OUR STORY 11 page

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 435.

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I first met Jodi Albert, says Kian, when I was 19 at Party in the Park in London. Our record label had a marquee in the backstage area for their acts and guests and I was chatting to Simon Cowell when Jodi walked out of it. She was so beautiful. I looked at her then turned to Simon and said, 'Oh my God, who is that?' and he replied, 'No, no, no, kiddo, she's not for you.' He explained that Jodi was only 15 at that point. He then introduced us and we chatted when we saw each other throughout the rest of the day. She was signed to Simon's label with the band Girl Thing, who he hoped would be the next Spice Girls. We got on very well straight away, even though I was just over three years older. There was definitely a connection - she was such a beautiful girl, so bubbly and loads of fun. At the after-show party, she was there and we were chatting and messing about, flirting quite a bit. For the next year, we would bump into each other an awful lot on the circuit. Girl Thing and Westlife were both very busy, so we'd see each other at TV studios, photo sessions, record company offices, and so on. One time, both bands were in Italy performing. We had a great time and chatted loads again. Brian was actually dating a girl out of Jodi's band, so we saw them socially quite a bit too. One time we went to the cinema with Nicky and Brian and I sat next to Jodi. We were flirting again, throwing popcorn at each other, that kind of stuff. For that first year, there was a lot of flirting. Sadly, Girl Thing didn't work out. It started off well but then sort of imploded. Jodi went off and I didn't see her for about a year. She got really into dancing - she is one of these multi-talented people who can do most things - so she became a professional dancer. One time my phone rang and it was Louis Walsh saying, 'Kian, you'll never guess who I'm on a video shoot with?' Jodi was the lead dancer for the promotional campaign for a young artist called Omreo Mumba and Louis was with her. He put her on the phone and we chatted for ages. It seemed that no matter what was happening in either of our careers, she was always a very big part of my life. We were phoning each other even if we weren't seeing each other and we'd chat for hours. I'd sometimes phone her at three in the morning, drunk, and she'd laugh at me! Then she got a part in Hollyoaks and that really took off for her. I'd be seeing her in magazines and newspapers the whole time. Even then, deep down, I knew I would end up with this woman, it was just a matter of timing. That year, before Christmas, I phoned her again and we started being in contact a wee bit more. I said, 'Next time you're in London, why don't we go for a coffee?' Now at this point, she was pretty much 'the Hollyoaks girl'; she was in all the magazines, she was the big name in the show. She rarely got any time off, so when she said she was coming to see me, I thought, She must be interested a little? Even though I've messed her around a bit... We met a few times in London and then went out for dinner and started kissing, nothing more. We ended up spending the odd weekend together and had a great time. The problem was, I didn't want to ruin it. I still wasn't ready to commit to Jodi - not just anyone, Jodi. I wanted it to be perfect. I felt in my bones that this was the person I should be with for the rest of my life and I couldn't afford to risk messing that up. So, eventually I apologized and said it wasn't the right time. Understandably, Jodi didn't see why I was saying that, but I kinda cooled things off for a while. We didn't really speak for the next few months, then in April I was at the Soccer 6 celebrity football tournament and Jodi was there. Nicky came into the changing room and told me. I started asking him, 'What does she look like? Is she OK?' I'd always be asking these questions, even though I wasn't with her, and if I heard she had a boyfriend I'd be raging jealous, even though I'd no right to be! I saw her at the tournament and we chatted and she was quite blase, not stand-offish at all, though after the way things had gone before Christmas, she had every right to be. This was all because of me - deep inside, I knew Jodi was for me, but I wanted it to be perfect when we finally did get together. I didn't want to rush it and make mistakes, break up, make up, all that. She was still in Hollyoaks, still on all these magazine covers, and it was a constant reminder. I'd see these photos and interviews and think, Oh no! I wonder if I've messed it up? About two months later we were on the Westlife Greatest Hits tour in Manchester. I'd been texting Jodi and had asked her to come down to the show. She had, and security had gone to fetch her and show her through to the dressing room. When she walked in that night, it was WOW! Just like the first time I saw her all over again. I look back now and think when I saw her at Party in the Park, it was probably love at first sight, then that night in Manchester, it was all those same feelings again. It was one of those moments in your life you'll never forget. She was 19 now and I was 23. When she walked in I was gobsmacked, knocked off my feet, literally. I thought to myself there and then, This is it, she's the one. There's no way I can mess this up again. I was a different person that night with Jodi - she'd never seen me so interested. I was excited to be with her, listening to her every word. I definitely gave her the vibe that I wanted us to happen. We'd both been in relationships, but stayed in touch and now it seemed it was time for us to get together finally. That night I told her how I felt. I said I knew I'd messed her around for those years. I explained everything that had gone on in my head and said I wanted to be with her. We kissed and talked and that was that. The next day I phoned her and said, 'I want you to be my girlfriend. This isn't just messing again.' She was reluctant to say yes straight away. She was a lot more grown up now and didn't want to get hurt. She finally did say yes, though, and we've been together ever since. Six weeks later, we went on our first holiday together to Barbados. I'd been trying to tell her I loved her for about two weeks and I had grand plans how I'd do it on holiday, walking under the stars on the beach and all that. As it turned out, we were splashing around in the sea one day, messing around, having fun, when I suddenly stopped, held her close to me and told her I loved her. It was a very serious moment and she said she loved me too. We hugged and kissed and it was very special. The rest of the holiday was just like a fairytale - scuba diving, playing golf, walking, chatting, we did everything together. Back at home, her part in Hollyoaks and my career in Westlife meant it was quite hard to see each other sometimes. She'd come down to London and I'd get up to Liverpool whenever I could. Then she decided she wanted to leave Hollyoaks and move on with her career and, with that, came down to London. I was delighted that she'd be so near! We saw each other a lot more straight away, our relationship became more serious and then we moved in together. Then we got our dog Prince! I'd never had a dog and we'd talked about getting one, but I was worried that with our respective careers, it would be a big commitment. Our lifestyles are very busy and fast. Then one time I went surfing for a week, came back and there was Prince! I fell in love with him straight away, he's our little boy, and so now we have our family. I started to think about asking Jodi to marry me. I'd always planned to go back to Barbados and ask her on the same stretch of beach and sea where we first said we loved each other, but I knew that if I did that, I'd just want to jump straight on a plane and tell all my family and friends and have a party! So at Christmas 2007, I made my plans. The day before, I asked Jodi's father for his permission and he said he was delighted. The next morning, we were opening our presents with Jodi's parents there. I gave her a stylish designer bag, but said, 'There is another present, but I'm still waiting for it to arrive.' Everyone except me and Jodi's father was very mystified! Then I went off hoovering and cleaning, and Jodi was like, 'What are you doing?!' I just wanted it all to be perfect. What I was waiting for was for Jodi's sister and niece and nephew to arrive so I could ask her when we were all together. When they came for Christmas dinner, Jodi's father organized them all to head towards the kitchen and then I took Jodi's hand, told her to stand in front of the tree and close her eyes. I had the ring in a box and went down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She threw her arms around me and hugged me tight and I said, 'You've got to say yes now!' She did and we hugged and kissed and everyone was so pleased. She'd not even looked at the ring! It was a very special moment of happiness. I got straight on the phone to Ireland and told everyone and it was brilliant, a lovely time. We've since been travelling around trying to find the perfect venue, because we both love the beach and the sea and want quite an earthy wedding. Jodi understands my job in Westlife so well, having been in a band herself. Sometimes when I come home after we've had one of our heated band meetings, she talks to me about it and listens and it's brilliant. The boys get on great with her, too, which is fantastic. She is a rock and seems able to take me away from it all and remind me when I'm stressed that what I have is amazing and I should always treat it with respect. I can't wait to be Jodi's husband, for her to be my wife and to have children and an amazing family life together. Jodi is incredible. There will never be anyone else. I am really lucky to have her in my life. I started going out with Jodi in the same year I started my other love in life - surfing. In 2003, I was out playing golf with my dad in Strandhill, which has a mountain-top course overlooking the sea. We were teeing off and as I stood there, I looked down and noticed about 30 guys surfing out on the water. I'd always been a bit of a beach bum but I'd never actually surfed. For some reason, I suddenly wanted to give it a shot, so I came off the golf course with my dad and went straight down to the surf shop, spoke to the guy in charge, Tom Hickey, and said I'd like to try surfing. He said he could arrange a lesson, when would I like to go out? 'Er, we could go now?' That was it and it's been fantastic ever since. I started off spending two hours falling off my board but, like everyone, I kept at it and now I absolutely love it. Part of the appeal is that when you go out in the ocean, you're in a different world and no one can get hold of you. When I'm surfing, no one can ring me on my phone, no one can call out to me to go somewhere, no one can come up to me. That's pure luxury. I'll often come off the surf and I'll have about 20 missed calls and 10 texts, but people know I surf now and it's cool. It's proper downtime for the brain. It's important to have that release from the life in Westlife - in fact, it makes you better at being in the band because you get a chance to regroup and recharge. Shane loves his golf... ... and I've got my horses too, says Shane. I've got about 60 now and I absolutely love looking after them and being around them. Again, that's a complete distraction from the madness that is Westlife. It's a great release... ... and Nicky's mad into football, continues Kian. Mark... well, Mark loves his music! He has a love of all things creative: music, theatre, photography, art, he lives and breathes it. Jodi says that when I go back to Sligo, I just live the lifestyle of a surfer. I do, she's right, and I just forget about everything to do with Westlife for a while. I'm still phoning round, speaking to the boys and Louis, but I just kick back from it enough to relax. Plus, my surf mates treat me like another surfer, not someone in a big band. I get treated like any other surfer. They've been to a few shows and said, 'Wow, it's weird seeing you up on stage in front of 10,000 people, doing all that!' At first, for quite a while, a few of them thought I was what surfers call a 'kook', a wannabe surfer, turning up in my jeep with all the gear, but they know now I'm really into it as a lifestyle. I go away on trips with my big surf buddies, Allan, Ken, Pete, Gary, Aaron; surfing is a big part of my life and every chance we get we go surfing. Even my friend Jason joined us as a photographer on a surf trip to Morocco. Surfing has changed me, for the better, I think. Certainly as I've gone through my twenties, I've made better decisions just by being older and a bit wiser, but surfing helps too. The person talking here now is not the same person four or five years ago. I definitely think I've changed. For example, surfing stops you going clubbing - when we were in Sligo we used to always go out a lot, but I'd never go clubbing there now. I might go for a few pints in the local pub, but you usually surf early, and if you've got to be up at 6 a.m., you don't want to be out drinking till the small hours. It's the completely flip lifestyle to the late shifts you do in a band. When I went to Morocco with my surf mates in 2008, we were in bed at 10 p.m. every night, getting sleep ahead of trying to catch as many waves as we could early the next morning. Surfing is proper chalk and cheese compared to Westlife, and I love it for that.

Chapter Twenty – Three

Stage

After the success of the previous covers album, explains Shane, the record label wanted to do The Love Album 2, and they had even collated some really clever, interesting cover ideas. You can understand that too - they're a business, the previous project had done very well and they're there to make money, they're not a charity. But we weren't interested. This discussion about covers has, as you now know, been a constant feature of Westlife and we just wanted to put out an original record next. For some reason, we are perceived by many people as a covers band even to this day, says Kian. I actually think that there's more concern about this within the band than there is anywhere else - it's not an issue with the fans, or Louis, or the record label. It's fair to say, though, that people forget we've had an awful lot of big hits with songs that are original. I think we get too much stick for this covers thing. There you go. Once again, though, the discussion cropped up with regard to the opening single for the ninth studio album, which was to be called Back Home. The label wanted to release 'Home', a song co-written by Michael Buble. We argued that it was too widely known already. As Shane has mentioned, Nicky was especially keen on the track 'Already There', particularly with his twins having so recently arrived. Yet even that is a cover, albeit a lesser-known one. We'd been getting amazing reactions to that song when we performed it live but we decided, as a band, against it being a single, because it was a cover. We had had the same feelings about 'The Rose' and, probably most of all, 'Mandy'. Now, 'Home' was another big hit, so in one sense the record label was right. However, the song is a watershed track for Westlife, because we've said that we don't want to do any more covers. We are after world-class original songs. The second single from the album, called 'Us against the World', is a good example of that - a great tune, some minor chords, a real edge to it. I thought 'Us against the World' was such a great song, a bit cool, says Kian, but Sonny and Simon didn't really like it at all. They said they'd listened to 20 seconds of the demo and gone, 'Nah.' We were like, 'No! Listen to it again, because it is a grower.' To be fair, they changed their minds and Sonny was big enough to call back and say, 'Sorry, lads, this is a massive record.' But when it only went in at number 8, it kind of felt like egg on our faces. We'd never had a single out of the Top Five in the first week. Maybe it happened because the album was already out and that song was on there, I don't know. So that discussion about song choice is still ongoing - always has been, always will be! We were very pleased with the album, mind. It hit number 1 and went on to sell around that magic million mark in the UK.

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I think the shows after Back Home, in the spring and early summer of 2008, have been our best tour ever. Perhaps if I take you backstage with us for a moment, says Shane, to see what happens before a Westlife show and what leads up to the tour itself, you'll see how much we want to make it perfect every time. First, we have probably seven or eight meetings with Steve Levitt - our production manager since the start - about what we want to do and he comes back with all the logistics, the costs, the pitfalls, all that. Then we start rehearsing six days a week with Priscilla, our choreographer, who Kian mentioned was so key for that first tour after Brian left. Then we start working six days a week with the actual musicians and try to get a vibe with them - what they enjoy, what fits in with the set, all those sort of ideas. We're not natural dancers so we have to be taught the steps really slowly, but once we get it, we're able to nail it. By this point, we're starting to fine-tune actual routines, moves, specific areas of the show. Then there are six days of what is called production rehearsal, and that's where all the major stuff happens - we go into what's basically an aircraft hangar and they set up the full stage that we will be performing on. So everything we have learned in a rehearsal studio in front of mirrors is now practised on the actual stage. That takes about three to five days of long, hard hours. It's really tough work. But then by the end of it, we've probably run the show through completely three or four times, with dress rehearsals, too, and then we're ready to go. The actual day of the show, explains Nicky, well probably get up mid-to-late morning, especially if there was a gig the night before - after which you usually can't sleep for a while! We get the tour bus to the show around about 4 or 5 p.m., depending on how far the venue is from the hotel. The bus drives us right up to the rear of the venue and we walk through, straight into catering. This is where all the crew, our backing singers, musicians and the band themselves eat before the show. It's a great chance to get to know any new faces too, having a meal and a chat. Then, it's off to our dressing rooms, continues Kian. We all have our own ways of getting ready for a show. We all have individual dressing rooms now, which at first I was dead set against, I still wanted it to be the gang. But our circumstances have changed now, the children are here, and it has to evolve. Mark likes to have his own space, so before he goes on stage, he'll go into his dressing room and have a few minutes to himself. I'll be out and about, chatting with people. I like to be around people, getting a buzz. The other two boys are usually with their wives and kids. I guess we each get ready in our own way. With the dressing rooms and the two tour buses, I was just worried the gang was splintering. It wasn't, it was just changing shape. Show time comes and we head off to backstage, explains Mark. We have a cloth tent for the wardrobe, where all our costumes are hung up ready for the show. We'll already have the first costume of the show on by this point. Then the show starts and we head up the steps to the stage. The costume changes in each set are done while the band is playing instrumentals or the girls are singing. We really have to rush - charge down the steps, straight into the wardrobe area, costume off, new costume on, make sure you are all zipped up and run out again. Our microphones are kept on a small table, on a towel, next to wardrobe, and we grab them as we run out and back up the steps! Touring and playing live is what we love best, says Shane, and, for me anyway, what I was born to do. Being on stage is our favourite part of Westlife. It keeps you fit as well! You always lose weight on tour because it's pure cardio five or six nights a week once you are up on that stage. We do strive to keep in shape and with so much attention on your appearance, you need to. A lot of my mates are in good shape. One of them, Brig, who I've known since I was four years old, is married to the gym. His body looks like Bruce Lee's. One day he looked at me and said, 'Would you not want to go to the gym?' 'What do you mean, Brig?' 'Well, listen, you're paid a lot of money to look well and, to be honest with you, you don't. You look alright, like, you're getting away with it, but you're not like you were five years ago.' That's what friends are for! Every time I saw him for a while, he'd say, 'Aye, you're getting away with it, but you're in Westlife, you need to cop on!' Eventually it kind of sunk in - I should be going to the gym and I should be looking my best - and so I started training and working out. I started being able to wear a tight T-shirt and not be embarrassed and, with some of the costumes on stage, I felt much more confident and happier. I'm not exactly Bruce Lee now, but at least I can see Brig without getting the piss ripped out of me. I'm getting there. Brig reckons I'm about 60 per cent of the way there. We all react differently to being on that stage, reveals Mark When I'm standing on the stage itself, looking out at the thousands of people, I find that if I think too much about how many people are actually at the show, it can mess with my head. I sometimes have to cut off from thinking about it all, otherwise it's too much. For example, if I think a mum has brought three of her kids and maybe her friend to see our show, if you add up the tickets, the petrol, all the bits and pieces on that night out, she's probably spent over Ј200. She might have had to work a week for that. That's amazing, isn't it? The problem is, if I stood there and thought that, I'd feel under too much pressure and I don't think I'd perform at my best, because I'd want my performance to be incredible in order to do justice to that money spent and effort made, and that'd make me too anxious. When someone tells me they like my voice, it really does mean a lot to me. My voice drives me crazy though, as much as I love it! Sometimes I never want to sing again, it frustrates me. I see writers ripping up pages of words in anger and sometimes I feel like that with my voice. I might be on stage in front of thousands, but if I sing something I'm not happy with, I pull my mouth away from the mic and literally grimace at myself. It's that extreme - you love something so much you want it to always be perfect. When it isn't, it cuts me to the core. I never want to sing again, but that's only because I love it so much. So, when I am standing in front of 20,000 people or whatever, I want to please them and I want to be pleased myself. I'm pressured on both counts! We do multiple shows in most cities - and it's just too heavy to think about the money and the effort and the energy people are spending coming to see us! As a result, I don't ever go off and day-dream. I'm very much in the moment of the gig constantly. I tend to try to disassociate myself from those numbers, I'll be backstage beforehand, phoning friends, chatting away, trying not to think about it basically. Sometimes I wonder if people see this and think I'm blase or unappreciative, but I'm absolutely not, I guess it's just my coping mechanism. We never go on stage without giving it everything, says Shane. There's always a first impression, there could be someone in the audience who didn't like Westlife for a long time and they said, 'I'll go and see what they're like,' and if they see a brilliant show, then we've made a new fan. Sometimes I might be very tired, but for some reason when I get on that stage, something happens, the voice comes from somewhere and I just do it! And it's hard not to enjoy it. Then, after the show, it's back into the tour bus quite soon after we walk offstage, and back to the hotel or down the motorway to the next venue. So that's what it's like to be backstage at a Westlife concert. There have been quite a few big changes on our recent tours, says Kian. Most obviously, Shane had his little Nicole and then, in 2007, Nicky's twins arrived. Deciding to take two tour buses on the road in 2007 was a big issue with me, you know. At first, I hated it. I said, 'Why are we doing this? No way, no way do we need two tour buses. There are four of us and those tour buses hold 18 people, why do we need two tour buses?' It was the same when we moved into individual dressing rooms - as I mentioned, I like the gang mentality. However, our lives aren't the same as when we were five and then four lads roaming the world's stages. Shane and Nicky have children, Mark has Kevin and I have Jodi. The parents like to bring their kids on the road and it simply isn't realistic to think you can do all that in one tour bus. There's all the kids' stuff, they need quiet time to sleep and feed, and they have to get up at seven o'clock every morning, so it's essential to have more than one bus. I don't know what it's like to leave a kid at home for weeks, I can only imagine. Louis understands that new dynamic totally as well, so it's a strong, strong team. Like me, he has changed his ways too an awful lot. He was very much an old-school boy band manager to begin with - no girlfriends in the press, no babies, no this, no that. Five available guys on the TV and in the magazines for the girls, good pop songs, good looks, that's how boy bands work. Now he is very happy for the bands he looks after to live their lives - just look at the amazing way he reacted to Mark's situation. The boys all shared in my joy at finding Kevin, says Mark, and having someone special in my life. And when their babies arrived, I shared that joy too, as did Kian. Obviously, Nicky and Shane have the most direct joy at having their kids, but I'm so close to them as people that their children bring me genuine joy as well. Plus, as their friend, I enjoyed seeing them become parents and have the experience. When the little ones are around - as they often are on tour nowadays - then there is an extra slice of happiness in the Westlife camp. It is different when you have to bring your kids with you, says Shane, and that's cool, because that's the way we are as people. We are like a family on the road - all the boys love all the kids and we all help each other out when we can. Kian and Mark have both got dogs now, too. It's all cool, like! I think the boys are just great at supporting me and Nicky and our families. They understand our scenario and are there for support when I need help. Even if it's carrying a bag, one of them is always there. 'Do you want a hand? Are you alright?' To Nicole, Kian and Mark are uncles that she sees six days a week. Westlife on tour has slowly just become a massive family on the road. We all understand we have very different styles of relationships that all need to be looked after and cherished.

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It's been a long time since my teenage years of playing in rock bands like Skrod and Pyromania, reminisces Kian, Over the years, I've told plenty of journalists and many fans about those bands. It's been funny mentioning them. I still love rock music. Ever since our first few tours, I've been trying to slip a rock song into the set, but as you can imagine that's not easy with Westlife! I've mainly focused my rock hangover towards 'When You're Looking Like That', asking the guitarist to beef up his sound and use more distortion, but it's never really happened. Anyway, for our March 2008 dates around the UK, I sat our musical director, Gary Wallace, down and said, 'We've got to put some heavy metal into the song, I've waited long enough!' In rehearsals the guitarist, Pete, was making a fine effort, but it still wasn't distorted enough. So, oddly, I went and played him 'Sad But True' by Metallica to show him what I was after. 'I don't want that tinny distortion sound, Pete, I want it sounding fucking rough!' 'I've got a Gibson Flying V guitar, Kian...' 'That's yer man!' At one of the two Manchester dates, Skrod came back to bite me on my heavy-metal arse, though. I do the second verse of 'When You're Looking Like That', so while the other three are standing there, I run to one end of the stage, then back to the middle and then on to the other end of the stage, singing the line 'She's all dressed up for glamour and rock and roll.' All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Mark ran up to me and at the top of his not inconsiderable voice, with his face looking exactly like Gene Simmons out of Kiss, he shouted, 'SKKRRROOOOOODDD!' I nearly fell off the stage from laughing. Turned out he and Shane had been doing it behind my back all tour. Fuckers.

Chapter Twenty – Four

Keeping the

Dream Alive

As we're finishing this book, says Shane, we are starting preparations for the biggest concert of our lives, on 1 June 2008 at Croke Park in Dublin. It's sold out to the rafters, 82,000 people. When the idea was first mentioned - by Louis, who else? - not all of us were certain about it. I mean, 82,000 people. You've got to be pretty confident of your fan base to take that on. If you sell 72,000 tickets - enough to fill the old Wembley Stadium - the papers would be full of how you didn't sell it out. Kian was a little concerned, Nicky thought we'd sell out but that it would take ages and I was with Louis on it, I thought we'd do it. But it was a gamble. All the tickets were gone in less than nine days. The initial 56,000 tickets went on the first day. It's absolutely insane that we are doing Croke Park, says Mark. Sometimes when the lads are going on about it, I literally have to leave the room because if I build myself up, it's too much to comprehend! Croke Park to me is incomprehensible, says Nicky. I've been there a million times supporting the Dublin GAA team. Georgina's been going since she was a kid as well, so all that rolled into one, it's going to be huge, and what an after-show party it's going to be! When I think about the day, I smile, continues Shane. It's a Bank Holiday weekend and it couldn't be more perfect. I know I'm going to be absolutely taken aback by the size of the crowd, transported back to all those years ago in Newcastle on our first-ever headline tour when I was literally breathless. We've played big shows before, like the two nights at Lansdowne Road to 40,000 a night. But over 80,000, I can't imagine it... Croke Park will be the pinnacle of our career so far, the biggest night of our lives without a doubt. I remember when I was 14, says Kiany I went to Croke Park to see Sligo play in the All Ireland Gaelic semi-finals. I recall thinking, Wow! Look at the size of the place! So to even dream of playing a concert there is beyond my wildest imagination. I really don't know how I will feel until I am actually there on the day. I know I'll be nervous, but it's going to be the most amazing thing I've ever done in my entire life! One of the reasons why the Croke Park show is so important is that from 1 July 2008 we are scheduled to take a year off. We need to leave the fans with an imprint of just how brilliant the show was so they can't wait for our next gig when we come back. This year off has been quite a big decision in Westlife. Now in the context of many bands, probably the majority, a year off is no big deal. Plenty of big acts take years between albums. But in our ten-year career to date, we've released nine albums. So a year off is a big deal to us and to our fans. At first, I was all against the year off. I was like, 'A year off, what am I going to do with myself?' But I came round to the idea and I certainly think it's needed. It will give us all a chance to look back on what we have done. When it was first mentioned, I kinda grilled each member on their thoughts about it. Now we all agree it is a good idea, a chance to pause before the next phase of our career, to look back and savour what we have achieved, but more importantly, to find a batch of absolutely world-class songs for our next album. And I know what the boys are like! We've got this year off and we'll all still see each other anyway. That's why we're still together, because our friendship isn't forced. That's what Louis loved way back in the day - we were friends. In our year off, I'll go for a game of golf with Shane, I'll probably call round to Mark's and jet-ski on the lake and I'll be up in Dublin and see Nicky for a pint. And I know them too well because for sure we'll then start getting phonecalls between each other saying, 'Hey, have you heard this song? What do you think?' I know we will, we love the music too much. It will be nice to have a quiet Christmas and for the first time in ten years switch the telly on and not worry about the single or promo or all that. I think that's only natural. We've got families and girlfriends and boyfriends to consider now, so balance is important - in fact it's vital. But I'll still be on the phone to Louis every second week and I know that as January starts coming round, the boys will want to start hearing even more songs! The year off will give us some balance and it will, without a doubt, benefit the band. I think it will mean Westlife will continue for another ten years.