FANS of all ages turned out in force last night to see top-selling Irish boy-band Westlife give back-to-back performances at the NMMU Indoor Sports Centre. The screaming of young teenage girls was deafening at times as the quartet belted out a number of their own chart-toppers and renditions of other famous songs.
The crowd ranged from primary school children to people over the age of 50, the latter probably due to the success of the group’s recent album of Frank Sinatra covers, Allow Us To Be Frank.
The use of a four-piece backing band added substance to the vocal group’s performance, compared with fellow British boy-band Phixx, who recently performed at the same venue accompanied only by backing tracks.
Having sold out the evening show, a 5pm matinee performance was added, also drawing a sizeable crowd. Around 7pm, when the early show finished, the queue of cars attempting to enter the NMMU via University Way for the second show stretched back as far as the University Motors petrol station. Luckily, the second performance did feature South African Idols winner Heinz Winckler as an opening act, which should have allowed these fans enough time to get to the stadium for the main event.
As 10 of the band’s 19 songs were covers, some of their original chart-toppers were omitted from the line-up, notably Bop Bop Baby and Fool Again, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind and sang along regardless.
The four vocalists, Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Shane Filan seemed to be having as much fun as their fans and ended their set with a promise to return to Port Elizabeth on their next world tour.
