Westlife, Live At Croke Park
Say what you like about Westlife, but there is no denying their power to move a crowd.
Anne Sexton, 29 Jun 2012
If you were a first-time visitor to Dublin, you’d have no trouble finding Croke Park – simply follow the hordes of screaming girls. Westlife’s final tour is overwhelmingly a female affair. No less enthusiastic, but mercifully quieter is the fifty-plus brigade, who content themselves with singalongs.
As a swan song, this is as emotional an event as you’d expect. Early on the boys drag out their families while Kian Egan sings ‘Queen Of My Heart’ holding a baby. Maybe it’s terribly sweet or else a fiercely calculated attempt to tug on the heartstrings – either way the fans love it.
Despite their multiple hits, the boys bizarrely devote a large part of the show to covers. We’re treated to ‘I Gotta Feeling’, ‘Sex On Fire’ complete with thrusting crotches, a cheesy rendition of ‘Don’t Cha’, ‘Let Me Entertain You’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Of course, Westlife have had plenty of success with cover versions, but since they play ‘Uptown Girl’, ‘Mandy’, ‘Ain’t That A Kick In The Head’ and ‘You Raise Me Up’, you’d think they’d have the covers, well, covered. Fan favourites such as ‘Swear It Again’ are saved for the end and ‘World Of Our Own’ and ‘Flying Without Wings’ are wisely saved for the encore.
It’s been an emotional rollercoaster of an evening – screams, tears and laughter, all wrapped up in a slickly produced package. Say what you like about Westlife – and plenty has been said – but there is no denying their power to move a crowd.
Anne Sexton
Latest Related Articles For This Artist
A committee has been selected by creditors to recoup Shane Filan's debts.
News: 2013-01-23
Work commences on his album after Westlife's final tour.
News: 2012-05-18
Westlife are ready to embark on a major expansion drive in the East! They may be on their final Greatest Hits tour, but the mega-selling Irish pop band have lined up a 15 date tour in China, which begins in the last week of February.
News: 2012-01-25
This week’s chart sees 3 new entries in the top slots…
News: 2011-11-25
Another date added due to phenomenal demand…
News: 2011-11-11
Latest Related Videos For This Artist
The band will likely call it quits next June with a massive show.
2011-11-04 - News
Ireland's most enduring boyband call time on their career...
2011-10-20 - News
A host of top Irish acts will entertain the American President at College Green!
2011-05-23 - News
The charity gig is still set for the O2 despite the weather
2010-12-03 - News
Take That and Rihanna are both still at No. 2 and 3 respectively, while there are new entries from Olly Murs and the Black Eyed Peas
2010-12-03 - News
They made the announcement at today’s Childline concert
2010-12-03 - News
Gravity goes straight in at No. 1, while there are new entries from My Chemical Romance, Kanye West and the late Luke Kelly
2010-11-26 - News
Due to demand, the band will now play July 7 as well as their sold-out July 6 show
2010-03-26 - News
See acts such as Westlife, Alexandra Burke and JLS perform when the event airs this Saturday 21 November on TV3.
2009-11-19 - News
With a programme to entertain all the family, the Killarney Summerfest kicks off this weekend with performances from Westlife and Shane Ward.
2008-06-17 - News
Westlife have had to cancel two shows on their current UK tour after members Shane and Nicky fell ill.
2008-05-20 - News
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.
2007-11-15 - News
Westlife have taken the top spot in the Irish charts, in a week dominated by supergroups with releases by the likes of U2, The Beatles and Oasis.
2006-11-24 - News
Louis Walsh insists Westlife will prevail in upcoming Christmas chart battle.
2006-11-15 - News
Popular boys eh? Ireland's premier boy band Westlife have announced more Irish dates to supplement their current stock of four.
2005-11-18 - News
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.
2005-11-10 - REVIEW
Westlife have made history by becoming the first Irish act to simultaneously top the UK single and album charts.
2005-11-08 - News
A poptastic charity is all set in aid of the Cheerios Childline Concert, with entertainment courtesy of Westlife, Girls Aloud, G4 and more.
2005-10-17 - News
So says Boyle Sports, who are predicting the band's break-up at odds of 2/1
2005-01-31 - News
Westlife take on the Rat Pack in their forthcoming album, Allow Us To Be Frank
2004-10-07 - News
It's the stuff of Westliffian dreams: Mark, Nicky, Kian and Shane... and you!
2004-08-04 - News
Bryan McFadden has left Westlife. Danielle Brigham attended the press conference to find out more…
2004-03-25 - Interview
As predicted by hotpress.com yesterday Westlife today announced the end of the current lineup.
2004-03-09 - News
An emotional Westlife have expressed sadness for McFadden's "amicable departure", with Bryan denying rumours of any ulterior career moves. Photos by Cathal Dawson.
2004-03-09 - News
Fans in Dublin today expressed sadness that McFadden's departure comes so soon before the Westlife tour. Photos by Cathal Dawson.
2004-03-09 - News
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.
2004-03-09 - News
Could it be the end of the road for Bryan, Shane, Mark, Nicky and Kian?
2004-03-08 - News
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?
2003-12-17 - REVIEW
Westlife and Girls Aloud are among the artists donating their services for the Childline charity concert
2003-12-01 - News
The band are set to cause mayhem on Grafton St when they appear instore in HMV
2003-11-14 - News
Crack open the piggy banks kids - tickets go on sale next week for Westlife's Dublin fest
2003-11-03 - News
I may be slightly out of step here, but could someone tell me what the problem actually is with all this?
2003-10-08 - REVIEW
The Irish lads will play alongside The Rolling Stones and Craig David at the government sponsored event.
2003-09-04 - News
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.
2003-07-02 - Interview
Westlife, Sam Mumba, Sugababes and Girls Aloud set fot Childline shindig
2003-01-09 - News
Lock up your little sisters: blondie boyband phenomenon Westlife head to Lansdowne Road in June 2003
2002-12-11 - News
The brains behind some of America's most successful pop outfits - including Backstreet Boys and N'Sync - props Westlife for stardom
2002-11-12 - News
The golden boys of pop set to turn Grafton St in to a sea of screaming teenagers this weekend
2002-11-08 - News
We’re on a romp through a compendium of music over the past thirty years, all souped up for the millennium…
2002-06-24 - REVIEW
...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
2002-05-27 - News
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
2002-03-07 - News
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"
2002-03-04 - News
Pleasing little girls and their mums and their grandmums is what they do. And they do it brilliantly.
2001-11-29 - REVIEW
Pleasing little girls and their mums and their grandmums is what they do. And they do it brilliantly.
2001-11-29 - REVIEW
You’d think that the time would be right for Westlife to expand their sound. Maybe next time
2001-10-11 - REVIEW
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!
2000-11-09 - REVIEW
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.
1999-11-24 - REVIEW
hotpress.com
Blogs on hotpress.com
Additional Sites on hotpress.com
- The Music Show
- The Jagermeister Freezer Sessions
- Hot Press Rock Photo
- The Philip Lynott Exhibition
- The INEC Homegrown Sessions
- HTC One Hotpress Photojournalist
- Genre Free Compilation
- MIX 13: Music Industry Xplained
- Shoot To Thrill: Make a Hot Press Cinema Ad
- Other Voices
- Best of Ireland
- The Big Break
- Hot for 2013
- Josh Ritter
- Eoin Glackin
- Bitter Rocc
Contact Us
Hot Press,
13 Trinity Street,
Dublin 2.
Rep. Of Ireland
Tel: +353 (1) 241 1500
Email:info@hotpress.ie
Click here for more contact information.
Click here to find out more about Hot Press
Hot Press always welcomes feed back so if you've got something to tell us click here.
Advertise With Us
For more detail on how to advertise with Hot Press click here or call us on +353 (1) 241 1540
©Hot Press 2012. Why be a member? | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | About Us Jobs @ Hot Press