Mark's On Tour Interview

This is Mark's online interview, posted just today. Here's what they managed to orchestrate out of it:

+ It's a really good tour, come see it. It's not the same as the album, so you'll have to buy that too. Stick around for Colour My World.
+ We're creative and doing loads of new stuff.
+ We're only human, we make mistakes all the time. Mostly because we're always joking about on stage, just like best friends do.
+ I have loads of friends and a boyfriend I love - I'm very nice and into commitment. And I'm very gay and like having fun with that in a purely clean manner. So you girls should all love me.
+ Australia likes us, aren't we great and international (PS. to the Australian fans: We love you! Buy our stuff!)
+ We love all our fans and acknowledge their love for us. Thanks guys and keep forking out the money!
+ More rude banners would be nice. Ta!

So how’s the tour been?
It’s been fantastic. It’s been the most enjoyable tour on a personal level and it’s the best tour we’ve ever done in terms of the content and design of the show. I’m just so pleased to be in this situation, in terms of the band’s career. We’re still here, still doing new stuff, still being creative. We’ve always tried to make our shows totally different from our albums, and deliver the songs in a different way to how the fans know them.

Which has been your favourite date so far?
It’s difficult to say, they’ve all been amazing, but what makes a gig extra special is the acoustics of the venue. The show that stands out for me is the Saturday night that we played in Manchester. Nobody can imagine the sheer size of the arena. I also had a particularly great gig there, I was on top form!

Which is your favourite song to perform?
There’s so many I enjoy performing, but I think it’s ‘Colour My World’. It’s a bit more soulful, I can let rip vocally a bit more. I also love the opening part of it.

Have there been any funny moments on tour yet?
Every night someone makes some kind of mistake, but generally the fans won’t notice. Normally if I notice someone making a mistake then I’ll start laughing, then they’ll start laughing, and sometimes the laughter gets infectious and everyone starts laughing and no-one’s singing. I’m always trying to make Shane laugh when he’s singing the really serious parts of the songs. I’ve succeeded on quite a few occasions.

Have you seen any good banners this year?
A few. They normally turn the names of our songs into puns or whatever. But I want to see more crazy banners, or rude banners!

How do you unwind after the shows?
On most shows when you come offstage, you’re just so buzzed up and then all of a sudden you’re offstage in your hotel room. It’s very difficult to say ‘right then’ and order a cup of hot chocolate and go to bed. I usually won’t go to bed before two or three o’clock unless I’m really tired. I just stay up chatting to Kevin or a friend who’s over, maybe go for drinks with them. I’m a bit of a nocturnal person anyway, so I sleep in ‘till twelve or one.

What have you got planned for when the live shows finish?
Probably about five hours off then we’re straight back into recording the next album! I’d love a month or two off, but at the end of the day that’s life, especially as things are going so well at the moment. We can’t afford to take time out and just chill.

What’s been the highlight over the past six months?
There was one trip where we went to Sydney and Melbourne and I had a lot of fun. I love photography and I just went around taking photos of random things. We were there for one week and at the start no-one knew us and at the end the single went in at number 1 and we literally broke Australia. It was just a really good trip and we had family and friends with us and all of that. Australia’s a great place and we went to the Mardi Gras, which was brilliant. It was just a big laugh, you know.

Any message for your fans?
Only that if we’d sold only a handful of tickets, our label would be like, ‘OK, what’s going on with Westlife?’ but it’s done the opposite, the fans have been amazing, and the reaction to the shows was incredible, so I just want to say thank you very much for letting us stay here and sticking with us. By supporting the album and supporting the tour they’re helping to keep us successful, so thanks a billion for staying with us and we hope with this tour we’ve delivered something that they’ve really enjoyed.