KEITH Duffy has revealed Boyzone could get back together if a Sky TV series about them takes off.
The band hope they can benefit from a similar surge in popularity to that enjoyed by Wham! after a recent Netflix special.
3
Keith Duffy has opened up about a possible Boyzone reunionCredit: Getty – Contributor
3
Keith Duffy, Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch from BoyzoneCredit: Getty – Contributor
3
Boyzone’s story will be told in a three part series on SkyCredit: Getty – Contributor
And he said it could lead to him, Ronan Keating and the others to return to the stage to play their biggest hits.
Keith told The Irish Sun on Sunday: “That Wham! doc was so huge. If George Michael was still alive, Wham! would’ve gone back out to do a few concerts.
“Maybe after this Boyzone documentary comes out, there’ll be an appetite for us to perform again.”
One of the biggest pop acts of the 1990s, alongside Take That and the Spice Girls, Boyzone will see their story retold in a three-part documentary.
It will chart their rise from playing pub gigs in rural Ireland to filling huge stadiums.
Keith told us: “We were spat at, we were glassed (at the start).
“But we grafted our way to the top and earned our right to play arenas all across the world.”
The Sky team filming the doc have done previous series on the likes of Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence and singer Amy Winehouse, all of whom died before their time.
Boyzone’s story is also marred by tragedy, with the loss of Stephen Gately, aged 33, in 2009 from a heart condition.
Sky have already started filming interviews for the series with surviving bandmates Keith, Ronan, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham.
Dad-of-two Keith said: “They have been travelling with us and catching us when they can. They really want to get our story and bring it to the biggest audience possible.”
The Boyzone lads have shared memories going back to their earliest days. Bandmate Mikey recalled their terrifying early gigs. He said: “We’d be dodging kicks and punches on the way out, forced to defend ourselves.”
Keith recalled: “We drove around Ireland in this little white van wearing orange boiler suits, which were our stage outfits. We had to go through horrendous times, getting beaten up.”
He added: “But that didn’t stop us. Boyzone kept going, we learned our craft, and moved from pubs to theatre gigs. Then after Top Of The Pops, we started doing arenas.
‘HANDED THE BATON’
“Nobody loved Boyzone in Ireland. We got slagged off, but (it improved) after we had hits abroad and Gay Byrne welcomed us home with open arms on The Late Late Show.”
Boyzone sold 25 million records, and scored six UK No1 singles with songs such as Words and All That I Need before splitting in 1999.
They made a comeback in 2007, two years before Gately died.
Keith has won new fans presenting Keith’s Teeth, A Dental Odyssey on RTE TV which aired this week.
But Keith said he is regularly reminded of his time with Boyzone.
He said: “Sometimes, I’ll go into a supermarket and meet an excited fan who’ll say, ‘Oh my God, is it you? Can I get a picture?’. Other shoppers will see this happening and ask me who I am.
That’s when I get embarrassed and explain that ‘I used to be in a boyband’.”
Keith also explained how he and his bandmates provided a launchpad for fellow Irish boyband, Westlife.
He said: “Boyzone handed the baton on to Westlife.”
