SCOPE loves reuniting celebrities with their favourite gadget from the past. When we reunite Shane from boy band Westlife with a Walkman he’s delighted.

“Unbelievable. When I was younger I had a yellow one that was waterproof. It was a state of the art one at the time. All my friends were jealous of me and stuff,” says Shane. “For young kids going to school, it was the cool thing. You had the Walkman on the side - they were the size of cars nearly!”

Walkman is the trade name for a portable, pocket-sized cassette player, CD player, radio, or a combined unit. It has lightweight earphones and runs on batteries. The first Walkman came out in 1979.

Early versions didn’t have a rewind option. “That’s right, you’d have to take the tape out, turn it over and put it in and fast forward,” remembers Shane. He used to make mix tapes. “You’d swap tapes with your mates and have the coolest tape in the class,” he says. “It brings me back to the memories of childhood. This was cool music.”

So would he use it now? “Probably not, no. This will be retro for me forever.”

“I’m happy out, ready to go back to school and see all the lads.”

Learn more:

Take a tour through Walkman history at the Walkman museum

Visit Westlife’s website

Visit the official Walkman website