A member of the pop group Westlife has given evidence to a Sligo court in support of a former schoolmate who is being sued for alleged breach of contract over the ownership of an early video recording of members of the band.
Shane Filan denied that the three people pursuing the legal action were ever "a management team" or had commissioned the making of the video.
Ownership of the tape, currently held in a bank vault in Sligo, is being disputed by the three members of a promotions company and the cameraman, who Filan described as "a friend".
At the time of the recording in September 1997, Filan and two other Sligo-based members of Westlife were in a local band called IOU.
They were subsequently selected by promoter Mr Louis Walsh to form part of Westlife.
The disputed video is of a performance by IOU at the Hawkswell Theatre and some other footage recorded by cameraman Mr Ciaran Carthy.
The three members of the Sligo-based promotions company, Streetwise Promotions, are claiming they entered into an agreement with Mr Carthy to shoot the video for £1,140, but that he refused to hand over the master tapes. Mr Carthy is denying that Streetwise Promotions contracted him to make the video and claims it is his property.
Filan told Sligo Circuit Court that IOU had been formed among schoolfriends.
"We just all wanted to be famous," he said. They were first known as "Six As One" and their first performance was an interval act during a school production of Grease, which was produced by one of the plaintiffs, Ms Mary McDonagh.
Filan said that he or another member of the band had always asked Mr Carthy to come to make videos of them.
Mr Carthy, he said, was also backstage with IOU on the night of their first performance in Dublin when they had been asked by Mr Louis Walsh to play support to the group called The Backstreet Boys.
Mr Filan said IOU did not consider telling Streetwise Promotions that they had been offered this gig in Dublin in March 1998.
"Why would we? We didn't feel any obligation. They had showed us a contract and wanted us to sign it, but we didn't want to sign it," Filan said.
The case continues before Judge Carroll Moran on Friday.