Westlife have announced that they are to split up. Though not before they’ve released a greatest hits compilation and gone on a farewell tour of UK arenas. So at least there’s that.
In a statement, the group said: “After fourteen years, 26 top ten hits including fourteen number one singles, eleven top five albums, seven of which hit the top spot and have collectively sold over 44 million copies around the world, ten sell out tours” – sorry, we will get to the actual statement soon – “and countless memories that we will forever cherish, we today announce our plan to go our separate ways after a greatest hits collection this Christmas and a farewell tour next year”.
They insisted that the decision was “entirely amicable”, adding “after spending all of our adult life together so far, we want to have a well-earned break and look at new ventures”.
Which is fair enough. After all, surely these guys have taken the whole Westlife project as far as they ever could creatively speaking. In fact, I seem to remember they passed that milestone back in 1998, as the group themselves noted in their concluding statement: “We never imagined when we started out in 1998 that fourteen years later we would still be recording, touring and having hits together”.
‘Greatest Hits’ will be released on 21 Nov, preceded by new single ‘Lighthouse’ on 13 Nov. And here are the tour dates, tickets for which go on sale at 9am on 21 Oct:
14 May: Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena
15 May: Liverpool, Echo Arena
17 May: Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
19 May: Sheffield, Motorpoint Arena
20 May: Birmingham, LG Arena
22 May: Nottingham, Capital FM Arena
23 May: London, O2 Arena
26 May: Manchester, MEN Arena
27 May: Glasgow, SECC
Sections: Gigs & Tours News - Reunions & Splits | Tags: Westlife
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