Westlife: Our Story. Westlife
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train, what was I thinking?
We got on the train and met Louis at the audition. We went into this room at the Westbury hotel and then this man came in with black hair wearing really high-waisted black trousers. I didn’t know him at all.
‘Hello, I’m Simon Cowell. Pleased to meet you.’
Mark: I was like, God, he’s a bit posh, a bit cocky. I didn’t even know what ‘A&R’ meant. I just thought he owned Sony-BMG.
I was nervous at that audition, remembers Shane, but not because of Simon. He wasn’t famous at all at this stage, he was just a successful A&R man from Sony. His big band of the time was Five, so we knew he would be great to work with. The room was tiny; we were standing pretty much next to him and Louis.
I performed terribly.
The rest of the lads were great, but I knew I hadn’t done the job.
Simon seemed unimpressed, spoke briefly with Louis and then Louis gestured us into another room.
As I came out of the audition room, Louis grabbed me and kinda half-hit me – not a slap or punch, just in exasperation.
‘What the fuck was that, Shane? It was shite. He doesn’t like ya.’
Louis was really mad at me. I’d never seen him like that before and I was so shocked. He was so passionate about the band and he was so into what he was doing, he couldn’t believe I’d been so poor for Simon Cowell.
‘I was counting on you and you let me down. You look terrible, what’s up with ya?’
‘Well, I had a few last night and…’
‘What?!’
He was just raging at me and I was apologizing, because I knew he was right.
He told us that Simon actually only liked Kian and Mark and particularly didn’t like me. I later found out that when Simon had said he didn’t like me, Louis had said, ‘Well, I think he’s a star,’ to which Simon had replied, ‘Well, he wasn’t a star here today, Louis.’
Louis had then spoken with Simon in private and told him he’d get new members in, he’d work on the band and sort it all out and if Simon would come back one more time, he’d love it.
‘OK, but only because it’s you, Louis,’ said Simon, and then he left.
My whole future flashed before me. I thought, It’s over, it’s over. Louis is going to tell me to get back on the train and piss off.
‘I know you can be a star,’ Louis said to me. ‘I believe in you too much, so sort your life out and don’t come up here looking shite again.’
His reaction sounds harsh, but d’you know what? It gave me the biggest kick in the arse that I’d ever got. I thought I’d blown everything and then for Louis to say what he did, I felt like I was being given a lifeline.
Louis wasn’t about to let the momentum stall, explains Kian, so he sent us to London to record some songs with an up-and-coming songwriter called Steve Mac. He told us this guy could write brilliant pop songs and we were all very excited.
When we got there, we all sang. He listened to each of us carefully and then we recorded three songs, ‘Everybody Knows’, ‘The GoodThing’ and ‘Forever’, all Steve Mac/Wayne Hector songs. The idea was that we’d have some good strong material for our next phase of showcasing for labels.
There was such a buzz around Steve Mac, you just knew he was going to go somewhere, recalls Shane. We’d done those songs in the small studio back in Sligo, but nothing like this – it looked like a spaceship in there.
We were really nervous going in, obviously. We were new to the game and I wondered, What’s yer man gonna think of us? After all, the whole industry was talking about him. I thought he’d soon be talking about us, saying, This lot are shite.
As it turned out, he was very complimentary. It was great. He loved our singing.
That was the first time we’d had such nice things said by a professional in a studio at that level and it did us the world of good. For me personally, that was a massive boost.
Then, BANG, another shock, explains Kian. A short while after the disastrous audition for Simon Cowell, Louis said to me, ‘Listen, Kian, I don’t think Graham is right for the band either.’
I was like, ‘Jesus, no.’
Louis explained his concerns and I asked if he was certain. He said he knew what the music business wanted and that Graham didn’t quite fit into that.
I was devastated. Graham was my old mate, we were really good friends. I was like, ‘Oh, Louis, don’t be doing this, please.’ But at the end of the day, what could I do?
I did try to keep Graham in the band for as long as possible. It was very hard for me, that phase. We even put on a gig at the Sligo Arts Festival, videoed it and sent the tape to Louis to prove that Graham was good enough to be in the band. It was at my local community hall and I thought Graham was great.
I don’t know whether Louis watched the video or not, but he hadn’t changed his mind the next time I spoke to him.
Graham knew this was all going on, he knew what Louis had been saying, but it was still really hard.
Shane had been really upset telling Derek and he didn’t want to do it again, so Louis agreed to make the call, which he did one night when Graham was round my house. Graham went upstairs to my little brother’s box bedroom to take the call. Louis was very careful how he said it. He told him, ‘Graham, I think you should step back from this. I don’t think you’re right, I’m afraid, but I want you to be the tour manager.’
That was a nice touch and I was pleased that Graham could still be involved. I didn’t actually know what a tour manager was; I was just pleased Graham was still around.
You have to take your hat off to Graham for his reaction to it all. Bear in mind we’d already supported the Backstreet Boys and Louis was one of the biggest pop managers on the planet. Graham knew there was a very good chance it was going to go big. And yet, despite all this, when Louis mentioned the tour manager’s role, he was like, ‘Great, I’ll have a crack at that.’ Brilliant reaction. I’d have said, ‘Stuff your fucking tour manager’s job!’ but Graham was bigger than that. Fair play to him.
The problem was, now we were only a four-piece again: Michael, me, Mark and Shane.
Louis was already on it. He wanted to hold auditions for a fifth member.
I know this might sound really callous, but to a degree, we would have done almost anything Louis Walsh asked of us at this point. He was the man, he was the biggest boy band manager in Europe and here he was working with us. We were kids, we felt that something was happening and, don’t forget, we’d all agreed that we would carry on, knowing that things might get difficult and there might be casualties. So we’d have done almost anything.
Although I don’t think, says Shane, I’d have worn shiny hot pants, to be fair with you.
CHAPTER SIX THE BIGGEST PUB BAND IN THE WORLD
Even though I was still young when I left Leeds United, recalls Nicky, I’d become used to a nice lifestyle. Also, I’m a very proud person and I didn’t want anyone to think I’d failed. I especially didn’t want my mam and dad thinking I’d failed. But I didn’t know what I wanted to do next. Ever since I was a kid, apart from football, I’d wanted to be a copper. But I wasn’t really sure what was going to happen next.
I did a repeat year at Plunkett