Top of the Pops
"Top of the Pops Interrogates... A1 "
We may have been the first magazine to believe, they may have a baby in their band but that didn’t mean we showed A1 any mercy whatsoever!
Don’t you hate being the cheesiest boy band in
pop?
Mark: No! We’re four guys who’ve been given the opportunity
to offer the world something that’s fun and fresh. When we’re a bit crazy
and some people mistake that as cheesiness but we’re just having a brilliant
time.
How come you always wear the same clothes in photo
shoots?
Ben: We don’t.
Paul: We do, Ben, and it’s because we don’t have many
clothes.
Christian: Nobody wants to spend money on our outfits.
Mark: We’ve got a choice, do we spend thousands of pounds
on new clothes or do we spend thousands of pounds on music? Also we prefer
to spend money on luxurious video locations.
Ben: Five on the other hand, are very much into wearing
their own clothes and you rarely see them in their stage outfits. We’re
starting to do that now.
Mark: (Becoming v defensive.) We’ve had a new outfit
for each single, you know.
Exactly. You wear the same outfit for a whole
month. It gets boring (not to mention potentially smelly).
Mark: It’s done B*Witched no end of good to wear denim
for the first year. At the beginning we wanted to present ourselves as
a package so we wore brightly-colored, matching outfits. Every other band
was wearing black and it was gloomy.
So you’re saying that Westlife were gloomy and
dull when they started out?
Christian: No. They looked really stylish in black.
Paul: They’re a mature band. We’re a fun upbeat pop band
and you can’t wear black when you’re fun and upbeat.
When will you start wearing Gucci and standing
still during performances?
Ben: Perhaps when we release some more ballads. Do you
know, ballads are so much easier to perform? You sit there in the same
position and you don’t have to think about dance routines. You don’t sweat.
So you’re saying Boyzone have it, easy?
Ben: Yes. They do.
Christian: When you’re doing dance routines you have
to practice all day. It’s a lot of work.
Mark: I don’t think Boyzone would deny they had it easy.
They tried a dance routine once for So good and they never wanted to do
it again.
Everyone knows you can play instruments and sing
a cappella – why do you keep showing off about it?
Ben: Cos not everyone knows. Well, loads of the kids
know but we’re still trying to branch out into an older audience. You
don’t ask Oasis why they play instruments on Stage.
Do you think you’d be as successful if you didn’t
have Ben in the band?
Paul: Maybe not as quickly.
Christian: I disagree. A1 is a1 because of all four members.
We write the songs together and we have four lead singers. We’ll all have
our solo moments like Ben did on Like a rose. I had the B-side of summertime
of our lives.
Paul: But we wouldn’t have been in half as many magazines
or on so many programmes without Ben.
Christian: OK, the girls like Ben but he’s also very
talented.
Mark: Ben is a huge asset.
Do you regret posing semi-naked for Attitude magazine?
Mark: No. It wasn’t that rude. There were a few bubbles
over our private parts.
Paul: I found it quite embarrassing. I had to stand on
a box with my bum on view to all these people.
Ben: Hmm, I’m not sure we’d do that again.
Because it was such a big mistake?
Mark: No. It was an experience.
Ben: And it proves we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
Mark: When you witness Ben cartwheeling down the TOTP
corridor that’s when you see what A1’s all about. Any band who say, ‘We’re
not going to wear those silly hats!’ are taking themselves too seriously.
Ben: But I don’t think we’d do a full frontal and go
completely nude.
Christian: I actually spent a whole week on a nudist
beach Corsica and loved it!
Mark: If you share a room with Christian he spends at
least half an hour looking at his naked body. He says (adopts a dodgy
Norwegian accent): ‘Mmm. My bum is so nice. When I rub cream in, I take
my time.’
Christian: It’s all lies.
Your album didn’t make the top 10. Was it regarded
as a flop?
All: Gulp.
Christian: It was a top 20 Album. How can that be a flop?
Over 200,000 people who we don’t know have gone out and bought it.
Mark: Some people are so shallow about chart positions.
If Westlife didn’t reach No 1 ever again what would happen?
Paul: They’d be finished.
Mark: You either get a really lucky break and go to No
1 again and again or you have to slog your guts out. I think we’re doing
brilliantly. (For the record, so do we.)
You recently stated on TV that you have no time
to meet girls. Now we know that’s not strictly true…
Christian: We do date but time after time girls can’t
deal with the fact that we’re in a band and we’re always away. They think
we won’t be faithful. I really long for a stable relationship.
Mark: We just don’t have the time though.
Nicky Westlife manages it…
Mark: Well he’s very lucky but, honestly, looking at
his schedule, it’s gotta be tough.
Paul: If we had girlfriends we’d neglect them.
If Ronan was co-managing A1 do you think you’d
have had five No 1s in a row?
Christian: We’re not Irish.
Paul: We wouldn’t have written our own songs.
Mark: Let’s just say it would have been helpful but we
didn’t need that.
Do you feel you’re living in Westlife’s shadow?
Mark: No. We started out a year after them.
Christian: We’re completely different bands. Westlife
do what Boyzone have done, only better. We’re trying to do our own thing
with influences from Take that and Backstreet boys.
Mark: It’s like asking Mariah Carey whether she feels
like she’s in the shadow of Madonna. It’s not the question to ask.
Finally have you lied during this interview?
Paul: Yeah.
Ben: Oi, no we haven’t.
Christian: A1 don’t have anything to hide.
Thanks to Crimson who took the time to type this interview and forward
the scans.