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Westlife managed to tear themselves away from the football to pop in on Schooly’s Night School for a chat about ‘Pop Idol’, their hopes for their new single, their forthcoming tour and more…

Were you fans of Pop Idol?
Nicky: To be honest we didn't watch an awful lot of it because we were away a lot of the time. We saw a lot of the early stuff, and then I watched the final the other night. It's a very exciting show obviously, and the amount of votes they got was amazing. We're very flattered by the whole thing because 'Evergreen' is our song. I think both of them are going to have great careers. Both of them are great singers and they both seem to have the right attitude. Best of luck to both of them.

You're due to go on tour soon, tell us about that?
Kian: The whole tour starts in Rotterdam on 1st April. We do about three weeks in Europe and then we do Belfast and then we come across to the UK. I think there's going to be 67 shows in total!

Do you think the new boy band on the block, Blue are a threat to Westlife?
Nicky: There's always been boy bands around. When there was Take That, there was East 17, and when we started, Five were around. There's plenty of room for other people, and not just boy bands, for pop in general. There's a market for everybody.They are in a small way a bit of a threat to Westlife, there's no point denying it, but we've met them, and they're really nice blokes. There's no rivalry whatsoever.

Marks out of ten for Will's version of 'Evergreen'...
Mark: We haven't really heard it that much, but it's cool and flattering that they've chosen that song to do.

How is your tour going to be different from previous ones?
Kian: The difference is that there's a lot more front seats than there was before because it's in the round!
Mark: That's all we want to give away. But we have to say it's going to be a lot better than the last tour.
Nicky: We're spending an awful lot of money on production.

What do you think makes for a good tour?
Mark: You need to entertain the crowd and keep them entertained for the duration of the concert.

Would you ever consider doing a cover of Crazy Town's 'Butterfly'?
Mark: That's a really, really good song.
Brian: I'd like to do a version of Linkin Park, 'In The End', without the rapping. It's got a great chorus.

What's the next single going to be?
Nicky: It's called 'Bop Bop Baby' and it was co-written by Shane and Bryan. It's coming out while we're on tour, so we're looking forward to that.

Is there going to be a duet with Gareth Gates?
Shane: Maybe on stage during one of our performances.He's from Manchester, I think, (he’s from Bradford actually!) so when we're up there maybe we could get him along.

You performed at the Brits last year, how was that?
Kian: It was nerve-wracking. The Brits is such a huge award show, and to be nominated, win the award and perform made it a very big night for us.
Mark: There's one reason why it was so nerve-wracking. Everybody in the crowd is from record companies, and all the other labels that are nothing to do with us took the mickey out of us. It's very cat-fighty.

What do you want to say as a shout out to your fans?
Nicky: I want to say a big thank you for all the support so far, especially for the new album 'World Of Our Own'.The new single's out on Monday, and if we can get it, it'll be our tenth No.1, so that will be very special to us.