April 19, 2000 - Smash Hits - Westlife: The Inside Story
A year since Swear It Again took Westlife straight to the top of the charts, Joan McKie sits teh boys down for their most in-depth chat ever...
It's been an amazing 12 months. Do you ever get the chance to sit back and think, "Wow, we're diong really well"?
Kian: The thing is, we don't even think about it. It's like anything really, we pick up Smash Hits now and see ourselves and it's just an everyday thing. We're so used to it now we don't stand back and go, "Oh my God, we're actually in Smash Hits!" or you sit down to watch MTV and your song comes on and it's like, "Oh yeah..."
Bryan: It hits you when you have a week off, and you come home, and you sit in the same chair you used to sit in when you'd come home from school, and you make a cup of tea, then suddenly your song comes on the radio. That's when you're back doing something normal and ordinary.
It's like Gary Barlow once said, vacuuming and making a cup of coffee in your ownbhouse becomes a big deal...
Shane: Exactly! Those things are actually enjoyable because you never do them anymore. You do them just to make you feel at home. My family ahve a cafe and when I'm at home I just help dad cook and stuff and it makes me feel I've really come home. Obviously I don;t go down when it's really busy, I just go downa nd have a laugh with my dad and mess around. Or I'll go up to the horses, 'cos I've done it all my life and I never do it now. I never see a horse. It really brings you back down to earthm you know. As everyone says, it's a rollercoaster...
Nicky: But it's hard to do the little things - if Shane goes home and gets up in the monring, the first thing that'd cross his mind would be to help his dad, you don't think, "Oh, I can't do this 'cos of the fans".
Has that got you into trouble in the past six months? Have to wanted to go to the pub and thought, "Oh no, I can't"?
All: Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Bryan: Just walking down the road!
Kian: It's worse when you go home, 'cos your initial reaction is to ring up all your mates and your mum and dad and say, "Let's go out!", but when you do, everyone's turning and looking at you. You don't actually realise that people look at you differently now. We don't look at ourselves differently. You (pointing at SH) don't look at us differently...
Shane: Our lives have changed, and we have to accept the fact that people are looking at us differently now 'cos they see us on TV and we've had three number ones and stuff. We have to get us into the frame of mind that this is how it's giong to be, and we've got to kieep our feel on the ground.
If you know a year ago what you know now, about the hassle and everything, wouold you still have got into it?
Kian: Of course!
Shane: It's not a hassle. Every job is hard if you think about it. Maybe we work longer than a lot of people, but it's still one of the best jobs in the world and we're five of the luckiest guys in the world to be doing it. We've got such a life ahead of us and it's up to us what we make of us. A year ago I was at home just dreaming of this, how could I be unhappy?
Kian: And it's not the number ones or the fame, it's getting on stage in front of the fans that makes it worthwhile.
But you're not motivated by money?
Shane: As Kian said, the whole buzz of it, getting on that stage in front of 10,000 people is the best feeling in your life. The money and all taht will come with itm and if you have success, you'll have a few pounds and that's great, but that's the icing on the cake. LIke Mark says, what's the point of having money if you're not happy.
Nicky: You've go tto be happy to get on stage - if you're smiling, the people are gonna smile back at you. But a lot of times at the very start we were getting on stag and, yeah, we were smiling and looking like we were having a good time, but deep down we were, like, "Oh my God, what the hell are we dion''?" But once you've relaxed on stage, that's what gets you up in the morning.
We've had emails from Australia saying you'd been takling about the Smash Hits Tour!
Shane: Yeah, 'cos that was the first time we were really starting to mix with all the other acts. Everyone was around, like Five, Billie and A1, and it was such a laugh to walk round and have all your friends there. The parties are brilliant fun as well, being there and doing karaoke and stuff was such an amazing laugh.
Bryan: ...and that's why we're always talking about it!
Nicky: The Smash Hits Tour was a huge thing for us 'cos at the time we were really down, really tired, but knowing we were going back on the tour really lifted us.
Living in and out of each other's pockets must be difficult - how do you cope?
Shane: You just hvae to learn to live with it. We all know each others' likes and dislikes and we know the little things that annoy each other, but you have toi be professional about it. You know what Nicky likes for breakfast, or the way Mark likes his cereal, and the little things that keep you together. Obviously there are days when you wake up and you'll go (shouting, "Nicky! Get off that seat, that's my chair!!" or whatever, but it's part and parcel of living together 24/7. We're like brothers, but we fight like brothers as well.
Have you ever rowed so much that you've reduced each other to tears?
Shane: No, there's never been a row, never been a physical fight.
Bryan: And there never will be.
Nicky: We can't be nice to each other all the time. Like when you're at home, you're giong to have fights with your mum, your dad - whoever's there you're going to fall out with them someday - you get things off your chest and then it's gone.
Mark: I think it're more like... not in a physical way, but it's like a cross between brothers and like a boyfriend/girlfriend thing. You might see your brothers a couple of hours a day, but we're out all the time so we're as close as a boyfriend and girlfriend.
Who is the biggest loner in the band?
Mark: Me.
Nicky: I think Mark likes his privacy and his space the most. Mark was brought up in the countryside and he likes, not really a quieter life, but he likes to get away from everything, whereas I hate rooming on my own. I get lonely, but Mark would always want a seperate room.
Shane: I lived right beside town, not in town, so I love both surroundings, I like people around and cars flying by, but I always had a room on my own and stuff...
Mark: Sometimes you just want to go back home and watch TV and not have all this attention. That's the way I am.
Kian: I never wish that it's not happening, but sometimes you don't have a minute to think. You're in a situation where you can't even scratch your bum 'cos there's always someone looking at you.
What's the weirdest thing somebody has said about you in the past 12 months?
Nicky: Someone said we had no musical talent. (Shaking his head) No musical talent in our bodies.
Shane: Yeah, but if someone's gonna be like that, it just kinda speaks for itself. You know we couldn't be here today if we didn't have some sort of talent in our bones! It's really annoying 'cos you hear a lot of people say it, "Oh they're a pop band, what happened there? How did that start up? I bet they just picked 'em off the street, tyeh first four or five people they see..."
What do you want you do next year?
Shane: Next year on the Smash Hits poll we want to win the biggest, biggest band in the universe.
Nicky: We want to beat Take That's record. What did they win? Like nine or something?
Kian & Mark: Eight, eight!
Mark: Do you remember that year when they won eight awards?
Kian: Well we want Westlife to win eight awards this year!