and off we’d go again to another gig, maybe in Galway, or Cork or Donegal. We did it because we loved it.”
Boyzone travelled to virtually every provincial town in Ireland. On one occasion, they even played in Kiltimagh.
“I’ll never forget going down to Kiltimagh for the first time,” recalls Keating. “We all went down when we were on the Boyzone tour, the five of us. We went to Kiltimagh and we went to Louis’ house. His Mam made us tea and we all sat around. We were all wrecked and we slept in the beds in the house. His Mam let us sleep in the beds. Louis arrived down a few hours later and he just couldn’t deal with it. It was hilarious.
“Louis always built this wall around him, and we never really got to see the emotional side of Louis, or his family life. It was always Louis the businessman, our manager, to us. When we actually got to meet his family, we got to see another side of Louis, his mother giving out to him and saying ‘Sit down there. Shut up. Eat your dinner’.”
Incidentally, Louis’ brother Frank says their mother was also given credit locally for her role in the success of Boyzone.
“When Boyzone were at their peak, she was walking down Castlebar, which would be the nearest kind of biggish town to us and somebody pointed to her and said ‘There’s the mother of Boyzone’.”
As hard as Boyzone worked, Louis worked harder. He spent endless hours trying to secure media coverage in pop magazines. He also took care of the early marketing, which was aimed at young girls and women. At Boyzone’s gigs, the female half of the audience usually reacted enthusiastically, although the men weren’t always so welcoming. Bottles and cans of beer, coins, and lit cigarettes were often flung at the band.
Furthermore, Louis often found it difficult to extract an agreed fee from promoters, particularly if he personally wasn’t there and Keating was left to collect the money owed to the band.
Although Boyzone had limited musical talent, the members of the group showed themselves to be com-pletely dedicated to achieving success. This prompted Paul Keogh of Polygram Records to offer them an album deal.
Louis maintains he persuaded Keogh to make the deal, but Keogh himself says he offered it because the record company had already spent so much money on Boyzone. He says they needed to improve their chances of recouping it. With an album deal signed, Louis came up with the idea of recording Love Me for a Reason , an Osmonds song.
“Unquestionably Louis’ greatest strength is that he can hear a song and know if that song would be a hit. He can hear a cover version and know what artist of his could sing it best,” says Reynolds.
“Louis is notorious for staying up all night listening to music and I remember once he rang me in the middle of the night and said ‘I’ve got the song for Boyzone. I’ve got the one that’s going to be a smash hit’ and I was like ‘Yeah?’ I was half asleep! I was like ‘That’s wonderful, Louis. Can I ring you in the morning?’ He said, ‘I’ll play it to you. I’ll play it to you’ and it was Love Me For A Reason and I have to be honest, I wasn’t convinced.”
Reynolds says Louis became far more confident as the weeks passed by. In the early stages, he had not been aware of his own importance in the Irish music industry until Polygram offered Boyzone an album deal. A short while later, he was dictating the types of songs Boyzone should record, despite objections from the company.
“I was in a record company at the time when they slagged it off,” recalls Reynolds. “But Louis kept saying, ‘This is going to be a smash hit. This is going to break the band in England.’ I have to say that I don’t know anybody else close to it that had that belief in it. We were all taken along with this, including the record company in the UK and everywhere.
“I know that they were not sure about the record and it became a massive record. Love Me For A
Boyzone travelled to virtually every provincial town in Ireland. On one occasion, they even played in Kiltimagh.
“I’ll never forget going down to Kiltimagh for the first time,” recalls Keating. “We all went down when we were on the Boyzone tour, the five of us. We went to Kiltimagh and we went to Louis’ house. His Mam made us tea and we all sat around. We were all wrecked and we slept in the beds in the house. His Mam let us sleep in the beds. Louis arrived down a few hours later and he just couldn’t deal with it. It was hilarious.
“Louis always built this wall around him, and we never really got to see the emotional side of Louis, or his family life. It was always Louis the businessman, our manager, to us. When we actually got to meet his family, we got to see another side of Louis, his mother giving out to him and saying ‘Sit down there. Shut up. Eat your dinner’.”
Incidentally, Louis’ brother Frank says their mother was also given credit locally for her role in the success of Boyzone.
“When Boyzone were at their peak, she was walking down Castlebar, which would be the nearest kind of biggish town to us and somebody pointed to her and said ‘There’s the mother of Boyzone’.”
As hard as Boyzone worked, Louis worked harder. He spent endless hours trying to secure media coverage in pop magazines. He also took care of the early marketing, which was aimed at young girls and women. At Boyzone’s gigs, the female half of the audience usually reacted enthusiastically, although the men weren’t always so welcoming. Bottles and cans of beer, coins, and lit cigarettes were often flung at the band.
Furthermore, Louis often found it difficult to extract an agreed fee from promoters, particularly if he personally wasn’t there and Keating was left to collect the money owed to the band.
Although Boyzone had limited musical talent, the members of the group showed themselves to be com-pletely dedicated to achieving success. This prompted Paul Keogh of Polygram Records to offer them an album deal.
Louis maintains he persuaded Keogh to make the deal, but Keogh himself says he offered it because the record company had already spent so much money on Boyzone. He says they needed to improve their chances of recouping it. With an album deal signed, Louis came up with the idea of recording Love Me for a Reason , an Osmonds song.
“Unquestionably Louis’ greatest strength is that he can hear a song and know if that song would be a hit. He can hear a cover version and know what artist of his could sing it best,” says Reynolds.
“Louis is notorious for staying up all night listening to music and I remember once he rang me in the middle of the night and said ‘I’ve got the song for Boyzone. I’ve got the one that’s going to be a smash hit’ and I was like ‘Yeah?’ I was half asleep! I was like ‘That’s wonderful, Louis. Can I ring you in the morning?’ He said, ‘I’ll play it to you. I’ll play it to you’ and it was Love Me For A Reason and I have to be honest, I wasn’t convinced.”
Reynolds says Louis became far more confident as the weeks passed by. In the early stages, he had not been aware of his own importance in the Irish music industry until Polygram offered Boyzone an album deal. A short while later, he was dictating the types of songs Boyzone should record, despite objections from the company.
“I was in a record company at the time when they slagged it off,” recalls Reynolds. “But Louis kept saying, ‘This is going to be a smash hit. This is going to break the band in England.’ I have to say that I don’t know anybody else close to it that had that belief in it. We were all taken along with this, including the record company in the UK and everywhere.
“I know that they were not sure about the record and it became a massive record. Love Me For A
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