Belfast is such a home from home for Boyzlife’s Brian McFadden and Keith Duffy that they decided to kick off their world tour in the city.
The singers and close friends linked up to perform hits from their original bands Boyzone and Westlife before recording their new music together.
Brian told Sunday Life it was no accident the Dublin-born pair’s first gig when they go back on the road next year would be north of the border.
Keith, Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham in Boyzone (Niall Carson/PA Wire)
The 44-year-old said: “Belfast, and Northern Ireland in general, was always massive for both Boyzone and Westlife.
“I remember our second tour. We did 14 nights in the Point Depot and 13 nights sold out in the Odyssey Arena. We spent a lot of time in Ireland during that period and I always talk about it.
“It was my favourite part of Westlife, that period, because up to that we’d kind of been travelling all over the world.
“We were in different countries every day and never got home, and if we did go home, we might be home for one day, two days, and then we were back on the road, so you had no time with your family and friends.
“But that little block, you know, we spent nearly two months (at home) and, most importantly, we’d come off stage and we got to sleep in our own beds.
“Even when we were playing the Odyssey, we just drove down the road, got into our own beds and came back up the next day.
“That was my favourite part of Westlife, that whole period when we did 27 nights in Ireland. That was just brilliant.
“Northern Ireland has always had that thing… a bit like Germany. People used always talk about Germany and say ‘If you make it Germany, you’ve made it for the rest of your life’. You know, David Hasselhoff had a couple of hit singles in the late 80s and he still sells out shows in Germany.
“I find that Northern Ireland’s kind of the same. You know, if they take you in, you’re there for ever.
“We still get the same support now when we go up there that we did 20 years ago.
“People are still the same. They still turn out and they’re very, very loyal in Northern Ireland to their music acts, and people support us.
“I’ve always noticed that, so that’s why, for us, the first place to play on the world tour had to be Belfast.
“If we want to kick off the world tour in style, that’s the place to go to because you know you’re going to start with a rocking night.”
Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Brian, Nicky Byrne and Shane Filan in Westlife (Photo by Brian Rasic/Getty Images)
Brian joked that his first memory of Belfast — spending a fortnight in the old Unity Flats, staying with a nun aunt when he was 12 — was an “eye-opener.
But life is very different now, and one thing he is hoping to enjoy when he and Keith visit the city is a couple of rounds of golf, weather permitting.
Brian said: “We both play golf, and if one of us didn’t play golf, I don’t think we’d have the same relationship because it’s a huge part of our everyday life, playing golf.
“Like, we travel around the world and we do shows at night, but every day we play golf, and that’s so important to us.
“We’re also both Manchester United fans. If he was a Liverpool fan, I’d be gone already. I wouldn’t be in the band anymore, I’d be long gone.
“The only problem we’re going to have now is that, unfortunately, the world tour starts in January, so I’m not sure we’re going to get much golf in January.
“But we’ll try. We’ll put on the wets and the woolly hats and try and get out as much as we can.
“Northern Ireland has some of the best golf courses in the world — it’s got County Down, it’s got Portrush.
“Even if you go over to Donegal, where my family’s from, you’ve got some amazing golf courses.
“The north of Ireland in general is just blessed with some fabulous golf courses. I absolutely love it.
“With global warming, we might get a freak winter and have sunshine in January, you never know.”
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Brian’s obsession with golf has seen him become a regular fixture on the celebrity pro-am circuit, where he once offered Coleraine actor James Nesbitt some encouragement and advice.
He said: “We do quite a lot of them (pro-am tournaments). They’re great fun and it’s brilliant because just for that four hours on the golf course, you kind of get the feeling of what it’s like to be a professional golfer.
“You know, you’ve got the caddy and you’ve got the people around the green, so you just jump into their world and get to experience what it’s like to be a golfer, even when the golf doesn’t match up.
Jimmy Nesbitt
“I’m good friends with Jimmy, and we talked about that before as he’s always nervous about that first shot (in a pro-am tournament).
“It must be eight, nine years ago, they used to have a thing called the Hero Challenge at the Scottish Open.
“They used to build this kind of a green with a big grandstand around it. It was at night, all floodlit, and they used to have a nearest the pin (competition) with four celebrities, but you’ve got thousands of people around.
“I remember Jimmy saying to me ‘I’m really nervous about this’. I was like, ‘Jimmy, you’ve got nothing to be nervous about. Just think of this: everybody here already expects you to be absolutely s***, so if you hit a really bad shot, it’s like, well, they already expected it. But if you hit a good one, they’re going to be surprised. So it’s win, win’. And he was like ‘That’s a good point’.
“It’s not like singing. It’s not like those nerves where you get up there and you go ‘What if I sing bad?’ You just do your job. With this, no one expects you to be good.
“That’s all I ever think about when I play in a pro-am. I just think ‘Everyone already expects you to be rubbish, so just do whatever happens’.”
As for what’s next, Brian said he and Keith were “very excited about the new album”, given that the last release was hampered by the Covid pandemic.
He added they planned to really enjoy their upcoming tour, admitting he didn’t appreciate it as much when he was performing 25 years ago.
Keith and Brian playing a gig in England in 2021 (Photo by Lorne Thomson/Redferns)
Brian explained: “It needs to go away for a little for you to realise what it was. I look back at the Westlife days, and when I was in it, I didn’t appreciate any of it.
“I didn’t appreciate the fact that I was doing all these nights sold out in an arena in Belfast or that I was going to America, going to Australia or going to these places. I just didn’t accept that it was anything different, it was just part of my life.
“Then you stop doing it and leave the band. I went away and was like ‘F*****g hell, that was pretty amazing’.
“I was thinking about it and going ‘No, I don’t get to go to Singapore anymore. I don’t get to go to these places anymore’.
“So, when Keith and I started touring the world again, it was like ‘I’m going to proper enjoy it’.
“I think about those nights that we went to a great city, did a gig and just went home to bed. Now I’m like ‘No, when I come off stage, I’m going to go and enjoy that city because it could be the last time I go here’.
“I think we kind of do it now and kind of treat it like every gig could be our last gig and every tour could be our last tour because we never know what’s going to happen.
“You know, we’re turning into old men, so we’ve got to enjoy it now and really, really accept it.
“That’s the main thing — just to treat it like it could be the last time that you ever do it.”
Boyzlife play the Ulster Hall in Belfast on January 15. Tickets available from the box office and Ticketmaster. New single I Would is out now