Stephen Gately Of Boyzone Dies In His Sleep

Boyzone singer Stephen Gately died of unknown causes in his sleep on Saturday (October 10) after going out in Majorca, where the 33-year-old was vacationing.

“We’re all absolutely devastated,” Boyzone manager Louis Walsh told News of the World. “I’m in complete shock. I was only with him on Monday at an awards ceremony. We don’t know much about what’s happened yet. I only heard after The X Factor and we will rally around each other this week. He was a great man.”

Boyzone Perform On ‘Sunrise’, Interview On ‘The Morning Show’

Boyzone dropped by Seven’s ‘Sunrise’ to perform and then ‘The Morning Show’ to do an interview in Sydney, Australia. The reunited boy band talked about the decision to reunite, realizing how much they missed each other when they got back together after eight years, how the original plans were to just take a year off, and their hopes to bring their tour to Australia. Ronan Keating talked about how the internet has been the biggest change since their extended break.

“Downloads, that’s 50% of the market now for charts back in the UK and Ireland and a lot of Europe,” he said. “It’s totally changed the industry for us.” Ronan added that their fanbase has also changed. “Our fans have grown up, which is great. They’re the same age as us now, which is a big change for us. We really noticed that on the concert tour. We see familiar faces in the front row but they brought their kids with them, which is really mad.”

Watch their ‘Sunrise’ performance of ‘No Matter What’ at YouTube and check out the interview below.

Boyzone ‘Back Again… No Matter What’ EPK

Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch and Stephen Gately of Boyzone chatted about their new album ‘Back Again… No Matter What’ in an EPK. They group first talked about what they had been doing during the long period before their comeback, the process that led them to get back together, their sold-out UK and Ireland tour, and more.

“Boyzone broke up in January 2000. The last thing we did together was a show at the Point Depot in Dublin,” Ronan said regarding the band’s lengthy break. “We did nine shows in a row and it was a very successful tour, at the same time the five of us were very excited about taking a break from being in Boyzone I think and being in different things we all wanted to do at the time. We all went out to do it and I went solo. I was solo longer than I was in Boyzone. I had great years. I was really lucky. My albums sold really well. I got to see the world again. I got to do it on my own, which was different. I missed the support from the guys. Being far away from your family and friends, when you’re on your own like that, it makes it really hard sometimes. When the guys were with you it made it a lot easier and I didn’t realize that until I was on my own.”

“Ronan, Mikey and Stephen all had a go at a solo career, and I didn’t fancy going into a competition with guys I had just grown up with and had the best time of my life with, so I went into the acting,” Keith commented about his time away from the boyband. “I was very fortunate to get a job in ‘Coronation Street’, a renowned soap in Britain, with kids growing up in Britain and Ireland, it was a very popular soap. I think it was the first job I ever got including Boyzone that my granny actually kind of thought, ‘The boy has done well’, you know. I think through the years of Boyzone my granny used to say, ‘Would you ever get yourself a real job and stop worrying your parents’. When I did the ‘Coronation Street’ she was delighted because she could talk about me down at the cue for her pension.”

“Since the last Boyzone show in 2000, I concentrated a lot on motorsport, which I ended up going further than I ever dreamt of, which is into British GT’s and stuff,” Shane said of his changed career path. “Anything and everything is pretty much what I’ve been filling my eight years with, since Boyzone, and it’s been good, but obviously it’s nice to be back. I think I always in the back of my mind dreamt of being back in Boyzone.”

“I basically had a solo album out, and I just quit for about a year and came back and did some theater. ‘Joseph’, ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, I had done ‘Dancing On Ice’, which was fun,” Gately said. “We just kind of slowly but surely got to chatting again with each other. Got to meet up with each other and just little kind of whispers here and there, would you be interested, and just came to having a meeting and deciding let’s give it a go.”

“In the years after Boyzone, after 2000, I had a brief solo career basically, but I decided I was going to pull away from all of that and just concentrate on my passion, which was songwriting and production,” Mikey said of his post Boyzone days. “So I went back to college and studied musical technology and sound engineering. I set up my own studio back in Dublin in my home. To be honest with you, ever since I’ve been hermited away there really, trying to perfect the crated of songwriting and production. We were out of Boyzone longer than we were in it, so everybody has gotten very comfortable with being in control of their own life again and decisions that have to be made day by day and week by week. So once we all met and had a chat about how we felt individually and where we as individuals would like to see Boyzone going, we kind of morphed all of our ideas together to put this into a shape that was comfortable for everybody.”

“It’s been an absolute blast,” Ronan said about returning to the fold with the guys. “I’ve loved the guy’s company. I’ve loved working with them. It’s been a professional operation from the get go. Everyone’s been committed and worked hard. We got back into the gym. We got fitter than we’ve ever been. More determined, far more professional. It feels like a really great group to be involved in. I’ve enjoyed every bit of it.”

Watch the clip below.

Boyzone ‘Love You Anyway’ Video

Boyzone are out with the music video to their new single ‘Love You Anyway’, the first release off the reunited Irish boy band’s comeback album ‘Back Again… No Matter What’, out October 13th via Universal Music Group. Watch it at Facebook.

Boyzone Preparing Comeback Song For August Radio Release

Boyzone spoke with News of the World about how they can’t wait to start performing together again after a split that lasted nearly a decade. “There’s a new single which we think will be the comeback song,” Ronan Keating told Rav Singh. “It’s different from what Boyzone have ever done before. It hits the radio in August.” Stephen Gately added: “There will be a disco and electro vibe—it’s going to be great and we’re all looking forward to it massively.”

Update: The entire story at notw.co.uk has since been removed after the British tabloid was famously shut down.

Boyzone Fear Singing Live On Comeback Tour

Gordon Smith of The Sun has details on Boyzone’s reunion tour plans, and their hopes to outdo fellow comeback acts the Spice Girls and Take That. “They’ve held audition for super hot female dancers in a bid to outsex the ones that Take That danced with on stage,” a source close to the band revealed. “I’ve heard they will be writhing around in their underwear. They’re also worried about singing live. They came from an era when nobody used to sing on tour so they got away with it. Think of S Club and Steps. But now it’s all changed.” Read more.

Reunited Boyzone Return To The Scene Of Their First TV Appearance

After seven years apart, Ireland’s original boy band Boyzone got back together - almost fourteen years to the day after their first ever appearance on ‘The Late Late Show’. The guys visited the RTE program on November 23rd in Dublin, Ireland, performing a medley of their hits ‘No Matter What’, ‘Love Me For A Reason’ and ‘Picture Of You’ before talking with host Pat Kenny. They played footage of that laughable initial appearance in 1993 (watch it all at YouTube), but the guys insisted they’re not ashamed of the performance. Watch the performance and interview at RTE.ie.

Boyzone Thinking About A Tour, But No Album Release Plans

Ronan Keating is speaking out to The Sun after announcing on his MySpace earlier today that Boyzone are finally reuniting, at least for a one off charity performance. “After all the speculation, we are getting back together and we are very excited,” the 30-year-old told Victoria Newton. “We have been talking about it for a while now and decided to go out there on our own and have a go at it. At this stage all we have planned is to perform at Children In Need, and we are thinking about doing a tour. We haven’t got any plans to release a new album but we will see what happens. And we haven’t signed a record deal with anyone. We are just doing this thing on our own. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being back together with the lads, and even though there was some bad feeling about what has happened in the past, all that’s gone now.” Read more.

Ronan Keating Confirms Boyzone Reunion Performance

Ronan Keating sent out the following bulletin to his MySpace (@ronankeating) friends on Sunday (November 4):

There have been lots of Boyzone rumors flying around lately. I always said you would be the first to know of any news, so… On Friday 16th November the five members of Boyzone will be reforming for a special exclusive performance for the BBC’s ‘Children In Need’ show!

Boyzone To Reunite For Big Payday

The Sun reports Boyzone are set to reunite and cash in on a deal worth more than £1million each. Ronan Keating, who had long been the sticking point in the reunion due to his solo success, is on board with the move that sees the boy band follow Take That and E17 back together. “We have no doubt that Boyzone can do as well if not better,” a source insisted.

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