ENGLAND: POP STARS WESTLIFE SIGN COPIES OF THEIR NEW ALBUM "WORLD OF OUR OWN" AT A LONDON RECORD STORE

Record ID: 392168

  • Title: ENGLAND: POP STARS WESTLIFE SIGN COPIES OF THEIR NEW ALBUM "WORLD OF OUR OWN" AT A LONDON RECORD STORE
  • Date: 12th November 2001
  • Summary: (REUTERS) MCU (English) SHANE "Last time we sold eight million copies. We'd like to sell ten. So we'd like to get onto double figures with an album. It's what we're gonna aim for with this album. Hopefully get some success and enjoy our own tour. We just hope the fans will enjoy it, it gets out to everybody who enjoys Westlife. We hope they enjoy it, that's really it." RE
  • Embargoed: 27th November 2001 12:00
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  • Location: LONDON, UK
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVAAE7RID2BIZLZN13F8RDLD48NH
  • Story Text: Multi-platinum global pop stars Westlife sent fans screaming when they signed copies of their new album "World of Our Own" at a London record store last week. The album hit the UK charts at number one, beating Madonna's Greatest Hits album into second place.
    Shane, Kian, Nicky, Mark and Bryan send girls screaming wherever they go. The five "Westlife" stars could not wish for a more exciting welcome from their fans.
    Earlier this week, they signed copies of their latest album "World of Our Own" at the Virgin Record store in London. Their last Number One album "Coast to Coast" scored seven times Platinum in the UK alone. Globally, Westlife have sold over 12 million with their two last albums. So what are their hopes for "World of Our Own"? "We feel it's our best album so far, definitely, we feel the variety of music is a lot higher, the quality of music is a lot higher, the different styles of songs...in general, if we compare this album to the two last albums, we feel it's like ten times better and we found an uptempo sound now that we can call our own, there are a lot of songs on there that people will be very pleasantly surprised with. We still got the original Westlife sound in there. There's just a difference in every song and I think for anybody who is a pop fan will really enjoy the album. It's a really good pop album", says Kian.
    Westlife have been enormously successful so far and they're hoping to continue to climb up the ladder. Last year, they won the Brit Award's Best Pop Act and MTV Europe's Best UK and Ireland Act. In 1999 they won the prestigious Record of the Year with 'Flying Without Wings' and a year later with 'My Love'.
    "World of our Own" features nineteen tracks, including their latest single "Queen of my Heart". The Irish quintet is hoping to beat their last album sales to a double figure this time round...
    "Last time we sold eight million copies. We'd like to sell ten. So we'd like to get onto double figures with an album.
    It's what we're gonna aim for with this album. Hopefully get some success and enjoy our own tour. We just hope the fans will enjoy it, it gets out to everybody who enjoys Westlife.
    We hope they enjoy it, that's really it."
    Well, there's nothing to fear there. Westlife fans turned out in full force for the album signing, and many shed a few tears - out of excitement of course. But the boys don't seem to mind.
    "Certain things you go to, like signing in Virgin or whatever, you know that there will be crazy fans there, it always is, but you don't get shocked by it all the time."
    After signing hundreds of thousands of autographs since their first claim to fame, the boys are happy to get away from it all and go back home to their folks to get some sense of a normal life - well , as normal as it'll ever be: "We all love going home. Getting home is where we get away from Westlife, we can have a normal life if you like. Still, obviously when you go out and stuff, people are like saying 'what's happening in your life', 'what's happening in the band', it's part of your life so you got to get used to it. We won't change it for the world but going home is special."
    Westlife have a busy year ahead of them. Next spring, the band will embark on their tour, taking them across Europe, Africa, and Asia thrilling around one million fans around the world: "The tour is starting in Rotterdam, April 4th next year, so after Christmas we'll come back and promote a new single.
    Then we'll do rehearsals for the tour, then from there we go to North Europe, Scandinavia, then back to Germany, across Ireland, the UK, South Africa, East Asia, South America, and then back over to Europe again, then back to Belfast, Dublin, back to the UK - so we're probably touring 8-9 months, so that'll bring us probably into the Greatest Hits this time next year. We'll probably be back here doing another signing for another album and then we'll be touring that and then we have studio album planned again. I mean there's definitely three to four years left of Westlife."
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