Irish pop act Boyzone teased tabloid! in February by telling us to keep an eye out for a Dubai show that could be popping up “soon”. Turns out, it’s sooner than we thought. On May 22, the quartet will play the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium for the first time.
Though their UAE trip is a high point for the band, it’s possible, in part, due to a decision they made in their darkest hour after the loss of member Stephen Gately in 2009. Back then, the remaining four’s future was cloaked in doubt. Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating and Shane Lynch didn’t know whether to continue on the path they’d paved as a pop sensation or throw in the towel for good.
It wasn’t an easy decision, Lynch told tabloid! during one of two chats in February, but staying together was a choice that he’s now happy they made.
They released their first album as a foursome in 2010 by the name of Brother, serving as a tribute to Gately. Last year, upon releasing a 20th anniversary record, BZ20, under Warner Music Group, they had their biggest year in recent times.
“A new album, a new record company, new single and then the BZ20 tour,” Lynch said. “We ended the year on such a high — it was brilliant to play our great new songs live to the fans.”
Lynch, the young-at-heart “bad boy”, shared what it’s like to be in a seasoned boy band — the members are between the ages of 29 and 41 now — and what he thinks of today’s pop stars that are on the receiving end of pandemonium.
You’ve been together 20 years now — how do you feel about things now that you’ve grown up and the attention is not as full-on as it once was?
We are so lucky to have the opportunity to still be doing this. It was so busy and crazy in the early years of Boyzone that we couldn’t stop for a moment to appreciate anything we had achieved. Coming back together after our break [the band went on hiatus between 2000-2008] meant that we could really appreciate everything — especially performing live — and enjoy it all properly.
There’s been a recent resurgence of boy bands. What’s your opinion on the boy bands these days?
I think the bands around today are great — hats off to the 1D [One Direction] lads, they are having amazing success and working really hard... I just hope they don’t burn themselves out.
Aside from being in the studio, you’re a professional auto-racer and a drift racer. Do you ever get grief from the auto-racing community for being in Boyzone?
There was a time in the early days of motor sport when I had to earn my stripes, but after wining various different championships in many different fields of Motorsport I’m now well established as a professional driver, hence currently being sponsored by one of the biggest company’s in the world, Monster Energy.
BZ20 was the first album that didn’t feature any of Stephen’s vocals. What was it like going into the studio and recording this as just the four of you, especially that Stephen’s voice played a big part in your sound?
The hardest thing for me personally was going on first tour we did after Stephen passed, it was really, really difficult. The recording of this album was fairly fragmented as Mikey and Keith were in Ireland, Ro was in Australia and I was in the UK so we recorded a lot of our parts separately, anyway. When we are all together as a band is when we always feel like Stephen is closest to us, so in a way, it is easier when we’re together and I miss him more when we are apart.
You used to do a lot of covers back in the day — if you were to do a cover now, what do you think it would be?
I couldn’t possibly pick one record to want to cover as the amount of amazing records and artist that have gone before BZ is rather vast, but hopefully all the new up and coming artists, including BZ, are not afraid to do cover versions, as it’s important to keep great songs from the past alive.
Tickets for Boyzone at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium are Dh225 through tixbox.com. Doors open at 7pm. Show begins at 9pm. For more information, check theirishvillage.com or call 04-2824750.
