Joe Jackson got to know the boyband and manager Louis Walsh just as their music careers were about to take off. Here, he recalls how their excitement turned to tedium in a matter of months, Stephen Gately’s fear of being outed as gay, and Keith Duffy’s spiralling mental health as the bubble began to burst
Boyzone shoot one of their early music videos. Photo: Joe Jackson
Two images bookend my memories as a chronicler of Boyzone. One involves Keith Duffy crying as we sat on a staircase in Elstree Studios, where the lads were filming their first appearance on Top of the Pops in December, 1994.
The other involves him admitting to me for a Sunday Independent interview in 2001 that he felt suicidal after Boyzone broke up the previous year.
