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Boyzone No Matter What S01E01 (2025) [Full Movie] [Vertical Drama]Full EP - Full
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00:01The following programme contains strong language.
00:10Hello!
00:12No, far away, far away now.
00:14Faraway trivia.
00:16Stephen Gagey once lived in a faraway trivia.
00:18Hi Melinda, hello.
00:21Are you laughing? Are you laughing at me?
00:23No, no.
00:24We were the most unlikely bunch to succeed.
00:28We weren't perfect, we weren't polished.
00:30Shane! How are you?
00:32We were a bunch of kids, put together.
00:36Pushed out on a world stage.
00:38Don't know where Mikey is.
00:39Ah, there he is.
00:41Told to look like superstars.
00:43Good luck, guys.
00:44Perhaps that was part of our charm.
01:06And the winner is...
01:08MyZone!
01:16Look at that one.
01:17Look at that one.
01:19Turn that way, look at that one.
01:29There was a massive argument in the dressing room.
01:32And I lost the plot.
01:34The band imploded.
01:35I was ready to get the fuck out of there.
01:38It was a lonely time.
01:40Standing on stage in front of 100,000 people.
01:43Fucking lonely.
01:45It was absolutely scandalous, horrendous,
01:49what the newspaper did to Stephen.
01:51The famous Louis Watson.
01:53Louis hurt me.
01:54He knew how to hurt me.
01:57Vicious, bitchy, horrible things.
02:00I think he was afraid that the monster might become bigger than the creator.
02:04As it became bigger, so did their egos.
02:07They believed their own publicity.
02:10They forgot I wrote it.
02:11Good evening, Manchester!
02:17The boy's own singer, Stephen Gately, has died.
02:21He was 33.
02:25It's very hard.
02:35We loved each other, the five of us.
02:39But you never truly allow people to see all of you and who you are.
02:43I don't think I've processed everything that's happened in my life.
02:47I don't know how much they do know about me and my struggles.
02:53After 30 years, I think now's the time to talk about it and close this chapter in our lives.
03:26Oh, here we go.
03:32OK, so I want you to sort of take me back, early 90s.
03:37Look, I'm back on it.
03:39And the 90s were a fucking blur.
03:46Three, two, one, go, Bobby!
04:03Another fantastic year for take-backs.
04:06They've swept the smash-its,
04:07following his party board completely clean.
04:16In 1993, I was 16 years of age.
04:19I was at school.
04:21We were a working-class family in Dublin,
04:23didn't have a lot of money.
04:25There was a story in the paper.
04:27They're holding auditions for the Irish answer to take that.
04:31This was right up my street.
04:33I love to sing, love to perform.
04:36It was happening that evening around the corner,
04:39and I remember just seeing these big lines of guys
04:42all down the stairs, outside, out onto the street,
04:46about 300 lads.
04:47I remember walking in and walking up the stairs
04:50and looking at these guys, thinking,
04:52wow, they look like pop stars.
05:20I just remember, thinking, I'm never going to get in.
05:22I clearly remember that, a million percent.
05:27But I got noticed by Louis Walsh.
05:36I'm just waking up properly.
05:38That's fine.
05:42I prefer ordinary people because they work harder
05:46and they do whatever you wanted to start.
05:50I wanted to do, like, an Irish version of take that.
05:54I was looking for boys with personality
05:57and talent and fun and Irish charm.
06:02I wanted that.
06:03It was all about what a girl's going to like.
06:08I had met Shane before.
06:10Shane had a great look.
06:12And even if he wasn't a great singer,
06:14I was going to work with him.
06:20I would have been 17 years old.
06:22I worked for my dad as a car mechanic,
06:25working underneath cars,
06:27fucking rain running down the back of your neck.
06:30Louis Walsh promised us the sun, moon and stars
06:34from the beginning.
06:35He goes, lads, I'm going to make this happen
06:38and you're going to be big pop stars around the world.
06:41And we went, OK, and believed him.
06:44They were so keen.
06:45They so wanted something different in their lives.
06:48They were doing nothing.
06:49And this was a chance of something great.
06:52Oh, can't you see it, baby?
06:57You've got me going crazy.
07:01I do remember Stephen Gately.
07:04Steele.
07:05Steele just had this charisma that was crazy.
07:08And he knew how to be a pop star.
07:10He had, he just had it.
07:12He had that thing.
07:14I was still at school, doing my final exams.
07:18But I love singing.
07:19I go around all day, every day singing.
07:22Singing, singing, singing.
07:24I always knew that I wanted to be successful
07:26in the entertainment business,
07:30no matter what.
07:34All of us had to sing.
07:35And then they stopped playing the keyboards
07:39and they wanted to see us dancing.
07:45They put on various songs and called different names
07:48and we'd have to jump up and dance around the room.
07:52So, of course, what did I do was pull my clothes off.
07:56Rightly or wrongly, that's what I did.
07:58And I kind of danced and probably gyrated.
08:03I was 19 at the time.
08:05Dropped out of college.
08:06I was living in an apartment.
08:08It was more of a squat.
08:10But I'm going to be brutally honest and say,
08:13I definitely think, you know,
08:15I was put into the band because of how I looked at the time.
08:18I don't think I was taken on because of my voice.
08:22Well, they had to look good.
08:23It wasn't just all about the vocals.
08:25They had to look good.
08:27You had to get girls' attention.
08:29Shout out to your sir legs.
08:30Roman.
08:31Keating.
08:31Keating.
08:32Rich.
08:33Rich.
08:34Stephen.
08:35Dave's not in here.
08:36Louis picked six.
08:38Stephen, Shane, Keith, myself,
08:43and then two other lads, Richard and Mark.
08:47And that was boys' own.
08:50We were all young, 16, 17, 18-year-old boys.
08:55Nobody prepares a teenager
08:58for the world that they're about to live in.
09:01Nobody prepares them for the pressure cooker
09:03that they're about to kind of jump into.
09:05OK, well, who is who now?
09:06You identify yourself.
09:07I'm Ronan Keating.
09:08Ronan Keating.
09:08Where are you from?
09:09I'm from Sordes.
09:10From Sordes.
09:10OK, and who are you?
09:11I'm Mark Walton.
09:12Mark Walton from?
09:13Rohini.
09:14Rohini.
09:14Keith Duffy.
09:15Rohini.
09:15Rohini.
09:16Shane Lynch.
09:17Rohini.
09:17Richard Rock.
09:18Rob Mines.
09:18Stephen Gatling.
09:19Seventh place.
09:21The next day,
09:23we get a call to say,
09:24we're going on the Late Late Show tonight,
09:25which in Ireland is the biggest,
09:28it's the biggest TV show in the country.
09:30I was told you don't play any instruments at all.
09:33None of you.
09:33I was also told that you don't sing at all.
09:37None of you.
09:38And Louis Walsh said,
09:40you're going to perform on the Late Late Show live.
09:42And we said, perform what?
09:44We haven't learned anything.
09:45We don't know each other that well.
09:47You know, perform what?
09:48Doesn't matter.
09:49We'll make it up.
09:50We just need to get you on TV.
09:51We need to get you in the papers
09:52and we need to get you on TV.
09:53So we didn't sing anything.
09:55We just danced to a piece of music.
09:57And it was, yeah, it was pretty,
09:59it was a moment.
10:01All right.
10:01Okay.
10:02Cue the music.
10:03Let's hear it.
10:22Oh God, it hurts now today.
10:2530 years later, it still hurts.
10:32But we were loving it.
10:33We didn't care.
10:34We didn't give a shit.
10:36We loved it.
10:41I don't think there's any love-hate relationship with that video whatsoever.
10:45I fucking hate it.
10:46I hate it so much.
10:49But how I felt at the time was great because I'm on the telly doing a little dance.
10:56I'm in a band.
10:59Knowing the journey had begun.
11:03After the late, late, we thought we were pop stars.
11:07After some photo shoots we did, Louis Waltz wasn't happy, visually wasn't happy with how we were looking.
11:15And the other two guys, Mark Walton and Richard Rock, he just decided that they didn't fit in the group.
11:23He decided that they didn't gel.
11:26And the two of them were out.
11:28I thought, holy shit.
11:30Like, if Louis could get rid of two members of the band, he'd get rid of any one of us
11:33at any moment.
11:33So you've got to work harder, ten times harder than anybody else to keep your position in the band.
11:41I had to let them know that they could all be replaced at any time.
11:46I had to make sure they were hungry and they were ambitious and they didn't take anything for granted.
11:53I was like that from day one.
11:57They were all insecure because they didn't know whether they were going to make it or not.
12:03They just had ambition.
12:05That was the one thing they all had.
12:07They all had great dreams and great ambitions, as did I.
12:12I knew five was the perfect number.
12:16If somebody leaves, you still have four left, so you're okay.
12:20So five was the perfect number.
12:22And we got Michael Graham in.
12:26Well, Mick joined the band.
12:28He came in.
12:29The other two have left.
12:30And this is the guy.
12:31He's number five.
12:33He was very talented.
12:35Very openly talented.
12:37He could write songs and he could sing and he could play and he could do all of that.
12:43So he was an immediate talent, yes, for sure.
12:46He had a really cool look, you know.
12:48I just thought, oh, he's cool, man.
12:49And Mick always had a guitar on his back and a foil full of songs under his arm and that
12:54was kind of his thing.
13:03I think there's an element of industry that damaged him.
13:10If I'm being honest, I think Mikey was a little bit lost in a boy band.
13:15And Mikey himself is quite the recluse.
13:20Okay.
13:21That's it.
13:22Cool.
13:22One take two.
13:23Yeah.
13:31I just want to give my own honest account of my experience in the band.
13:40And that is very, very different from the other guys.
13:56In the very early days, everything was brand new to us and we had our whole future ahead of us.
14:02And nobody had yet been tainted by any of the negative aspects of fame.
14:16We spent 1994 traveling around Ireland in a white transit van, top to bottom, north, south, east, west.
14:25We traveled everywhere.
14:28We had some crack.
14:29We had some crack in the back of that transit van.
14:32It was a perfect fit.
14:33It just felt like I had a family around me.
14:36The boys were family.
14:39It was great.
14:50We were traveling around Ireland and playing venues that weren't venues.
14:54You know, tables that were taped together in a nightclub.
15:00We mimed two backing tracks.
15:04We only had two live microphones.
15:06And what we would do is we had three dummy microphones.
15:09We choreographed movements so that we could turn and our backs would be to the audience and we could swap
15:14mics so that everybody got a chance to talk live between songs and do their link.
15:20Well, watch us.
15:21Well, watch us take a look at that one.
15:23The girls all loved us.
15:25The girls rushed up to the front.
15:26But guys hated us.
15:28They'd throw ice cubes at us and throw coins at us and they'd boo us.
15:33There was loads of points where I thought, oh, I'm wasting my time.
15:37This is not going to make any money or not going to be successful for anybody.
15:41And I had a lot of sleepless nights.
15:46But I knew they had something.
15:48And I thought, let's make the record to get them noticed, get them attention.
15:53And we borrowed the money.
15:56It was 10,000 quid.
15:58And we recorded the song.
16:01I get a call from Louis saying that myself, Stephen and Ronan were being sent over to record the first
16:11boys' own song.
16:13The three of us were sent over to London.
16:17They obviously kind of knew from the auditions that Duda lads had stronger singing voices than Shane and I.
16:24And for that reason, there was no need for the additional expense of two more flights and two more hotel
16:29rooms.
16:29And whatever, we just felt absolutely robbed.
16:33We felt, that's not fair.
16:35There wasn't a lot of money for flights.
16:37So I just brought the best singers with me.
16:39Our parents paid for the flights for Shane and I to join the other three lads.
16:43My parents certainly didn't have a lot of money.
16:45So they would have had to scrimp and scrape to get the money together for my flight.
16:49But they did.
16:50Right, lads, let me explain what's going to happen.
16:52All of you, one at a time, are going to start out listening to what's on tape and copying it.
16:57I've done this for a few years, I know what I'm talking about.
16:59We went to meet this guy called Ian Levine, who was the big pop producer at the time.
17:04He produced Bad Boys Inc. and Early Take That.
17:08So this was a big deal for boys' own to get in the room.
17:10And we recorded the Detroit Spinner song, Work On My Way Back To You.
17:17One by one, he put us in studio to record the lead vocal on the track.
17:25And we were testing vocals and Stephen sang and Mikey sang.
17:29And then Ian Levine says to Louis, get rid of the blonde one, he can't sing.
17:35And I guess I didn't cut the mustard, I wasn't good enough.
17:38Mikey and Stephen were immediately good enough.
17:46You know, I found it very hard.
17:50I was 16 years of age.
17:53That could have broken me, that was a very, very tough thing to go through, to be told that
17:57get rid of the blonde one, he can't sing.
18:00So we recorded the song, myself, Stephen, doing the lead vocals.
18:06It felt good.
18:08It felt positive.
18:10I get into the band because I love to do music, to write music.
18:15So I felt that the future seems kind of brighter
18:19if it means that I can progress as a singer in this band
18:26onto bigger and better things.
18:34There are a bunch of lads from North Dublin
18:37who are being promoted as Ireland's answer to take that.
18:40Would you please welcome Boyzone.
18:48Working my way back to you was only for Irish release.
18:52And I don't think we had an official record deal at that time.
18:55I think we had a one song deal in Ireland.
18:58I used to love to make you cry
19:01It made me feel like a man inside
19:04We did all the work over here, all the television work, radio work, everything.
19:10Everything non-stop.
19:11I'll be working my way back to you, babe
19:15With a burning love inside
19:19Working my way back to you
19:20Went to number three, I believe, in the charts in Ireland.
19:23So we got quite successful in Ireland with a number three hit.
19:26That signaled to the UK
19:28that Ireland had a band that were worth checking out.
19:34Pollydaw Records, they came over to Ireland
19:37and they offered us a global deal.
19:42So this was our big break
19:43This was our really big break
19:45It was a big moment for the band
19:47The record company
19:48Said, send your best singers
19:51Let's make the best record
19:53Name, age and where you're from
19:54Okay, my name is Mikey Graham
19:56I had to pick who I wanted to be at the lead singers
19:59Michael
20:00There was part of me that maybe believed that I maybe wasn't as good as I thought I was
20:06And that maybe I didn't have a position in the band or a place in the band
20:10And I'm Ronan Keating from Swords
20:12I'm 17
20:15Ronan, he was passionate, he was driven
20:19Was he competitive?
20:21Yes, hugely competitive
20:22He would do whatever he needed to do to win, to get what he wanted
20:29I was a sprinter, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
20:32And I won the Irish title
20:35I took a bit of that with me when I went into the band
20:39I was trying to impress Louis
20:40Because he was the manager
20:41He had already gotten rid of two members in the band
20:45I had to impress Louis
20:47So I was attentive
20:48I was professional
20:50Tried to always make myself look like a pop star
20:54Ronan was always trying to prove himself
20:56As a singer, as an artist, as an all-rounder
20:59He always wanted to be the front man in the band
21:02And good for him
21:03That's what made him into Ronan
21:05He had ambition
21:07I don't think people realise how much work it is
21:09It's non-stop all the time
21:11It's dead easy
21:12We have a great time
21:13Look at this guy here
21:15Say hello to the counter
21:16This is Louis Walsh
21:17Yes
21:18The famous Louis Walsh that you hear so much about
21:20I decided Ronan and Stephen were the lead singers
21:25I knew Stephen and Ronan had something special
21:29And I knew girls liked them
21:31And I knew they wanted it so badly
21:35I couldn't take a chance
21:36I had to make the best record with the best singers
21:39That was it
21:40There was no favouritism as such
21:45Without any word to anybody
21:47Ronan was taking the lead role
21:53I was upset about it at the time
21:56I tried to convey that
21:59But it fell upon dead ears
22:01Listen, they all wanted to be lead singer
22:03Ronan and Stephen were
22:05And that was it
22:05End of story
22:10Stephen and I went in
22:11Did the vocals
22:12On that first big single
22:13In the UK
22:15Couldn't wait for my mum to hear it
22:17That's what I was
22:18That's what I was most excited about
22:21Oh wow
22:21I made that
22:22You know
22:23That kind of feeling
22:24That I made that
22:24It's mad
22:31Britain's number two
22:32Is that old Osmunds classic
22:33Love Me For A Reason
22:34They're here
22:34They're live on stage
22:35With their biggest fan
22:36Boys Own
22:45Girl when you hold me
22:48How you control me
22:50You bend and you fall
22:53And then Love Me For A Reason
22:55Goes number two in the charts
22:56At Christmas time
22:58I never had to look back after that
22:59Because once that single was a hit
23:01I was seen as a singer in the band
23:03And I established myself as a singer
23:06Boys Own was never going to be
23:07We were going to change after that
23:08And I think we all felt that
23:09We all knew we were
23:11We had a place in the band
23:12Don't love me for fun girl
23:15Let me be the one girl
23:18Love me for a reason
23:21Let the reason be love
23:24That was the beginning of a
23:25Hard struggle for me through the years
23:32My confidence that I had beforehand
23:34About music
23:37Fell through the floor
23:43And it was a bit heartbreaking
23:44I'll be honest with you
23:45When you see an audience full of posters
23:49You know for Steve and Roland and Shane and Keith
23:53And then you might see the odd one
23:55With Mikey you know
23:58Remember I was 21
23:59As a kid
24:00That was tough
24:03And Louis went from one day speaking with me
24:07To never speaking to me for seven years
24:10And I never knew why
24:12I had absolutely no idea why
24:15I just thought he didn't like me
24:18I probably ignored him
24:19A little bit
24:21Not realising
24:22But it's because the others were so full on
24:24I thought he was happy being Michael
24:27And being the quiet one at the back
24:30I was kind of struggling with wanting to contribute more musically
24:42So the record company sent me away on my own
24:46I was working in this other studio
24:49And really hoping that what I came up with would be considered
24:55Brought my stuff back to the record company
24:58And they already had the album done in London
25:01And I wasn't on the album at all
25:04Don't even think of singing it
25:06That hard
25:07That hard
25:14And that loss of ambition
25:17High spiritedness
25:19Vitality
25:20When that left me
25:21A lot of things left me
25:23My interest in
25:24My own appearance
25:29And I didn't drink
25:30Until I turned about 24-ish
25:33And I was introduced to
25:36Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola
25:37And that became the thing
25:39That kind of got me through
25:41The next few years of
25:43The sadness
25:44And the disenchantment
25:47I was very
25:49Frustrated
25:49Angry
25:51Depressed
25:52Because of all of that
25:54I would withdraw
25:57From
25:58The band
26:01The truth is
26:03I don't know how bad it got
26:05Because I didn't talk to him
26:06The truth is
26:07I didn't recognise
26:09Any of his struggles
26:11I know Mick suffered from
26:13Sleep
26:14He was an insomniac
26:16And I think part of that
26:18Was pressure
26:18Part of that was
26:19Mental struggle
26:20Part of that was
26:21You know
26:22Frustration
26:22But I don't know how bad it was
26:24Because
26:25We didn't talk
26:30I also
26:31Had a young daughter
26:32So I had that responsibility
26:35Financially
26:35To make sure that she and her mother
26:37Were taken care of
26:39But to be honest
26:41If it wasn't for the responsibilities
26:44I had in life
26:45Like my daughter
26:47You know
26:48I would have walked
26:49And I nearly did
26:50A couple of times
26:51To like
26:52Kind of calm down
26:53And realise
26:54The financial impact
26:56It would have
26:57On my family
26:59So I stayed around
27:07I think there was still
27:08A lot of
27:09Issues
27:11And maybe I'm to blame
27:12For that
27:12Maybe I
27:14Should have paid more attention
27:15And maybe reached out
27:16To people that I felt
27:17Were struggling
27:20But I was very hungry
27:21And I wanted to be great
27:23And I wanted to have
27:23My opportunities
27:24And it created
27:25Resentment
27:27And if there's a resentment
27:30All sorts of demons
27:31Can appear
27:37Hi welcome back
27:38The boys are here
27:38Boys from Dublin
27:39Hi nice to see you
27:40Have a quick name check
27:41Left to right
27:41I'm Shane
27:42I'm Mikey
27:42Keith
27:43Ronan
27:44And Steve
27:44How long have you been together for?
27:47Just over a year now
27:49After Love Me For A Reason
27:50We got a big agent
27:51Got a big promoter
27:52In the UK
27:53Everything changed for them
27:54The star prize
27:56It's these three
27:57Boyzone hats
27:59We were on all the UK TV shows
28:01Pepsi chart show
28:02Top of the Pops
28:03Going live
28:04Boyzone was on everything
28:06Hi we're Boyzone
28:07This is our new single
28:09Key to my life
28:15Our first album
28:17Was number one
28:18We had made it at that point
28:21That was just
28:21Wow
28:22Us five lads from Dublin
28:25Got this far
28:26It went crazy
28:27For Boyzone
28:30I'm fucked
28:31Just travelling constantly
28:33Airports
28:34Airplanes
28:35Vehicle
28:37TV studio
28:38Radio station
28:39Hi I'm Keith
28:41And I'm Ronan
28:42And we're from Boyzone
28:43And you're watching
28:44Johnny's Hit Parade
28:44Hi I'm Keith
28:45And I'm Ronan
28:46So what
28:47You just do it on your own
28:49So what the crap Thailand
28:50You're watching Smile TV
28:51You're watching Channel V
28:53Space Shower TV
28:54MTV Japan
28:56Pop 10
28:56TVK Shuffle
28:58You're watching
28:58Street
28:59What?
29:00They would literally work you
29:01From early in the morning
29:02Like live radio show
29:03Five or six in the morning
29:04To live TV show
29:06At eleven o'clock at night
29:12You're just so tired
29:13When you're finished working
29:15You can't sleep
29:16We're away
29:17We're in a hotel in Germany
29:18We go to the bar
29:19You know
29:20We get drunk
29:21You go to bed
29:22You wake up
29:22You've got a hangover
29:23And you do it all over again
29:24The eight special guests
29:26In the studio
29:27Are
29:28Boyzone
29:28Yeah
29:29Louis never travelled with us
29:31You know
29:31The odd time
29:32If it was something big
29:33If you're playing Wembley
29:34But on the day to day
29:36Slogging away
29:37Louis hated to travel
29:39Oh I'm in Dublin
29:40I hardly
29:41I didn't want to go with them
29:42Oh God no
29:43I don't think they knew
29:45What I actually did
29:47I don't think they knew
29:49The work that actually
29:50I did behind the scenes at all
29:51They've no idea
29:53I think they just thought
29:54I made phone calls
29:55And it all happened
29:55But it wasn't just like that really
30:03I don't think Boyzone
30:04Probably realised
30:05How instrumental he was
30:07To their success
30:09There was Take That
30:12Who were cleaning up
30:13And then there was Boyzone
30:14Who needed to do something fast
30:17To get people's attention
30:19Next to this massive boy band
30:21And Louis knew exactly what to do
30:24And exactly how to do it
30:25And that was
30:26Through the Tabloid Press
30:28I was working
30:30As the Irish Mirror
30:31Showbiz editor
30:32My job essentially
30:34Was to go and get
30:34The biggest stories
30:35About the biggest stars
30:37Every day you're challenged
30:39With beating every
30:40Other newspaper
30:41And there were no rules
30:42There were no rules
30:44The only rule was
30:45You had to win
30:45So for me
30:47It was made very clear
30:50When I got
30:51Into the Mirror
30:52That
30:53The Sun
30:54Were beating us
30:56This is one of the first conversations
30:57I had with my boss
30:57The Sun
30:58Are beating us
30:59Every day
31:00On Boyzone
31:01I didn't give a fuck
31:02A year ago
31:03He said
31:04Because they were putting out
31:05A load of old tat
31:06Around the islands
31:07Now London
31:08Are getting obsessed with them
31:09And I need you
31:11To become their best mate
31:14I remember sitting down
31:16And being told to call
31:18This guy
31:19Called Louis Walsh
31:24So I rang him
31:26And surprisingly
31:27He didn't just
31:27Slamp down the phone
31:28And say
31:28Put in an interview request
31:30Like everybody else
31:30He said
31:31Give me a call back in two days
31:32And I'll have a story for you
31:35I always had a really good relationship
31:37With all the people in the press
31:38And the tabloids were very important
31:41So you know
31:42I kept them on side
31:43I gave them stories
31:44I told them things
31:46Louis Walsh to me
31:47Is the master
31:49And in 20 years of journalism
31:51Is the master
31:53Puppeteer of the press
31:54I mean
31:55You can't underestimate
31:56How he
31:57Rewrote the rule book
31:59About engagement with the press
32:01And why you should do that
32:02He was
32:03Access all areas
32:06And he did play games
32:08He was shrewd
32:09He knew what the press needed
32:13If there wasn't a story going around
32:15Louis would get you one
32:16And it didn't matter what you wrote
32:18As long as you wrote
32:21I didn't realise how much we were in the tabloids
32:24Like twice a week
32:25For five years
32:27We were written about
32:30And we were out of the country so much
32:32That you know
32:32We'd speak to our mums or dads
32:34And they say
32:35Oh I just read this in the paper
32:37Is it true
32:37And we're like
32:38Well no it's not true
32:39Who said that
32:40And you'd never know who said it
32:44Oh
32:44Yeah I mean
32:45Sometimes the boys
32:46Would read stories in the papers
32:48About themselves
32:49That weren't true
32:51And they'd say
32:51Who told them that
32:52We
32:53No I did
32:54I told them
32:55Because I am
32:56Promoting you
32:57I'd make them up sometimes
32:59But that's fine
33:03He believed any story was a good story
33:06Any story
33:07He would make up stories constantly about the band
33:10About relationships with girlfriends
33:13That were non-existent
33:15Like plane crashes that were not true
33:19I had them in a plane crash once in Australia
33:22And I forgot to tell the families I made it up
33:24But there was no plane crash
33:26But it got a good story
33:28Did you ever feel guilty about it?
33:30I never felt guilty about it
33:31No way
33:32I was promoting them
33:33I was doing my job
33:35I would do it all again
33:37Yeah absolutely
33:38I'd do even more now
33:45The invasion of the tabloids was damaging
33:49It scared us
33:50I mean it was hugely scary
33:52What the media did to you
33:53To us all
33:54Having no control
33:56People making assumptions on who you are
33:59From what they read in the papers
34:00The five of us were massively affected by that
34:05We all had our fair share of stories in the paper
34:08That affect us in different ways
34:10The one who really had it the most
34:14Was Stephen Gately I'd say
34:24At the time Stephen Gately was very much a dream ticket for the tabloids
34:33Because every girl in the country was mad in love with him
34:37And Louis handed me a dream story
34:40An almost inconceivably fantastical showbiz home run
34:46He said okay I'm giving this only to you
34:51Stephen Gately and Baby Spice are secretly dating
34:55And this is the girl's one
35:00Now at this time the Spice girls are zigzagaring around the world
35:06I mean people were obsessed with them on a global level
35:11Say boys are on a brilliant
35:12Boys are on a what?
35:14Brilliant
35:14Boys are on a brilliant
35:15And Stephen Gately was single all the time
35:20So you don't take a step back to wonder if it could be true
35:23Or if it's been exaggerated
35:24You don't care it's a home run
35:26They said it print print print
35:29And it did it I mean it went everywhere
35:37Stephen he was living the dream
35:40But he had a big secret
35:42He didn't want anyone to know about it
35:44He was so scared
35:45He was so scared that it was going to kill his career
35:53We're on the top of Wembley
35:54Let's hear it, come on
35:58The 96 was a very, very special year
36:13I was 20 years of age
36:15We're playing Wembley
36:17It doesn't feel real
36:18You're still waiting for somebody to tell you you're an imposter
36:21What are you doing?
36:22You shouldn't be doing this
36:24It was an absolute honour to perform for the fans
36:29There is nothing I can say to you that could describe the feeling of elation
36:41We went from strength to strength that we didn't dip
36:44We kept on building on what Boys on World was
36:48It was huge
36:50You could do no wrong
36:52High chart positions
36:54Sellout tours
36:55Record breaking ticket sales
36:58It was so much fun
36:59So great
37:01My nickname is Homeboy because I'm always homesick
37:04I was born on St. Patrick's Day and I used to be a dance teacher
37:07Who am I?
37:08Steve!
37:08So girls, who is that homesick chappie?
37:10Steve!
37:10Steve from Boys Zone is here
37:13They're round here
37:15Stephen, he was actually from day one
37:18Probably the most popular member of the band for girls
37:21He was the heartthrob
37:23Not Ronan
37:24Stephen Gately was the heartthrob
37:31You know we were very close
37:33We had a great bond from very young
37:37Pretty early on we had fans in the garden of our house
37:42Like you know they'd be parked outside
37:45They'd be sleeping there
37:46My mother would be making them cups of tea
37:48He probably wouldn't come back for days
37:50And they'd be still sitting outside waiting for him, you know
37:54Sorry girls, I'm actually walking
37:56You'll have to wait later on or something
38:01Where's your camera?
38:03Where's your camera?
38:05Where's your camera?
38:05I love you
38:06Here you go
38:08He was the childhood sweetheart of millions of girls
38:11They loved him
38:12Steve, let us a kiss tonight
38:14Let us a kiss
38:18That's why we had to just rush and rush
38:21Because if you stay there too long you will not get out
38:24And he had to negotiate his way through that
38:26You could tell that it had taken a bit of a toll on him
38:30And we didn't know why at that time
38:34We didn't know why
38:35I certainly didn't
38:37Stephen, I think he was probably about to go on a tour
38:42And he just said, there's something I need to talk to you about
38:46You know, I said, yeah, okay, you know
38:47And I said, well, let's go for a coffee
38:50He just said that, yeah, I'm gay
38:54He hadn't said anything to anyone in my family
38:57You know, until he told me
39:02I knew the minute I met him
39:04That he was on the bus
39:10The same bus as me
39:12And there was something about the shared experience
39:16Pretty soon he gravitated towards me
39:19And started to tell me stuff
39:22And I worried for him
39:25There was a huge sense of vulnerability
39:30And I knew where he was from in Dublin
39:34So I knew it could never have been easy for him
39:38Behind the Dublin Financial Centre
39:40One of the capital's symbols of power, progress and wealth
39:43hides Sheriff's Street
39:44Symbol of poverty, dilapidation and urban decay
39:48We grew up in a place called Sheriff's Street
39:51Tough, tough area growing up
39:53Like, I had four brothers
39:56Me and the boys had one bedroom
39:59Myself and Stephen shared a bed
40:01He was there on one end, I was up the other
40:04You know, it was hard for people
40:07Sheriff's Street was a very, very rough and humble place
40:12And quite unforgiving
40:15And there would have been a dominance of criminality
40:20But to try and break out of that was going to be a big deal
40:24Because just saying you were from Sheriff's Street
40:28Would have been a black mark against you
40:29Going for a job, going for anything
40:32I was just determined to be famous
40:34Since I was around nine
40:37There's no one down my area that has made it
40:40I'm going to be the first to be well known throughout the world
40:44He knew that this was his ticket out of the life that he had
41:09I was suspicious that he was gay from day one
41:12But I knew he didn't want anyone to know about it
41:17Stephen knew that keeping shtum on his real nature
41:23Was part of his ticket out
41:27We knew Stephen was gay
41:28Stephen came to us, you know, early doors of the band
41:31And he said it to us
41:33We were there for him, you know, as big brothers
41:35And protect him and look after him
41:37He was obviously concerned about the reaction
41:40That the fans would have to him being gay
41:42You mean you're talking 25 years ago
41:45It was a different world back then
41:48The Catholic Church had held a firm grip on Irish society
41:53Ireland was completely unwelcoming to gays
41:58Teachers, bank officials, anybody like that who was outed
42:02Had to leave the country
42:04They were disgraced
42:07In 1993, homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland
42:12But Stephen hadn't yet learned to accept
42:15That it was okay to be gay
42:17Because nobody had
42:18It had literally just been decriminalised
42:22So, you know, the country was only catching up
42:25With the rest of the world
42:29And Stephen was caught in the crossfire
42:31Will you welcome, please, boys' own Stephen Gaycock
42:34I think Stephen's biggest fear was rejection
42:42So, what's all this stuff about Kerri-Anne?
42:44I don't know where it sprang from
42:45Do you know her?
42:46Yeah, I know her well, yeah
42:47She's a really nice girl
42:48You know, she's done well
42:49And we've known each other over the past few years
42:51But there's no romance there at all
42:53No, there's no romance there
42:54What about Mandy Smith?
42:54We had her on the show
42:55Mandy, bless her
42:56Yeah
42:57He was trying to straddle both worlds
42:59And keep everybody happy
43:01Do you think there's all this pressure coming on you?
43:03Because all the other lads, the four-olds are spoken for
43:05See, I get asked this all the time
43:07I mean, every interview we do with every magazine
43:10They always ask, you know, you're the only one left
43:11What's the story?
43:12When I find the right person
43:13And when I settle down
43:14Then, you know, I'll be happy
43:16And I'll let people know
43:17But at the moment, I'm just
43:19His struggle was eating him alive
43:21From the moment Stephen got up in the morning
43:24Until he went to bed at night
43:26He was overwhelmingly afraid
43:29That he was going to be exposed
43:33How do you cope with the success of the kind of media attention?
43:36It is quite difficult for me
43:38I do find it hard to cope at times
43:40And I just like to shut myself in in my room
43:45I'm sensitive and I can get very upset easily
43:48But, you know, I have four great friends look after me
43:53Stephen was incredibly fragile
43:56He was a fragile person
43:57And it wouldn't take much to push him
44:00There was many a time when he would lock himself in a hotel room
44:04And we couldn't get him out
44:05He was always on his phone
44:07And you'd never know who he was on the phone to
44:08He was always stressed out
44:09He had a lot of anxiety going on in his life
44:12It was a lonely, lonely place
44:16He was scared of the press doing the story on him
44:19He was so scared
44:20Louis did tell me that some of the papers were trying to out Stephen
44:27One of our team who had a serious contact in the sun
44:33Had basically given us their daily summary of espionage
44:40And it was that the sun
44:42Are running a front page world exclusive tomorrow
44:48That Stephen Cately is coming out
44:55We're in the dressing room in the Coliseum in Hong Kong
45:04I was a show with editor
45:05A bit of the sun
45:08Somebody came to the sun
45:10Was selling the story
45:11That, um, that Stephen was gay
45:16I wrote the story
45:19What we were about to do was going to change everything
45:48To be continued...
46:04Transcription by CastingWords
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