It
all began back in December 1997, when a chance meeting at a Christmas
karaoke party brought together three young, ambitious, and very talented
teenagers. Brian McFadden was an actor, a graduate of the Billie Barry
Stage School, with a CV including experience in most of Ireland’s major
theatres, a starring role on a popular Irish TV show, and a string of wins
in local singing competitions. Darragh Deane was an accomplished dancer,
having performed on MTV, on various teen TV shows, and extensively across
Ireland’s club circuit. Tim 'TJ' Madigan worked on the periphery of the
Irish music scene, training at the legendary Digges Lane School of
Performing Arts, and working in the country’s national TV network, RTE,
and as a publicist for smash hit pop group Dove. At first glance, these
three lads - an actor, a dancer, and a publicist - were hardley the
obvious choice for a singing group, but a single impromptu performance
would change all that very quickly...
CHAPTER ONE
Geographically, the three couldn’t have been further apart, hailing from
Dublin’s North, West, and South sides respectively, however as the three
strangers stood on stage at the Christmas Eve karaoke party – barely
even knowing each other’s names – they hit an instant, natural, and
incredibly harmony blend, signalling the start of something very special.
Unknown to the three lads, and as fate would have it, the karaoke party
itself was merely a vehicle for an influential Dublin promoter to search
for new talent. He found it! Within minutes of the trio stepping off
stage, they were offered a deal by Image Management, and began a lengthy
two months of getting to know each other, rehearsing in their City Centre
studio.
CARTEL IS BORN
The name Cartel [meaning ‘the joining together of individuals to form a
greater or stronger unit, with a view to taking over an industry’] was
chosen. The lads also set about establishing a precedent, insisting on
writing, selecting, arranging, styling, promoting, and choreographing the
Cartel product entirely by themselves. As well as developing their own
sound – an old-school-influenced R&B/pop crossover - they were also
to be the first major Irish pop group to perform all their vocals
completely live. Something very very special had just been born.
THE LAUNGH GIG
In March 1998 the band finally launched at a pop showcase gig in Dublin
City Centre, sharing headline duties with pop trio Dove and performing a
live set to an audience which included the Lord Mayor of Dublin, members
of MyTown and OTT, and a variety of top managers and agents. Of course,
the screaming teenage girls were there too, and, as Cartel stepped onto
the stage for the first time ever, the crowd erupted. Any worries about a
negative crowd response to their fifteen-minute mix of originals and a
cover version were quickly thrown out the window. Cartel spent most of the
evening outside the stage door, signing autographs for a vast number of
new-found die-hard fans. This was definately the real thing...
TAKING OFF
As time went by, the word began to spread. Camcorder video copies of the
shows were passed from fan to fan, establishing major fan bases around
Ireland and the UK. Brian was receiving up to fifteen fan phone calls a
day, and Darragh was showing up three quarters of an hour late for
rehearsals, because he was caught by the groups of autograph-hungry girls
who seemed to be permanently camped outside the studio. Even Tim wasn't
safe in RTE, mobbed by fans as he came in and out of work in the TV centre
each week. The news of Cartel was spreading, and the profile was
increasing.
THE ONLY WAY IS UP
They were already upstaging bands considered to be the
‘next-big-things’ in Ireland, and certain promoters were refusing to
even offer them support slots, for fear of them outshining their own
headline acts. At the Telethon ‘98 pop event, management insisted they
leave the building straight after their set, both for their own safety,
and for fear of audience riots during the rest of the show. Their name was
chanted during every other act that night. The boys rejected a national
record deal, setting their sights firmly on an international release, and
were offered performance slots at the Youth With Talent Showcase, Pride
’98 Opening Concert, and as special guests at the Gary Barlow gig in
Dublin’s Point Theatre.
UNDER PRESSURE
Sadly, the latter of these gigs never came to be. In the run up to the
series of performances, the pressure of regular band rehearsals,
supporting the project with part-time jobs, and organising every aspect of
the band’s output [all whilst keeping up with school-work and trying to
have lives as well] began to become too much. Cartel had parted company
with their management earlier in the year due to good old creative
differences, and, as the stress heightened, the lads decided they needed
someone to take the reigns… The 'someone' in question was Louis Walsh
– the legendary Irish music manager responsible for turning Boyzone into
the most successful commercial group of the nineties.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Brian contacted Louis about a possible meeting with Cartel, but he was
already tied up with another project… a Sligo-based boy band with a
working title of IOU - later to be renamed Westlife. Brian met Louis at
Dublin’s RedBox in a last-ditch attempt to attract his interest. The
manager was so impressed with Brian’s determination, image and voice
that he offered him a very different proposition - a chance to audition
for, and fill the single vacant slot in the Westlife line-up. Needless to
say, this incredible offer was a once-in-a-lifetime break, and really too
good to refuse, so with the support of his band-mates, Brian (spelt with
an 'i') became Bryan (with a 'y'), as he reluctantly left the Cartel
project. “Bryan was happy in Cartel… everything had been going well,”
explains Rob McGibbon, international music journalist and official
biographer for the likes of the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and Take
That; “At first Bryan felt it was disloyal to Cartel for him to go, but
after days of agonising he realised it was too good an opportunity to
miss."
THE SPLIT
Speaking of the split, Tim explains: "Saying goodbye to Brian was
hard, but how could we possibly have asked him to stay? Cartel was a dream
come true, but with Westlife success was guaranteed. Basically, tonight
he's playing Wembley with a load of number one singles under his belt, so
I guess he made the right choice. He's still one of my really close
friends, and I'm just really really proud of him". "Now though,
everything’s right to re-launch Cartel", Darragh continues. "Bri
kinda pushed us into it. He's completely behind it, and he's willing to
give us as much help as we need. I mean, having Westlife behind us will be
a huge boost, plus we still have a lot of very loyal fans, and a good
reputation that goes with the name, and obviously, we've matured and
gotten better too. There's so much going for Cartel, it can't really fail"
LIFE AFTER BRIAN
Initially after Brian [now spelt Bryan] left the band, the remaining
members took some time to move on with life. Darragh went on to college to
study for a degree in business, whilst Tim became the instructor of one of
the biggest dance troupes in the country, performing and choreographing
routines for the likes of the Late Late Show, the St.Patricks Day Parade,
and the Swarzkopf UK Fashion Show. It was against this backdrop that the
band set about looking for someone… somewhere …who had enough talent,
energy, heart and personality to fill the very big shoes of Brian McFadden.
The search would prove futile for over a year.
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
As 1999 progressed, the media profile of the band continued to increase,
thanks mainly to the Westlife connection. Despite the fact that they
hadn’t performed in over a year, the Cartel name was cropping up all
over the British music press, depicting them as a talented “R&B
version of 911” (Smash Hits, March 1999), and as having “a huge
following for such a small band” (Big! Magazine, August 1999); meanwhile,
in Westlife’s official biography (Virgin books, £12.99) a sub-chapter
on the Cartel story described them as “one of the most popular bands in
Dublin… and had about 200 girls following [them] everywhere… People
loved it.” Bryan himself wrote that the group was “the best experience
of my life until this… we just clicked straight away and everything
looked like taking off - it was unbelievable. We were very tight, very
together… We even got recognised in the street… It just grew really
quickly and I'm sure we could have gone on to do something big. I will
never forget being in that band.”
SEARCH FOR A STAR
As the hype for the band built itself to surreal proportions for such a
relatively unknown band, Tim and Darragh began to realise that time was
running short. A couple of attempted replacements failed to recapture the
magic, and it began to look less and less likely that this mythical
‘third member’ would ever emerge. Until one day, in late August 1999,
TJ came across a video-tape recording of a young amateur boy band from
Cork – the biggest city in the South-West of Ireland. More particularly,
he noticed the band’s frontman – a powerful R&B pop voice, strong
song-writing ability, great stage presence, good visual image, excellent
harmoniser, … everything Cartel needed to fill the massive void left by
Brian’s departure. He came to be known as ‘Potential Number Three’
within the Cartel camp, as the lads spent a couple of weeks trying to
track him down, deciding - as they investigated further – that he really
could be ‘the one’.
NUMBER THREE
‘Potential Number Three’, it turned out, was Nicky Boland – a
talented young Cork-based song-writer, formerly of local boy group
All2Gether. Nicky had been on the music scene for years, working as a
free-lance singer and instrumentalist [he plays guitar, keyboards, bass,
drums, and an assortment of other instruments], and, having left
All2Gether following the same problems Cartel experienced, was now working
in the UK with the Spice Girls song-writer and producer, and preparing a
bid to represent Ireland in the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest. In September
of 1999, Tim finally managed to get a phone call through to Nicky’s
house, and, finally, to Nicky himself. Taking the one chance he had to
plug the idea to this total stranger, he reeled off the entire story of
Cartel, from the karaoke party, to the gigs, to Brian leaving, and all
about the fans, and the songs, and the unique sound, the past successes,
and the future plans. As Tim concluded, Nicky was silent. After a pause of
what seemed like forever, he responded to the offer… “Yeah, I’m
interested! I’m very interested!”. Chapter two in the Cartel story had
begun.
CHAPTER TWO BEGINS
Since the three met for the first time at the start of October, new Cartel
have been engaged in heavy rehearsals, and have quickly developed a tight
harmony, a close friendship, and a strong sound, which maintains the
original influences, while also adding Nicky’s song-writing and vocal
edge to the mix. “I had no intentions of ever doing another pop group
after the last one” said Nicky. “But when the boys came to me with
Cartel, I really felt it could work. I mean, it has so much going for it,
and we just gelled so well so quickly. It's three really creative people
mixing ideas, and sounds. And it’s good that we have total say over
everything, and it’s not a manager who calls the shots. It's us three.
When we go on stage, we’ll be able to look at the video afterwards and
say ‘that’s us, and only us’. I can’t wait”.
THE SECOND COMING
Cartel’s new set is almost entirely written and produced by the band
members, and we can promise it will be something very very special. The
band relaunched as the main headline act at the fifth Youth With Talent
Showcase event, in Dublin’s Merchant’s Quay Theatre on November
25th… it’s a symbolic kinda thing - Cartel originally debuted at the
first YWT Showcase. The gig was small, allowing them to premiere their new
materiel to a crowd consisting mostly of friends, family, and long time
fans. Needless to say, they rocked the show.
THE FUTURE
With the relaunch out of the way, Cartel are on a two month break... All
three are jumping between recording, song-writing, choreographing,
producing, working-out, styling, training, and generally preparing for the
busiest year of their lives; In addition to which, Tim has gone off to the
US and Canada to begin the ground work with American-based managers,
agents and labels... Darragh is taking care of business on the home front,
and setting up the Cartel routine for Y2K... and Nicky is holed away in a
studios, working on the rest of the new material. Their first major gig
will be in Febuary 2000, following which they’ll be performing at
various concerts, events, and TV shows throughout Ireland. And you never
know… a certain member of Westlife might just be popping in to give the
lads some moral support, so keep your eyes peeled!
EPILOGUE
As the Cinderella story continues for the boys, a lot of questions are
being asked, and - as long as it may have taken - we hope this biography
has helped clear up the true history of the Cartel story.
The one thing we can say, however, is this…
Last time around, Cartel came from nowhere and rocked the Dublin music
scene beyond even their own highest expectations. This time, be ready!
Don’t say we didn’t warn you…
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