Westlife – Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Shane Filan - are back, with their brand new RatPack themed album Allow Us To Be Frank. The lp is a collection of the band's favourite classics from the golden Rat Pack era. Featuring tracks originally performed by legends such as Dean Martin, Sammy Davis jnr and Mr Frank Sinatra, Allow Us To Be Frank pays homage to those bourbon filled years when the RatPack used to hang out and perform at The Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. On Allow Us To Be Frank Westlife fully capture the spirit and image of that unique time; with immaculately tailored suits and their hair smoothed back, the band couldn't look more authentic…
Produced by long-time collaborator Steve Mac, the album highlights the band's vocal prowess and ability. Westlife recorded the album with a full 60 piece orchestra at Phoenix Studios in Wembley. Recorded over the Summer of 2004, the band's first album as a four-piece (5th studio album in total) is their strongest to date.
The album consists of 13 classic tracks, including Fly Me To The Moon, Moon River, Ain’t That A Kick In The Head, Come Fly With Me and Smile to name a few. Allow Us To Be Frank also includes an extra special duet - The Way You Look Tonight - featuring the band singing alongside a fan plucked from obscurity… She was chosen after thousands of hopefuls auditioned in front of Shane, Mark, Nicky and Kian in a nationwide talent search earlier this year; the auditions will be part of an ITV primetime Westlife TV special titled 'You're The One', which will be screened in December.
Westlife spent time recording videos in LA and Las Vegas to complete the authentic look. Whilst in Vegas the band took time to visit some of the legendary Rat Pack locations. They also performed at the World Music Awards where they were presented with an award for this year's Best Selling Irish Act.
"We had a great time recording this album. We have always loved the whole spirit and style of the Rat Pack era. They had a strong family vibe going on which is what we have in Westlife. The only problem was how to choose an album's worth of material with such a strong catalogue to pick from - It was tough but we got there in the end…" said Kian.
Westlife are the biggest vocal band in the world right now and their successes to date are unrivaled. They are the only recording artists in the history of the awards to win the prestigious Record of the Year three times. They have performed to over 3 million fans on four sell-out arena tours to become the biggest selling arena tour act ever. They have sold over 34 million records globally; had five multi-platinum albums in the UK alone; scored a record breaking 12 UK number ones, picked up two BRIT Awards, an MTV Europe Award and 6 Irish Meteor Awards (Best Pop Act for 4 years consecutively). Westlife also secured the first ever Official Download Chart Number 1 with a live version of Flying Without Wings.
Look back through the pages of pop history and you find that the average lifespan of a boy band is shockingly short. Westlife have outlived all of them: The Osmonds, The Partridge Family, The Jackson Five; New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, Take That; *NSync, Boyzone and 5ive. So how did they do it? Through the strength of their voices (yes, all of them can actually sing!) the force of their personalities and an appetite for hard work. Rather than moving too far, too fast, Westlife have avoided burnout by growing with their fans and playing to their own strengths. They still do.
Westlife grew out of a band formed by Kian, Shane and Mark when they were performing in a local stage version of Grease in the west of Ireland. Originally a six-piece named IOU they were spotted by pop impresario Louis Walsh who groomed them as successors to his hit machine, Boyzone. Shedding three of the members and bringing in Bryan and Nicky, they first came to public notice as Westside, rapidly becoming the rising stars of the Smash Hits Tour in the winter of 1998 – helped by the fact that their management team now included a young man called Ronan Keating. One small name change later (to avoid clashing with at least one US act performing as Westside) and they were on their way. First single Swear It Again went straight to number one in April 1999, swiftly followed by If I Let You Go and Flying Without Wings. Within a year they had made UK chart history with their fifth chart topper in a row, Fool Again. Before long they secured a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the only band to have topped the charts seven times in a row. At the time of writing, the Westlife hit machine has notched up an amazing 12 number ones, plus 1 download number 1.
The records have kept coming ever since – in every sense. They were the first ever UK-based band to boast four number ones in a single year. Four of their albums have gone straight to number one. Their bulging trophy cabinet includes two Brit awards, an MTV Europe award, two Record of the Year awards and countless honours from their travels around the world.
In March 2004, Bryan left the band to pursue a solo career - again, many commentators predicted the end for the band, but again, Westlife confounded the doomsayers: they went straight out and performed one of their best ever received tours (the Turnaround tour 2004), and now have returned with Allow Us To Be Frank, and a renewed vigour that sees the boys aiming for plenty more years of music with Westlife.
Source: http://www.westlife.com/history.php |
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