OUR STORY 10 page

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 524.

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We had our own thoughts, so it wasn't a big surprise, said Shane. We were just so relieved he was able to tell us, we were made up him. We were all just over the moon and we gave him a hug, we were so excited. You could see he was so relieved at our reaction, but how else would we react? He was comfortable straight away. It was a great day for him and for us. It takes an awful lot of balls to do what Mark did normally, but because he is famous and he knew there would be attention on him, it must have been extra hard. It must have taken an awful lot of guts. Since then he has become someone that a lot of people look up to, and rightly so. Young guys look up to him and I'm proud of him for his courage and for being himself. I wasn't surprised at all, added Kian, you could sense it had been coming, he just needed time to get his own thoughts together. I just said, 'Great!' I was delighted for him and you could see a burden had been lifted straight away. Although it was such a huge deal for him at the time, now we don't even think about it. Mark is Mark, and he has Kevin, and that's the way it is. I love the fact that now he doesn't need to worry about that ever again. When Mark told us he was gay, recalls Nicky, I was delighted for him. I had tears in my eyes. It seemed such a relief, I could see a weight had lifted off him and there was an element of that for the band as well. We were all just so pleased. Mark is the deepest thinker of the band, so we knew how much it would have meant to him and how much he would have been thinking it all through. Once he'd come to terms with things in his own head and then shared it with his loved ones, he was a much happier man. At the time, if it had altered the band at all if there had been any negative repercussions whatsoever, we just felt, so be it. Even if it meant the end of the band, so be it, Mark had to be happy. We didn't think our fans were that fickle, we knew them better than that, but if Mark coming out had caused us any problems at all, we wouldn't have cared - it was far, far more important for him to be happy. Some things in life are much bigger than any band could ever be. As it turned out, as Mark's explained, he didn't get one single negative comment or letter. There was a big change in Mark immediately afterwards. He was able to walk down the street with Kevin, hold hands, kiss in public, have dinner, go to clubs or events together, just be a couple. He is entitled to that and so is Kevin. He'd not had his life as he wanted it for some time and then suddenly it all changed and I think he couldn't believe how much better it all was, how much easier it became for them both. He's become more outgoing too, he's got new friends, a new confidence - it's been brilliant. We are so close as people and we knew this was as big a subject as anything for him, like us having children. We were - and are - very conscious of keeping it private, though - it really is his private life. In 2006 Mark took the band to a gay club together in Dublin. All four of us went and it was pandemonium. We are pretty well-known faces in Dublin anyway - individually you get stopped a lot and asked to have your picture taken, to sign autographs, all that, pretty constantly - but for all four of us to go out together, to a gay club, it was mayhem! When we got there, it was karaoke night as well, so we had the best time. It was brilliant, too, because we were with Mark and I felt like the great night was a celebration for Mark. Since then, he's been able to completely relax. Everyone knows now and he is much, much happier. Without a doubt, it is one of the happiest moments in the band, as far as I am concerned.

Chapter Twenty

`A Madcap Stroke

of Genius`

With Brian gone and the Rat Pack album finished, remembers Shane, we all felt like we really had a point to prove with the next album, our seventh. There was definitely the feeling in the band that if this next album wasn't massive, it could all be coming to an end. We didn't want to be a band that sold 700,000 copies of an album in the UK - not that there's anything wrong with that - but we were used to, and still wanted, to sell a million plus every year. We had a point to prove. We had to make the first original pop album since Brian left. We needed a new lease of life. We knew that. The record company knew that. There were even whispers that some bands get dropped... We had to put out a big album to keep Westlife at the top level. And any big album needed to have big singles. For several months, Louis had been telling us about a song he wanted us to record. Simon wasn't into it at first, but Louis was insistent, he was certain it would be big. It was a tune that had been knocking around for a couple of years. That song was called, 'You Raise Me Up' and, for Westlife, it changed everything. The song was written by Brendan Graham and Rolf Loveland, an Irishman and a Norwegian guy. Brian Kennedy had recorded it in Ireland and Josh Groban had released it in the States and then sold millions of albums because of it, so it was not a new song, it had been out already in various forms and in numerous genres - in fact, it had been recorded in 125 languages! So, to be honest, when Louis said, 'Why don't you try this?' I actually said, 'Louis, you're fucking mad.' I did. I thought it was one of his madcap schemes. It was. A madcap stroke of genius. We didn't see it like that at first, admits Mark. After the Rat Pack album, it was so nice to be listening to demos of pop music again. We are pop singers and we are proud of that fact, so it was a relief to get back to that. We had a meeting and they played us this demo of 'You Raise Me Up'. If I remember rightly, the demo was actually pretty ordinary. I think some of the band thought it was a joke. I really liked it, but I did worry how commercial it was, if I am being honest. At the same time, it was something Louis thought would work and when he says that, you have to listen to his reasons. Louis has been in the music industry for years. He knows his stuff. He isn't just a marketing person, he's a marketing genius, I truly believe that. But he's not a marketing nerd. He doesn't make decision based on facts and figures and studies and statistics. He just brainstorms and comes out with these big, mad ideas and three out of four - sometimes four out of four - will be incredible. When I first heard 'You Raise Me Up', says Nicky, I thought it sounded like something you'd sing in church. I liked it, but I didn't think it was a single. I couldn't hear it on radio, I couldn't see it being used on TV... ... and there was another song in the picture for the single, a song called Amazing', a mid-tempo song, recalls Shane. For a while the band was pushing for 'Amazing' as a single. The first time I actually heard 'You Raise Me Up', says Kian, was when I went to Simon Cowell's home in LA for lunch with Jodi. We were chatting about everything - Westlife, the music industry in general, all sorts. Then he asked me if I knew the song. I said yes, and he asked if I thought it would be good for Westlife. I said it was a great song, but wasn't it already well known? But I also said it was worth a try, why not? As a band, however, we were quite adamant that we would go with 'Amazing'. It was up tempo and young. We felt it was like 'I Want It That Way' by the Backstreet Boys, and the record company loved it too. In hindsight, Simon Cowell made the right choice, though, because the sound of songs like 'Amazing' wasn't doing as well as it used to. Plus it wasn't typical Westlife. Simon wanted a crossover song. So, yes, Louis mentioned the idea first, then Simon reinforced it, drove it home. Then I took a call from Sonny, who said, 'Well, will you first listen to the most recent arrangement of 'You Raise Me Up' please? I think you'll change your mind..." We'd heard about six different arrangements by this point, but this final one was brilliant. We had a listen and decided as a band to go with 'You Raise Me Up' after all. There are lots of versions of 'You Raise Me Up' out there, points out Mark. We could see the appeal, so when we got into the studio, we started to sing it and play around with ideas. I was singing with Shane, swapping lines, experimenting, and it suddenly started to sound like a massive Westlife song. I heard a nice gospel element in it and I sang it with that in mind. I really enjoyed recording with the gospel choir. What hadn't made much sense on the demo worked perfectly when me and Shane recorded it. The song just seemed to suit our voices. By the time it was finished, we had this perfect Westlife record, almost out of the blue. We'd all recorded our parts for the song separately, explains Shane, so we were unaware what the final mix sounded like before we all sat round that table listening to the playback. The hairs stood up on my neck, it was one of those moments, we were looking around at each other, stunned, thinking, Christ, this song is massive. This is unreal Even then, though, recalls Shane, I wasn't sure if it should be the lead single. This was the track that would effectively launch the second phase of our career, the time after Brian had left. But we'd already got some opinions; we'd played the track to our families, our friends back home. The reaction was incredible - they all loved it and said we should go for it. The atmospheric black-and-white video for the single was superb. The director hit the nail on the head; in fact the record company nailed it in every way. 'You Raise Me Up' was released in November 2005. It went straight in at number 1. It won Record of the Year. Our corresponding album, Face to Face, was massive, entering the charts at the top and knocking Robbie Williams off the number 1 slot after only a week. We were nominated for Best Pop Act at the Brit Awards, the first time we'd been nominated since 2002. It just kept getting bigger as well. The first public event we did with that song, recounts Nicky, was at the Royal Albert Hall for a breast cancer charity. I'd just lost my 32-year-old cousin, Debbie, a month before that to breast cancer, so it was a pretty weird experience for me personally. When we sang 'You Raise Me Up' live, the audience reaction was unbelievable. Staggering. We knew then that something was happening with that song. You could just feel it. The song had a life of its own. 'You Raise Me Up' took us back round the world again. We went down to Australia and did that song on three TV shows - we were only there for four days - then we left and the album went straight in at number 1 down there. Australia was somewhere we really wanted to break, because apart from America, it was the main territory we just couldn't crack. We had New Zealand, we had all of Asia and Africa, we had Europe. Now we had Australia too. When we went to Australia with that song, reminisces Mark, it was one of the nicest times ever in Westlife. All our other halves came down with us for a start. Also, because that was our first number 1 down there, we were treated like a new band, everything was fresh and people were so enthusiastic and excited. I remember the girl who plays Sally from Home & Away coming to the launch party and that was a very strange feeling, because I loved that soap. We were going on all the big TV shows, travelling and meeting loads of new people and we were with our loved ones, partying. It was brilliant. The song was so international, says Kian, it even broke us in mainland China. We'd always done well in Hong Kong, but to break mainland China was amazing, very rare for a Western band... 'You Raise Me Up' was a real blessing for us, continues Mark. To me, it was exactly what we needed to be doing. It was a world-class hit on a worldwide level. It's only a personal opinion, but you put something like 'Mandy' next to that song and it just doesn't stand up. 'You Raise Me Up', says Nicky, was like a footballer who is nearing the end of his contract scoring the winner in the FA Cup final at Wembley. We only had one album left to run with Sony-BMG and, don't forget, the Rat Pack album had been seen as far from a commercial hit. But now, we had 'You Raise Me Up' behind us and it changed everything. 'You Raise Me Up' was just enormous, our biggest single yet - and all this at a time when downloads were crucifying singles sales. We negotiated a colossal new record deal in the aftermath of the song's release. Remember, only a few weeks previously, there had been that moment before the song came out when we thought we might even get dropped. Suddenly there was no chance of the band coming to an end. It felt like the whole band situation had been re-energized completely. That song was - and still is - a phenomenon. I do believe 'You Raise Me Up' took Westlife to the next level, agrees Kian. It saved us in a sense, because things could have slipped and disappeared. That song put us back up there. It was a worldwide hit and it made everything feel like the early days again. It gave us a genuine new lease of life. Suddenly everyone was excited about the band again. At the end of the day, we're in the music industry and if the music isn't good enough, you might as well go home. I think the record company got the corresponding album, Face to Face, absolutely spot on, says Shane. Even the cover was well thought out. Our four heads together, it fitted with the fans facing our music, the need for us to have a big album - it just worked. With the windfall of publicity and acclaim and success that 'You Raise Me Up' gave us, we were off on an absolute flyer and we never looked back. Without a doubt, 'You Raise Me Up' not only saved our career, but gave it that jump-start we needed to get back to the highest level. It's a massive part of our career and to Brendan Graham and Rolf Loveland, I say thank you for writing that song.

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We've done several high-profile collaborations, recalls Nicky, such as with Mariah and Donna Summer. With Diana Ross, it was very different from Mariah Carey. We were doing the old hit' When You Tell Me That You Love Me' for a winter 2005 release. As we were getting ready, one of her people came in and said, 'Now, gentlemen, please address her as Miss Ross.' Even the director had to call her that. I don't get that. I'm not one to cause a fuss about it, but I don't really have much conversation about it, to be honest. Towards the end of the day, we asked if we could have a picture with Miss Ross and she said yes. Then, when our security man got the camera out - just a family snaps type camera - she said, 'Who are these people with cameras?' I explained and she said it was OK but that the picture couldn't be used publicly. So all we have is that one shot of us with her. To be fair, though, she turned up on time at 9 a.m. and worked very hard until late that day. She certainly grafted and put the hours in, that Miss Ross.

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Around this time we were doing a fairly big promo tour in Asia, recalls Nicky. For some reason on this trip my stomach was all over the place. I had the shits really bad. I took some tablets, but it was no use, there were regular and severe explosions. We all met up and piled into the people carrier for a short journey to a TV station. We pulled out on to a main road crammed with traffic hurtling past, only for my stomach to start rumbling again. 'Er, driver, how long will it take to get to the TV station please?' It was only about ten minutes, but by the time we got there I was desperate. I jumped out of the car before it had even stopped and ran in, past the reception and suffered another Asiatic explosion in the gents just in time. We were there to do a pre-record of some songs. As they were doing our make-up, I had to go to the loo again. It was ridiculous. Then we got called out and went up to the studio to start filming. As I stood next to my mic, my stomach started rumbling again. I was thinking, Mind over matter, Nicky, keep calm... Then it really started rumbling... After every song, I needed another toilet trip and I'm sure the studio audience were wondering what on Earth I was doing. The TV lights were so hot I was sweating like a pig, I was off-colour, gaunt from being ill - I was a wreck. Then the music came on for the last song in the set, 'You Raise Me Up'. We were on top form, singing beautifully, looking immaculate - classic Westlife. 'When I am down, and, oh, my soul so weary...' More stomach rumbling, this time really bad. 'When troubles come and my heart burdened be ...' I was pretty burdened myself by the time we were halfway through the song. As Shane reached the finale, my stomach went nuclear... He went into his solo closing line: 'You raise me up ...' Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle... 'To more...' Jeez, for Christ's sake, Shane, hurry up... 'Than I...' Oh, for fuck's sake, man, pleeeaassee... 'Can...' We're nearly there, come on, Shane, come on... Shane? He held that last pause for what seemed like an hour ... It was probably the same pause as always, but I was about to have a major personal incident on TV, so I turned to him and said, 'I can't fucking wait any longer to get out of here!' - at which point he burst out laughing and completely fluffed his last note. The director said, 'Sorry, chaps, that was no good, let's run from the top...' 'Run' was exactly what I did, in more ways than one.

Chapter Twenty – One

Family

We were actually on tour in Dublin when my twin baby boys arrived, recalls Nicky. Georgina wasn't due for another eight weeks, so it was all a bit worrying. She had some tell-tale signs, so we went to hospital. They kept her in for observation that day and that evening I went off and did the first of the 12 shows at the Point Depot in Dublin. I went back to the hospital after the show, saw her and made sure she was OK, then I went back home to sleep at about 2 a.m. The phone rang at 6.45 the next morning, I rushed straight over to the hospital and called my mam on the way. I heard later on that Mam and my nana had the candles lit and were praying as they waited on the news. My boys, Rocco and Jay, were born at 9.55 a.m. by emergency C-section. What an experience that was. Georgina said I looked like George Clooney from ER - funny. Wow, my heart was pounding. I now had two little boys and they were so small. I was obviously worried because they were very small - Rocco was just 2lb 13 oz and Jay was 31b 11 oz - but our professor, Fionnuala McCauliffe, said to me, 'They're fine, they're perfectly healthy. They're very underweight, but they are in the right place and your show must go on!' Amazing. We caught G's mam Miriam on the hop because she was on holiday in Chile. Somewhere like Spain would have been easier! It took me a couple of hours to get hold of her and give her the news of her grandsons' arrival. She'd only just landed and had to fly straight back home. I also remember the promoter ringing me and congratulating me and then going, 'Are the gigs still on?' I really want to say this, though - the vibe around Dublin and Ireland for me at the time was just incredible. It seemed as though everyone in the street was stopping me - they obviously knew who Georgina's dad was - and it was in the news, on the radios, people were like 'beep beep' on their car horns. Fair play to everyone. It was like I'd won an election or scored a World Cup winning goal! People were so warm and supportive, I'll never forget that. Then the crowd at the Point Depot that night... Oh my God, how to describe it! I had tears in my eyes the whole show, it was just like a fairytale. I remember Louis coming up to me going, 'This is like a soap opera, you couldn't write this!' I would do these shows, literally thinking of Georgina and the boys all the time, how they were, then race to the hospital, grab some sandwiches, see them, say goodnight, catch a few hours' sleep, then go back to the hospital all day, then do the next show. It was manic but brilliant. I did those 12 shows on pure adrenaline. There were paparazzi outside the hospital every morning and every evening; I was getting photographed every day. I was on national radio and Ireland's biggest chat show, The Late Late Show, as well as the front pages of every newspaper. It was a crazy time. Then Georgina was coming home, but the babies had to stay in ICU for a while yet. Footballers get some serious money and pop stars get some serious money, but nurses and doctors - man, they are life-savers! We were obviously very sad that the babies had to stay behind, but we stood on the hospital steps and I said a few words to the media. Georgina couldn't talk. Then we got in the car and drove home and what I'd just said came on the radio. The house had been a building site when we'd left before, but our interior designer Paschal had performed a miracle at renaissance interiors and it was all ready for the babies. The nursery was beautiful. It's a most amazing thing, becoming a parent, and the way the babies arrived was surreal, in the middle of a tour! It was a really hard time for me and Georgina, especially Georgina, being in and out of the hospital for feeds every morning, afternoon and evening for five weeks. It took its toll - we were exhausted. We both cried every night at leaving the boys in there without us. It was heartbreaking. Jay finally arrived home first - Rocco was to come a week later - and I remember sitting in this big house with this tiny baby in the cot, motionless, just listening to him breathing. Now I've got them both home, I couldn't be happier. Rocco and Jay have changed my life, I am so lucky.

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The greatest day of my life, recalls Shane, was Saturday 23 July 2005, when my beautiful daughter Nicole was born. Best day ever, for sure, nothing comes close to having your first baby. We'd obviously been waiting excitedly for our due date, but Gillian had a few problems around 37 weeks into her pregnancy and we were told she'd need to go in for a c-section the very next morning. That was strange, because we'd been looking forward to the baby coming so much, but we weren't sure when; then, all of a sudden, someone was saying, The baby will be here tomorrow morning.' We slept really well, surprisingly, but very early the next morning, I was bouncing around the room, I was wide awake, so excited! I was more awake than I'd ever been in my life! I was bouncing round like a lunatic. I couldn't wait to be a dad. Once Gillian had gone into surgery, it was pretty nerve-wracking. I put on a green surgical gown and got to pretend to be a doctor for a short while. They took her in alone at first, to get started and I remember one of the surgeon's assistants came out and, by way of reassuring me, said, 'It's all OK, they've made the first incision!' Great, thanks. Like I'd feel much better knowing that. I'm only messing, because the team at Sligo General were fantastic. Dr Carthage and his team were brilliant. It's a major operation. I went in after 'the first incision' and stood by Gillian's head. They'd put this sheet up by her chest to act as a screen from what was happening, but I could see over it and I kept peeping. Then I saw the precise moment that Nicole's head popped out. I'll never forget it, her little head, eyes closed but looking towards me. It was incredible. I just started crying my eyes out and so did Gillian. We were proper bawling, we were so happy. I was so ecstatic. We had a few names, but as soon as we saw her it was Nicole, without a doubt. She was only just over 5 lbs, quite small, but she was out of hospital after four days and it was brilliant to have her home with us. She slept in the little Moses basket and I learned to sleep with one eye open! It's an indescribable feeling, becoming a parent, but any father reading this book will know it. You don't know how to deal with it, but it's all happiness, all happiness. Best moment of my life, without a doubt.

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The tour for Face to Face was great, says Shane, partly because I really loved singing many of the songs night after night. I know that some people often wonder how you stay interested in the same songs for weeks, sometimes months, and when we are up on that stage, I can imagine people wondering if we mean it or if we are going through the motions. Let me tell you, with Westlife, that's never the case. Not least because we have certain songs that are just a privilege to sing to people. The obvious example is 'You Raise Me Up'. Along with 'Flying without Wings', it's our anthem, and I just don't ever get sick of singing it. It's one of those songs, it has this unbelievable effect on me every time I start singing it. I always think about my family when I'm singing that, my mum and dad: 'You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.' Singing those words always makes me proud of what I've done in the band and it's because of my parents that I have done that and I want them to be proud of me. Same with 'Flying without Wings' and the line 'Some find it in the face of their children, some find it in their lover's eyes'. I might be in front of 20,000 people, but at that precise moment, it is the most personal emotion in the world. I project myself like this every single time. When I'm on stage, I do try and put myself within the song and try and take some meaning out of it. We don't write a lot of our songs, so you have to feel the words - I try to imagine if I had written them, what the lyrics would mean, what the creator was thinking when he put those words on paper. As far as I am concerned, if I do this, I sing the songs better. It's a fact. It works the same way when you record songs too. These top recording studios are so technological, so spotless, so precise, that you have to find a way of taking yourself out of that environment and injecting raw emotion into your voice. Steve Mac is brilliant at helping singers do that. We've worked with him a lot over the years and he's always been an expert at getting emotions out of you. Our Swedish songwriters are brilliant at getting the power of the song and the importance of every note; Steve works on the emotion. Both ways are brilliant. In the first instance, Steve will ask you to read the lyrics through a few times, then he'll play the song through repeatedly too, telling you to think about the meaning. He'll tell me to think of Nicole, or Gillian. Then, he'll just begin recording, start playing the song and see what comes out when I sing. By this point, I've forgot I'm in a multi-million pound studio, I might as well be singing in me sitting room. I am singing that song to me mum, dad, wife or Nicole right there and then. Skip forward to 2007, we had a song on the ninth album called 'Already There', which is all to do with being away from your child. The song was written by Lonestar, who also wrote my all-time favourite track, 'Amazing', which, for me, is my and Gillian's song. I'd been away from home and from Nicole for three agonizing weeks - too long! I go mad in the head after about five or six days, and two weeks is really tough, but three weeks! It was killing me, man. I read the lyrics to 'Already There' and it slaughtered me, 'He called her on the road from a lonely, cold, hotel room, just to hear her say "I love you" ... A little voice came on the phone, said, "Daddy, when you coming home ...?"' I started crying. I'm not ashamed to admit it, it really upset me. Those words just summed up how I was feeling, I'd been away too long and thinking of her phoning me and talking about her imaginary friend, the sunshine in her hair, Jesus, it cut me up. I have to be really honest and say that I was actually crying in the recording booth and some of those words sung through my tears are on the recorded version of that song. I was crying on every take, I was honestly crying for an hour solid, I couldn't help it. It's the first and only time I have recorded a song while crying, but the feelings were just so raw. You couldn't get any more emotional in the studio. Nicky pushed so much for us to record the song. He'd got his twins by then and he absolutely loved it... Never before had I been touched so vividly and emotionally by a song, says Nicky. We were in Sweden recording and the producers played it to me. Rocco and Jay were about three months old and BANG, it hit me like a right hook. I was in ribbons. I recorded it while crying my eyes out, and played it to G., then played it to the lads. They initially weren't too keen on another cover, but I said, 'Wait till you hear the lyrics. And I quickly convinced Shane. It is my favourite from the album and, for me, it should have been the first single instead of 'Home'... Nicky was telling me about it, said Shane, then I read those lyrics and it was all over, oh, my good God. I was literally sobbing in the booth and I didn't care because I was singing it so well and getting the emotion out. What a song. I'm so happy on stage, it's unbelievable, like. When I'm on stage, bar literally having Nicole with me and holding her and hugging her and Gillian, it's probably the happiest time, to be there. So every time I sing that song on stage, I think of recording it and I think of Nicole and I think of those words that say so much. Even if she's at home in bed in Sligo and I'm on stage in Stockholm, in my head I'm singing to her, and for those few minutes, it's all alright, like.

Chapter Twenty – Two

Good Distractions

Nicky, it's Louis. How you doing?' I was on holiday in Crete, sitting watching the World Cup, when he phoned. 'Hey, Louis, what's happening?' 'Cowell wants to do a love songs cover album, so pick your favourite 25 songs or so, send them through to me and we'll talk some more when you get back.' Well that's ok, that's a covers album and not what I'd expected. I'm not sure how the rest of the lads will feel about it but I could see it could work. Still, Louis and Simon know what they are doing, so I went with it! Seriously, though, I didn't mind choosing the songs, that was quite fun. I was walking round the garden holding Nicole, who was just a baby, said Shane, when my mobile rang. It was Louis. I have to admit I wasn't overly keen on a themed album, to be perfectly honest, but with Simon and Louis you have to listen to what their idea is, they've had so much success and deserve your respect. We'd been scouting round for great original songs for a while and we weren't happy with what we were finding, so the love album' concept was a good one, it made sense. We didn't want to take a year off at that stage. The project wasn't without its hitches, however, remembers Nicky. We were flying in to sing Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart' on the BBC Lottery show, a song which was lined up to be our next single. It wasn't in London, it was in some tiny studio in the middle of nowhere which hadn't got the facilities to sing live, so we had to mime. We had to get a helicopter there and it was a freezing cold night. I was sitting in this chopper with our tour manager, security guy and Shane. I strapped myself in and when I looked up, the windscreen and windows were all completely frosted over, you couldn't see out at all. As we'd walked towards the helicopter, I'd noticed it had landed in the middle of some really tall trees. 'Do you reckon he'll be able to sort these windows out, Shane?' 'Yeah, course, not a problem, Nicky,' he replied. The pilot climbed in and was getting ready to take off. We were all watching him a little nervously, even Shane, and he's got a helicopter so he knows what he's talking about. We were literally waiting for the demister to kick in any second and clear the windscreen. Then the pilot flips open his window panel, grabs the cuff of his jacket in his palm, leans out of the helicopter and scrubs a small bit of frost off the windscreen, about the size of a dinner plate. I looked back at Shane and just raised an eyebrow. Then the pilot started up the rotor blades ... Here I was, sitting in a freezing cold helicopter, windscreen iced over, on my way to mime to a Bonnie Tyler song. Actually, although it all sounds very comical now, at the time it was a real shot across the bows for me. I'd left Georgina back home and we'd recently found out she was pregnant. People do die in helicopters and private planes. It happens. The day after we sang on the Lottery show, I got a call from Louis. He said Simon wanted to pull Total Eclipse' as the single. He said he'd thought we looked bored off our tits and, do you know what? He'd hit the nail on the head. We'd been standing there in the suits, miming, Turn around, every now and then ...' and I've got to be honest, I was thinking, For fuck's sake, we're better than this. Once again, though, with regard to the album idea, Simon was right, points out Shane. The Love Album was massive, selling a million copies in the UK alone. We have always, as a band, gauged our success on how many copies of an album we sell in the UK. We might be doing three or four million around the world, and that's important, but it's also hard to put in context, so we always look to UK sales. This might sound ridiculous, but we look to the million copies mark for every record. That's a lot of albums. I know many bands don't come anywhere near that mark and are very happy. Fair play like, but we're victims of our own success, I guess! The money is nice, of course, but it's the success that drives us. If the label said, 'Here's twice as much money as you'd normally get, but we think this album will only sell half as many,' I wouldn't take it. We do try to be perfectionists and I'm not ashamed of saying that at all. It's the way I am. You are used to what you are used to, and we always want to work an album hard and sell a million.