Westlife: 'We became a tribute act'

Westlife have revealed that they were unhappy singing covers on their previous albums.

The group, who released their tenth studio set Gravity last week, claimed that they were forced to stand up to Simon Cowell for fear of becoming a tribute band.

"We were sick of doing covers and didn't want to turn into a tribute act," Shane Filan told the Daily Star.

"Simon Cowell might run our record label but we had to put our foot down with him. We didn't want to be that band going on The X Factor then releasing one single and then going on tour.

"We wanted to make a proper album and to be able to put out three or four singles from it."

He continued: "We're in our 30s now and wanted to go back to the kind of stuff we were making when we first came out: big, original pop songs."

Mark Feehily also revealed that they were not keen on Cowell's suggestion of releasing a movie themes tribute album, admitting: "Simon bandied about the idea of a 'Westlife at the movies' album but we said no.

"It wasn't close to our heart and it felt like we were moving away from what we were all about."

> Westlife: 'We've talked about splitting'