Westlife: 'We've talked about splitting'

Westlife have revealed that they almost split up last year.

The group, who released their tenth studio album last week, said that they discussed parting ways but were still passionate about the band, and agreed to continue releasing music on their own terms.

"We talked about it long and hard last April,” Mark Feehily told the Daily Star. "We came close to throwing in the towel.

"Financially we could have retired - we could retire tomorrow. But it wasn’t about that. The music started to become about how many units we sold rather than about us making something we felt passionate about.

“It was partly why we took a break for a year back in 2008.”

Nicky Byrne added: "We talked about why we were doing Westlife and we agreed it was because we loved it. We’re passionate about the band and so we decided that if we were to come back, we’d come back on our own terms."

Gravity entered the UK album chart yesterday at number three.