Anfield signs up Westlife lads

Pop superstars Westlife are to play a charity football match in Liverpool.

The Irish heart-throbs are set to take part in the Music Industry Soccer Six at Anfield on May 19.

And they’ll have a trump card in singer Nicky, who was a Leeds United apprentice and youth team goalkeeper.

The star-studded event aims to raise money for Liverpool Samaritans, and is backed by Mersey TV, Radio City, the Liverpool ECHO and Daily Post, Channel One and Radio Merseyside.

For the past eight years the soccer six event has raised thousands for charity but this is the first year it has taken place on Merseyside.

Westlife confirmed that they would take part as the match coincides with their concerts at the Manchester Arena.

The 2001 Soccer Six champions, TV personalities Ant and Dec, are apparently already in training to defend their title.

The dynamic duo are likely to face stiff opposition from the other teams, including pop band Blur, Dane Bowers, and former Liverpool footballers Ian Rush and John Barnes.

Mersey TV is fielding several teams of Hollyoaks and Brookside boys and girls – including Jennifer Ellison, Suzanne Collins, Elize du Toit and Paul Byatt.

Tickets for the day are GBP10, plus GBP1 booking fee, from the Radio City ticketline on 0151-256 5555.

It’s prang and hang as Kian has a bad day!

It was a double whammy for Westlife’s Kian Egan after his prize Porsche was pranged at the weekend, it emerged today.

The black Boxster mean machine was hit outside the Odyssey Arena on Friday, while the boys were busy with a photo-shoot for a pop magazine.

No-one was in the top- of-the-range car at the time.

The accident came just hours before a technical hitch left Kian suspended in mid-air during the opening number of Westlife’s first Belfast concert.

The 21-year-old Sligo man dangled 50 feet above the heads of the 9,500 fans who packed into the Arena, after his elevation cord jammed.

The other four band members Nicky, Shane, Mark and Bryan, continued on with the show as security staff tried to free the blonde star.

Throughout his ordeal, Kian continued to sing.

A well-placed source who was with Kian at the time of the car bump, said he was annoyed at first, but then laughed it off.

“I think someone from his crew hit the car. He did seem a bit annoyed but then said, ‘ah well, I’ll just buy another one’,” he said.

“I don’t think it was a great day for Kian at all.”

Kian’s stunt horror

WESTLIFE star Kian Egan was seconds from death when a daring stage stunt went horrifically wrong.

The millionaire star yesterday revealed he thought he was going to die in front of 10,000 fans as he dangled from a rope 50 feet in the air.

Kian, 21, right, said: ‘It was the most terrifying ordeal of my life.

‘I kept thinking to myself, ‘Oh God, this is the end’. I thought I was going to die.’

The terrifying scene unfolded as Kian made his spectacular entrance on Friday night from a giant pod suspended above the crowd.

But when the elevation cord jammed he was left stranded in mid-air holding on for his life.

Kian added: ‘All I could see was 10,000 fans creaming and my family were in the crowd too.’I had to hold on to the cord until they got me down but it began loosening and my strength was raining away by the second.’

As Kian continued to sing security officials were frantically working to pull him to safety.

He added: ‘The cord can only hold so much body weight for a couple of minutes. But normally we are only up there for 20 seconds.

‘After the show the stage crew told me that it could have snapped any second.

‘The longer I was up there the more chance there was of me falling to my death.

‘I would have fallen straight on to a metal stage frame, or worse still, into the crowd.’

Most fans thought the incident was part of the elaborate stage show at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena, where the Sligo and Dublin lads are performing a record 12 dates.

Kian was finally lowered to safety half way through the second song and he carried on with the show.

During a short interval a doctor rushed to check

Kian’s health after the ordeal and passed him fit for the rest of the show.

Recovering in his hotel, Kian added: ‘My arms are sore and I have a couple of bruises but other than that I am OK.

‘To be honest the worst thing was the shock. I am still getting flashbacks about it now.

‘The rest of the lads spoke to me and told me just to get on with the show and that would be the best way of getting over it.

‘I feel strong and ready to get on with the rest of our concerts but it was a close call.’

Wads Of Wonga For Westlife

How is this for a wedge load of wonga? According to the tabs, the already wonderful world of Westlife is about to get a whole lot better for Kian, Shane, Mark, Nicky and Bryan with the news that they will earn GBP2 million EACH from their latest tour.

The fellas are being paid GBP14,000 for each of their 68 ‘World Of Our Own’ 2002 concerts. They will also collect GBP800,000 from merchandising and GBP300,000 from their deal with sportswear manufacturers Adidas.

Kian told the News Of the World: “It’s great being in this position but it could all end tomorrow so we’ve invested a lot of our money. Obviously we’ve bought cars and clothes but the majority is stashed away.” Not under the bed we hope!

Naomi Campbell Stood Westlife, The Sword-fighting Heroes Up

Naomi Campbell recently stood the boys of Westlife up and obviously they’re not exactly thrilled about it.

Last week the boyband were all ready and waiting to film their new video for their next single, entitled ‘Bop Bop Baby’, in which Naomi was to star in but at the very last minute the high-profile supermodel blew the boys out saying she’d changed her mind. Naomi’s representatives quoted a conflict of schedules.

Costing Westlife GBP15,000 since they missed a whole day of shoots trying to find a replacement who in the very end, turned out to come in the form of the Rolling Stone’s guitarist Ronnie Wood’s daughter Leah, the boys are said to play swashbuckling heroes for their latest video.

The video sees Nicky Byrne, Bryan McFadden, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Shane Filan leaping into action. For instance, you’d get to see them riding horses and fighting with swords against bad guy Vinnie Jones (Snatch), and save a damsel in distress.Mark who spots a goatee in the video told the the press “It was a real swashbuckling adventure. We all wanted to be heroes but we didn’t want just one guy to get the girl in the end so we all go after her. We love dressing up but to be honest we just wanted to get swords to play with.”

Vinnie Jones said he had fun on the set but can’t seem to avoid being typecast. “I’m having a laugh but as usual I get to play the baddie – what a surprise.”

The Irish boyband are hoping their new number which will be out on the 20th of May, will be their 11th No. 1 smashhit.

Meanwhile, Westlife’s Shane Filan is looking for a lovenest in County Sligo, Eire, and has told pals his girlfriend, band mate Kian Egan’s cousin, Gillian Walsh, will be moving in with him.

A chum said “Now that she has nearly finished her A-levels Gillian is ready to move out of home and he’s really keen to get somewhere with the relationship he has going with the young lady. Shane’s mum and dad love Gillian and so it’s all go really.”