We can say that the creator of Boyzone is called Louis Walsh, the manager. He already worked with some successful Irish club acts and two artists who won the Eurovision Contest Song for Ireland. But Louis wanted much more than that: he wanted a top-class INTERNATIONAL act.

One day, Louis has been approached by a young guy, Mark Walton, whose dream was to be an international pop act. Mark Walton and Shane Lynch were two good friends and they went together, danced in front of Louis and Louis decided they were the two first member of the band he was going to create.

Louis then published in a local newspaper an advertisement about that pop band and they appeared on some radio emissions. For Ronan and Steve it was the chance they've been waiting for a long time. Mikey thought maybe it was a good chance for him and went for it. Keith didn't want to pass all the auditions and tried to make it easier by his long time friend who was already involved in it: Shane Lynch.

Several weeks later, the auditions took place and every candidate had to sing "Careless Whisper" originally from George Michael. It was November 1993. Mark and Shane didn't have to attend to the first audition as for Louis they were almost already in the band.

Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately and Richie Rock were impressive at the first audition and were asked to come back for another audition as long as some others. Unfortunately, Shane didn't talk to Louis about Keith and he didn't attend the first audition. But Louis noticed Keith one evening in a night club and liked the way he danced so asked him if he wanted to be in a pop group and that's how Keith joined for the second audition.

At the second audition, Mikey sang "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad" by Meat Loaf, Keith chose "I'm Too Sexy", Ronan sang "Father And Son" (which was going to be a real hit!) and Richie sang Elton John's "Your Song". At the end, Louis chose Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch, Mark Walton and Richie Rock who impressed Louis by playing the piano and singing at the same time.

Mikey was turned down and was really disappointed about it but as he says, he didn't go too upset.

Immediately, Louis made them appear in the "Late, Late Show" who is really popular in Ireland but the guys made a horrible performance as they barely knew each other and weren't ready at all. Since then, they decided to work a lot!!

Some of them had to leave school but they signed a contract. In the agreement they had to do sport and some stuff like that. They were allowed to have girlfriends but they had to hide them. But the contract also made some problems with Mark and Richie…

In March 1994, Louis asked his friend John Reynolds to co-manage the band with him. They all found some little job in order to have some pocket money. Richie however was a little bit impatient and was tired of the fact that Boyzone wasn't improving. Mark was a little bit scared of the future. He was scared of leaving his studies so he decided not to keep on being in the band.

Richie just had enough of the fact that band was going nowhere at the moment and there was a big tension with Louis. Once they had a performance in a club but Richie fell asleep and missed it. Louis went mad and he threw Richie out of the band…

Richie needed replacement though (because of Mark's leave) and Mikey Graham was on the top of the list.

Since then, things went quite fast and they signed a contract for 3 singles and an album. In November 1994 they released "Working My Way Back To You" sang by Stephen and Mikey. Ronan sang the beside "Father And Son".

They appeared again on the "Late Late Show" but this time it was much different and the boyz went to number 3 in the Irish charts with that single. They all had to leave their jobs and to concentrate on music. Quickly they released "Love Me For A Reason" which went to number 1in Ireland. They also released it in UK and it was a great success as well, it went to number 2. From the beginning, the guys began to work very hard, they wrote several songs for the first album "Said And Done" which was a great success and went to number 1 in Ireland and also in UK. That was the beginning of Boyzone!

[Boyzone original version with Richie Rock first from the left and Mark Walton behind Ronan]

With a lot of help of "Boyzone, the true story" by Rob McGibbon