January 12, 2000 - Smash Hits - The Shane Game
How to work for 100 days straight, ruin your love life, miss yer ma and still keep smiling. Shane tells all to Colin Kennedy
There are some things I've learned about Shane Filan. He hates coffee. His favourite Boyzone song is You Needed Me. He loves his ma. He uses the word 'totally' a lot. He's sick of fake girls who have seen him on telly, but don't know his name. He and Nicky (his best mate in Westlife) go on the 'beer rampage' together and call it Shnicky. He's never finished a book. And just recently he's started crying at films...
Shane: I cried to Notting Hill, when he was racing in the car to stop her leaving. I cried at Armaggeddon and Titanic. I don't know what it is, I never cried at films when I was younger.
SH: Are you getting more sensitive?
Shane: I dunno, I looked at Notting Hill and I tought, "That's what I want". She was in the movies, I'm in pop, but she still met Hugh Grant and he was just a normal guy.
SH: So what you really want is a normal version of Hugh Grant?
Shane: Totally.
Mummy's Boy
When he was younger, before he became pop's version of Julia Roberts, Shane Filan just wanted to sing. His mother, Mae, remembers him aged two singing 'a few lines' of a traditional song to help an election campaign in Sligo, the town on Ireland's west coast where Shane was born. "He was always entertaining, always singing," Mae says. "Sometimes you'd have to stop him singing to do his homework."
But Mae didn't stop him for very long. "My dad has a great voice and he helped with my technique," explains Shane, "but my mother was always pushing me, The rest of my family are, lik, doctors, teachers, engineers, and they've all done really well, but when it came to me, she knew all I loved was singing."
In fact, Mae did more than just support Shane. When things were looking rim for his band IOU, she made the phone call which could change her son's life, That on phone call to Boyzone's manager Louis Walsh ("I still know how she did it," grins Shane) would eventually lead to Westlife. But, hang on a minute, we're getting ahead of ourselves. We haven't discusses Shane's six elder brothers and sisters, or love of Michael Jackson, or his showjumping skills. And poor Shane hasn't ordered his food yet...
Just another wet Sunday afternoon
We're sitting in the Saint M restaurant in the so-trendy-it-hurts St. Martin's Lane Hotel in London (where Britney stayed on her recent visit to London) and it's a wet Sunday afternoon in December. Last night, Westlife won the Record Of The Year competition for Flying Without Wings, and SHane partied hard. But he was still up at 9am for a photoshoot. It's 3pm, Shane is about to eat his first meal of the day ("sirlon steak, very well done") and I'm ruining it by asking questions. Luckily, Shane doesn't seem to mind...
When was your last day off?
Shane: We had a day off in September. We haven't had a day off in something like 100 days now.. There was a time where Sundays were free now it's just like a Monday, or a Tuesday. I could be any day.
SH: So is working 100 days non-stop worth it?
Shane: It's already paying off, look what's happened in those 100 days. We've had two more number ones, we've won Record Of The Year and our album's nearly double platinum!
SH: Yeah, but if you can't enjoy life, what's it all for?
Shane: Sure, but the first couple of years, the five of us agreed that we're going to have to work every day to make Westlife a success everywhere. That is what we signed up for.
The Professional
"I like chats. Rather than being asked the same questions over and over."
Interviews it seems, are a part of the job Shane just takes in his stride. And it's the same for photoshoots. Despite the fact Shane figures he must have done "two...no, 300 this year," he was completely happy before the camera.
In fact, everyone who meets SHane comments on his 'profeddionalism', but this time it was something a little bit extra - his first solo cover, "IT's one thing I always dreamed of 'cos I always used to buy Smash Hits, you won't believe how big a pop fan I was! I'm proud to be on the cover and all the lads are very happy for me."
Strangely though, Westlife's co-manager was less enthusiastic. "It's not fair to pick one lad over the others," commented Ronan when we told him Shane was on the cover. Ro's point was that the 'Lifers "are all equal, all the leaders," but Shane's still surprised. "Ronan said that? I don't know why."
Perhaps 'cos he's protecting you from the spotlight he received in Boyzone? "I don't think I'm like Ronan though. In Boyzone, Ronan was always out there, he sings nearly every track, but we're more of a team like the Backstreet Boys."
The BSB comparison was also suggested by Shane's bandmate Bryan, "Everyone thinks that Shan'e like Ronan, but he's very different. He shares the stage charisma, but he's more like Brian Backstreet he does a lot of lead vocals, but he's not that upfront." Not that Bryan begrudges Shane a solo cover. "He deserves it, I think he's the most popular person in te band. But if you told him that, he'd deny it. He's very cool, very modest."
As for Shane, he feels no conflict at all: "I'm here as Shane Filan because my face is on the cover, but I'm promoting Westlife totally." So close are Shane and his fellow band members that sometime they could be the same person. Example...
SH: Have you noticed that when I ask you a question about your futurem you answer with 'we'?
Shane: (Pauses) I've never noticed that! I'm so used to talking as a member of Westlife that is I'm talking professionally I'm talking on behalf of the other four.
SH: Are you in sync?
Shane: Oh yeah, if you asked them the same questions, you'd get more or less that same answers.
SH: Is that accident or planning?
Shane: Planning. We often sit down and talk about the future. I know everything Bryan wants. I know what kind of car Nicky wants.
SH: So when did 'I' become 'we'?
Shane: I honestly don't remember. (Smiling) I do always say we, don't I?
Shane Filan is a daydreamer
Everyone says so. "He's standing right there and you're shouting his name," shrugs Mark, "and you literally hit him on the head to get his attention. His latest excuse is it's a sign of intelligence." ("A doctor told me it was a sign of intelligence," Shane tells me.)
Shane used to daydream about being Michael Jackson. These days he dreans about two things: A big house with a lake and a flash car in the driveway ("I'm quite a material person"); and a girlfriend.
SH: What are you looking for?
Shane: I'm just looking for a serious relationship. I'd love a girl I couljd ring anytime, Nicky is so lucky. It's grand to see all these beautiful women and go out with them, or chat with them, but you know you won't see them the next day.
SH: So you're dating a lot?
Shane: Oh yeah. (Smiling) We all enjoy ourselves.
Shne saus he's ready for his relationship since he was 16, he still has to ask himself if he coujld juggle a girlfriend and the band. It's a question he obviously struggles with. "I could always fit in a girlfriend. If I met a gril I wanted to stay with, I'd stay with her no matter what." But he adds later: "Georgina and Nicky are lucky 'cos they have a five-year foundation. If I have to start from scratch, it wouldn't be easy, you know?" And later still: "To be honest, I owulnd't make a good boyfriend 'cos I wouldn't always be there for her. If she was upset I'd have to say, 'Sorry, I'll see you in a month and I'll stop you crying then.' That's one of the bad things about being in Westlife, you can't have a normal love life."
Not that Shane is complaining: "This is the commitment I've made. This is my dream I'm living and if I can get a girlfriend and be happy and have Westlife, that's the perfect scenario."
The perfect scenario
There's one person reading this who might know if Shane has a chance at the 'perfect scenario'. When I asked SHane to describe his dream girl, he tells me, "I like this one girl so I'll explain what she has." It turns out the girl is from Sligo and went out with him when he was 13. Sh wouldn't tell me her name, but he said he hoped to meet her over Christmas and "have a nice long talk." He also said he'd mention her in this article, so she could read about herself...
SH: So?
Shane: SHe's cute, she's not a model, she's got a nice figure, blah, blah, blah.
SH: What's "blah, blah, blah"?
Shane: Very nice body, you know what I mean? (Blushes and laughts) Whatever.
SH: Dark hair?
Shane: No, blonde. And she's a very nice person. Sha's very down to earth and when I go home she doesn't reat me like I'm in Westlife. She treats me like a normal guy.
SH: So, likke a female Hugh Grant from Notting Hill then?
SHane: (Laughing) Exactly.
Shane Filan: A History In Five Facts
1. He has been known to get on better with horses than human. "They never tell you that you're wrong."
2. He had eight parents. "I was spoilt, with six elder brothers and sisters, everyone looked after me."
3. He loves numbers. "I studied accountancy at college before I dropped out to join the band. I still keep in track of everything, even now."
4. He knows every line in Grease. "I played Danny twice and Kenickle once. I'd actually like to do more acting in the future, maybe even sme theatre."
5. And the hardest day(s) of his professional like was when he had to tell three of his friends from IOU that they were out of the band. "It was just so ruthless, but that's business. Two of the guys aren't friendly with us anymore and I can't blame them, I mean we kicked them out of the band."