A memorable Boyzone send-off
Twenty-five years down the road, Boyzone serenaded fans in KL with a farewell concert filled with 1990s nostalgia, writes
IT was the last hurrah for Boyzone, which saw some 7,000 fans celebrating the Irish group’s 25th anniversary at its farewell concert at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.
I could see most in the crowd being of a certain age. No surprise since the “boy band” which first hit the scene in 1993, is more a “man band” now with “age-appropriate” fans.
Best known for romantic love songs, the group, consisting of Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch, and Keith Duffy, brought the audience on a trip down memory lane.
Although Boyzone split in 1999, the members reunited in 2007 and the band has been active up to its silver jubilee mark. The farewell tour saw Boyzone bidding adieu to fans in Jakarta and Singapore before its KL date. The evening saw the band dishing out 18 songs, starting with the Picture Of You before leading into Love You Anyway.
Keating had won an award for writing Picture Of You, which was also the main theme song for the Rowan Atkinson movie, Bean: The Ultimate Disaster, and the crowd sang along willingly.
The setlist also featured popular songs by other artistes, such as Tracy Chapman’s Baby Can I Hold You, Billy Ocean’s When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going, Anne Murray’s You Needed Me, the Bee
Gees’ Words, Cat Stevens’ Father And Son
and Johnny Bristol/Osmond Brothers’ Love Me For A Reason.
BAG OF TRICKS
Onstage, the Irish boys showed that they could still dig into their 1990s bag of tricks to get the audience going. The classic move was to point and smile at the crowd which solicited waves of screams in return.
The singers also paid tribute to deceased band member Stephen Gately during Gave It All Away and Every Day I Love You. Gately passed away in 2009 at 33. It was touching to listen to them singing with an accompanying video recording that featured Gately’s voice.
Even though the entertainers performed a series of synchronised dance moves, the show did not reach the ultimate level of greatness mainly due to the not-so-great sound system. However, it was still a memorable evening and Keating’s signature husky voice was no doubt the highlight of the show.
Throughout his career, the 41-year-old has enjoyed the most success as a solo artiste and managed to maintain relevancy in pop culture as a coach on The X Factor Australia.
Unlike recent K-Pop acts and younger mainstream pop stars, Boyzone may not be the “It” flavour-of-the-moment but the boys still have some juice left.
During their concert, the members announced that their upcoming new album, Good Night & Thank You, was set to drop sometime in October or November. A new track, Because, co-written by Ed Sheeran, was also performed that night.
On a final note, Boyzone closed the concert with the grandiose and life-affirming Who We Are before returning to perform two encore numbers, A Different Beat and Keating’s Life Is A Rollercoaster.
The last song saw the boys easily getting the crowd to stand up to enjoy the parting track in a party atmosphere that was truly a bittersweet way to say goodbye.