Every week we take a look in the RTÉ Guide archive, finding out what made its glossy pages in years gone by. On this week in 1995, Boyzone were the cover stars - and talked to Alan Corr about their growing fanbase.
"When Ronan Keating left his house this morning they were still to be seen. Mikey Graham dropped home to tidy up alter his return from London that afternoon and there they were. Steve Gately, also fresh from Dublin Airport, saw them outside his house," wrote Corr. "They are the fans, the girls who love Boyzone so much that they stand, sit and lie outside the Boyz' houses for a glimpse and a chance to talk to their idols. Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch, Boyzone's muscular brickie types, aren't in town for this interview but they have similar fan worship every day on their front steps."
"Ronan, Mikey and Steve, the fivesome's frontline, are well used to it by now," Corr continued. "With their third single 'Key To My Life' looking set for a No 1 spot in the UK, it can onty get worse. or better, depending on who you are. Ronan sits down with a mobile phone (which shamefully rings only once during our interview) and ponders the lives of the giris who have made Boyzone what they are today. 'It comes with the territory,' says Ronan. 'We love it. You'd be mad not to.'"
The group compared their English fans to their Irish fans. "'Our Irish fans are younger than the English ones,' says Mikey. 'The general age group of the Irish ones wouid be well, what, 1 or 2 years of age up to 17 or 18. The English ones would tend to be 13, 14 up to 22, 23.' 'There's this thing in England called groupies and there's a big difference between groupies and fans,' says Ronan. What are groupies then, Ronan? 'Aww, I don't know! Hahahaha! I guess they're all our fans in the end!'"
Boyzone told Corr they'd feel they'd arrived when they'd been on the cover of the legendary pop magazine Smash Hits and appeared on Top of the Pops. "'But we don't feel we've arrived,' says Mikey emphatically. 'And that's a good thing really because it keeps us striving on, doing things all the time. If we thought we'd arrived well that's it, you don't think there's any further to go and you lose heart in what you're doing. We ain't arrived!'"
Boyzone's Stephen Gately died in 2009 of an undiagnosed heart condition, aged just 33. Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham, Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch will perform what they say will be their last ever concert in London on June 6th, 2026, entitled One For The Road: Live At Emirates Stadium London.
