and why it should happen. But he just didn’t want it to happen and he was very vocal about it. The four of us needed to make the decision for ourselves. Louis is not doing what we’re doing. He’s the manager. He’s not on the road as much as we are, leaving families behind and living the lifestyle that we’re living.
What are your immediate plans when the shows are over?
I have a few things in the pipeline which, if they come off, they come off. But my attitude towards it is, I’ve been in Westlife for 14 years, which is more than I ever imagined. It’s been such a long time, especially for a boy band. From that perspective, I’m just kind of looking back and being grateful for what I’ve had. I’m not too worried about what I’m going to do next. Whatever comes naturally comes naturally and if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be?
Have you thought about a solo career?
I’m not one of those people who are going to be chasing every Tom, Dick and Harry for my next gig. I don’t feel I’m in a position where I have to scrape the bottom of the barrel in order to remain in the public eye, or to look for my next paycheck. That’s not what it’s about for me. I’d prefer to sit at home and jam with my boys in the garage, in the little rock band that I jam with every now and again. And just to fall back into normality. I’m quite looking forward to the idea of that, just sitting around the house.
Do you have a favourite period in the band or a favourite album, or tour?
I don’t think you’re ever going to beat the beginning of it all. The early years had a ‘wow’ factor. We were releasing amazing songs. They were No. 1s because they were great. It was successful because the music was really good. For a boy band we made our mark on the world really quickly. By the time we got to our first greatest hits album, which was only our fourth LP, we’d sold 20 million records. That’s pretty insane. The next biggest rock band that comes along will hardly sell 20 million albums over their entire career if they’re lucky. Because the music industry has changed so much and record sales have come down. It isn’t the same industry that it used to be. From that perspective, it’s pretty awe-inspiring that we actually accomplished all that.
Did you appreciate the success then?
We were younger and didn’t know what was going on. We were just going with the buzz of it all. It was a case of, ‘wow, we’re in another country and there are twenty thousand fans at the gig’. We were going to countries I never even knew existed because I didn’t pay attention in school. It’s those kinds of things that make us look back and think, ‘we did amazingly well’.
You’ve sold more records than several major rock and roll groups put together. Does it bother you that you don’t enjoy the kind of credibility or critical acclaim that other bands enjoy?
It never bothered me for a second. We are what we are and we don’t pretend to be anything else. We’re not a rock band, we’re a pop band. We sing pop songs that are very well liked. It’s easy-listening music for the everyday person. We don’t make music for rock fans. We don’t make music for critics. We make music for the person who probably only buys two or three albums a year, if even. We’re for the everyday housewife, who likes to hear nice tunes that they can sing along to. Obviously, we did go through periods when we didn’t really understand it like that. But as life has gone on and our careers have progressed we know what we are, and we do what we do.
Did you or the others ever rebel, say, over a song or a musical direction that you were being pushed towards?
Simon Cowell was the man we always had to fight against. A typical example was with ’Rainbow Zephyr’, originally [by Downpatrick outfit} Relish. We loved the song, we loved the hook. Me and Mark were thinking, ‘this could be brilliant for Westlife’. We took it to Cowell and he was like, ‘no, no, no’. We said, ‘just give us a chance’. Then we took it to Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, who wrote, ‘Flying Without Wings’. We asked them to re-write the lyrics and make it more like a Westlife song. So, they went off and re-wrote the lyrics, and it became ‘Hey Whatever’. We recorded it and slapped it on Simon’s desk and he just said, ‘I don’t like it, I don’t like it’. I stood up and said, ‘well, we want it to be the first single from the album’. He said, ‘really?’ We were like ‘yeah really’. So we released it and it did quite well. We shot a cool black and white video for it and it went in at number four in the mid-week charts in the UK. Cowell rang us up and summoned us into a meeting and he said, ‘OK lads, I let you do ‘Hey Whatever’. I can see why you liked it and I can see why you wanted to do it’. There was another song on that album called, ‘On My Shoulders’ which we wanted to put out as a second single. But he just said, ‘if you put that out as the next single your career is over’. We all went, ‘what?’ and he said , ‘I’m telling you now, nobody is going to buy it. This has been your weakest first week for any single you’ve ever released’. So we were scratching our heads. Up to then the first single off every album had been a No. 1 so we shit ourselves a bit and we went ‘OK what should we do then?’ He played us ‘Mandy’ and said, ‘if you release this song as your next single, you’ll sell a million records’. So we recorded it and sold a million copies. We learned a lot from that. We were trying to do something that our audience wasn’t into and Cowell, being the genius that he was, realised this. I remember personally being a bit down about that for a while as I’d been the one pushing it.
Did Brian McFadden’s sudden departure in 2004 cause a crisis within the band. Did you think it would mean the end of Westlife?
Oh yeah, I remember ringing my mum when it happened and saying, ‘well that’s it then, it’s all over now’. If you looked at other bands at the time, whether it was Take That or the Spice Girls, when anyone left the band, it had fallen apart or dwindled away. The difference with us, I suppose, was that Shane and Mark were the lead singers. That made a huge difference. As did the fact that the four of us on stage were very strong. The tour had already sold out before Brian had left. When we went on stage every night, we proved to the audience we were equally together as a four-piece.
Any regrets? What about the infamous Rat Pack album?
Well, let’s say it wasn’t necessarily the favourite album in our career. It got us over that period when Brian left. Then we came back with ‘You Raise Me Up’, which was our biggest hit of all time. After Brian left I think we managed to hold it together very well. We managed to keep ourselves at the top. However, it became a little bit more stressful and it wasn’t as free and easy anymore. We were getting wiser to the music industry, starting to understand how it worked and why we were being successful and how we were selling these records. We were always trying to do it over again and again and again. When that happens, you lose the natural flow of things.
What about the time Mark Feehily went public about his homosexuality? Was that a cause for concern in the band, in terms of how the audience might react?
That was never a crisis for us. It was never a case of, ‘Oh my God what’s going to happen to us?’ That was a necessity for Mark’s happiness. Steven Gately had come out before that and Boyzone were still doing well. The whole taboo of a member of a boy band being gay and it ruining the band’s career had disappeared. I don’t think there was any moment when we thought it was all over just because Mark was going to tell everyone that he was gay. It was completely fantastic that Mark got to come out like that. It made him a much happier person and it was the right thing for him to do.
More recently, Shane Filan has been in the headlines, concerning problems with his property investments. Does that kind of publicity have a disruptive effect on the band?
It’s never affected us as a band and our fans have never reacted negatively to anything like that. We’re going through life like everybody else, except it’s in the public eye. In England it’s not as bad as it is here. And we spend 70% of our time in England so I never know what’s in the papers in Ireland. I’ve no interest – but I was home a good bit for The Voice and I’d go out for a coffee and pass by a shop and see all this stuff in the papers on us. And I’d think, ‘Jesus, Westlife are in the papers an awful lot’. I had no idea.
The music business has changed dramatically since Westlife started out in the 1990s. How do you feel about illegal downloading?
I think it’s important that we protect the music as much as we can and that, as artists and people in the public eye, we back these campaigns to make people aware of what’s happening. The problem is, the younger generation don’t really understand it. Take my 18-year old brother, for example. He doesn’t know that the music industry is suffering and that illegal downloading is affecting the business. Or that the quality of albums is not as good, because record companies aren’t spending as much to make them. He just looks at it and goes, ‘well why would I buy something if I can get it for free?’ To the younger generation that makes complete sense. I know if I was 18, I’d be thinking the exact same thing. As I said it’s important that people who do what I do make it common knowledge that it does affect the business.
How did you end up as a judge and coach on The Voice?
Larry Bass [the producer] just rang me up and asked if I was interested. I knew at the time what was going on with Westlife and I thought it was a good opportunity for me to stick my finger in another pie and do something I enjoyed, and that I thought I’d be OK at. I really did enjoy it and I’d like to think that I’d do a second season, if that ever happens.
Did you get on well with the other coaches?
There was a good bit of tension with me and Brian Kennedy at the start. I think Brian had a big question-mark as to why I was there, ‘from a vocal perspective’, as he would put it. As far as I was concerned, I had every right in the world to be there. I know exactly what it takes to establish a career in the music industry. I could never understand why he was questioning why I was there. I think we kind of resolved it in the end and we’re good mates now.
What kind of music do you listen to at home or when you’re cruising in the car?
The Foo Fighters’ latest album is probably my favourite at the moment. I went to see them last year in Milton Keynes and was jumping up and down like every other lunatic in the middle of the pitch. I grew up listening to heavy metal: Pearl Jam, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slayer and Megadeath. System Of A Down is another one I listen to a lot recently. I’m a rocker. I’m a Nirvana-head. That’s what I grew up listening to. That’s what I’ve always listened to.
Finally, do you think you’ll stay in touch with the other three band members or will you drift apart?
We’ll definitely stay in touch. We probably feel closer now than ever, because the weight is off our shoulders and the pressure is gone. We’re genuine friends. But as the years have gone on, it’s become a more stressful job. The most important thing is that we come away with our friendships intact. We’ll probably see each other every few months if not every few weeks. We’ll all do our own thing as well.