The Boyz in the Bubble

Love them or loathe them, when the history of Irish pop is written, 1994 will almost certainly be remembered as the year of Boyzone. Rock groups like Ash may endlessly crash into the indie charts but these five Northside guys have just become the first ever Irish group to score a Top Ten hit with their debut British single. What’s more, they’re widely tipped to take over the top spot for Christmas with ‘Love Me For A Reason’.

And so, when Boyzone member Keith Duffy waved directly at the camera during the recent Smash Hits Poll Winners Concert in London and said “everybody at home, we made it,” in a way he was right. Boyzone occupy the cover of the teen-bible Smash Hits, photographed over a headline which reads “The Six Days That Made Them Famous!” This, on its own terms, is obviously as much an achievement for the Irish music industry as similar successes this year by the likes of Therapy? and The Cranberries.

To have moved from school, dead-end jobs and potential unemployment to now playing for more than 20,000 people at a poll winners concert, plus winning that Best New Band award within less than a year is no mean feat – though cynics will claim that such a move has more to do with marketing than it has to do with music. Maybe it has. But only a naif would deny that the same thing applies – to a greater or lesser extent – to most acts that break into the singles or albums charts these days, indies or otherwise.

As such, the concept of “authenticity” in rock is too often a myth perpetrated by magazines like the NME in order to add a veneer of artistic credibility to the market-oriented doings of its favoured musicians. Likewise, the concept of “originality” which has already led to Boyzone being pilloried in certain circles because “they don’t even write their own songs”.

So? They sing, dance and look good. Since when did these abilities count for nothing compared to the over-rated role of composing? And while one would never argue for any inherent aesthetic value in Boyzone cover versions, there can be no doubt whatsoever about the validity of their music as an expression of the desire to escape from the limitations of their lives – whether they choose to describe that aspiration in rock ‘n’ roll terms as “getting rich, famous and laid” or otherwise.

The same applies to the thousands of teenage girls who have chosen Boyzone as the target for longings that have always been mocked in the sexist, male-dominated world of rock, since the early days of Fabian and Pat Boone. And let’s not be ageist here. There undoubtedly are also many not-so-young women who want to mother, marry, romance or even shag ragged toy boys Shane Lynch, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy and Steve Gately. Plus, of course, gays – that great, uncelebrated constituency that has always been drawn to teen idols like Take That, many of whom themselves are gay but terrified to come out lest that dampen the ardour of their largely female teenage audience.

So where and how did it all begin for Boyzone? When, exactly were plans laid to create Ireland’s first teenybop band, who now seem set to replace the likes of Take That – at least in the affections of fans of Smash Hits and Top of the Pops. Why, with Smash Hits and Top of the Pops, of course! And in the fevered mind of a man who is an addict of both, Louis Walsh, one-time manager of pop acts like Linda Martin and now co-manager of Boyzone. His partner is John Reynolds who also owns Dublin’s premier dance club, the POD and its newly opened restaurant and bar, the Chocolate Bar.

“I always read Smash Hits and watched Top of the Pops and saw all those great fucking pop groups and realised there’s nothing like that in Ireland: a good looking pop band created solely for the young girls,” Walsh explains, clearly ready to immediately address the claim that his hand-picked babes are merely a crass, cynical exercise in marketing, Mini Chippendales and nothing more.

“But although this started out as simply a marketing exercise it has grown into more because the guys really are talented musically and some of them do write their own songs and were in bands before this, so it’s not a Chippendales thing. We picked the guys not just on their looks but for their vocal and dance abilities. There were roughly 300 auditioned and what’s important too is that they really do have to be nice guys and get on well because they’re going to be travelling together in mini-buses, looking out for one another, living together and all that kind of stuff.”

And, one presumes, yielding to, or battling against the excesses of pop stardom. So, what is Louis’ rule in relation to Boyzone doing drugs, drink, or indulging excessively in sex? “Drugs will damage their image and screw up their heads,” he says. “It would fuck them up totally. Apart from that most of them don’t even drink, and anything else is their own business as long as they do it behind closed doors.” So, whose money is backing Boyzone? Does Louis Walsh dream of becoming a millionaire out of all this?

“Most of the money comes from myself and John mainly, and Paul Keogh, from Polygram, who is helping us a lot. And yeah, sure, I’d like to become a millionaire out of Boyzone.”

But could Louis be accused of exploiting the guys in terms of this quest to become a millionaire? What about the fear that, as with many managers of teen acts, he will simply juice Boyzone for a year or three then toss them on that scrap heap made up of countless previous teen idols who can’t quite make the transition from teenybop success to a legitimate musical career?

“That won’t happen, no, because they’re getting a chance they might never have gotten without all this and what they do after that really is up to them,” he says.

“And I want them to be so big in Ireland, England, Europe, America that they themselves will also make so much money that they can do what they want after this. I think that at least two of the guys in Boyzone have promise for long-term careers in the music business, Ronan and Steve. Ronan is only 17 and he’s writing his own songs and Steve is just a great singer. So, who can tell what they’ll do after this? They’re the two who have recording contracts with Polygram. And though I know the lads are getting heavily slagged in Ireland by so-called “serious” rock critics they can deal with that because they know it’s a knee-jerk response.

“What those critics forget is that there was no group in rock as manufactured as the Sex Pistols. All anybody ever compares Boyzone to is the Monkees. But they can deal with that. And so can I. There are many would-be rock stars in Dublin attacking us, but they’re just begrudgers, jealous because we’re making hits and they’re not. So fuck them!”

But what if Walsh becomes so ego-driven that he in turn drives the guys into the ground?

“That won’t happen,” he says. “ Because Tom Watkins is my role model and he’s no egomaniac, though he’s managed huge acts through the years from Wham! to the Pet Shop Boys to East 17. And though I know they may be feeling like I’m running them into the ground at the moment, it has to be done while things are happening. And they really can’t be bitching about this because looking back on 1994 they have to realise they are some of the luckiest guys around. I know some of them don’t like the rules about not publicising any relationships with girlfriends but that’s nothing compared to the way some managers deal with teen bands, fining them if they arrive late, and dictating everything they do or say to the media.

“They’re better off than many, in this respect. And if they want to be back in Dublin with girlfriends and not over here doing things like Top of the Pops then they should have joined Aslan. I’ve no time for bitching about this. I don’t give a fuck about such whinging, in fact. Boyzone are the luckiest guys I know in the music business right now.”

Tom Watkins is also a role model for gays in the music business, a man who has filled many of his bands with homosexual boys who will appeal to the gay community. Indeed, of late, Take That seem to be aiming more and more towards that market with the high-camp fishnet vests and leather jackets. Does Louis agree with this kind of marketing?

“Take That are doing that but it’s not really Boyzone territory. They do have male fans but the bulk of Boyzone fans are girls so that’s not a factor. We don’t care who buys the records. against Take That, for whatever reason. Smash Hits certainly needs someone to replace them. And the fans are bound to turn against them, eventually. They’ve already had more than three years now. And I really don’t give a fuck if Take That’s management feel we’re inching in on any of their markets. I think Boyzone are better. They look better and have more potential. All Boyzone need to do is start writing their own hits, as Take That have done. And there will be a few originals on the band’s first album, which we should have out by March.”

In the meantime ‘Love Me For A Reason’, which was made for a budget of roughly £10,000, including the cost of the video, has sold more than 60,000 copies and could conceivably sell half a million by Christmas. Is it true that the members of Boyzone are on a weekly salary of between £100-£200 pounds and don’t see the profits from record sales because it’s all reinvested into the project?

“They get something like that, yeah,” says Louis. “But they also get money for food from the record company, accommodation in London. In fact we’re making enough money from gigs and appearances not to have to take anything out of the money that’s been pumped back into building up the band. And every time they do a gig they get paid. Likewise, when the really big money does come in, it will be all theirs.”

But surely the world of rock and pop is littered with bands who were managed by sharks who creamed off profits from the “big money”, leaving musicians with minuscule percentage deals and fundamentally ripped off? Couldn’t that happen to Boyzone?

“No. Because they all took individual legal advice on their contracts before signing them, which is something every band has to do these days,” says Louis. “So they are protected in that sense and we can’t rip them off in the long run. And I think their deal is good. I get my cut, John gets his and the rest is split five ways between them – though obviously when we finally accept a publishing deal the songwriters will get a higher cut out of that.”

John Reynolds also believes that the band needn’t necessarily have a short life span.

“If this whole thing was packaged in a way where it is more of a marketing product than a musical product, then Boyzone would have no hope of longevity,” he elaborates. “But there is an inherent talent there that could blossom into one of Ireland’s better pop bands. They are writing some very good songs, and not just bubblegum pop but beautiful ballads.”

If rumours are to be believed, however, John Reynolds doesn’t need to become a millionaire out of Boyzone. It’s said that his rich relatives have bankrolled John’s business ventures from the outset, including the POD. So, has the Taoiseach, Uncle Albert, for example, got a share in Boyzone?

“None of my relatives have a share in Boyzone,” he says, categorically. “And that’s partly because I do want to stand on my own two feet, financially and otherwise. One thing I inherited from my family was a belief in the work ethic and the knowledge that you are not handed anything on a plate. That’s why I just laugh when people say ‘you’re only successful because so-and-so’. That kind of backbiting actually strengthens my resolve to show this is not the case.

“And another thing I inherited from my own parents, in particular, is a sense of moral integrity. There is a moral responsibility on myself and Louis to see that Boyzone are not exploited. As some are only 17, we have to look out for them in all respects. And whereas Louis deals with most of the business in relation to the guys, I probably have more of a one-to-one relationship with them so I do see all this as my responsibility.”

But can the guys deal with these pressures? Definitely, says Shane Lynch.

“We’re all in it to get rich, laid and famous, like so many people who go into music,” he stresses. “And you can’t get those things without some sacrifices. I used to drink, when I was younger. Y’know, a down-the-back-of-the field job. But then when I was let drink, I’d no interest. And I’ve no interest in drugs at all. Recently, I went to a dance with me old school mates and couldn’t believe the amount of them that were on E. It’s ridiculous, and sad. So drugs are no temptation to me at all. And in so many ways the sacrifices are worth it because I just keep remembering how I used to look at pictures of New Kids on the Block when I was 12 and think ‘I want to be just like them.’ That’s how it started for me.

“I’m a mechanic by trade so I was always singing in me father’s garage and he’d say ‘get into it, go for it’. And I did because, for me, the main thing always was thinking that my picture could be on a bedroom wall and girls’d be saying: ‘I could imagine having him!’ That’s what it’s all about. But I don’t want to be seen as just a male bimbo and I hope people listen to the music too.”

Earlier, standing on stage in the Top of the Pops studio for the first time, Shane had looked across at PJ and Duncan on another stage and said “I can’t believe we’re actually here, it’s fucking brilliant.” However, backstage, during a long day of rehearsals, he and the other guys in Boyzone are in a more muted mood. They also are obviously nearing exhaustion and missing home on this, their fourth week in Britain doing press.

“We are tired,” says Shane, sighing. “Because we do have a ridiculous schedule. You wake up in the morning and go ‘what day is it? Where am I? What am I supposed to do today?’ And even being here at Top of the Pops was hard earlier because after telling you it was brilliant to be part of it all, the first run through went wrong and we all felt fucking crap. Neneh Cherry talked over the intro and that threw us from the beginning. Things like that can come crowding down on top of you.”

That said, how did Shane respond to singing before 20,000 plus people at the Smash Hits Show?

“It was unreal, just to feel the energy coming off that crowd made us so nervous, but we got through that too,” he says, smiling and shaking his head. “But the best part was there really is this sense that Take That and some of the others are coming to the end of their run and we’re moving in. Lots of people were saying that. Because we are new and fresh, whereas Take That are old and worn out. They’ve had their time and people are bored seeing their faces on magazines like Smash Hits. They’re looking for new faces and seem to have decided it’s us.”

As such, doesn’t this realisation make Shane look forward three years and face the fact that if Boyzone do replace Take That they themselves will be likewise shafted in time?

“Of course. All of us in Boyzone know that. And the fact that we’ve gone into the charts at number ten with our first single here means our time may be shorter because we haven’t had a year of minor hits to work our way in slowly,” he says.

Shifting his focus to the money that will be made by Boyzone as a result of their new found fame, Shane states, quite adamantly, “if there is money to be made from the band I’m going to make sure I get me share.” So, at the moment, is he happy with the weekly salary and the way things are going with Louis Walsh and John Reynolds?

“It’s okay,” he says, tentatively. “I can’t complain. But things do change with this hit because all the money we made in Ireland up to now was going back into the band. But now we’re making more and if there’s serious money to be made in this group, believe me, I’ll be rich. No matter who else is. I’d like to see the rest of the lads end up with good money, but I’m going to make sure I do. And if I do make enough I won’t have to go back to a nine-to-five job. That’s my plan. And with the hit, the sell-out at The Point for our gig later this month, it’s all going according to plan.”

It is also for Keith Duffy, one of the real hunks in Boyzone and a guy who is clearly streetwise, despite being only 20. A one-time stripper, he also wears his sex appeal easily and has no problem dealing with advances from either women or the men who inevitably get fixated on teen groups like Boyzone.

“I hang around with a gang of ten people and seven of them are gay so that doesn’t bother me,” he says. “They know I’m heterosexual and respect me for it. But I’m not sure if the majority of the lads in Boyzone could handle it well if gays come onto us. But Louis is like a father figure – or a mother figure – in that sense and I’m sure he’ll look after us.”

What about financially? Isn’t the music business riddled with stories of young guys like Keith being ripped off by unscrupulous managers?

“Although Louis and John are obviously into this for the money, they also are legitimate guys so I hope that doesn’t happen,” he says, pensively. “But we’re always on the look-out for signs that a record company, or anyone, may be trying to rip us off. That’s why the five of us have talks together about all this that no one else hears about, and that includes Louis and John.

“We all know exactly what we want and know how we’re going to go about getting that. And we are determined to stand up for what we feel is due to us. Maybe we should be closer to Louis and John, in this sense, but we’re not. Yet we are like five brothers together and will take care of one another that way.

We’re totally aware of what’s going on and that’s why we’ll fight to get as much out of this as we can, while it’s happening.”

What about getting as much as they can sexually? How does Keith deal with Boyzone groupies, be they fourteen-year-olds or their mothers?

“Some of them write and say they love you but most do just want to go to bed with you,” he says, smiling. “Even the under tens write on letters ‘bollick me fast, and make it last’, even though they obviously haven’t a clue what they’re talking about! I was talking to the band Optimistic and they said ‘do you know what a fan is?’ and I said ‘yeah, it’s a girl that follows your band’ and he said ‘you’re all wrong, fans are girls that want to sleep with you because you’re famous’.”

Keith pauses, as if sharing one of pop’s great secrets.

“And then he said ‘so what you do is flirt and get them more interested in wanting to sleep with you. Then they’ll buy more of your posters, more of your singles and that’s what it’s all about’.”

Some pop stars make the decision to sleep with as many fans or “groupies” as possible.

“fans here are different than in Ireland. At home our fan base ranges from ten to sixteen, over here it’s from ten to thirty. We have as many 26-year-old women following us around, some with mobile phones in their cars telling other fans where we are and what we’re doing.

“Some of them are gorgeous and of the age of consent, so God knows what I’d do if circumstances were different. But, at the moment, I wouldn’t be into any of that. If you’re sleeping around or using protection, if you’re male and on the road and bored out of your tits and missing your family and these gorgeous girls come up saying ‘sleep with me’, it is a temptation.”

“Circumstances” in this context, means that previously mentioned Boyzone management ruling that if they have girlfriends it must be kept a secret. Some of the guys clearly are less than happy with this, and other impositions.

“We have to take care of ourselves, in that we’re not supposed to get into fights, aren’t allowed to play football in case we hurt ourselves. And it’s not necessarily that Louis or John really care about us, it’s more that they wouldn’t want to see the ‘merchandise’ damaged. Which is just how things are,” says Keith with a trace of hurt in his voice.

“And that’s the thing about the drugs question,” he continues. “We’re not allowed do anything that ‘might endanger your health’ or we’ll be out of the band. But, apart from all that, don’t get me wrong, despite being tired today and missing people back home we are having the time of our lives doing all this. All we ask is to be left to do the work.”

And why, exactly did Keith wave his Smash Hits Award at the camera and say “everybody back home, we made it?”

“For two reasons,” he says. “One was like two fingers to all the critics and begrudgers who put us down and said we’d never do it. So, I was saying ‘fuck it, we did bleedin’ make it’. And I was saying to me mates and family too, isn’t this great? But, in terms of critics, from being on the Smash Hits tour and talking to East 17, EYC and all them pop groups, they told us they get slagged all the time by critics who say: ‘so what you won an award? You’re not even a real band’. Hearing that made us feel a shit lot better. Because playing clubs around Ireland this year so often we’d have girls screaming and going crazy but guys’d spitting and throwing beer bottles at us. That used to get us down.

“The thing is, that rock groups don’t have to put up with that. We do. So to me, in this sense, us making it is even more of an achievement. And a lot of bands in Ireland who have been slagging us off couldn’t break into the British charts to save their lives. But really great bands, like U2, aren’t begrudgers and have sent on their congratulations to us and that’s what matters.

“Anyway, in time they’ll all have to accept that we are the most successful pop band that came out of Ireland. All we need now is the second hit. Then, I believe, nothing will stop Boyzone.”

Tellingly, the producers of Top of the Pops seem to agree with this analysis. They’ve already invited Boyzone to appear on the Christmas edition of the show, anticipating that ‘Love Me For A Reason’ will at least be in the top five by then. They were also impressed by the fact that Boyzone, singing live, got their song in one take during their debut performance on the show.

Even more tellingly, perhaps, as we all left the building one producer said “oh, by the way, I’ve been asked to tell you that the next time you guys come here you have to provide your own security to deal with all those girls gathering at the gate. We didn’t expect that kind of response for a new band on the show.”

Obviously, for Boyzone, the story has only begun.

Steve Gately studied dance for five years, as well as acting and modelling. A native of Dublin’s Seville Place, he claims that one of his goals is to put that part of the inner city on the map in a positive way. Between rehearsals for Top of the Pops he was walking round the backstage area of the BBC brandishing a Richard Carpenter autograph he got “for the ma,” and obviously feeling homesick.

“There’s nobody in our area that’s well known and I decided years ago that I would be famous all over the world and change that,” he claims. “And our area has been put down for as long as I remember, depicted as a slum, which it’s not. We do have a drugs problem and I look at lot of my friends and it’s sad to see the state they’re in. That’s why I’m behind the “no drugs” thing in Boyzone.

“A friend of mine recently died from heroin and we didn’t even know he was on drugs. So I wouldn’t touch drugs at all and I never will. And I used to drink but I gave that up recently, though I still like shorts on special occasions. My biggest worry about all this is that I don’t only want one, or two singles in the charts, I want us to be there all the time for as long as possible. Having a couple of hits isn’t enough.”

Ronan Keating, lead vocalist on ‘Love Me For A Reason’, while standing on stage preparing for Top of the Pops, was quite sincerely praising the vocal talents of his “rivals” in bands like East 17. Later, looking back over the past year he admits that maybe he was right, after all, to leave school to “go for broke” with Boyzone.

“I sometimes regret not having stayed in school to do the Leaving but I was no use in school towards the end because my mind was totally occupied with the band and I’d be tired if we’d been working the night before,” he says. “I’m lucky in that I’ve always been a performer and have appeared in a lot of shows and if this doesn’t work out I can always go back to the theatre. But I’ve also been in a few local rock bands and write my own stuff so it should work out in the long run, if things go right.”

At 17, Ronan knows he has to think in the long term and claims if he doesn’t get a solo career or go back to acting, he intends to use the connections he made through Boyzone to ensure that his days of employment are not over by the time he reaches 20.

“Having said that, I know Boyzone will work because there is a market for what we’re doing in Ireland, that no one else even thought of before. And the reaction we get from girls is amazing. At times they really do look like they’re going to mob the stage. And we are mobbed wherever we go, so we’re obviously doing something right!”

Mikey Graham is 21 and believes that even if critics don’t take the music being made by Boyzone seriously he has every intention of establishing his credentials as a singer-songwriter.

“I write all my own songs and play guitar and love people like Eric Clapton, Sting and Paul Simon and ’50s, ’60s soul classics,” he elaborates. “And Ronan and me are writing things for Boyzone, so I know that when I get too old for something like this, I’m capable as a songwriter and will be trying to make my career out of music in that sense. All my life music is what I’ve been aiming for and I know I’m going to make a go of it. I’m fully aware there are people ready to stab me in the back because I’m starting out in Boyzone. But I’m secure in terms of what I’m capable of and, in time, I’ll show the begrudgers they were wrong.”

When he says “all my life” Mikey means it. Like Ronan, he’s had the performing bug since he was a child, attending singing, dancing and acting classes long before he joined Boyzone. “That’s why I’ve no problem singing with Boyzone – it’s a gig,” he says. “And, it’s great to sing for the fans we’ve made and see that they really do enjoy what we do. Young girls have every right to pick who they want to listen to and, at the moment, thank God, they seem to want to listen to us. And I think it’s great for Ireland that we’ve done this.

“Our country is at a stage where the world has its eyes on us and now we’ve proved we can even produce pop bands like Boyzone, as well as the U2’s and the Van Morrisons. I don’t think that’s anything to be ashamed of at all. I certainly don’t feel ashamed to be in Boyzone. And we are out to win. Me, and the lads, will prove what we can do and get recognition in time.”