SINGERS SAY NEW ACTS HAVE IT EASY
RETIRING Boyzone believe modern pop bands have it so much easier than they did in their heyday.
The Irish heart-throbs have a final tour planned before they hang up their microphones after 25 years in the business next year.
Ronan Keating and the boys worked their derrières off making a name for themselves in the 1990s… something that’s been made far easier today by social media.
Mikey Graham told me: “You can reach so many more people with less effort today.
“We had to go to all these regional radio stations to do one-to-ones to try and speak to our fans.
“Now you can reach millions with the push of a button.”
The workload meant Boyzone burnt themselves out at the peak of their powers, causing their first split in 2000. Keith Duffy opened up: “We’d be promoting in the UK and at the same time promoting our previous song in Germany, another one in Belgium and Holland, something else in Australia.
“So we didn’t have any time – we were very tired all the time. You can’t see the wood for the trees in that scenario.
“Now everything is done at our own pace.
We can enjoy it and appreciate it now. Back then we were just like a product the record company were trying to make fresh on the shelf every week. You get tired and childish. You start pinching each other, falling out.”
Ronan added: “The truth is we’re not together as much as we used to be and it doesn’t matter because there’s less to do. We used to do Saturday morning kids’ TV shows and you don’t have all those anymore. We have only four TV performances between now and Christmas.” The lads sign off with Thank You & Goodnight which is out on Friday, arguably their finest collection. It’s a real mixed bag including songs by Ed Sheeran and Gary Barlow. Ronan said: “It’s a playlist of songs rather than an album. The theme is diversity and individuality. Everybody picked three songs each.” Shane Lynch added: “We’re not 16 any more. We’ve gone out into the big bad world, we’ve got children, we’re married. We’ve witnessed life and like different things now. “Our style of music has changed and we’ve put that influence into the album so you have pop music, urban music, country music, folk music, rock, dance – this melting pot of all these different styles on one album. “That’s why it’s so different to what we’ve done before and the perfect way to say thank you to 25 years, and also the best of us – Stephen [Gately] included.”
Next year marks their final ever tour dates – well, so they say.
Ronan teased: “It is categorically the end, for now...this is it. We are hanging up our dancing shoes. Go out on a high. We don’t want it to dwindle. We don’t want to be a band that faded out of existence.” The Boyzone tour kicks of in Cardiff on January 20.