I think I haven’t really told anyone how much I love Westlife.
As much as my memory allows, it dates me back to the time when I was 8 and I heard Westlife’s My Love for the first time in 2000 through the casette player(YES I KNOW I’M VERY OLD). It would be quite apt to say that I grew up listening to Westlife’s music and it would be even cliche to say that without Westlife I wouldn’t be who I am today-but you know what? The things that are cliche, are more often than not true.They burst with so much truth that sometimes,it’s really hard to admit but at the end of the day,in the deep silence of the night where all mankind is drugged with sleep and you seem to be the only person wide awake under the covers albeit bleary eyed,a familiar melody from the distant past comes to mind “an empty street,an empty house,a hole inside my heart…”
Westlife was the first boyband-band that I learnt all the songs by heart.I remember spending countless hours listening to their songs on repeat and I’m sure I had worn out that cassette (I’m still keeping it even though I no longer have a cassette player-for old time’s sake, as a memorandum of the good halcyon days) I remember screeching at the top of my lungs in the middle of the night and I remember listening to their songs the days leading to final year exams and etc. I remember telling myself that they were the only band that I would ever love even though there are other bands that I really love now,but the love for Westlife remains in a separate entity of it’s own and that fervent passion is Unbreakable. I can’t really use words adequately to express the surge of energy and irreversible impact that the band has in my life because that means fleshing out the nitty bitty of my childhood and you can’t really examine the pieces separately,but rather they’re good as a whole. Westlife to me is like a fish in the water-sorry for the seemingly crude analogy-it’s like a fish would never notice that it needs water to survive,like how my parts of my life had been so stemmed in the existence of Westlife and their songs I think it’s an understatement to say that I was mildly bothered by the news of their disbandment in October this year. In fact,I was tearing up ,devastated and was an emotional wreck. Yes I had deviated from Westlife in the recent years;but isn’t this about growing up? We are constantly fickle and changing everyday-yet deep down I can never abandon the band.I cannot denounce who I had been at that point in time.Humans are such obnoxious creatures honestly. It’s like the world flits from one frenzy to another faster than you can say “alohomora” and then when something is sent to it’s demise or whatever,the whole world flits back and starts mourning for the loss. I don’t know how to get about this but the wackiest thing about mankind has got to be the absence of the awareness of “living” and “leaving”. It’s a pun on the word-to think that life and death are entwined by the pronounciation of words and this goes for the life and death of bands. The world doesn’t value Westlife enough until October 2011 and the music industry is thrown into a whirlpool of lamentation for such an influential band and the world will never make such goodmusic again-I think I’m berating myself instead of the world.
I wish I had made a conscious effort to make Westlife an indisputable part of my life.There was a time when they graced the walls of my bedroom and now,they’ve made their return.I need to make a conscientious effort to keep them in my life.1998-2012? This timeline does not exist in my own calendar. I refuse to admit that they’ve ceased to exist,but rather I’ll like to read it this way-the boys have now graduated and they should experiment with different things in life.That’s what they said and I will always remember that. Moving on does not mean forgetting-it just means milking the best out of all that Life had given you before and chalking new routes and getting your footsteps padded across all the other endeavors.
After all, life is coined by the three “mores”-SEE MORE,LEARN MORE,FEEL MORE-by MY 2011.
I’ll like to remember the innocent me that had loved Westlife 11 years ago. The music industry is overtly saturated with wannabes plastered with way too much makeup and packaged with sex appeal and so on to retain the love of the everchanging audience. Fans seem to swarm towards idols with handsome looks and polished stances and it’s the exterior that really counts.I admit that I’m part of that crowd too sometimes, but the point I’m trying to get across right now is the fact that I was “chaste” in the past. Honestly when I learned to love Westlife I DID NOT EVEN KNOW HOW THEY LOOKED LIKE,and I never bothered to find out.I didn’t bother to find out their characters, their birthdays,their schools, their history etc.Basically all I had loved of them was purely along musical lines. I love the fact that I could feel their songs and how they seemed to touch me so much with every enunciation of the lyrics. The Me today would have never condone this kind of behaviour-I staunchly believe in knowing the 101 of your idols before giving your whole heart to them. Westlife was the exception and they still are today. I don’t even flinch at the idea that 4/5 of them are fathers now etc -I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY. Them being happy and doing what they want is more than enough for me honestly. Westlife was and will always be THE Exception.
Shane Filan. Nicky Byrne. Kian Egan. Mark Feehily. Brian McFadden.
They might be known as members of a former band,Westlife in future and new bands will seek to render them to the sketches of memory, but their legacy will never be dethroned in my heart.How am I supposed to leave you boys now when you all had left such a prominent impact on my 8 year old self? I will always hold them dear to my heart and never let go.
it’s time to move on now
so don’t be afraid
we should remember the roles that we played
whether the future has dark or bright days
I will still love you yeah… to the last mile of the way.
To Westlife, I will always be with all of you to the very last mile of the way.
Until the world stops turning and the sun stops burning.
