Boyzone

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Boyzone are an Irish boy band. Its most famous line-up was composed of Keith Duffy, Stephen Gately, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating, and Shane Lynch. Boyzone have had 19 singles in the top 40 UK charts and 21 singles in the Irish charts. The group have had 6 UK number one singles and 9 number one singles in Ireland with 12 of their 20 singles in the UK being in the UK Top 2. Boyzone are one of the most successful bands in Ireland and the United Kingdom. In total, Boyzone had 19 top 5 singles on the Irish Singles Chart, 18 top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart, nine #1 Irish hit singles and six #1 UK hit singles and five #1 albums, with 25 million records sold by 2013 worldwide. The number is confirmed by Gately's book The Tree of Seasons.
Boyzone made a comeback in 2007, originally with the intention of just touring. They were put together in 1993 by Louis Walsh, who is also known for managing Johnny Logan and Westlife. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's The Late Late Show. Gately died on 10 October 2009 of natural causes while on his holiday in the Spanish island of Majorca with his civil partner, Andrew Cowles. In 2012, the Official Charts Company revealed the biggest selling singles artists in British music chart history with Boyzone currently placed at 29th and the second most successful boyband in Britain. To date, Boyzone has released four studio albums and seven compilation albums.


In 1993, an advertisement appeared in many Irish newspapers calling for auditions to form a new Irish "boy band" group. The advertisements were sent out by theatrical manager Walsh who was looking to make an "Irish Take That" following on from their success. The auditions were held in The Ormond Center, in Dublin, in November 1993. More than 300 people replied to the advertisement. At the auditions the applicants were asked to sing the song "Careless Whisper" by George Michael. Each audition would be taped and watched again to judge the applicant's performance. Out of the 300, 50 were selected for a second audition. For the second audition the applicants where asked to sing two songs, including one of their own choice with a backing tape. Mikey Graham sang "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" by Meat Loaf, Keith Duffy sang "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred, Ronan Keating sang "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens (a cover version of which the band would later release), and Stephen Gately sang Hello by Lionel Richie. Out of this 50, 10 were selected for a third audition. In the end, Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy, Richard Rock (son of Dickie Rock), Shane Lynch and Mark Walton were chosen.
Graham originally was rejected but would later join after the departure of Rock. Rock left citing musical differences with Ronan Keating. Keating initially faced a lot of opposition from his parents and teachers. He was planning to move to New York to study in college on a sports scholarship and pursue his dream to win an Olympic medal for athletics. In the end Ronan decided to give up his education and go along with Boyzone. Duffy's parents were against their son throwing away a solid and promising career and joining the band. Louis Walsh set about trying to get a deal with a good record company but it would take many rejection letters before the boys would be signed. In 1994 Lynch and Duffy were involved in a nearly fatal car crash; both survived without serious injuries. Walsh was reportedly furious, and drew up contracts for all the boys to sign, leading to their activities being restricted. With some of the original lineup fading away and others being brought into the group, it took some time before Boyzone settled down into its most recognisable five-member line-up of Shane Lynch, Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Mikey Graham, Keith Duffy.


Boyzone played through 1994 all over Northern Ireland, in pubs and clubs, before Polygram signed them up in 1994 and released the cover version of the Four Seasons' hit "Working My Way Back to You", featuring Graham and Gately on lead vocals.

For seven years after their split, the members had mixed success in their individual careers. Keating in particular remained a force in the music industry as he continued writing and managing other bands. Gately also continued his career as a solo artist, appearing in a number of West End stage musicals, and Duffy had some success as an actor (including a role in the television soap Coronation Street). Rumours came to a head and in early 2007 there were news reports that all five members and their manager, The X Factor judge Walsh, had met in Dublin to discuss and organise a comeback tour. On 11 October 2007, Walsh was interviewed on The Graham Norton Show; when asked by Graham Norton whether there was going to be a re-launch of Boyzone he replied "I think so". On 5 November 2007, Keating confirmed that Boyzone would reunite for a special appearance on the BBC's annual fundraiser, Children in Need, performing a medley of hits, although had not yet commented on the possibility of a new tour or album. On 14 November 2007, it was reported that all five members of Boyzone were to begin a UK tour in May, which would be their first in seven years. Keating, who left the Irish boy band to pursue a solo career, joined the group for the series of concerts. On 16 November, Boyzone made a comeback appearance as part of Children in Need on BBC1 in the UK, with an Irish and UK tour announced for June 2008.

In 2009, Boyzone played their Better Tour, which was the last tour to feature Gately. On 10 October 2009, Gately died suddenly at his flat in Port d'Andratx, Majorca. Gately's body was discovered later in the morning. His death was later determined to have been caused by a pulmonary edema resulting from an undiagnosed heart condition. Though still finding it difficult to come to terms with his sudden death Lynch has recently claimed that Gately died for a reason. He is reported as saying "I've got to understand that it's all for a reason. If I don't understand why then one day I'll be told." Gately's bandmates flew to Majorca on 11 October 2009; Walsh was expected to join them soon after. The surviving members of Boyzone, Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating and Shane Lynch, issued a joint statement: A post-mortem and toxicology tests took place on 13 October and this examination showed that Gately died of natural causes. He died as a result of acongenital heart defect. Toxicology also confirmed the statement by Gately's partner Cowles that he had been smoking cannabis that evening.
On 16 October, accompanied by the four surviving members of Boyzone, his body was brought from Majorca to Dublin where his funeral took place at the Church of St Laurence O'Toole the following day.
Fans responded with messages of sympathy on the social networking websites Twitter and Facebook. Boyzone manager Louis Walsh was quoted as saying: "We're all absolutely devastated. 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 (UK television talent show on which Walsh is a judge) and we will rally around each other this week. He was a great man."

The four surviving Boyzone members were originally going to release the new album in mid-2010 with a summer tour following the album, but the album was released in March 2010 which was earlier than planned. The album was released as a tribute to Gately which included two new songs that were performed by Gately before his death. One song was written by singer-songwriter Mika.
who has also claimed that the new song he wrote for Boyzone is the last one which will feature Gately's vocals in which he and Keating shared the vocals and originally the song would have led to Ronan singing first then Stephen would sing the second part prior to that, the song was released as their fourth studio album on 8 March 2010.

Lynch said in an interview on ITV1 show Loose Women that Boyzone will be releasing a new album and be touring in 2013 which will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band forming. Duffy told The Sun newspaper, "We've plans in place for a tour and an album next year for the 20th anniversary, The album will probably involve the O2 arena in London, it's very exciting!, we've a very loyal fanbase that always come in their thousands. It's a nice set-up. We never broke up, so we can take time out to do our own thing, and then get back together when it suits." Tickets for the tour went on sale on 14 February 2013 and there has been huge demand for more dates to be added, the tour will be released in a cd format and include the DVD of their 2011 tour which has been held back from release until December 2013. A tour of Europe and Australisia is expected to follow with demand expected.
As part of the 20th anniversary the band recorded a programme on 12 June 2013 which aired on Irish channel RTE One on 27 August called "Boyzone - For One Night Only".
On 24 September 2013, the band performed one of the songs from their new album called "Love Will Save the Day" on The X Factor Australia. It was announced on the same day that the brand new album will be released on 25 November 2013 and became available to pre-order from Amazon. Boyzone are currently recording their new studio album BZ20 at Metrophonic with Brian Rawling producing it. The band has signed a new recording deal with Warner Music to release BZ20 on 25 November 2013 through the Rhino label.



Studio albums
Said and Done (1994)
A Different Beat (1996)
Where We Belong (1998)
Brother (2010)
BZ20 (2013)


Members
Keith Duffy
Mikey Graham

Ronan Keating
Shane Lynch
Stephen Gately