Westlife have confirmed media speculation – a good bit of it being in Hot Press – by announcing their biggest headlining show yet in Croke Park on June 1 2008.
Sticking to the template that has worked so well in the past (even the press release describes their approach as a “straightforward formula”) means it’s back to the soaring ballads with the odd mid-tempo dance pop-tune and the carefully calculated cover.
Westlife, having been confirmed as the headline act at this year's 02 In The Park extravaganza which takes place on September 4 in the Phoenix Park, have already completely sold out.
An emotional Westlife have expressed sadness for McFadden's "amicable departure", with Bryan denying rumours of any ulterior career moves. Photos by Cathal Dawson.
Despite rumours to the contrary abounding, Bryan McFadden emphatically denied that he was planning either a solo career OR a singing career alongside his wife Kerry Katona.
There comes a time in the life of any manufactured pop band worth their salt when they try and throw off their shackles and break the mould that has been created for them. It may involve a radical change of image, an attempt to start writing their own songs or even a management coup. The results are often glorious but short lived – Take That went bonkers on Never Forget and then promptly disintegrated; the Spice Girls dumped Fuller, lost Geri, prospered and then released a disastrous third – and it would appear final – album. From there, it’s solo careers for some, back to oblivion for others. The theory that it’s better to burn out than to fade away remains an attractive one. But what about another objective: to mature into genuine artistic relevance of the kind achieved by the Four Tops or The Temptations?
Now on their fifth album and with a greatest hits behind them, surely the odds are on Westlife if not executing an abrupt volte face, then at least tinkering with the formula a little bit?
Meeting the Pope, marriage to the Taoiseach’s daughter, the trouble with relationships, why they couldn’t have a hit with Bono, bad language on kids’ telly, golf in drugs out, Louis’ biggest lie and other tales from the lives of Westlife.
...And we feel fine: as and from 'Bop Bop Baby', which entered the UK charts this week at No. 5, Westlife's historic winning streak of in-with-a-bullet Number One singles is over
Does very old footage of the proto-Westlife - then called IOU, back in 1997 - belong to the band's childhood friend who filmed it, or to a promotions company who claim to have contracted him to do so? Let the courts decide
Westlife's Brian McFadden never meant to start something with So Solid Crew - it was just "one drunken night and it could have happened to anyone". "If another band had been sitting there instead," he explains, "I'd have had a go at them"
Having won the vicious knife-and-broken-bottle fight that ensued among the hotpress’ crew (sorry about the eye, Olaf) in order to decide who would take this one on, I bring you Coast To Coast. Taa-daa!
Westlife weigh in with a seventeen track debut that varies from the sublime to the ridiculous, but ultimately proves that the Sligo rovers are going to be around for quite a while.
