They were one of the biggest boy bands of all time – until they fell apart spectacularly.
Now, the story of Boyzone is being told once more, via a new documentary. Titled Boyzone: No Matter What, it’s an in-depth look at the rise and fall of the band, as told by onlookers, journalists and the former members themselves.
Alongside the strains of fame, another topic that’s sure to be discussed is Boyzone’s relationship with their former manager, Louis Walsh. There’s been plenty of bad blood between Walsh and the band (especially frontman Ronan Keating) over the years, and their feud has only gotten more toxic with time.
Here, we break it down in detail.
The start of Boyzone
Boyzone was created in 1993 by Walsh, who put an advertisement out in several Irish newspapers calling for people to advertise for a new boy band: Walsh stated he was looking to create an “Irish Take That”.
The final lineup, after several gruelling rounds of auditions, ended up being Keith Duffy, Stephen Gately, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating, and Shane Lynch. There was hype around them from the beginning: even before releasing any music, they had appeared on Irish broadcaster RTÉ's The Late Late Show.
Walsh also seemed to be a master at drumming up publicity: in the documentary, he reveals that he used to sell stories about Boyzone to tabloids to keep them in the public eye – including rumours, such as one that Baby Spice and Stephen Gately were dating. If they “got the front page,” he said, he was happy.
"Most of the time Louis said 'write what you want', there were times when he said 'don't write certain stuff' but 99% of the time he said 'do what you want',” former journalist Rav Singh added.
"He needed stories, I needed press, it worked for both of us,” Walsh said. “He would call me up and I would give him things on the group, we kept the band in the papers basically."
"We've always known the way Louis Walsh operates," Shane Lynch told Yahoo recently. "And in fairness to him, Ireland and the name Louis Walsh, he's a big name and a big fish in the music industry.
"Before us boys, he was more showband-y based, Johnny Logan style, Eurovision Song Contest winner style, and then obviously we were his first big International act… he says himself, 'I got the front page', and that's what he's most proud of, as opposed to what the story was about or what anything was about.”
Mainstream success
Walsh’s tactics worked. Over the next eight years, Boyzone achieved massive chart success. Their single No Matter What sold 4 million copies and became the biggest-ever selling record for a boyband, while their 1998 tour of Ireland broke records when they managed to sell 35,000 tickets in four hours.
But there was a dark side. In last year’s interview on the Stripping Off With Matt Haycox podcast, Keith Duffy talked about his relationship with Walsh, saying that the manager had destroyed his confidence.
“I didn't get the confidence to go singing up vocally on my own, because I'd been suppressed for so many years by Louis Walsh,” he said. “Louis would introduce me to people as, 'This is Keith, the big one in the back that can't sing'. It shattered my confidence.”
“I kind of thought, you know, I'm not enjoying this. I'm not singing the songs. I'm not a great dancer. I'm not getting the opportunities I thought I would get in the band. I always took pride in the work that I did. I couldn't find a part of the job in the band that I could take pride in. Everybody did something better than me.”
Despite their massive success, he added, they were also left exhausted by life on the road – and this exhaustion, combined with the strain of fame and big egos, created friction.
"We were all physically and mentally and emotionally exhausted', Mikey Graham said. “We had spent too much time together and with that comes relationship difficulties between us."
In the documentary, Graham explained that he found the band’s final tour “toxic” and that he’d clashed with Duffy backstage during their last gigs.
"It had reached a complete stage of malignancy. I'd had enough," he added. "There were things that happened that were cruel and I'm not going to express any more than that."
"It just became hard work,” Keating said in the documentary. “People just started behaving f***ing badly and when that happens, something's going to head. I saw it all, I was ready to get the f**k out of there. That's when the band imploded."
Solo careers and reunion
Keating himself decided to pursue a solo career – with Walsh as his manager – in 1999, two years before the band broke for good in 2001.
Success followed, in the form of hits like When You Say Nothing At All and Life is a Rollercoaster – but in 2003 Keating dropped Walsh in pursuit of bigger success. This sparked the start of a bitter feud, exacerbated by Walsh’s new fame (a spot on The X Factor as a judge followed in 2004).
“Louis became a TV personality – he was given that chance because he was the manager of Boyzone and that took a lot of his time,” Keating said in the documentary – allegations Walsh disputed, saying the pair talked daily.
“Things started falling into place and you realise, Louis is not a great manager. I gave him multiple opportunities to fix things… I have one shot at my career and he didn’t give a f**k, it fell on deaf ears.”
Keating also blamed Walsh for making the “wrong choices” for his career, and said of their split, “he knew how to hurt me, [saying] vicious, f***ing bitchy horrible things.”
“I had loads of ideas for him as a big middle of the road artist. He appeals to older women and stuff and there’s nobody better. That was his market, that was his lane… I always told him the truth, you’re a lucky f***er,” Walsh riposted. “There was a divorce. I called him talentless and different things and there in the press… do I regret it? Yeah, a little bit.”
Despite this, by 2008, the pair seemed to have made up. Keating showed up on The X Factor, the show Walsh was a judge on, to select finalists in the groups category.
Shortly after, in 2009, band member Stephen Gately was found dead at his home in Port d’Andratx in Majorca, from a previously undiagnosed heart condition.
After he died, Boyzone announced that they would be reuniting, with Walsh once again assuming the role of manager.
This went badly. By the time 2011 rolled around, things were falling apart. Walsh complained that Keating was “talentless and spoiled” in an interview with Q Magazine.
“His head got turned by having nice hotels and chauffeur-driven cars, and he thought he could write songs,” Walsh said at the time. “If you’re Ronan Keating, who was working in a shoe shop when I discovered him, but end [up] thinking you’re George Michael, then you need to be stopped.”
He also lambasted Keating’s desire to be a singer-songwriter – and when asked if Adele shouldn’t be a singer-songwriter, replied, “No, that rule is for people who have no talent, like Ronan Keating.”
By the end of 2011, Walsh had stopped managing Boyzone. “Louis has told Boyzone they're finished,” a source told the News of the World at the time. “Ronan doesn't want to accept it but without Louis they have no chance.”
This kicked off the start of a bitter feud. "That man absolutely tried to ruin me and if he thinks we can ever hug and make up he can forget it,” Keating told Closer a few years later. “I haven't heard from him in three years and I wouldn't have a problem if I never saw him again. He's not a nice character."
What else has been said in the documentary?
Both sides – especially Keating and Walsh – have a great deal to say in the documentary.
Is there some kind of a resolution? Not really.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for Louis and the opportunity that he gave us and the fight and dedication that he had to make Boyzone work,” Keating concedes at one point.
“We owe him for that. But some of the things that went on after that, it’s very difficult, it’s very difficult for us. I hope that he’s found some sort of peace.”
“Without him this journey wouldn't have existed,” Shane Lynch added to Yahoo. “So we probably, individually, at some point loved him, or hated him, or fell out with him, or were arguing with him but realistically we all were grand. Everything was grand, Louis is a good man at the end of the day, crazy as f**k but he's a good man."
Boyzone: No Matter What is coming to Sky Documentaries and Now on February 2
