Boyzone admit it feels "amazing" to be able to sign off their career with a final album which features the vocals of their late bandmate Stephen Gateley.
The Irish boy band bring out their seventh and last LP ‘Thank You & Goodnight’ this November and then are heading out on a farewell tour that starts in January 2019 and for the record the guys reworked one of Stephen’s unreleased solo songs, ‘I Can Dream’, as a tribute to their friend – who tragically died in October 2009 at the age of 33.
Shane Lynch admits once the demo was discovered he and the rest of the group – Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy and Mikey Graham – knew instantly it had to be included on the tracklist.
Appearing on ‘Good Morning Britain’, he said: "Do you know I think when it comes to this being our final album, it’s amazing to be able to wrap it up with Stephen on there too. I think that was important for us. But it came to us. It actually dropped on our laps as a producer got in touch with us guys, or the record company, saying they have this stuff. He was moving his studio and he goes ‘I’ve got Stephen’s vocals on this record from ’03 or ’02. Do you guys want it?’ And as it so happens we were making an album and we said ‘100 per cent, we’d love to have it.’ "
The guys admit it was a "bitter sweet" experience to use their pal’s vocals as it reminded them of their loss but they are proud at what they have achieved with the track.
Mikey said: "It was an unusual experience, kind of bitter sweet, the song was presented to us and it was about 20 years old or so, so the production style was kind of dated on it. So we took it into studio, stripped it down, built a whole new song about it, changing the sentiment from a love song to a nostalgia song, more about our journey through the last 25 years, and great to have Stephen, his vocal, as the pinnacle, the core of that song."
Ronan added: "It was very emotional when we first heard it, especially having all of our voices next to Stephen’s after all this time."
And Ronan is adamant that this is the final chapter in Boyzone’s story as their 25th anniversary as a group seems like the perfect moment bring things to an end.
He said: "Basically we’ve had 25 brilliant years, it’s been amazing, we’ve been blessed. There’s not a lot of bands that have been able to stay together this long. We want to go out on a high, it’s the right thing to do, it feels right for us."
Boyzone: It’s amazing to have Stephen on our last album
