OVER 26 years, Boyzone have sold more than 25million records, scored six UK No1 singles, five No1 albums and completed eight major tours.
But this week their reign comes to an end, with Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch performing their final five shows at the London Palladium before they split for good on Friday night.
And after years of having their antics written about in this column, the lads decided to give their final ever interview to Bizarre.
The group, which also included Stephen Gately before his sudden death in 2009, weren’t always popular, however, leaving them “frightened for their lives”.
Recalling their first year in which they played nightclubs across Ireland, Ronan said: “We were having s**t thrown at us, lads wanting to beat the s**t out of us and girls wanting to jump up to kiss and hug us on stage.
“One night Duster (Keith) had to grab Stephen and me and drag us through the dancefloor because the lads were trying to punch the heads off us.
“It was crazy. You’d be frightened for your life.”
But by the time they released their breakthrough hit Love Me For A Reason in 1994, the guys were already proving to be more than just a boyband.
Keith joked: “The perception of rock stars is that they’re all about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, and a boyband is all pretty boys, who are squeaky clean. That was completely f***ing wrong. We were more honest.
“If you look at a rock band, they’ve got long hair that’s permed — how are they cooler than us?
“We had shaved heads and were in the bar until six o’clock in the morning.”
Ronan tells Keith: “I’m sure you put a few rock stars to bed over the years and stayed up afterwards.”
But after almost three decades in the industry, their hedonistic days are long behind them and they are looking to the future after calling time on the band. It was during the making of their seventh album Thank You & Goodnight, out last November, that they agreed it would be their last.
Keith explained: “We kind of felt it was the best work we’d ever done without Stephen and that it felt like a natural end.
“Not only that, we could actually decide ourselves that we want to go out on a high, we want to write our own final chapter. Most bands never get the chance to do that. It fizzles out or it goes away.”
Hats off to the guys, not many artists have anywhere near the success and longevity of Boyzone, and I think their decision to bow out now is a great one.
Ronan said: “We’ve never worked a day in our lives in Boyzone. It’s been the absolute dream. We’ve travelled the world, we’ve met amazing people, we’ve entertained. It’s been phenomenal.
“Apart from anything else, these last shows are a massive thank you to everybody that supported Boyzone for 26 years.
“It’s been beautiful and brilliant. I hope we leave everybody with great memories.”
FOR any fledgling pop stars out there, Boyzone have revealed the secret to their success is simple. It’s just a lot of hard work.
Ronan said: “We were very eager, the five of us, when we started. We were willing to work. We travelled around Ireland in a white Transit van, we did every single nightclub, every single thing that was given to us.
“We worked hard and I do believe, in this business, graft is possibly more important than talent at the beginning.”
But they were also taught by manager Louis Walsh that they should never get on the wrong side of anyone.
Ronan said: “The five of us were so nice to everybody. We showed everybody respect.
“We saw a lot of American bands and the way they acted and the way they treated people. People didn’t like it.
“I originally met someone who was well-known and I was quite amazed that they didn’t show any respect to fans or anything . . . I was blown away.
“I realised the effort we made, and rightly so. Because without the audiences and the fans you’re nothing. The band is nothing.”
BACK in the group’s heyday, fans would camp outside their venues and hotels in the hope of meeting their idols.
But as Keith revealed, one fan took her adoration a little too far.
He recalled: “We came out of a stage door in Amsterdam and got into one of those American Chrysler-style people carriers that have the spare wheel connected to the back door.
“We were ushered through screaming kids and into the van. But as we drove down the road, the scream wasn’t fading. One of the fans had jumped on to the spare wheel on the back of the van and the scream kept on going and going and going.
“It was only after a while we realised, ‘Hang on, that scream’s not going anywhere’ . . . until the van driver took a sharp right turn and the scream disappeared.
“We never found out what happened to her. That was pretty f*****g crazy.”
DESPITE huge highs, the band struggled with homesickness on long tours of Asia. Keith said: “I can remember ringing home crying . . . talking to my dad and my granny because I thought I may never see her again.”
THE lads hailed late bandmate Stephen Gately as a “pioneer” for coming out in 1999 as one of the first openly gay young pop stars.
They say Stephen, or “Steo”, helped pave the way for today’s more diverse industry, with LGBT artists like Sam Smith, Years & Years and Will Young.
Mikey said: “Stephen was a pioneer of breaking that barrier down. Look how much everything has changed in the ten years that we lost him, and even in the years prior to him passing away, when he did come out. Look how much society has changed for the better, with equality across the board.”
Keith added: “Look at it now. You’ve got Mark (Feehily) from Westlife having a little baby girl with his husband.
“Steo always said he’d love to have a kid and I can remember thinking, ‘You’re gay, that will never happen’ because that’s what the world was like then.
“But you see how much the world has come on, to see Mark and his husband having a beautiful baby girl. It’s amazing. Stephen would be chuffed.
“There’s so many people – music moguls 20 or 30 years older than us – working in this business and still not open about their sexuality.
“It’s still hidden away, their homosexuality. Why? Because they’re afraid.”
Stephen’s death, which was caused by a heart defect in 2009 two years after Boyzone reunited following a hiatus, inevitably came to shape the group’s future.
They believe the band would have become even bigger if he had lived.
Keith said: “With Stephen, we were a force to be reckoned with. Had he not lost his life, I believe we would have been a much bigger band.”
Shane added: “Steo paid the ultimate price. He lost his life, we lost our buddy. But had he not, I think we could’ve gone on to things we never achieved before.”
INSPIRED by recent music biopics such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, the boys hope the early days of Boyzone could inspire a hit film.
They’ve already decided they want it directed by John Carney, maker of 2016 coming-of-age comedy drama Sing Street and 2007 romantic drama Once. Mikey said: “There’s a great movie in it, there really is, honest to God. There’s so much to it. There is a huge story.”
Shane added: “It is the concept of five boys growing up, different individual characters, how we came together, then everybody knows what happens next.”
