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In the annals of Irish pop music history, few stories capture the essence of fame, friendship, and fate quite like the tale of Boyzone, as beautifully chronicled in Sky Documentaries’ NO MATTER WHAT. While their music may not have pushed artistic boundaries, the human drama behind Ireland’s most successful boyband proves far more compelling than their catalogue of hits ever could.
The three-part documentary weaves a narrative worthy of Shakespeare, complete with ambition, rivalry, triumph, and tragedy. At its heart stands Louis Walsh, a puppet master whose calculated manipulation of the media included fabricating tabloid stories – even a fictional plane crash – to keep his Dublin protégés in the spotlight. His strategy worked brilliantly: from their awkward debut on THE LATE LATE SHOW, where five unpolished lads stumbled through a hastily assembled dance routine, to commanding an audience of 100,000 at Hyde Park just five years later, Boyzone’s ascent was meteoric.
That Hyde Park concert marked a pivotal moment in the band’s history, as Stephen Gately, the group’s natural frontman and heartthrob, faced a personal crisis. Confronted with The Sun’s ultimatum to come out as gay or be outed, Gately chose to tell his truth. The crowd’s response? Pure love, amplifying rather than diminishing his star power. This poignant chapter is recounted through multiple perspectives – bandmates, Walsh, Gately’s sister Michelle, and even the Sun journalist responsible for breaking the story. Gately’s absence from the narrative, following his tragic death from a congenital heart condition in 2009, adds a bittersweet undertone to these memories.
The documentary’s remarkable access reveals the band members in startling clarity. Ronan Keating emerges as simultaneously insecure and nakedly ambitious, while Shane Lynch’s intensity is tempered by thoughtful reflection. Keith Duffy’s charm masks an underlying vulnerability, but it’s Mikey Graham who proves the revelation. Now more resembling a contemplative family friend than a former pop idol, Graham’s struggle with being typecast as “the quiet one” clearly weighs heavily on him, contradicting Walsh’s dismissive assumption that he was content in that role.
Through never-before-seen footage and raw, emotional interviews, NO MATTER WHAT transcends the typical pop documentary format. It tells a universal story about the price of fame, the burden of secrets, and the enduring bonds forged in the crucible of shared experience. Three decades after five Dublin boys were catapulted from obscurity to global stardom, their story resonates not because of the 25 million records they sold, but because of the very human drama that played out behind the perfectly choreographed performances and carefully crafted public image.