Articles - Interviews

The boys were back in Hong Kong and HKClubbing.com got to ask them a few questions during their press conference in Hong Kong, the day before their outstanding performance at the Harbour Fest.

Alyson : First of all, thank you very much guys, for sticking to your plans and coming to Hong Kong!

All : No problem… Sure…

Alyson : Now, you guys have been going through a lot of rumours of breaking up as a band, what do you think is the key element for Westlife to stick together? And what makes the fans so loyal to you guys?

Shane : I don’t know! (Laughs)

Nicky : I don’t think there’s one thing we can put our fingers on and say, ‘this is exactly why we stay together…’ and there’s numerous things… I think we all realize how lucky we are, they are millions of boys and girls who’d love to be in the position we’re in, and the life we live at the moment is so busy and hectic, but it’s so enjoyable, I think we’re all kind of scared of having not enough of this life… you know, we enjoy it so much we always want to band to be like this, so what’s the point in ending it? In respect to us, we’ve always looked out for one another, in bands like this in the past, there’s always been hidden agendas, there’s always people who… maybe deep down wanted to try out on their own, unfortunately, it is time for the band to split, but we’re honest with each other, we put everything on the table, what’s the best for all of us. And right now, the best for Westlife is to continue, for a long time! We’ve got a brand new album in November, followed by a world tour… Last night we’re talking about doing six more albums! So we’re gonna stay there for a long time!

On the arrangements of HK Harbour Fest:

Bryan : We’re all very impressed with what we heard they’ve been doing. Because Hong Kong is really beautiful place, as we’ve said it before, we really like it, obviously the whole SARS thing… it did upset a lot of people in Hong Kong… and we had to wait until everything is settled down, so… This is great way to celebrate, and we’re just grateful to be a part of it. We’re here to congratulate all the Hong Kong people, let’s hope this will never happen again! People around the world shouldn’t be afraid to come to Hong Kong coz it’s such a beautiful place… it’s honestly an amazing place!

Kian : We’re very happy to be here obviously, you know, we’re very much looking forward to doing the concert on Saturday night, but we don’t feel like we’re under pressure of anything, I mean… we know we’re gonna get up on the stage and do a great concert for the people who come to see our show, so we’re just very happy to be here, and be a part of it all. As Bryan said, it’s a great event, a lot of people have done a great job, they’ve put the event on, so we’re just very proud of it, to be honest… with people like the Rolling Stones, Prince… people who are like worldwide  legends, so it’s really really good to be a part of the whole kinda thing!

On advice to youngsters:

Mark : It’s certainly not easy, I would never tell somebody not to do it, but what I would say is that, once it starts, it’s not just being a good singer, you know, a good performer… a lot of things are involved, so you have to basically sacrifice a lot of things you need to spend all day everyday out of it… you did a lot of dedication as well as us… and it can be some kinda long hard days if become successful, people would be ready to get you, so you’ll need to be able to take all that…

Shane : Take the good for the bad!

On ticket sale:

Shane : I think obviously you wanna sell as many tickets as you can, it’s a great event, but I think there are a lot of tickets that people buy… I mean there are a lot of shows, you don’t usually have this many shows happen, so obviously there’s gonna be people who would pick their favourite band, pick their favourite acts, so you might just wanna go to one show since there’re a lot to choose from. The more tickets are sold the better, the bigger event then! But we’re quite happy with our sale, so hopefully… it’s not on until Saturday, so, I still think there (would be more) tickets sold.

Mark : I think, you guys have the power as well to promote as much as you can, get more tickets sold, so hope that you can do a bit on that as well, of course we’re trying to do it too. If we all work together and we can try and sell more tickets!

On the show on Saturday night:

Kian : Unfortunately we’ll be doing three songs of the album, because the performance we’re gonna do on that night is actually our greatest hits world tour, but we have, especially for the show, we have put three new songs from the album into the show. We haven’t performed them live yet, but Saturday would be the first time to be performed live, so hopefully it’s all gonna go down well… but you know apart from, we’ll do 20 songs, all our hits from our first single to ‘Hey Whatever’, and then we’ve got a medley, an acoustic set… so it’s quite an entertaining show, we’re got good reviews around the world!

On the negativities…

Nicky : What’s the point of being negative? It doesn’t matter with the ticket sales, the show is still gonna go on, people are still gonna enjoy themselves. All you guys can help, and it’s not a negative show we’re here to give off, we’re here to give a great weekend to everyone in Hong Kong, so let’s stay together!

Bryan : I think it’s very important… that all the shows are gonna be on, it’s not about people making money, it’s about promoting Hong Kong as SARS-free, so we’re just gonna perform, you know it’s only 7,000 people, we’re gonna make sure the 7,000 people who bought tickets enjoy themselves, coz they’re the most important people. Thank you! See you again!

Words to Hong Kong:

Nicky : For me, to be in Hong Kong right now, it’s a huge pleasure to be here with Westlife performing at the Harbour Fest, to be honest with you, it’s a great cost, we’re here, and we’re gonna do the best we can ever do on Saturday night. Thank you!

Shane : Nicky’s kinda covered it there… I’m just like all the buildings here, all the architectures… so I wanna get a tour of this city before I go home.

Kian : I think Hong Kong is beautiful place, and actually myself and one of the members of our staff we went about the tram, and gone through the city, and got all these little things… you know, it’s a beautiful beautiful city, amazing architectures… and just, a huge thank you to everybody for welcoming us here to Hong Kong and make us feel so welcomed here again, to all our Westlife, for your love and support, all the media and press, let’s do our best show in Hong Kong on Saturday night!

Mark : I’m just very proud to be a part of this, it’s just true example to how everybody, the people of the world can stick together and help each other our in certain ways, and we’ve been looking forward to come here just because we like Hong Kong at the first place, it’s just an extra bonus to be able to lend the helping hand, and let the world know that it’s totally safe to come here to Hong Kong, I’m just very proud to be on the same list of artist who would come here… have a really good time! Thank you!

Bryan: I think he (Mark) just said what I was gonna say… so… thank you, and thanks everyone for coming down, and let’s make this a great weekend, so keep supporting! Thank you!

Questions and Text By: Alyson Hau