Plucked from obscurity just over a year ago and co-manged by
Boyzone's Ronan Keating, boy band Westlife already have a record-
breaking consecutive No. 1 singles, pop awards and millions of
adoring fans. Can there be anything left for the fresh-faced Irish
lads to achieve? Spencer Bright meets the newly famous five.
In the hothouse world of the boy band, time speeds up. The
learning curves are steeper, emotions more intense, money pours
in and young girls cry. One minute you are five backstreet boys - in
Westlife's case 16 months ago back in Sligo, on Ireland's west
coast, and Dublin - and then this year your first three singles
(IILYG, SIA and FWW, which made No. 1 on October 24) go to No.
1 in the UK, an accolade neither Boyzone, Take That nor any other
boy band has achieved.

The next step is that you take a breath and say you can't believe
this has happened to you. Young Irish people still possess a
niceness and beguiling innocence far rarer this side of the water.
When Westlife tell me how perfect their lives are, call me
old.fashioned, but I almost believe them.

On the day I met them all, Mark Feehily, aged 19, had slept with
excitement at being about to meet his idol Mariah Carey. Kian
Egan, also 19, was anxious that a minor accident had left a mark
on his face which would show in he photographs. Black-haired
Shane Filan, aged 20, was nostalgic for his horses back in Sligo.
The previous evening they had been to the Horse Of The Year
Show at Wembley Arena. They were still chuffed that Jeremy
Beadle, Chris Evans and Susan George had come up to them andsaid hello.

But it is Nicky Byrne, the oldest member at 21, and Bryan
McFadden, 19, who seem to exemplify the emotional dilemmas
inherent in their new lifestyle. Nicky is in a long-term relationship
with Georgina Ahern, daughter of Ireland's Prime Minister Bertie
Ahern. Bryan is still ajusting to the fact that girls find him attractive.
In his short time in the band, Bryan, a still-growing, strapping lad,
has grown two inches, taking him to 6ft 2in. He'd never kissed a girl
till he was 17. He's only 19 now, and has been linked to Miss
World. Untrue, he assures me, though he hopes all those boys at
school who said no girl could ever fancy him heard it. He has just
had a two-week fling with Lene Nystrom, a temptress with tattoos
and body piercings who sings with the Scandinavian group Aqua -
the band who had a huge hit with the song brabie Girl. Bryan was
embarrassed and not sure how to handle talking about this. Further
quizzing revealed he had decided to end their fling, only he hadn't
told her yet. I suggest it must be a strang feeling from beimg a no-
hoper with the girls to dating a feisty pop star. He corrects dating.
'And dumping.' Was it that he found her dissapointing and normal?
'She's not normal. I don't want to talk about it.'

Bryan's upbringing
was far from normal. He had alwayswanted to be a performer and
from the age of six appeared professionally in plays and
pantomimes. When he was 16 he played a bully in the TV series
Finbar's Class, an Irish version of Grange Hill. 'It was a bit of an
irony. I always got bullied at school at the time and I was the bully
oncamera.' He was bullied because he was fat, suffering taunts like
Fat Boy and Chunk. He never fought back physically, learning
instead to lash out with his tongue andpraying for God's help.
'I used to always say, "Please, look down on me and bless me and
tomorrow let me wake up and feel normal."' God answered his
prayers. 'From being an overweight child, when I could never even
pull a girl, to being in a pop group and having thousands of girls
screaming for me - He's definitely blessed me. I've obviously done
something right for God.'

In many ways Bryan typifies the new Ireland with its increasing
affluence and the loosening grip of the Catholic Church. His parents
come from families of 14 and 12 brothers and sisters. Bryan has
only one sibling, a sister. He still considers himself very religious,
praying every night and attending Mass when home. But that
doesn't stop him from sleeping with girls. 'People get the wrong
ideas of Irish Catholics. They think they are set in their ways.
We're in the Nineties. I don't think any Catholics follow the church.'

A couple of years ago, Bryan's weight started falling away. He was
physically active every day, either at stage school learning to sing
and dance, at hip.hop classes, and playing Gaelic football. It was
only when he was in the band that he realised he might be
attractive. 'Suddenly the girls were starting to scream for me, so
that's when I thought, "Hold on a second, I can't be as bad as I
used to be."' Keep to move out of acting and into the world of pop,
he formed his own boy band, Cartel, who were starting to have
local success. He sent a tape to Louis Walsh, manager of
Boyzone, who is to Irish pop what Jackie Charlton was to I rish
football. Walsh invited him to audition for a new boy band, he was
forming and co - managing with Boyzone's singer, Ronan Keating.
Bryan is still coming to terms with the adjustment in his fortunes
and lifestyle. Take That were famously forced to lead a very
restrictive lifestyle and not allowed girlfriends, one of the causes of
their implosion after Robbie Williams left.

Westlife's management
has learnt that lesson. 'We're normal blokes. We like to have a few
drinks and have a good laugh,' says Bryan. 'We're not going to lie
to the fans and tell them we don't have girlfriends and that we don't
drink. They have shown us a lot of respect in putting us where we
are today in buying our music and supporting us, so we think it
would be very disrespectful if we started lying to them.' 'Louis said
at the start, "I hope none of you is going to get married and have
babies." We said of course we're not. If someone meets someone
they love and wants to get married and have kids, they're still free
to do that. But we've all agreed among ourselves that it would be
stupid at this stage. If you got married now it would affect your
career, because you're going to be so focused on your family and
your wife. I think it's just a bit silly.'

It might not be the right time for marriage, but Bryan did find
himself falling in love for the first time. She was Englich, neither a
pop star nor a model, and they went out for two months. He
shrugs, embarrased, noy wishing to say much. He was cut up
when it ended, but it was a mutual parting. 'We had to. We didn't
get to see each other enough. It was just too hard. It's impossible
to hold down a relationship in band. People say if you're going to
be in a relationship it should be with someone else in the buisness.
I think that's even worse. Two people trying to fit in with each
other's schedules is a waste of time. I don't know how Nicky and
Georgina do it, because none of the rest of us can hold
relationships down. Nicky's very brave. So is Georgina.'

So if Bryan
does not want to be lonely or abstinent, are casual relationships
the only answer for someone in his position? ' I suppose casual
relationships are the only thing we can do at the moment,' he says.
Not so for Nicky Byrne and Georgina Ahern. Nicky believes the
rest of the band view his relationship longingly. 'I think a lot of the
guys in the band do feel a bit jealous of me. If I'm feeling down, I've
always got Georgina there for me and she's always got me there
for her. You don't realise how important it is until you have it. You
actually think, I couldn't live without it, I really couldn't.' They met at
school, before he was famous, before Bertie Ahern was Prime
Minister, even before Nicky had any idea Georgina's father was a
politician.

'She was very quiet at school. I was always having a
laugh, charming the teachers. I got one of my friends to ask her out
for me - I was 14 or 15 - and she said no. I was quite upset. I left it
then for a year. One of the guys then asked her again for me
without me knowing and she said yes. That was great.'

Nicky is extremely close to his family. When he's at home he will
often sit up until 3 am, having cups of teas with his mum. 'When I
started liking Georgina I went home and told me mum I'd found the
girl I was going to marry. She laughed at me. Then, about a year
later, Georgina was on the news with her dad. It was the budget in
Ireland and he was Minister of Finances and standing with the
briefcase. Georgina was there with her younger sister Cecilia. I was
eating my dinner and said, "Mum, mum, there she is," and my
whole family turned around.' Is she the girl he is going to marry?
'Hopefully, please God. But who knows. We've been going together
for five years now. So, it's a long time. We're best friends. We've
got the closest relationship I think anyone can ever have.'

Georgina is studying buisness administration and not about to
dangle from her boyfriend's arm. 'We're working from 7am till 11pm,
really working hard, so it would be unfair to bring Georgina over and
for her to miss college. Unfair on both of us.' So does she get
jealous of the fans or they of her? 'She's been absolutely
phenomenal about all the female attention. At the start I thought
she was going to be a little bit wary, but she wasn't at all. She
always wanted me to be happy and she knew that above everything
this was what I wanted to do.' 'If she's at my house, there could be
a knock on the door from fans. Girls from all over the world have
travelled to our house to see us and get our autographs. She'd
come out and speak to them.'

They haven't moved in together because he's never at home. She
still lives with her mother. He would be worried if she was in a
house on her own. 'I think we're a bit young, to be honest with you,
as well.' He says they will wait until Westlife get to the level of
Boyzone, who now spend more time with their families, having been
successful all over the world.

Nicky has adjusted to fame and the lifestyle more easily than the
rest of the band because of his pre-band experience as a youth
international goalkeeper for Ireland. At the age of 16 he was signed
to Leeds United and joined their youth team. It was an unhappy
period of his life. Desperately homesick on his first night, he spent
an hour-and-a-half crying on the phone to his mother, asking why
he was there. He's not ashamed to admit he is still a mummy's
boy. At Leeds, his height five foot nine-and-a-half, was against him.
He recieved what he maintains was rough treatment. Nicky gelt
that an arm around the shoulder and encouragement to have
another go would have been the best attitude. Instead, he got
abuse and shouting. The purpose-built accomodation in
Weatherby, by the training ground, an hour outside Leeds, made
him feel isolated and hemmed in by the regimented lifestyle.
Eventually, the decision was made for him and he was told, in a
world of goalkeepers the likes of Arsenal's David Seaman are well
over six feet, that there was no chance for him.

When he was growing up, Nicky had three dreams: to become a
footballer, a policeman and a pop star. Back home from Leeds, he
sat the exams to join the garda, (the Irish police). Having
momentarily tasted the money and lifestyle of international football,
it was hard to adjust and return to school homework. Being close
to the Prime Minister also meant brushes with the rich, powerful
and glamorous. He met Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester
Stallone at the opening of Planet Hollywood in Dublin, and wanted
to be a part of that world. At Leeds, one of his team-mates, taken
with his voice, said he should be in Boyzone.

When he heard of the
Westlife audition, he practised diligently for a week. 'I'm a careful
guy. I don't get off on risks, I'd never touch a drug, I'd never do
anything like that because I'd be afraid. It's not the type of person I
am. I want to be a successful person. I'm very determined;
mentally i hate to lose. I'm a very easy-going person off the field,
and I get along with nearly everybody. On the field, if I'm losing I get
annoyed.'Just after Westlife's first single came out in April, Nicky recieved
notification that he had been accepted for training in the Garda.
Polite and modest boy that he is, he got his mum to write back
saying something else had come up. He was back in the winning team.

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Thank you Helle for typing this interview!
You rule girl! / Keely

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