CONCERT REVIEWS

Tour reviews from around the globe and from over the past 6 years, click on scroll bar for specific years dates or just read along in chronological order and gasp!

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

BACK HOME TOUR 2008

Westlife are back in black - Belfast telegraph 26th February  2008
Band kicks off new tour in style at Odyssey

Irish pop stars Westlife came 'back home' to their Belfast fans last night kicking off the first show of a sensational new tour in style.  Thousands of fans - aged from seven to 70 - enjoyed the funky, uptempo show as Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Nicky Byrne returned to the Odyssey Arena for the first of three live performances. The chart-toppers, emerged on stage dressed in Top Gun inspired aviator sunglasses and black leather jackets.

The four-piece - who have just finished recording new tracks in their recording studio - had fans screaming as they took centre stage and performed from an impressive back catalogue spanning 10 years. The boys gave the audience a concert packed with all of Westlife's greatest anthems and number one hits, including tracks from their new album Back Home to mark their anniversary tour. Favourites such as World of Our Own and Uptown Girl were among the opening numbers of the crowd-pleasing energetic set. And in keeping with a funkier more soulful show the four piece performed a medley of Justin Timberlake, Kool and the Gang, Jackson 5, Wham! and Robbie Williams' tracks.
Fans cried out for more as the boys performed with a new backing band and a trio of female singers called the Westettes. While Shane singled out his wife Gillian - who was in the audience during the gig - dedicating the track 'I'm Already There' to her.

With 14 number one singles under their belt, the Irish boyband are currently celebrating a decade in the music business. And to mark their massive success at the top of the charts since 1998 Kian thanked the Belfast fans for the constant support in making their dream come true.

"When we started we wanted to be the biggest band that we could be," he said. "And thanks to you all we have done that. Thank you for all your love." Speaking ahead of the gigs, the last of which is on Wednesday, Shane said: "This is the best set list we have ever done, without a doubt. He hinted: 'This show is about 20 minutes longer than usual. Don't leave before the encore - the encore is worth waiting for."

 

THE LOVE TOUR 2007   

Australian Dates UK / Ireland Articles  

Boys' trip down memory lane - Adelaide, Australia - The Advertiser

COSTUME changes, pyrotechnics, a New Kids on the Block cover and boy band dance moves - welcome to 2007, Westlife style. Though boy bands are no longer the chart force they once were, this group of four Irishmen entertained a small but enthusiastic crowd at the Entertainment Centre. An early technical glitch – Shane's microphone dropped out in during first song Total Eclipse of the Heart – proved there would be no lip syncing embarrassment – a la Ashlee Simpson as the four boys worked their way through covers, old hits and songs from their new The Love Album.

The night's highlight was a trip down boy band memory lane where the band paid homage to its predecessors, including New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, Boyzone and Take That though the introduction to the homage wrote former member Brian McFadden out of the Westlife script. Beginning the extended medley with Backstreet's Back and New Kid's on the Block's the Right Stuff, the four Irishmen even had each of the group's dance moves down pat. One of Westlife's biggest hits, their version of Billy Joel's Uptown Girl had people on their feet dancing, while everyone sang along to recent single Raise Me Up. White suits were donned for the encore of Flying Without Wings and a cover of the Better Midler hit The Rose as a shower of sparks brought the show to an end on a down-tempo note, too soon for the cheering crowd.

 

FACE TO FACE TOUR 2006   

Green Glens Arena  16th April 2006  unison.ie
IT wasn't supposed to be like this. While their contemporaries fumble about with reunion tours five years after the royalties have run out, the Westlife juggernaut rolls on. Time to start feeling old - it was seven years since they first appeared. But Westlife continue to make a mockery of the average boyband life expectancy. Consequently, the demographic at their first Irish show of the Face To Face tour is largely female, five years into mortgage payments and accompanied by wide-eyed sprogs.

Rock by numbers it may be, but with the help of a flawless backing band, 'When You're Looking Like That' sounds huge, while the industrial-tinged electronica of 'Hit You With The Real Thing' is a welcome departure. Predictably, it all comes laden with more costume changes than a West End drama production and tacky, choreographed dance moves. But heck, it sure is entertaining - and there's no let-up in the consistent high quality.  Shane Filan continues to be the vocal standard bearer, but Mark Feehily now shoulders more responsibility, while Egan and Nicky Byrne have boosted their onstage personalities sufficiently to render Brian McFadden a distant memory

2005  NO.1'S TOUR

TURNAROUND TOUR  2004

2003  UNBREAKABLE TOUR 

Welcome home, lads
Westlife played their most memorable gig to date in front of 20,000 people in Markevich Park last Friday night. The rain failed to dampen their homecoming, which lived up to its hype as the band proved all the thrills of their Greatest Hits Tour. For Kian, Mark and Shane this is a dream come true. Afterwards the band partied till the early hours in The Manhattan on Tobergal Lane. Heavy security surrounded the bar as 100 guests, most of whom were family and friends enjoyed the night.

2002 TOUR - IN THE ROUND

Its been a long time coming but for the first ever Westlife tour the fans are out in droves. A Madonna-esque T-shirt with your fave member's name emblazoned across the front is THE thing to be seen in when the video of I Lay My Love On You pops up on the screens to kick things off. A Matrix-style set with an industrial feel welcomes Ireland's finest as they drop from suspension wires in chunky black armour for Dreams Come True... we're truly knocked out - Westlife are dancing! And for the rest of the show their tootsies never stop. There's not a stool in sight the whole evening, even for the mushy numbers like Swear It Again and Seasons In The Sun. High jinks capers, mostly from Bryan, who apologises for having a sore throat, keeps the entertainment on a high. As does the random pretend unzipping of their trousers at various points.

Huge guitar riffs transform When You're Looking Like That into a show-stopping moment as the sexy backing dancers get jiggy in their sauciest clobber, with the 'Life drooling in time. There's no solo songs as such, apart from a few bars of Wild Thing from Kian, which only lasts until his chums haul him away from the mic. But it is fab to hear individual vocals from all the lads on You Make Me Feel. They even take a tongue-in-cheek jib at themselves by nicking prop violins and a guitar and playing them like a 'real' band.

In the encore of Flying Without Wings they're strapped into a huge metal frame, which lifts them through the crowd, and their vocals have never sounded more angelic. Mark in particular excels on the high notes. Tonight proves exactly why Westlife deserve all those No 1's. If you thought the phenomena would be due to halt soon, forget it. Westlife's rule on the world of pop has barely begun.

2001 TOUR - 'NO STOOLS'

Westlife Tour Starts in style   12th February 2001   Worldpop.com
Westlife have kicked off their debut UK show in style with a whopping 21-song set list. The band played their first proper concert on Friday night at Newcastle's Telewest Arena and put paid to jibes that they can't dance once and for all. In fact, band member Nicky Byrne promised that 'there will be no sitting on stools,' and at one point the lads even flew over the audience suspended by wires like H from Steps and the Backstreet Boys before them. During I Have A Dream fans were covered in bubbles that descended from the ceiling. However, some of the fans' screams of excitement were turned to screams of terror with the concert's introduction which bizarrely featured video footage of Westlife apparently being resuscitated by paramedics!

Despite previous promises to stop recording cover versions, Westlife played seven covers and a Motown medley at the concert. However fans concluded that the show was everything they'd been hoping for and more and praised the group for singing live the whole way through the concert. Westlife's new single Uptown Girl is released on 5 March. Their UK tour continues until April.

 

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