They were arch-rivals in the battle of the boy bands back in the 1990s but a decade later Irish charmers Boyzone have to hold their hands up and thank Take That for the success of their glittering comeback. For the reunion of Gary Barlow et al and the subsequent sell-out triumph of Take That’s arena tours paved the way for the Brit pop rivals to follow suit, as Mikey Graham explains: “I’m friendly with Gary Barlow because my wife and his wife are good friends, and we went to see Take That in Dublin.“In eight years, I hadn’t missed any of the touring or performing, but when I saw the boys on stage and saw the adoration of the crowd and the exhilaration that even I felt, I just thought maybe ‘now’ was the time for a reunion.”
Mikey got straight on to the phone to band mate Shane Lynch to moot the idea, and got a positive response. Next on the list was Ronan Keating, who’d had by far the most successful solo career since the split, with a multitude of smash singles including the international hit When You Say Nothing At All from the Notting Hill movie soundtrack.
“Ronan went to see the show too; he was blown away with it because he hadn’t been playing in such big venues himself and he missed it too, so he said ‘yes’.
“So I rang the other guys, set up some meetings with Louis (Walsh), settled some old politics and got the show on the road – and here we are now!”
The re-formed fivesome made their much-awaited comeback performance on Children in Need 2007, and say it was every bit as nerve-racking as their debut. “It had been so long and, let’s face it, some of us weren’t in such good shape as we had been when we broke up, particularly myself who’d been sat in a studio for eight years eating doughnuts and drinking lattes,” he laughs. “But once we got back out onto stage it was like our time apart had just been vacuumed and we slotted back into the old routine; it was perfect, it felt right,”
Buoyed by the response from their loyal fans, Boyzone boarded their tour bus last year and played to thousands around the UK, stopping off to make their debut at Newmarket Nights. And the boys – Mikey, Ronan, Shane, Stephen Gately and Keith Duffy – return to the July Course in August to perform the finale concert as part of their ‘Back Again… No Matter What’ tour.
I caught up with Mikey, 37, a couple of weeks into the tour in Newcastle when he was waxing lyrical about the show. “It’s probably our best so far because we’ve put all our energies into it. It’s a lot more high energy than usual and we’ve got a magnificent surprise medley that is particularly well done, if I may so say myself!” he smiles.
All five have been hitting the gym in preparation for the energetic dance routines, working out twice a day and sticking to a very low carbohydrate and high protein diet – and Mikey confides proudly that he hasn’t touched a drop of the hard stuff for eight months. “I feel like 20 again!” he enthuses.
Full story in Cambridge Style - July 2009.
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