Unless it’s a boy band, boys are boys. In that case, the boy is likely to be a greasy dad, sitting on his stool, holding a microphone and staring at the middle-aged barrel.
The house certainly has a lot of wrinkles and crow legs as Westlife plays at Aviva Stadium in Dublin tonight and tomorrow night. Flying without wings Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily and Shane Filan’s Foursome are all over 120 years old. As such, they have reached that tricky point in the life of all groups of former teenage heartbeats, where wrinkles replace dimples.
Their challenge is to show that they are still musically relevant, even if their audience has been screaming and fainting. As teen hormones have been replaced by middle-aged boredom, Westlife must show that they can still squeeze that pop star punch.
They are not the only ones facing such obstacles. And some boy bands have proven to be better able to negotiate the testing stages of their lives and careers than others. Fortunately, the bank is well-balanced without compromising dignity. Unfortunately, their reunion road is paved with tears.
Forget about the Rolling Stones swaying in the 70’s. For male pop stars, staying relevant as they approach 50 is a non-scalable peak that must be overcome.
When it comes to gracefully graying, Take That is an example that everyone pays attention to. In the 1990s, they were dazzled, stupid, and essentially ridiculous.Yes they have released pray When Back for Good.. They also appeared to be submerged in hair gel and equipped by the owner of a local sex dungeon.
And if their best songs were pop classics, in the end no one took them seriously. Take That included lead singer and main songwriter Gary Barlow. Gary Barlow saw the band as a stepping stone to his solo career and fulfilled his next claim as Elton John.
After all, it took a reunion to really thank Take That. Reunited in 2005, with the exception of the hilarious Robbie Williams, Take That 2.0 has always been the best bubbling, sensuously appealing soft rocker it should be.
This was also the time of their greatest success, as they played Croke Park several times and returned the allowed lobby to the fold on their second stadium tour in 2011. And they had a songbook that suits their popularity.like that Patience, Dominate the world When Shining We proudly declare that there was a life after teenage stardom. Your career may continue when the adolescent screams disappear.
So Take That took one path. The second option is to completely ignore the aging process. That’s the strategy the Backstreet Boys pursued, and at the age of 40, it proved an interesting trivia nugget, not a reason to rethink its approach to music.
The Backstreet Boys are still firmly sticking to their old image as a heartbeat that your parents may disapprove. As anyone who attended a recent show testifies, their dance routine is about the same as in 1999. In particular, he rejected Take That’s approach of appearing to come from Marks & Spencer. Evening wear catalog.
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East 17 members Tony Mortimer, Brian Harvey, John Hendy, Terry Coldwell
Still, instead of embarrassingly aging, he’s still pretending to be 26, giving the Backstreet Boys a mysteriously deadly quality.Like Tom Cruise Top Gun: MaverickTheir total reluctance to admit that they are middle-aged men who have been doing this for 25 years has been revealed as something like a superpower. And, as we saw when we returned to the top of the charts on our DNA album three years ago, infinite self-confidence is once again popular.
Boyzone took a completely different approach and instead chose to bend down gracefully. They spent time on their project in 2018 after a farewell tour. Ronan Keating returned to his life as a solo crooner while working on a television host. And the Boyzone brand was wisely sent to the meadow (introducing Boyzlife, an unlikely collaboration between Keith Duffy from Boyzone and formerly Brian McFadden from Westlife).
Next is the horror story. It is a boy band comeback unveiled in real time. Blue, a four-piece record label from London, made a decent run in the early 2000s with the following smash: All rise.. They burned in 2004, but returned in 2011 to represent Britain at Eurovision.
Still, they were happy to come back together. Being solo disagreed with Lee Ryan, the de facto lead singer of the group. Not only that, he himself couldn’t break the chart. He missed his companion. “I was used to singing four lines, dropping the mic, looking at one of these guys and waiting for them to start singing,” he said. Guardian.. “And I remember doing that, and thought:” Oh, I have to keep singing! “Sing the whole song —” This is difficult, man! “In the depths of my heart, I couldn’t wait to reach this point. “
The saddest story of all is the story of East 17, which released one of the greatest boy band anthems of all time at Christmas number one in 1994. Stay on another day (About the death of songwriter Tony Mortimer’s brother due to suicide). After publicly talking about the use of ecstasy in 1997, they continue touring without the singers Mortimer and Brian Harvey, who were expelled from the group, and they are suffering from a terrifying posthumous world.
East 17 today stepped on the board as a three-piece, with Terry Coldwell standing as the only original member (single released last May). However, The chart failed). I’m sorry, but it’s about 5ive who toured as a three-piece in 2022, refusing to call themselves 3ree. Welcome to Pop Purgatory — If you’re not careful, all boy bands can end.
Westlife has avoided that dreadful end. Since remodeling in 2018 for the first time in 7 years, we have released two new albums. The first album was number one on the Irish and UK charts, and the second album was number two.Reviews were certainly less than ecstasy (2021) Wild Dreams Rejected by London independence As “Schmaltz’s love song, bright ballads, and more Schmaltz’s love song”). But at least people continue to care.
Given the fate of some of their peers, it’s impressive. Obviously, no one goes to the 2022 Westlife show wanting to hear their hot new cuts. It’s all about old songs, singing voices, quartets of stools, and emoting their greasy hearts.
The important point is that Westlife is still related to the fan base. And when they step on stage in Aviva this weekend, they and their audience will easily join the shared fantasy that age is just a number. And you are as old as the power ballad you are crouching.
