In the last few years of their success, Westlife have refused to follow the toe-path of the regulation boyband. �Are we even a boyband anymore? I have absolutely no idea,� says Nicky Byrne, with disarming candour. Tradition has it that after the first five years, absolute maximum, the boyband must by default implode to make way for the new model. With Westlife, there simply hasn�t been a new model to outshine them. On the straight up British pop roster, Westlife have existed since before SClub7, B*Witched, Blue, Girls Aloud, Atomic Kitten, Busted, Misteeq, McFly, Liberty X and all the countless other record company follies that have disappeared without trace. Of those that they haven�t already outlived, you could put a pretty safe fiver on the rest bowing out before they. As a functioning, multi-purpose, thoroughbred pop operation, they are now twice as old as Take That were when they split for the first time and three times as old as Wham! were when they went forever.

One of the reasons for this is their unnerving agility and ability in rendering music that cuts straight to the primary core of a largely forgotten pop audience. Tuneful, melodic, simply structured music that doesn�t stray from the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle eight-chorus recipe of timeless tunes. But the other is because they are four distinct individuals who come together and make something that is whole.

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