Wotnxt were in Derry at the weekend where they provided a barnstorming gig to close the Instinct Festival. We caught up with Stevie, Robbie, Jay, Gavin and Paul in the Nerve Centre last Saturday.
| Last year we performed in front of 16,000 people on St Patrick’s Day, which was our biggest one to date. |
We know what you are thinking – not another manufactured Irish boyband. Well think again. Wotnxt have been together for just over a year now but, as Jay McGee(18) explains, they have been friends for years.
“It is just something we have always done. I mean from an early age we have always been in plays and musicals but myself, Gavin and Paul all went to school together. Paul and Robbie then worked together in a sport shop and we met Stevie through different auditions we were taking part in and we just clicked.”
Nineteen-year old Stevie Butler believes fate had a big part to play in the formation of the band. “It seems like we were all meant to do this up because we all seem to have had different futures at the time. Gavin was a boxer and worked in a bar part-time, Jay worked in a Spar, Paul in a sports store and Robbie was playing football for Manchester United, yet we all ended up together.”
Robbie Maye, 20, was an apprentice at Old Trafford for two years before returning to Belfast. He says football couldn’t compare to the success of the last year. “Last year we performed in front of 16,000 people on St Patrick’s Day, which was our biggest one to date. We then went on to support Westlife, which was also amazing. We actually had to come off the Blazin’ Squad tour to go on the Westlife tour and then go back to the Blazin’ Squad tour so we were living the pop star lifestyle for a couple of weeks.”
The big highlight for all the Wotnxt boys was performing for the Pope at the Vatican on Christmas Eve. They were the first ever band from Northern Ireland to do so. Stevie says it is an experience the band will remember for years to come. “It was the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. It was so calming and it was a lovely place to be. The concert itself was great fun. We were singing our single “Speed of Love” and everyone around us were going crazy for the song so it is good to get the reaction out there, and to see that we can appeal to an international audience.”
It’s not all about the glamour lifestyle however. The long hours spent travelling and rehearsing can take its toll. Gavin says, “you can sometimes spend 10 hours a day in a van just to sing 3 songs at a concert and that can be tough – especially all the waiting around when you have no patience like I have. When you get up on stage it is worth it though.”
As well as touring with Westlife and Blazin Squad the guys have also been working with “Backstreet Boy” Howie D. The US boyband star penned their first single, Speed of Love, and is currently working on new songs for the guys. Robbie says the guys find themselves star struck on a lot of occasions. “To begin with it was all really surreal to us. We were meeting the stars, all the people you had watched on TV and dreamed of meeting and before you know it you are backstage with them and they are watching you perform and you are hanging out after it and going to aftershow parties.”
“We have doing this for over a year and you are constantly meeting more famous people and you are constantly doing different shows with them, so it doesn’t really effect you as much now. You are not going ‘Oh my god there’s Westlife’ or ‘there’s Girls Aloud’ or whatever.”
The guys have been building up a huge support across the UK, but they seem to have developed a very close relationship with their young fans in Derry. The guys recently performed at our school, St Mary’s, on a trip to the city and received a brilliant reception. Paul McAuley, 19, believes the band have a special bond with their fans in the northwest. “The Derry fans are fantastic. We went around to do a bit of shopping in the Foyleside last Thursday and there were about 200 kids looking for autographs. The Derry girls are crazy!”
Jay agrees. “We have been all around the UK and Derry is one of our favourite cities and we definitely will be back here because we love it. We have actually even considered moving here because everytime we are up here the response we get is absolutely amazing and the people are so nice.”
It doesn’t stop there for the Belfast group however. Their management already have a busy schedule in place for the lads for the year ahead. “The Schools Out tour is coming about in June which will be going to all the cities across the UK again. We are also about to fly off to do the Blazin Squad tour all over the UK and the Sugarclub tour and also with our connection with the Backstreet boys you might not know what will happen in the future there. We can’t really say but there is a good chance we could be doing something with them.”
About the team
This story was produced by Children’s Express Foyle Bureau reporters Nicole Lynch, and Terri McLaughlin, 13. It was published by Derry News.
