Boyzone mourn the loss of a star
56The music world is shocked by the news of the sad loss of Stephen Gately
The world woke up this morning, to the sad news, of the loss of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately. T he cause of his death is still unclear and reports are being made that he died after a night out; Stephen was holidaying on the Spanish island with his husband Andrew Cowles.
The sad news of his death has caused upset to all Stephens’s fans all over the world and his Twitter and Facebook pages are already being filled with messages of condolence from fans. His last update on the social networking site Twitter said “Still busy – lots going on. Focusing on finishing my book next so may be quiet here” that quote was posted on the 6th October 2009.
Stephen shot to fame in 1993 after auditioning to be a part of Ireland’s first boy band, sharing the lead vocals with the talented Ronan Keating, Boyzone were a huge success not only in Ireland but all over the world. With 17 top 5 hits under their belts and 6 of those hit went on to be number 1. The boys also managed to have 4 number one hit albums which included - Said and Done, A Different Beat, Where we belong and By Request.
The band then decided to split in 2000, the boys that also included Shane Lynch, Mikey Graham and Keith Duffy. But Stephen was the first of the boys to embark on a solo project, when he released his first hit single New Beginning, from his debut album of the same name and watched it climb to number three in the charts. He went on to release more top 20 singles with the release of I Believe the soundtrack to the film Billy Elliott in 2000 and Stay in 2001 before being dropped by his record label Polydor in 2001.
Stephen then went on to have a huge west end career taking the lead role in the hit west end musical of Joseph and his Technicolor dream coat, before moving on to be the Child catcher in the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. After many pantomime and musical appearances, Stephen then appeared on ITV’s dancing on ice 2007 were he and his dance partner Kristina Lenko made it to eighth place.
Stephen was a well loved character of the pop world and he was forced to come out in 1999, when it was thought someone was about to sell a story about his sexuality, so Stephen sold the story himself and announced that he was gay. In 2006 he married his long term partner Andrew Cowles in a civil partnership.
Stephen and the rest of his Boyzone band mates had only just enjoyed renewed success with band reforming back in 2008, kicking off with tours across the UK; they were hoping fans new and old would flock to see the original Irish heart throbs in action once again, but the boys failed to fill the venues in the 19 date - Better tour. With the release of the compilation album - Back again.....No matter what, featuring the hit single Love you anyway, the boys were planning to release a new album in 2010.
This is a sad loss to the music world and the rest of Stephens band mates are all planning on flying to Palma today, to pay their respects to not only their Band mate but a true friend, Ronan is believed to be completely devastated by Stephens death as the pair were more like brothers than band mate.
