Читать книгу Westlife: Our Story - Westlife - Страница 11

‘Are you serious, Louis?’ I had grabbed Shane’s phone, recalls Kian.

‘Deadly serious!’ He was chuckling, he could hear my excitement.

‘Don’t be messing with us…’

‘Kian, I am not messing, get yourself on a train!’

I can’t tell you how exciting that was. I used to say, ‘I don’t want to be in a Boyzone, I want to be in the next Backstreet Boys,’ because they were the ones I really looked up to. Them and Take That, mainly. Same for the other two lads.

Before I even try to explain the state of absolute shock, joy and bewilderment that came over us all, let me backtrack six months to a street in town, with a ticket booth about to put tickets to see the Backstreet Boys on sale. Me and Shane had queued from the middle of the night to get those tickets. The booth didn’t open until 9 a.m., but we were there from 4 a.m. just to make sure.

When Louis called about the support slot, remembers Mark, I’d just been in McDonald’s with a girl called Avril and Gillian, talking about how exciting it was that we were going to see the Backstreet Boys concert at the weekend.

When we got those bits of paper saying ‘Backstreet Boys + Support’, recalls Shane, it was like finding Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, we were so pleased. So fast-forward to the pub around that table when Louis had told us he’d got a slot for our band supporting the Backstreet Boys. I’ll never forget it – it was one of the best moments of my life. Gillian was upstairs waitressing and we all ran up there screaming the news, jumping up and down, crying, laughing, shouting! It was crazy.

After we’d calmed down, I remember thinking, How is this going to work? I’m going to meet the Backstreet Boys. I’m going to shake their hands, maybe even talk to them. It was just so surreal. And we don’t need those tickets that we queued for anymore…

I’d just left college, where I’d been doing a business and accounting course which I hated (maths and accountancy were the only two things I did very well at in school – I got As in both). It was in Limerick and I badly missed home, I didn’t like the course and I just wanted out. So I came home and got a job at a builder’s provider called Buckley’s, just lifting boxes around, odd jobs. My father knew the man who owned it, Stanley, and one of my best friends, Paul Keaveney, worked there too. I used to go out the back singing these Backstreet Boys songs and they used to rip the piss out of me. Now we were going to be supporting them.

I felt like we’d won the lottery. I knew we were a long way from being a success yet – we weren’t that naïve – but if nothing else it was confirmation that Louis Walsh was going to be involved, and as far as we were concerned that was the winning lottery ticket. We’d struck gold – not just the support slot, but having Louis on our side. Even that early on, we just sensed that something was happening. There were too many things going our way. We felt that our winning numbers had come up.

At the time I was working in our local jeans shop, says Kian, called EJ’s Menswear. You can imagine the reaction of the owner, Eamonn Cunningham, when I said, ‘I could do with some decent clothes this weekend. We’re supporting the Backstreet Boys!’ He was very helpful and let us all go round on an evening and try out all this Sonnetti and Firetrap gear, big orange jackets and white jeans. It was so exciting.

So, anyway, we had three days to the Backstreet Boys’ support slot.

Three days!

Luckily, we already had several routines well rehearsed, so it wasn’t as bad as we first thought.

On the day of the show we met the Backstreet Boys and there was absolutely no hint of us acting cool – we were just proper fans all excited to meet them. We got them to sign albums for us and said thanks for offering the slot – they could have said no, they could have asked for a band with a record deal, for example. Plenty of stars do.

The Backstreet Boys loaded up on the Friday night and we were already outside, too excited to stay away. I vividly recall standing at the windows, peering through. There we were, all our faces squashed against the glass, and the Backstreet Boys were inside playing basketball. We couldn’t believe we could actually see them with our own eyes, that’s how famous they were to us.

At that window, looking in, remembers Mark, I was phoning my friends, saying, ‘I can see AJ, he’s got two eight-foot tall security guards walking with him. He looks really small…Oh, now I can see Brian!’

We were such wide-eyed fans. But within a few hours we were chatting to the band and eating with them. It was so weird – but brilliant weird!

The night of the gig came around, says Shane, our little slot came up and we walked on. There were about 6,000 people in the audience. The most we’d ever played in front of before was a few hundred. We did ‘Together Girl Forever’, ‘Everlasting Love’, complete with Graham’s little rap, and ‘Pinball Wizard’ by the Who. It was mental, a real laugh. The crowd were roaring and screaming. They went mental for us because we were an Irish band. They just loved it. I’ll never forget it.

For those shows, we were staying at the Mount Herbert Hotel. It was like a massive B&B. There was the six of us packed into one room. We had no money; our parents were even paying for the room. We literally didn’t have a bean between us.

That first night was Paddy’s night, so we had a few beers. It just seemed too good to be true.

Then one of the Backstreet Boys said, ‘Hey, Mark, we’re going to the pub tomorrow after the show. You should come,’ and we were like, ‘Are you for real?’

So next thing I know, we’re at this club chatting with Howie and Kevin over a pint. It was all a bit of a blur, to be honest with you.

Kian remembers that it was about to get even better: That night at the gig, Louis took me to one side and said, ‘I want to manage you.’

What we hadn’t known was that Louis had been pretty much auditioning us at the show, to see whether he wanted to become our manager or not. He did and we couldn’t believe our ears.

However, there was a catch.

‘I think you have something special, Kian, but I want you to lose the big guy.’

I said, ‘You can’t cut Mark!’ At this point Mark was a big lad – not overweight, he was just a big lad.

‘No, Mark’s amazing. I’m talking about Derek.’

Derek was six foot tall and muscular, in really good shape. I thought he had a good dark look, personally. But Louis still didn’t want six members in the band and, worse still, he said that he didn’t think Derek was suitable. There was no compromise, it had to be just five.

Even though we’d all agreed to go forward knowing someone might get cut, it was still devastating when it came to it. Derek was probably Shane’s best friend in the band at the time, so he was gutted.

It was a big shock, agrees Mark. Even though the group was slowly morphing itself into a professional, ‘real’ band, it was still literally made up of childhood schoolmates. So it was a very strange and difficult situation.

Louis has always been brutally honest. I’ve long since got used to that, but at first the way he spoke about the situation with Derek seemed so harsh to me. I was used to the country life near Sligo and there everyone was very friendly. If you went into the grocer’s and he was grumpy, rather than think, Wanker, you’d think, He must have had a bad night’s sleep. It was all very pure. It wasn’t like Alice in Wonderland, but everyone was really genuine. So then Louis Walsh turned up and started saying things like, ‘You’re a bit fat, and you should get your hair cut,’ it took me back. I wasn’t equipped to deal with that approach. I was never taught how to deal with people speaking to me like that.

I’ve got to point out here that this isn’t just Louis, it’s basically how the record industry operates. It is very direct. I’m jumping ahead of the story a little here, but I remember there was a girl who worked on reception at a record company office and she was morbidly obese. I’d go in and she’d be on the phone saying, ‘Right, Mark’s going to the gym now…’ and I’d feel like saying, ‘Are you going to the fucking gym?’ That’s the nature of the industry and I understand that now – the point was that she wasn’t on TV and she wasn’t the face in a boy band, but at the time I took everything personally.

When Louis said he didn’t think Derek was suitable, it was a major problem.

I was the one who told Derek, says Shane. I felt that I should be the one because he was such a good friend. All the band were there, sitting around, and I said, ‘Louis wants five in the band and he just thinks you’re not suited to the group.’

It is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. It was awful.

Derek was visibly upset, understandably, and walked out the room.

I’m sad to say that we didn’t speak for the longest time after that – not for years. He obviously felt he couldn’t be my friend anymore. It got worse when Westlife went on to be a big success – that must have been tough for Derek to see. I personally would have hated the band, I would have hated Westlife. He probably did for a long time and I don’t blame him.

I hope he doesn’t now. I do chat to him occasionally and see him now and then. I’ve even been out with him a couple of times. But for a long time nobody talked. It was a tough call. Derek is a great guy.

I didn’t say much at all when Shane told him, recounts Mark. I think I went and put my hand on his shoulder at the door. But I’ve spoke to him since and I’ve cleared things up as much as I can. It’s always going to be pretty awkward.

Shane: About two months later, I thought I was next for the chop. Louis had arranged an audition for a man from Sony-BMG. We travelled up to Dublin and had a few beers the night before to settle the nerves. Well, actually, that’s not strictly true. We’d all agreed to go easy in the pubs, but it was a night out in Sligo and you don’t want to miss the Friday night, you know. We met up with some people and there was a big party and, anyway, look, the long and short of it is, I was a bit steamed. The night before an audition, with an 8.30 morning train, what was I thinking?

We got on the train and met Louis at the audition. We went into this room at the Westbury hotel and then this man came in with black hair wearing really high-waisted black trousers. I didn’t know him at all.

‘Hello, I’m Simon Cowell. Pleased to meet you.’

Mark: I was like, God, he’s a bit posh, a bit cocky. I didn’t even know what ‘A&R’ meant. I just thought he owned Sony-BMG.

I was nervous at that audition, remembers Shane, but not because of Simon. He wasn’t famous at all at this stage, he was just a successful A&R man from Sony. His big band of the time was Five, so we knew he would be great to work with. The room was tiny; we were standing pretty much next to him and Louis.

I performed terribly.

The rest of the lads were great, but I knew I hadn’t done the job.

Simon seemed unimpressed, spoke briefly with Louis and then Louis gestured us into another room.

As I came out of the audition room, Louis grabbed me and kinda half-hit me – not a slap or punch, just in exasperation.

‘What the fuck was that, Shane? It was shite. He doesn’t like ya.’

Louis was really mad at me. I’d never seen him like that before and I was so shocked. He was so passionate about the band and he was so into what he was doing, he couldn’t believe I’d been so poor for Simon Cowell.

‘I was counting on you and you let me down. You look terrible, what’s up with ya?’

‘Well, I had a few last night and…’

‘What?!’

He was just raging at me and I was apologizing, because I knew he was right.

He told us that Simon actually only liked Kian and Mark and particularly didn’t like me. I later found out that when Simon had said he didn’t like me, Louis had said, ‘Well, I think he’s a star,’ to which Simon had replied, ‘Well, he wasn’t a star here today, Louis.’

Louis had then spoken with Simon in private and told him he’d get new members in, he’d work on the band and sort it all out and if Simon would come back one more time, he’d love it.

‘OK, but only because it’s you, Louis,’ said Simon, and then he left.

My whole future flashed before me. I thought, It’s over, it’s over. Louis is going to tell me to get back on the train and piss off.

‘I know you can be a star,’ Louis said to me. ‘I believe in you too much, so sort your life out and don’t come up here looking shite again.’

His reaction sounds harsh, but d’you know what? It gave me the biggest kick in the arse that I’d ever got. I thought I’d blown everything and then for Louis to say what he did, I felt like I was being given a lifeline.

Louis wasn’t about to let the momentum stall, explains Kian, so he sent us to London to record some songs with an up-and-coming songwriter called Steve Mac. He told us this guy could write brilliant pop songs and we were all very excited.

When we got there, we all sang. He listened to each of us carefully and then we recorded three songs, ‘Everybody Knows’, ‘The GoodThing’ and ‘Forever’, all Steve Mac/Wayne Hector songs. The idea was that we’d have some good strong material for our next phase of showcasing for labels.

There was such a buzz around Steve Mac, you just knew he was going to go somewhere, recalls Shane. We’d done those songs in the small studio back in Sligo, but nothing like this – it looked like a spaceship in there.

We were really nervous going in, obviously. We were new to the game and I wondered, What’s yer man gonna think of us? After all, the whole industry was talking about him. I thought he’d soon be talking about us, saying, This lot are shite.

As it turned out, he was very complimentary. It was great. He loved our singing.

That was the first time we’d had such nice things said by a professional in a studio at that level and it did us the world of good. For me personally, that was a massive boost.

Then, BANG, another shock, explains Kian. A short while after the disastrous audition for Simon Cowell, Louis said to me, ‘Listen, Kian, I don’t think Graham is right for the band either.’

I was like, ‘Jesus, no.’

Louis explained his concerns and I asked if he was certain. He said he knew what the music business wanted and that Graham didn’t quite fit into that.

I was devastated. Graham was my old mate, we were really good friends. I was like, ‘Oh, Louis, don’t be doing this, please.’ But at the end of the day, what could I do?

I did try to keep Graham in the band for as long as possible. It was very hard for me, that phase. We even put on a gig at the Sligo Arts Festival, videoed it and sent the tape to Louis to prove that Graham was good enough to be in the band. It was at my local community hall and I thought Graham was great.

I don’t know whether Louis watched the video or not, but he hadn’t changed his mind the next time I spoke to him.

Graham knew this was all going on, he knew what Louis had been saying, but it was still really hard.

Shane had been really upset telling Derek and he didn’t want to do it again, so Louis agreed to make the call, which he did one night when Graham was round my house. Graham went upstairs to my little brother’s box bedroom to take the call. Louis was very careful how he said it. He told him, ‘Graham, I think you should step back from this. I don’t think you’re right, I’m afraid, but I want you to be the tour manager.’

That was a nice touch and I was pleased that Graham could still be involved. I didn’t actually know what a tour manager was; I was just pleased Graham was still around.

You have to take your hat off to Graham for his reaction to it all. Bear in mind we’d already supported the Backstreet Boys and Louis was one of the biggest pop managers on the planet. Graham knew there was a very good chance it was going to go big. And yet, despite all this, when Louis mentioned the tour manager’s role, he was like, ‘Great, I’ll have a crack at that.’ Brilliant reaction. I’d have said, ‘Stuff your fucking tour manager’s job!’ but Graham was bigger than that. Fair play to him.

The problem was, now we were only a four-piece again: Michael, me, Mark and Shane.

Louis was already on it. He wanted to hold auditions for a fifth member.

I know this might sound really callous, but to a degree, we would have done almost anything Louis Walsh asked of us at this point. He was the man, he was the biggest boy band manager in Europe and here he was working with us. We were kids, we felt that something was happening and, don’t forget, we’d all agreed that we would carry on, knowing that things might get difficult and there might be casualties. So we’d have done almost anything.

Although I don’t think, says Shane, I’d have worn shiny hot pants, to be fair with you.