Baby You're a Star (8 page)

Of course, he couldn’t have done it on his own. The increasing success of Boyzone entailed more admin-istration. Louis didn’t have an office filled with staff, preferring to operate on the go, with his mobile phone glued to his ear, but he did have two very able partners in Reynolds and Keogh.

Keogh explains the division of labour in the manage-ment team. “At the time, Louis had all the ideas in terms of the songs and covers and what the guys should do. But he hadn’t got a clue in terms of the marketing and image and that sort of thing. So I suppose, I did all that side of it, trying to see if I could get stylists, choreographers, try to get them to look slightly different to other boybands. John Reynolds was really trying to manage the money side of it. As it grew, John took on the promoters and the merchan-dise, so John would always deal with the likes of Aiken or MCD, and he’d also deal with the licensees in terms of Boyzone merchandise,” says Keogh.

“And Louis would then really do the links with the producers on the songs, and the publicity – well, what I would call the tabloid publicity. We would try and plan the single, launch it, promote it, get the guys to do all the personal appearances, arrange all the inter-national travel for them, mind them, get them out of bed, get them to
Top of the Pops
.”

Not only did Boyzone make the cover of
Smash Hits
, but they were also asked to go on
Top of the Pops
, the other arbiter of pop success in the UK.

“I remember arriving at
Top of the Pops
at 9 o’clock in the morning and not leaving until 12 o’clock that night. These days it’s different, we turn up for two hours and we leave. But we were a bunch of kids excited about being on
Top of the Pops
and we ended up spending the day there,” says Keating.

On leaving the BBC studio, a producer stopped Louis and asked if he could bring his own security the next time Boyzone came on the show.
Top of the Pops
had not expected to find swarms of screaming girls waiting out-side for a little-known boyband.

Tempting as it might have been to let their new found fame go to their heads, the members of Boyzone were never allowed to start behaving like rock stars.

As Boyzone went from strength to strength, Louis went out of his way to ensure that the impact of the fame didn’t affect them for long. He had no formal training in band management or business, but he knew it was critical that Keating and his fellow band members should remain level headed.

If the band members egos ever threatened to become inflated, Louis brought them straight back down to earth.

“I remember one night we were down in the Point and we were in the dressing room.
Love Me For A Reason
had become a big hit and I think the guys actually thought they had arrived,” recalls Reynolds.

“They were there and they were kind of throwing a few shapes in the dressing rooms. Suddenly Louis arrives in and says, ‘John was telling me you’re throwing shapes. You want to see who your fucking fans are? You want to see who’s buying your fucking records?’

“He came out and he opened the boot of my car and the boot was full of CDs that we had bought. ‘They’re your fucking fans,’ said Louis. That actually happened at the back door of the Point Depot. It is true.”

Boyzone were pop stars and were advised by Louis to remain cheerful and well-behaved all the time, in public at least. “Louis set us up for these things. We were kids. We hadn’t got a clue. Louis didn’t have much of a clue either, but he told us what they were about and how to react and how to treat the people. It definitely helped us. There was never a bad word said about Boyzone. That was the great thing about being in the band. People always wanted us back,” says Keating.

Niall Stokes of
Hot Press
believes the moulding of young band members by Louis into polite pop stars, who would always sign autographs, pose for another picture or answer another question about their favourite colour, is the “single most important thing” in his success.

“Louis had a few very good instincts,” says Stokes. “Louis decided that the way to progress was to be nice to people. It was very simple and very basic but it’s also very smart and very effective; in an industry that is full of people who are far too big for their own boots, and who are self-important and painful to be around. Instead of that, when Boyzone started doing their PAs, their initial radio stuff and press stuff, in the UK in particular, they were just very nice and very genuine and people thought ‘We will give them a hand. We will respond positively rather than not.’

“I would say that is certainly one of the most important factors behind the success of the artists that Louis has championed. In the first instance, he made the decision with Boyzone that they would be really nice to people – and he would be too. He is a charmer and he turned it on very effectively. They weren’t very good at the start and it took a lot of faith to get them to the stage where they could even hope to compete. To use a sporting metaphor, they got record company support, they got the support of
Smash Hits
, against the head. I’m not saying being nice was the only factor in securing that, but it certainly was a factor.”

8

THE BOYZ NEXT DOOR

Louis envisioned Boyzone as a band in the classic boy-next-door mould, and the boy next door never forgets to say please and thank you. So Boyzone were always polite in public. Behind the scenes, however, the band found themselves under immense pressure. Some complained frequently of tiredness and fatigue.

“My abiding memory of them is that they were always tired and always overworked; no matter how many times you said to them, ‘It’ll all be gone in five years, guys, so you might as well work seven days a week’,” says Keogh.

“Most people would give their right arm to be in that position but they generally were, I wouldn’t say ungrateful, but they hadn’t got the stamina.”

In Keogh’s opinion, Keating was the band member who took the most professional approach, even though he was the youngest.

“While the others were sometimes homesick, Ronan would have a look at something, ask if it was impor-tant to do and then get off his bum and go and do it. The others I don’t think understood what was happen-ing around them in general. They didn’t understand the business, didn’t understand royalties, whereas Ronan took the time to ask the questions, find out what it’s all about and I suppose that’s how he came to the fore. He was the youngest yet the one who looked the most clued-in.”

At the time, Louis acknowledged that Boyzone believed they were working too hard. He was unsympAthetic, however. He had never tasted success on this scale before, and he believed that if the band stopped working for even a short period of time, Boyzone would just collapse. He did not always practise what he preached. He was often late for appointments and had a tendency to disappear from contact for a little while.

“Louis is not very good at getting up too early,” says Ray Hedges, who recalls waiting in Keogh’s office on Aungier Street in Dublin with industry officials for Louis to turn up.

“On one occasion, we were sitting there, waiting for him to arrive and we just looked out the window and saw this poster. Paul Keogh had this big poster, ‘Where’s Louis?’ hanging on Aungier St. I remember the actual moment. It was just hysterical,” says Hedges. “He’s not a morning person but he would always turn up just at the last second, completely dishevelled. He was always going missing.”

Louis relied heavily on John Reynold’s support during those years. Although he was experienced in the show business industry, he was still learning the ropes of international pop band management. The criticism directed at him by the music industry in Ireland spurr-ed him to succeed but he was secretly still unsure of himself.

“I used to go into meetings with him and he would say, ‘John, just back me on this’ because he would get told off by people in record companies, saying ‘I’m not sure about this and I’m not sure about that’,” says Reynolds.

“For me personally, it was a massive learning experience. You were dealing with things and with people that you had never dealt with before. You were on this crest of a wave. Louis was learning. He was, at that stage, finding out how good he really was, in terms of his A&R ability. Let’s be honest, we were just making it up as we went along,” adds Reynolds.

To their credit, Louis and Reynolds would seek advice on the best way forward from associates they trusted.

“Jim Aiken gave me a lot of advice,” says Reynolds. “We had a very good guy in charge of all the money and business affairs, an accountant called Alan McEvoy, and a lawyer, Richard Bray. I don’t think anybody let egos run away with themselves, because we all realised that it was a learning expedition and we were very lucky. This was working in spite of us rather than because of us.”

Louis and Paul Keogh always had a tumultuous pro-fessional relationship and both now believe the other made mistakes where Boyzone was concerned.

“Keogh made a major, major mistake,” says Louis. “He wanted to control us. He wanted to be the star, whereas I wanted the five boys to be the stars. He was very good, but we were trying to control him as well. He used to have meetings in his office, where he would rant and rave about all sorts of things except making the actual pop records. He wasn’t a music man. He was a marketing man. He wanted to control every-body.

“He wanted to be the boss and he didn’t like me getting friendly with anybody in the office. Paul did not want that. He did not want us getting friendly with them,” says Louis. “We called him ‘God’ on good days. We called him a lot of other things behind his back.”

Boyzone’s management did not only have to deal with their charges, they also had to deal with their parents, as most of the boys were so young. As the band members were receiving less than £200 each as a weekly wage, plus more for performances, their parents voiced concerns about their contracts.

“We had to deal with five sets of parents, which wasn’t the easiest either,” says Keogh. “Louis always ducked out of the hard decisions at the time, so we had parents thinking they were rock star managers. Louis would tell them ‘They’ve no money because the record company won’t give them any money’ and they didn’t understand that you don’t get your royalties until you sell the damn thing. So if you’re on
Top of the Pops
and you’re No. 1, there’s a bit of a time delay between that and the album sales and then your royalties.

“I didn’t want to explain to them that it was really Louis they should be ringing. Louis would ring me and say ‘Ah I had to. They were giving me a headache. I told them to ring Keogh. He has the money’.”

After 1994, Keogh would rarely have to field calls from concerned parents as Boyzone became more successful than he, Reynolds, or Louis ever imagined. Boyzone earned millions in royalties and profits from concerts and merchandise. In December 1994, the band appeared twice on
Top of the Pops
and played their first sold-out concert in Dublin’s Point Theatre. Louis was now one of the most respected managers in pop music.

There were times behind the scenes that he was operating on a wing and a prayer. Boyzone came under constant attack from music critics who alleged they didn’t sing live. On one occasions, they were nearly caught out when their sound equipment broke in the middle of a gig.

“There was a scenario at a gig where they were playing to a backing tape. They [the fans] were scream-ing for an encore but the DAT machine broke, and we had to rewind the DAT machine with a pencil, because the rewind broke on it. It took the guys 15 or 20 minutes to do an encore of one song purely because we were rewinding the DAT with a fucking pencil,” says Reynolds.

“If you saw it in a movie, you’d say ‘that wouldn’t happen in reality’ but it does, and it did. I remember the time when Louis was sitting down with the pencil rewinding the fucking thing and it was surreal. I’m not trying to portray that it was amateur or anything. I’m just talking about actual situations and incidents that happened. The general public see this highly polished five-piece on stage yet behind the scenes . . . it’s things like that, that kept your feet on the ground because it did create an almost surreal feel to the whole thing,” says Reynolds.

“On the outside of everything, there’s a very pro-fessional sheen and there’s a PR machine that’s behind it all. That’s not real life. What you see in
OK, Hello
and
Smash Hits
, that’s not real life. Real life is what really happens and I suppose it’s the manager’s job and the record company’s job to keep that in check and play it down and portray this other image.”

But success didn’t just happen with Boyzone. Louis, Reynolds and Keogh worked hard. They did not expect the band to slow down once they had scored a No. 2 single in the UK. Louis also maintained the pace he had set for himself.

“Louis built up his own contacts through hard work,” says Keogh. “Louis was out every night of the week, hanging around
Smash Hits
parties, [and] got to know everybody very quickly, which is what a manager should do.” Not everyone would regard hanging around at parties as hard work, but it is one of a pop band manager’s many responsibilities.

Boyzone went from strength to strength. In April 1995,
Key To My Life
, written by Graham, Keating, and Gately with help from Ray Hedges, reached No. 3 in the UK, as did their next single
So Good
, released in July. Boyzone then had to hit the road to promote their forthcoming album.

Louis decided that Boyzone should complete a gruelling tour of Ireland, where they played 36 concerts in 30 days. They then toured the UK, winding up with a concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall in October 1995. By the end, they were exhausted but Louis was right – the hard work paid off.

When the album
Said and Done
was released in the UK, it went to No. 1 and eventually sold over 1.5 million copies around the world. The band’s fourth UK single was Keating’s old favourite,
Father and Son
. Released in November 1995, it reached No. 2 in the charts. With four top 5 hits in a year, Boyzone had become a household name in the UK.

But they still had not reached No. 1, however, and they didn’t get one with their next single either.
Coming Home Now
, released in March 1996, reached No. 1.
Coming Home Now
was notable for a different reason. It was released at the same time as Take That’s last single
How Deep Is Your Love
. Take That had been the premier boyband in the UK for some years but now that they had split, their place in teenage hearts was there for the taking.

Boyzone’s management reacted quickly and the group’s second album,
A Different Beat
, was released in October 1996. It went straight in at No. 1. The first single from the album, a cover of the Bee Gees song
Words
, which Louis had suggested Boyzone should cover, also reached No. 1, selling over 400,000 copies. Boyzone were the new kings of pop.

A Different Beat
was a more slickly produced affair than the group’s first album. Hedges took care of most of the production and brought in several other top name producers: Rick Wake, who had worked with Celine Dion, and would later produce hits for Jennifer Lopez.; Jeremy Wheatley, who had produced for Tom Jones and the Spice Girls, and would later work with S Club 7; Phil Harding, who had been a producer on albums by the Pet Shop Boys and Erasure; and, the Irish songwriter, Phil Coulter.

The album generated three more hit singles,
A Different Beat
(No. 1),
Isn’t It A Wonder
(No. 1), and
Picture Of You
(No. 2), which was included on the second release of the album, and on their subsequent album, after Ronan Keating won an Ivor Novello award for penning the song.

As Louis finalised preparations to release
A Different Beat
, Boyzone embarked on yet more hectic touring. One incident led Paul Keogh to believe disaster had struck.

In the spring of 1996, Boyzone were touring the Far East. By the time, they reached Japan, tour fatigue had set in. A huge row erupted between the band members and they announced to their entourage that they were going to split up.

“Louis never travelled with them,” says Keogh. “They [Boyzone] had a row, and someone who worked for Polygram in Ireland at the time rang me and said: ‘The band is about to break up.’ So I had to get on a flight and go to Japan. Of course, they heard I was on the way. Louis rang them saying, ‘God’, as they called me, ‘God is on the way’ so of course by the time I get to Tokyo, the row is over, and I said to them, ‘Bloody eejits, 24-hour trip to Tokyo’.”

Asked about it, Ronan Keating sounds indignant. “I’ve never seen Paul Keogh in Tokyo in my life. That’s waffle.”

One thing is true. Keogh was called ‘God’ by Louis and the band, presumably because he was the dis-ciplinarian in the Boyzone set-up.

“Louis was too soft on them,” he says. “They had Louis wrapped around their fingers. They didn’t show up for TV appearances, and I was the one then that would have to read the Riot Act.” Keogh says he also found it particularly irritating that the band members did not appear to appreciate their luck in seeing the world.

“They never seemed to appreciate the travel element. They always thought it was a chore. For some kids, it would have been brilliant to go to Australia, travelling business class, going into lounges, drinking most of the trolley, going on the flight, getting off it, getting into limos. They even had armed guards in Singapore from the steps of the plane right into their hotel. They all thought it was a chore. The real chore was for people like me that travelled with them,” he says.

While the band may have seemed ungrateful for the opportunities they received, it is not difficult to under-stand their weary complaints. Having completed their tour of the Far East, they set off on another tour of the UK in the summer of 1996, playing four sold-out gigs in Wembley Stadium.

Once the album was released, they had to engage in constant promotional work to boost sales. There was scarcely a gap in their schedules. Louis remained convinced, and rightly so, that the key to Boyzone’s success was hard work.

Boyzone became a worldwide phenomenon. The band had risen to prominence under Louis’ direction. Keating and Boyzone followed Louis’ instructions precisely and respected his advice. “He was,” said Keating, “the sixth member of the band.”

There are band managers who try to be too authoritative, issuing unreasonable demands and ultimatums that cause their act to fight back and rebel. Louis didn’t make this mistake. He made Boyzone believe he was one of them. And that they were fighting against the record company.

In early 1997, Boyzone headed off on tour to South East Asia, the Middle East and India, all areas where they had built up a huge following. The tour of South East Asia caused the group unexpected consternation. When the details of the tour were released, it was noticed that Boyzone intended to perform in Indonesia. The group was promptly embroiled in political controversy. At the time, Indonesia was conducting genocide in East Timor.

Large numbers of Irish people protested, encouraged by the East Timor Solidarity Campaign, and demand-ed that Boyzone withdraw from the planned concerts in Indonesia. As the contracts had been signed, the concerts went ahead as scheduled but both Boyzone and Louis were heavily criticised for the decision. It was not one of Louis’ finer moments.