Westlife Asia Tour

Westlife Asia Tour May-June 2001

» Click here to see this gallery

Not just a tour of Asia, in fact, but also the Middle East (Beirut, Tel Aviv) and South Africa (Cape Town, Sun City ,Johannesburg). From Johannesburg we flew to Bangkok, followed by Jakarta, Manilla, Kuala Lumpar, Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong. Westlife's fan base is a little more diverse abroad than at home, with quite a few more men and adults paying to see the gig, and, rather bizarrely, the crew (musicians, sound-crew, pyros, lighting etc.) generated almost as much hysteria when we landed in a new country as the more famous among us (who were whisked off through the VIP exit and rarely seen again until the gig).

This sort of tour is altogether a different experience from the Britsh tour. Gigs were on average every other night, which entailed, to my memory, a total of thirteen flights in 17 days. While undoubtedly knackering, the adrenaline (and occaisionally tequila) usually compensated for the long hours and lack of sleep. Give me this rather than six days in the Crowne Plaza in Birmingham any day. Pop stars, by the way, have an amazing ability to sleep through plane journeys - I've often thought that this is the primary skill required for boyband membership - rather than any singing ability or anything...

The number of people on this tour was substantially reduced from the British tour, most of the gear was hired, and any flight cases we brought with us had to be lugged through the airport by whoever was available. Glamorous? No. But an unforgettable experience certainly.

Technical Information
These pictures were taken with a Canon EOS-1N - a top of the range professional camera when it came out, virtually obsolete when I sold it in 2002, but a high-quality piece of kit by any standard. The lenses are also good quality Canon Auto Focus types. I scanned the original prints on an Epson 4990 scanner, and edited in Photoshop Elements.

Disclaimer
If anyone featured in these photos would like me to remove them then email me and I will of course do so.