Boyzone No Matter What Sky Docs

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123129301#Comment_123129301

Boyzone or Westlife?

I think Mark from Westlife has one of the best voices ever, tremendous range

thereiver

I think ronan Keating has a great voice of course their music seems old fashioned nowadays .

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123129424#Comment_123129424

The chap made a fortune from singing out of his nose. When he sings properly, he has a passable voice, but that's all for me.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123129328#Comment_123129328

Right up there with Freddie, Bowie, and Roy Orbison…

Hangdogroad

Why are people surprised that Louis Walsh is a c u next Tuesday? He's the Irish music industry answer to Michael O'Leary. He'd smother his granny with a pillow for publicity.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123129474#Comment_123129474

Not “surprised” per se - but if you managed a group for a long time as Louis did, you’d imagine you’d have something nice to say about them - and you would think that he would have had a 1/2 decent relationship with them throughout - his relationship was more like a record company exec rather than a band manager - he sent them off to the world but didn’t bother his arse supporting them on their tours - a very much fair weather band manager

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123129474#Comment_123129474

Just like the 4 whingers here still milking a boyband from 30 years ago..

donegal_man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123129328#Comment_123129328

Boyzone. When they were still building their brand. Very entitled and arrogant.

walshb

Westlife were far better than boyzone. Better singers, far more polished, and better stage performers..

lisasimpson

Louis came across terrible in relation to Stephen. It's like he was loving the fact he was outed while louise kept his own sexuality out of the headlines

Tommy Hilfiger

I finished this documentary last night in one sitting.

I get that Walsh didn't come across well, however, you can't deny his ability to recognise a gap in the market (like O'Leary) and exploit it. I do think he could have been a bit more dignified in his response to the SUN article, it appears he still adores the limelight (no matter the cost) and this is a character flaw on his part.

The guys themselves, well, they done well, all had successful careers thanks to Walsh, if it wasn't for his direction they would have had an entirely different life.

He has to be acknowledged for that, we all know the entertainment industry has 🐍 🐍 , I think Ronan (and Mikey) had the foresight to see what exactly they were (a manufacturerd boy band with limited life span) and wanted out. I do feel for gately as the media coverage was really atrocious back then.

I don't get the hate for Keating to be honest, he has had a very successful career, the figures back that up. How many of us here wouldn't do the same as he did? I for one would have jumped ship (Lionel Richie comes to mind when he left the commodores) and sought out his own path.

Overall the documentary was well directed, those four lads can now sit back in a nice home, secure for life, knowing they had a lifestyle only few can dream of.

thereiver

This is the golden age for music documentarys ,any band that sold millions of lp,s since the 90s will get a documentary on sky or amazon or netflix.Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, fans want to see pop singers talk about what it was like to be famous and successful in the time when people bought cd,s before social media existed .Ronan keating had great success when he left boyzone he,s a great singer . It was a different time , now kpop boybands are created in korea where they train for years and can sell out tours in america . That,s part of his job ,he understood that more publicity =money .Most bands have 2 or 3 years of fame , make a few albums get enough money to retire .Most pop singers have 2 or 3 hit songs before they fade away into obscurity .

Welsh Megaman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123129700#Comment_123129700

’Fair Weather’ is the word - just ask Girls Aloud. He was their ‘manager’ whilst ‘Popstars: The Rivals’ was on the air - as soon as the show finished, he completely abandoned them.

Check out Michael Cragg’s book ‘Reach For The Stars’ - a real eye-opener.

Welsh Megaman

As I mentioned on the Beebrock thread, I begrudgingly give Louis Walsh respect for being completely honest about the fact that HE COULD NOT CARE LESS about who is singing for him, as long as they make him money.

He was purely, and always has been, in it for selling records to the widest audience possible. He doesn't care about the 'art' or making some kind of Pink Floyd-artistic statement - he knows who to aim at (the stay-at-home Mum who needs something to listen to as she washes the dishes) and he gives them what they want - safe cover versions, nothing edgy - performing on all the mainstream TV shows. He knows his audience aren't listening to 6Music or going to Rough Trade.

Just look at the crowd in the documentary for Boyzone's live shows - middle-aged women with their pre-teen kids…the widest demographic. For that, I tip my hat to him. Or in my case, a fez (just bought one).

JP Liz V1

Is Lulu still managing Westlife?

Jedward really came for him when he was in CBB

thereiver

Look at Glastonbury most of the audience is over the age of 40. Boyzone fans are now middle aged

head82

Watching the promo for this, I was expecting some big expose or revelation of the exploitation of young and naive individuals and their later life struggles as a result.

All of these lads did very well out of their brief time in the limelight.. which should never have extended to nigh on 30 years.. considering none of them had any great talent to recommend them. Okay, maybe one of them had a half decent voice to carry them through but the rest of them were chancers that got lucky.

Proper clickbait TV and I fell for it! Very difficult to have sympathy for these lads and in no way warrants a 3 part documentary series. Mediocre documentary about a mediocre band. And I use that term 'band' very loosely.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123132252#Comment_123132252

“Boy band” tends to be the term used to describe this “genre” of musak. You and I may mock but in fairness, this was and maybe still is a cash cow segment of the market with a formulaic method of milking money from pre-teens young teens and their mothers.

Even less successful groups and bands have made documentaries so I wouldn’t begrudge them that payday - I don’t know how much they were paid to do this documentary but I imagine it a nice tidy sum- why wouldn’t you take it if someone was offering it?

But there’s an element of “do I care?” and the answer is “not really”- Stephen Gately’s family I feel sorry for and Mickey Graham to a degree also - but for the rest of the. their lives and privilege and money they enjoy -I think they’re trying to create “drama” for the purposes of selling this show to their audience and making a packet out of it - Louis is the villain sure- but the rest of them come across as not appreciating just how fcking privileged their lives are -rich man boys moaning is a good description 🤪

Ash.J.Williams

Heard them discussing Irish begrudgery 😀😀 you're grown men in a boyband anyone with a remote interest in music is going to laugh at you

jj880

Watched it all. At first Louis seemed like a pretty normal manager and promoter. You have to hand it to him on throwing out 2 members at the start. Made the rest sharpen up and work hard.

That was until his reaction to the Sun front page of Stephen Gately.

Took him to another level of ghoul altogether.

Pretty obvious who outed Gately after seeing that.

Sleepy

Walsh all but admitted that it was him who outed Gately in that piece (and the "journalist" from the Sun hinted at the same). I see online that his looking like Podge & Rodge is apparently down to the fact he was undergoing chemo for some blood cancer at the time this was filmed. A definite look of steroid use to him.

It's worth noting that Keating was listed as a producer in the credits so he's seemingly still making more out of their extended 15 minutes than the rest and no doubt had major input in the editorial process.

Honestly, the most shocking thing to me in the whole documentary was that Stephen Gately died of natural causes. I, like most lads at the time, had no interest in the band and would have taken the piss out of my younger sister for liking the crap they released so wouldn't have read anything beyond the headlines (and even those only by osmosis) and 15 years later I still had the impression it was something to do with a drug taking. It really does show the power the gutter press had on the collective concious at the time!

bobsman

Louis W is one man who really does not give an absolute f** what people think. He is a despicable man and he is happy with that

Nigel Fairservice

Louis Walsh came across as pretty callous in the documentary. Not sure if he just didn't care how he would be perceived or just wants people talking about him, for better or worse. I'm sure after years around the media he would have a fair idea how he would come across.

They all seemed to have a lot of love for Stephen Gately, not a bad word to say about the guy. I think Ronan seemed to think he was better than he was. Not saying he was an awful singer or anything but he was just very middle of the road and made uninspiring music for the most part. I think Shane and Keith seemed pretty happy to acknowledge they were around to just make up the numbers. Mikey Graham, seems a nice fella. Some of his original grievances seemed to have been dealt with when they got back together and ditched Louis as their manager. Not sure what his beef was with Keith and Shane. I know he felt they weren't pulling their weight on the farewell tour but not showing up for a few drinks with the rest of them at the end of the documentary seemed a bit extreme if it was only just that. Keith said he regretted how much he clashed with Mikey so maybe there was something more to it. Ronan seemed be over it.

Say Your Number

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123128988#Comment_123128988

Heard it on the radio a while ago and....it is a good song.

Walsh looking at The Sun front page like it was his daughter's wedding photo or something was really strange.

thesultan

pretty good documentary. Mikey seems very aloof professor character, amazing how big they got for a period

ShagNastii

I watched it last night. As stated above quite interesting but nothing too earth moving.

I would take Louis Walshe's input with a grain of salt. He has fully embraced the bitter, evil old Queen monikor and now says unapologetic crap for thrills. He's a bit like Roy Keane. That's his gimmick.

That set piece where he was shown the Stephen Gately front page. Nobody that isn't trying to play panto villain reacts the way Louis did. No matter how grim his management he surely has a sadness for Stephens death/story.

Welsh Megaman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123138448#Comment_123138448

Louis has always been a 'messer' - as you said, that's his schtick. Slagging somebody off with a pithy comment, but it's always done with a knowing wink - his constant sniping at Linda Martin and the spat with Ronan Collins. The Irish tabloids will always run throwaway stuff like that, and he knows it.

MOR316

Never thought anything of them. Just always felt none of them could sing. Still do.

What it did cement for me was, is that Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch are two of the biggest chancers going.

Royale with Cheese

Jesus Mikey Graham seems like hard work. You were in a boyband, stop taking it and yourself so seriously. I think I'd probably struggle to get on with someone like that too.

Louis might be a cúnt but he's spot on with his analysis of Ronan Keating, talentless individual who started believing his own press. Funny how boyzone suddenly got back together when his solo career went down the tubes.

Honestly somewhat funny to look back on that period now given I grew up in it. So badly dated, absolute tripe.

REDBULL68

Ol Louis would be living the the American dream now if he had accepted the offer to manage the Hype back in the day ,