Boyzone have sold more than 10 million albums
since 1993. They have also completed sell out tours all over the world, had
5 number one records and they have found time to become husbands and fathers
in between. That's a packed five years by any standards and deserves a few
grandiosities.
This is a record (if you'll pardon the pun) of
a growing-up process done in the public eye. Boy bands are no different from
real boys in that they all grow up in the end. The only difference is that
boy bands do their growing up in front of an audience, not in their bedrooms
surrounded by smelly trainers and pots of spot cream. Boyzone have
taken a lot of flack as well as fan mail and it hasn't been easy all the
way. Pop bands need crocodile thick skin to survive, but the boys have done
good. They're still here, they're going strong, they do things the way they
want to and they don't mind if you don't want their record in your CD rack.
So initially they may have been tarred with the same brush as a stew of anonymous
boy bands but they've proved to be more durable than any of them. For the
benefit of those of you who have been asleep for the last five years here
comes the history bit
The birth of Boyzone at the end of 1993
saw the Irish music mould well and truly broken. When their debut single
Love Me For a Reason crashed into the charts at no.2 in '94 it ensured
that Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham
became the most promising and exciting Irish export since well...
Guinness.
By Request certainly proves how far
Boyzone have come, and the album seems to be the perfect way to kick-start
the second chapter of this band's shining career. So, as we head speedily
towards the millennium, we can rely on Ronan, Stephen, Keith, Shane and Mikey's
unique brand of perfect pop not to loose any of its fizz. And while your
computer is struggling with its final floppy disk as the clock hits midnight
you can rest assured that Boyzone's platinum discs will be occupying
wall space well into the 21st century.