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The group was deemed to large and subsequently cut down to five, Davidson and O'Riordan leaving the line-up.
The group's roots can be found in Sligo Town where Egan, Feehily, and Filan were in a six-member vocal group named IOU , with fellow Sligonians, Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron and Michael "Miggles" Garrett. IOYOU were groomed and managed by choreographer Mary McDonagh and two other informal managers and released a single called "Together Girl Forever".The band was then 'discovered' by Louis Walsh, the manager of 1990s boy band Boyzone - he was actually contacted by Filan's mother. However IOU did not meet Simon Cowell's approval for a record deal with BMG, so changes were needed. Two members of IOU were given the sack, and auditions were held in Dublin.
The band recruited Byrne and McFadden. A third original member, Michael Garrett, was dropped. The group was re-named Westside soon afterwards but as the name was already taken by another band, it was changed to Westlife. Boyzone singer Ronan Keating was brought in to co-manage the band with Louis Walsh.
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Feehily later told the Sydney Morning Herald that despite the fact that the majority of Westlife's fans are female, that there had really been no negative reaction to his revelation. "I am so much happier now and I think our fans can see that," he said. "Through the years of getting to the point where I wanted to come out, I had to go through every kind of emotion, but I can honestly say that the day before I came out, I didn't care what the reaction was going to be. That was the hardest point to get to."
