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I put Boyzone back together

After watching Take That I just had to ring Shane and finally put Boyzone back together

By Mikey Graham
Friday September 19 2008

It was actually myself that was responsible for putting Boyzone back together. It was me who made the calls and tried to correct all the politics that were going on between people to try to get the ball rolling again.

There were a number of things that made me want to be part of Boyzone again but I remember when I went to see Take That in the Point Depot. It was their first show since reforming. I had never missed being out of the band but when I went to see them, I could see how much they had moved everything on and what a great reaction they were getting from the audience. I just realised how much I wanted to feel that again and felt it was time to experience some of that again. Straight afterwards, I got on the phone to Shane Lynch and I said to him 'we have to do something about this'.

I could see in retrospect that the only reason Boyzone had stopped being enjoyable was because we had no balance between work and personal life -- it was all out of control. The first time around, we never managed to get home.

In a year, you might only have a few days in Ireland every couple of months and it all got too much.

But even after making all the calls and getting everyone together, I was still so apprehensive about the reunion. If it all fell flat on its face, we would have lost whatever reputation we had worked hard to gain during the 1990s. We decided to follow Take That's lead and do it step by step. Gary Barlow's a good friend of mine and he made sure the guys started off slowly, gauging the reaction that they got along the way, so we did the same thing.

Our first gig was the Children In Need project last November, we then put on a small tour and everything snowballed from there.

And now that we have our new single Love You Anyway being released on September 29, the past week has been particularly hectic.

Last Saturday, I flew over to London to do rehearsals for a new ITV show called For One Night Only. It's a variety show with different hosts every week and last week they had Vernon Kay and Joan Rivers -- who's great craic.

We spent the whole day rehearsing and then afterwards I met up with my best friend who lives in London. We had a great meal and went on to the 50 Club, this spectacular casino. I was playing Black Jack and did extremely well, thank you!

I woke up on Sunday with a heavy head and had another day of rehearsals before the show was broadcast that evening.

I've been going to London for so long, it feels like a second home to me now. I've been going there regularly since 1994, my wife Karen is from there and I've loads of friends over there as well. I would never make the move over though -- the only place I would emigrate to is Australia. I absolutely love the Gold Coast and you just do an awful lot more with your life when the weather's good -- I'm seriously considering moving over there when I'm 50.

Monday morning was spent looking after my daughter Sienna, who's two and a half. I'm a very hands-on dad so I gave her breakfast and watched some kids movies with her.

Vulgarity

That evening myself and Karen went to see Joan Rivers in Vicar Street. I got chatting to her at the show in London and she invited me to see her.

It's hard to believe that she's 75 years of age. She's such a live wire on stage but the vulgarity of her jokes would leave you speechless. I was knocked out by her audacity because she really sails close to the wind on a few issues but the way she really goes for it is just hilarious.

Tuesday morning, I headed to Cocoon with Karen and Sienna to help launch the Cheerios Childline Breakfast Together appeal. I came home from town and brought Sienna to her dance class. Believe it or not, I also started looking for Christmas presents for her. She's suddenly mad into golf so I wanted to see if they had any golf clubs in her size.

Wednesday was spent looking after my horses, Rocky and Lola. It's a great hobby to have but they take up a lot of your time as yesterday was spent tending to them as well, just the upkeep of their paddock and things like that.

This weekend I'll probably take it easy and do things with the kids. We usually go to the movies or ice skating as we love doing things together. I also spend a lot of time writing my owns songs, that's a real passion of mine.

My dream is to have a number one hit in America with a song I wrote myself -- that's my ultimate goal. I'm also still passionate about the acting. I was starting to get somewhere with it before Boyzone came up again so I'm determined not to let the things that I've been working on for the past eight years go by the wayside.

I suppose what I've learned from all of my years on the road is that you need to have a good balance between work and your personal life and I suppose that's the way we all feel now that we really have the best of both worlds.

The Cheerios Childline Breakfast Together appeal runs from October 6-12

- Mikey Graham

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added on 22 Sep 2008 by Lizzie