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Westlife review – confident crooning from stool-powered man-band

SSE Hydro, Glasgow
With half a million tickets sold, this 20th-anniversary tour is a spirited reboot for the Irish group’s chart-topping balladry

During their pop hegemony at the turn of the millennium, fresh-faced Irish boyband Westlife were famous for two things. The first was racking up seven consecutive UK No 1s in just two years. The second was perfecting the art of getting up off their stools during a triumphant key change, the baller move of balladeers.

After a six-year break, Westlife are hitting the comeback trail hard – 560,000 tickets were sold for this UK and Ireland tour – but in Glasgow it is the audience who are unexpectedly on their feet. Due to a truck full of staging equipment being delayed en route from Belfast, this sellout show has been hastily rejigged from all-seated to part-standing, enabling loyal fans to press up to the stage.

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from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Qtip8n
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