The Shane Game
How to work for 100 days straight, ruin your love life, miss yer ma and still keep smiling. Shane tells all to Colin Kennedy.
These are some of the things I've learned about Shane Filan. He hates coffee. His favourite Boyzone song is "You needed me". He loves his ma. He uses the word "totally" a lot. He's sick of fake girls who have seen him on the telly but don't know his name. He and Nicky (his best mate in Westlife) go on the "beer rampage" together and call it Shnicky. He's never finished a book. And just recently he's started crying at films...
Shane: I cried at Notting Hill, when he was racing in the car to stop her leaving. I cried at Armageddon and Titanic. I don't know what it is, I never cried at films when I was younger.
Are you getting more sensitive?
Shane: I dunno, I looked at Notting Hill and I thought, "That's what I want". She was in the movies, I'm in pop, but she still met Hugh Grant and he was just a normal guy.
So what you want is a female version of Hugh Grant?
Shane: Exactly.
Mummy's boy
When he was younger, before he became pop's version of Julia Roberts, Shane Filan just wanted to sing. His mother, Mae, remembers him aged two singing "a few lines" of a traditional song to help an election campaign in Sligo, the town on Ireland's west coast where Shane was born. "He was always entertaining, always singing," Mae says. "Sometimes you'd have to stop him singing to do his homework."
But Mae didn't stop him singing for very long. "My dad has a great singing voice and he helped me with my technique," explains Shane, "but my mother was the one who was always pushing me. The rest of my family are, like, doctors, teachers, engineers, and they've all done really well, but when it came to me, she knew all I loved was singing."
In fact, Mae did more than just support Shane. When things were looking grim for his band IOU, she made the phone call which would change her son’s life. That one phone call to Boyzone's manager Louis Walsh ("I still don't know how she did it," grins Shane) would eventually lead to Westlife. But, hang on a minute, we're getting ahead of ourselves. We haven’t discussed Shane's six elder brothers and sisters, or his love of Michael Jackson, or his showjumping skills. And poor Shane hasn't even ordered his food yet...
Just another wet Sunday afternoon
We're sitting in the Saint M restaurant in the so-trendy-it-hurts St Martin's Lane Hotel in London (where Britney Spears stayed on her recent visit to London) and it's a wet Sunday afternoon in December. Last night, Westlife won the Record Of The Year competition for Flying Without Wings, and Shane partied hard. Very hard. But he was still up at 9am for a photoshoot. It's now 3pm, Shane is about to eat his first meal of the day ("sirloin steak, very well done") and I'm ruining it by asking questions. Luckily, Shane doesn't seem to mind...
When was your last day off?
Shane: We haven’t had a day off since September. We haven't had a day off in something like 100 days now. There was a time when Sundays were free; now it's just like a Monday, or a Tuesday. It could be any day.
So is working 100 days non-stop worth it?
Shane: It's already paying off, look what's happened in those 100 days. We've had two more number ones, we've won Record Of The Year and our album's nearly double platinum!
Yeah, but if you can't enjoy life, what's it all for?
Shane: Sure, but for the first couple of years, the five of us agreed that we're going to have to work every day to make Westlife a success everywhere. This is what we've signed up for.
The professional
"I like chats, rather than being asked the same question over and over." Interviews it seems, is a part of the job Shane just takes in his stride. And it's the same for photoshoots. Despite the fact that Shane figures he must have done "two ... no, 300 this year," he was completely happy before the camera.
In fact, everyone who meets Shane comments on his 'professionalism,' but this time it was something a little extra - his first solo cover. "It's one thing I always dreamed of 'cos I always used to but Smash Hits, you won't believe how big a pop fan I was! I'm proud to be on the cover and all the lads are happy for me." Strangely though, Westlife's co-manager was less enthusiastic.
"It's not very fair to pick one lad over the others," commented Ronan when we told him Shane was on the cover. Ro's point was that the 'Lifers "are all equal, all leaders," but Shane's still surprised. "Ronan said that? I don't know why." Perhaps 'cos he's protecting you from the spotlight he receives in Boyzone? "I don't think I'm like Ronan though. In Boyzone, Ronan was always out there, he sings nearly every track, but we're more of a team, like the Backstreet Boys."
The BSB comparison was also suggested by Shane's bandmate Bryan. "Everyone thinks that Shane's like Ronan but he's very different. He shares the stage charisma, but he's more like Brian Backstreet - he does a lot of lead vocals but he's not that upfront." Not that Bryan begrudges Shane a solo cover: "He deserves it, I think he's the most popular person in the band. But if you told him, that he'd deny it. He's very cool, very modest." As for Shane, he feels no conflict at all: "I'm here as Shane Filan because my face is on the cover, but I'm promoting Westlife totally." So close are Shane and his fellow band members that sometimes they could be the same person. Example...
Have you noticed that when I ask you a question about your future, you answer with 'we'?
Shane: (pauses) I've never noticed that! I'm so used to talking as a member of Westlife that if I'm talking professionally I'm talking on behalf of the other four.
Are you that in sync?
Shane: Oh yeah, if you asked them the same sort of questions, you'd get more or less the same answers.
Is that accident or planning?
Shane: Planning. We often sit down and talk about the future. I know everything Bryan wants. I know what car Nicky wants to buy.
So when did 'I' become 'we'?
Shane: I honestly don't remember. (Smiling) I do always say we, don't I?
Shane Filan is a daydreamer
Everyone says so. "He's standing right there and you're shouting his name," shrugs Mark, "and you literally have to hit him on the head to get his attention. His latest excuse is it's a sign of intelligence." ("A doctor told me it's a sign of intelligence," Shane tells me.)
Shane used to daydream about being Michael Jackson. These days he dreams about two things: A big house with a lake and a flash car in the driveway ("I'm quite a material person"); and a girlfriend...
What are you looking for?
Shane: I'm just looking for a serious relationship. I'd love a girl I could ring anytime, Nicky is so lucky. It's grand to see all these beautiful women and go out with them, or chat to them, but you know you won't see them the next day.
So you're dating a lot?
Shane: Oh yeah, (Smiling) We all enjoy ourselves.
Although Shane says he's ready for his first relationship since he was 16, he still has to ask himself if he could juggle a girlfriend and the band. It's a question he obviously struggles with. "I could always fit in a girlfriend. If I met a girl I wanted to stay with, I'd stay with her no matter what." But he adds later: "Georgina and Nicky are lucky 'cos they have a five year foundation. If I have to start from scratch, it wouldn't be easy, you know?" And later still: "To be honest, I wouldn't make a good boyfriend 'cos I wouldn't be there for her. If she was upset I'd have to say, 'Sorry, I'll see you in a month and I'll stop you crying then.' That's one of the bad things about being in Westlife, you can't have a normal love life."
Not that Shane is complaining: "This is the commitment I've made. This is my dream I'm living and if I can get a girlfriend and be happy and have Westlife, that's the perfect scenario."
The perfect scenario
There's one person reading this who might know if Shane has a chance at the 'perfect scenario'. When I asked Shane to describe his dream girl, he tells me, "I like this one girl so I'll explain what she is." It turns out the girl is from Sligo and went out with Shane when he was 13. He wouldn't tell me her name, but said he hoped to meet up with her over Christmas and "have a nice long talk." He also said he'd mention this article so she could read about herself...
So?
Shane: She's cute, she's not a model, she's got a nice figure, blah, blah, blah.
What's "blah, blah, blah"?
Shane: Very nice body, you know what I mean? (Blushes and Laughs) Whatever.
Dark Hair?
Shane: No, blonde. And she's a very nice person. She's very down to earth and when I go home she doesn't treat me like I'm in Westlife, she treats me like a normal guy.
So, like a female Hugh Grant from Notting Hill then?
Shane: (Laughing) Exactly.
Shane Filan: A history in five facts
He has been known to get on better with horses than humans. "They never tell you that you're wrong."
He had eight parents. "I was spoilt, with six elder brothers and sisters, everyone looked after me."
He loves numbers. "I studied accountancy at college before I dropped out to join the band. I still keep track of everything, even now."
He knows every line in Grease. "I played Danny twice and Kenicke once. I'd actually like to do more acting in the future, maybe even some theatre."
And the hardest day(s) of his professional life was when he had to tell three of his friends from IOU that they were out of the band. "It was just so ruthless, but that's the business. Two of the guys aren't friendly with us anymore and I can't blame them, I mean we kicked them out of the band."