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28th November 1999 *      Sunday World - THRILL A MINUTE (thanx a lot to   Pat BZ pat_bz@hotmail.com for providing the information to all fans) Hi, Ronan here IT'S been an amazing week here in the Boyzone camp, picking up two MTV Awards and announcing EIGHT shows at the Point after Christmas.When we started out six years ago, the prospect of doing MTV and selling out a string of shows at the Point didn't figure in our wildest dreams.But Thursday night was surreal… and not just for Boyzone. It was brilliant for the country that the spotlight was on Dublin as the stars arrived in to party at the MTV bash and ONE BILLION viewers tuned in to catch it.As I wondered the corridors backstage before the show, I kept bumping into some of the biggest performers of the music world - all hanging out in MY city.There was Whitney Houston with her hubby Bobby Brown, Britney Spears hugging Puff Daddy, Westlife catching up on the gossip with Steps, The Offspring rappin' with Eminem and our own Bono having a chin - wag with Mick Jagger.Puff Daddy told me that he had a ball in Dublin. Pointing out that his first name is Sean, Puff y said he visited lots of pubs during his stay and the Irish adopted him as one of their own. He was blown away by the friendly reception he enjoyed. Hottest Christine Aguilera, one of the hottest performers of the day, was making her first visit to Ireland and it was extra special for her as she told me she's half Irish.As for me, well it was a thrill-a-minute being the host of the MTV Awards, particularly as it was coming out of Dublin and Ireland.I loved every minute of it and the icing on the cake was Boyzone picking up awards for Best Album for Boyzone By Request and best UK and Ireland Act.While I was working on stage, the other lads got the chance to party and they were obviously in high spirits after collecting the awards.I'm sure you'll all forgive Shane for his little outburst, but it was all done in the spirit of the moment and it just shows his loyalty to Boyzone and to the future of the group.Winning the MTV awards is a great end to the Millennium for us… now we're looking forward to kicking off the next decade with those magical EIGHT shows at The Point, from January 3rd to 8th and 10th and 11th. *      ANIMAL MAGIC - BZ magazine article (thanx a lot to   Pat BZ pat_bz@hotmail.com for providing the information to all fans) When Ronan arrived in Australia on a promo trip a few weeks back, he ended up cuddling a few koalas and giving Rolf Harris a run for his money…Ro flew in to Melbourne after finishing a promotional trip in Taiwan, with a day off to recover from inevitable jet lag… But even so, Mr Keating was wide awake enough to hit the shops! While picking up CD's at a record store, he took the opportunity to ask the assistant behind the counter how Boyzone's By Request was doing! The sales assistant, obviously not having recognised Mr. Keating, reported that he'd sold lots of copies. Ro went on to ask how the single released by that Ronan Keating was getting on…"Really well!" he was told, "We sold bucket loads - it's at No. 2 in the charts!" It wasn't until Ronan handed over his credit card that the penny dropped - and the poor old shop assistant was slightly embarrassed to say the least! That evening, plans for a big posh dinner had to be postponed after Ronan and stylist Alex disappeared somewhere inside their hotel. Dinner had to be put on hold, and it eventually transpired that Ronan was having himself a haircut. Obviously inspired by Ro's new 'do', BZ tour manager Mark put himself at the mercy of Alex's hairdressing scissors too - before deciding to go the whole hog and have his barnet dyed blond! Ro very cheekily took photos of the entire process from start to finish, which he hoped would appear in a future edition of this magazine. Except we're too scared about getting told off, so they haven't… Sorry about that Mr. Keating! Posh hair dos all sorted, Ronan spent all of the following day being interviewed by press and TV bods. He was also filmed for brand new (and also slightly crazy) show The 10.30 Slot, and so doing became the very first musical guest to be interviewed by programme host Dylan! Even though nutty Dylan failed to persuade Ro to give a live rendition of Westlife tune Swear It Again, Dylan did declare Ronan to be, "A very pleasant first guest" at the end of the interview! Saturday brought another TV interview, this time with Molly Meldrum, a very famous Australian television host who counts Madonna amongst his personal friends, no least! Ro was filmed over at Molly's very posh house, which is interestingly designed to an Egyptian theme, before heading out into the garden for the photo shoot where our cute animal pictures were taken…A local wildlife organisation had kindly brought along a baby kangaroo, a wombat, and a koala for Ronan to cuddle, which is just what he did - well almost… Ro ended up bottling out of carrying the koalas, which wasn't surprising considering koalas have very long, sharp claws!However, Ronan did comment afterwards that he was very relieved the wildlife people hadn't decided to bring along a snake for the shoot - because as everybody knows, Ronan is absolutely terrified of them! But what Mr. Keating doesn't know, is that a 6 foot python had been brought along to the shoot - but luckily very kindly record company lady Virginia managed to warn them of Ro's phobia before it was brought out of it's bag! Another TV interview later in the afternoon took Ronan out onto the streets of Melbourne, when the poor old TV interviewer feared for her life, expecting Ro to be mobbed by big groups of teenage fans!Fortunately though, although Ro was stooped for autographs a couple of times, the brisk walk was trauma free, which gave Ronan a chance to reveal how much he enjoys being in Australia… "I feel very much at home here,Australia is very like Ireland. We can still walk down the streets here, which is nice, as Boyzone haven't really made it that big here just yet - but I am looking forward to the day we can't, I have to say!"On Saturday evening Ro performed on top Ozzy music show Hey Hey It's Saturday, when he was also presented with a very peculiar selection of gifts, including a very fancy disc to commemorate the release of When You Say Nothing At All in Australia, and a special Australian rugby ball from a kindly member of the studio audience. Show host Mr. Meldrum eventually decided to join in with this gift presenting frenzy by handing over some dodgy car cleaning products, a box of tissues, and a fake gold polystyrene phone from his desk!Molly was very interested to discuss Boyzone's last appearance on Hey Hey It's Saturday, as it was from his show that the Boyz rushed to catch the ill fated plane chartered to take them out to Broken Hill to film the video for Isn't It A Wonder… Relieved to hear all band members managed to remain in one piece, Molly sent Ronan off the stage aboard his motorised desk, which poor old Ro had a few problems steering…Ronan bid farewell to Melbourne the following day to fly into Sydney,where he spent most of the day ploughing through yet more interviews.Sunday afternoon was dedicated to New Zealand (where BZ have a huge following), and a long list of New Zealand media representatives had flown in specially to meet him.That evening, Ronan and his team had a posh dinner in one of Ro's Favourite Sydney restaurants. They were joined by local radio competition winners and record company bods, and Ronan kept everybody entertained, as usual!Monday was also interview packed. But Ronan was presented with a golddisc at the end of them all, just before jumping into a car to zip to the airport for his journey home!BZ's By Request album has now gone platinum in Australia (the first of Boyzone's album to do so in this particular territory), as has Ronan single When You Say Nothing At All. Both discs reached No.3 in the charts!Over in New Zealand, By Request is now 6 x platinum (that's sales of over 2 million records!), and both You Needed Me and When You Say Nothing At All entered the charts at No.1, as did By Request… Thanks very much NZ!

20th November 1999 *      Sun Newspaper (thanx a lot to   Suzi Doward Suzi.Doward@Tesco.net  for providing the information to all fans) CRAZED FAN'S BID TO GRAB RONAN BABY  RONAN KEATING feared for son Jack's life when a crazed fan grabbed the baby's arm. It was only the Boyzone singer's quick reflexes that stopped eight-month-old Jack being dragged out of his mum Yvonne's arms. He knocked the drunken fan away after the man barged through a crowd outside Dublin's HQ venue. Ronan was filming a TV special there when the incident occurred last week. The fan ran off afterwards. Ronan told me: "I saw this guy moving towards us from the corner of my eye. He lunged for Jack and I stepped in to stop him. It was a natural reaction to protect my child. "But it was a shock - it made me realise how precious Jack is to me. You don't know what kind of people are out there. This is a warning to all parents to keep your eyes peeled." Ronan, who is turning on the Christmas lights in London's Oxford Street tonight, has now stepped up security when he is out with his wife and son.  *      Sunday World - November 7th '99 (thanx a lot to   Pat BZ pat_bz@hotmail.com  for providing the information to all fans) Hi, Ronan here TODAY is a big day here in the Keating clan as my sister Linda and brothers Gary and Gerard take part in the New York city marathon.They flew out to the 'Big Apple' on Friday for the big event and, apart from the challenge of running over 26 miles, their main aim is to raise funds for the Marie Keating Cancer Awareness Fund.As you know, we have been fund-raising to put three mobile cancer units on the road so that people can go in and have regular checks.We were inspired to take on the challenge after our dear mother lost her brave battle with the illness.Our hope is that people can be cured if the cancer is caught early by medical checks. We want to spare other families the pain and the suffering that we experienced when Mam died. We are absolutely amazed by the support we've received from all quarters for the Marie Keating Cancer Awareness Fund.The total raised to date is over £170,000, which is enough to put three mobile units on the road and we hope that they will happen early in the New Year.However, it takes the same amount of money to run them, so the cash drive will continue for some time. Linda ran in the New York city marathon last year and raised over £10,000.This year is roped in Gary and Gerald and our friend Willo Ward, so they'll all be pounding the streets of New York today. Gerald, who is now back in Dublin working as a private client dealer with stockbrokers Merrion Capital, is the real athlete in the family so he has been in charge of the training as the gang built up to the big New York event.We are really indebted to all our sponsors including Adidas, Merrion Capital, Preceptors Cooper, David Done, The Waharhaftig Family, Tim O' Driscoll Insurance, Dave Shack, Coca Cola, Ryan Air, Virgin Atlantic, Fitzpatrick Hotel Group, Polydor UK, Army Bargains, Woodies and Live Wire.Next week I'll tell you how the clan fared out in the marathon. If you would like to support our charity with money, then you can make a donation to The Marie Keating Cancer Awareness Fund, Acc No 10606095, Sort Code 93 25 23, AIB, Swords, Co Dublin. OUR new video, Boyzone Dublin - Live by Request, is set to go on release next weekend and it's definitely our best ever.it's 93 minutes of non-stop action from our live concert at the RDS last May, with some scenes from backstage and we hope that you enjoy it.Those of you who were there on the night will know what I mean when I tell you that a little bit of magic was created in the RDS on that summer's evening.We were so proud unveiling that show in our native city because it was our biggest ever production and it was always or dream to be in a position to do a performance on that scale for the fans at home.If you watch the expressions on our faces you'll see how thrilled we were strutting our stuff on stage that night. It was happiness beyond belief.It's not easy to impress the critics, but the reviews we got for that show were all excellent and that was a good feeling.Mind you, if they had knocked us it wouldn't have hurt because you, the fans, made it quite clear on the night that you were having the time of your lives.

13th November 1999 *    Radio 1 website (thanx a lot to   Hazel Nicholson hazelnicholson@hotmail.com  for providing the information to all fans) Boyzone: Best UK & Ireland Act & Best Album The battle for Best Album was a tough one - The Backstreet Boys’ ‘Millennium’ was up against ‘By Request’ from Boyzone, ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ by Lauryn Hill, ‘Americana’ by The Offspring and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘Californication’. Boyzone clinched it, though, saying: "Ireland, the living legends, U2 put us on the map. Look at us now!Look at us now! Somebody once said ‘Give the Irish alcohol so they don’t take over the world’. Try again. Look at us now!", they said. "Thank you to all our fans, family, friends and partners. Thanks for supporting us".And Shane added: "In the press recently there’s been a whole load of ****ing **ite about Boyzone, in the Year 2000 about breaking up. I tell ya what, we’re Dubliners, we’re Irish and we’ll be here for a long time", he reassured fans. They then went on to win Best UK and Ireland Act too, beating Basement Jaxx, Lynden David Hall, Manic Street Preachers, Texas and  Ronan’s band, Westlife: "We won! Everybody’s saying Ronan has fixed this, but we don’t think so, do we?!!" said Boyzone on picking up their second honour of the night. "We come from Dublin, we’re very proud of that,and we just wanna say, y’know, Ireland’s a great country and we just wanna say give respect to the best band in the world - that is U2. It’s because of them  that Irish music has been appreciated all over the world. Thank you lads, we  appreciate you and God bless you. Big up, Ireland! You’re rocking!!" *     Yahoo! News Entertainment Headlines (thanx a lot to   Joerg Niklas joergn@bigfoot.com   for providing the information to all fans) Ireland Abuzz As Stars Arrive for MTV Music Oscars By Simon Gardner DUBLIN (Reuters) - With a black-market price-tag of up to 1,000 Irish pounds ($1,324), this year's MTV Europe 'musical Oscars' in Dublin is the hottest ticket in town. With just a day to go until the awards ceremony and saturated with hype after a week of advertising and television coverage, Dubliners are eagerly star-gazing.U.S. pop diva Mariah Carey and rapper Puff Daddy have already descended on the Irish capital, cruising the city in white stretch limousines. And dozens of stars from the cream of the music world -- from U.S. chart-topper Britney Spears to funk idols  Jamiroquai -- are about to join them for Thursday's ceremony. Newspapers dubbed Dublin -- the home of pop greats U2, Boyzone,Westlife, Corrs and B+witched as -- the new Mecca of rock 'n' roll.``A rock and roll roller-coaster in music's new Mecca,'' proclaimed the Irish Independent. ``Limos purring as pop-pouting stars jet in.'But while Ireland may be the host, Britain and the United States have monopolized the nominations.Soul king George Michael and chart-topping rocker Robbie Williams are vying with U.S. rapper Will Smith and Latin  rocker Ricky Martin for best male artist. And ex-Spice Girl Geri ``Ginger'' Halliwell -- currently number one in the British charts -- is battling with a U.S. line-up that includes Madonna and Lauryn Hill.Ireland's hopes lie in ``boy bands'' Westlife, nominated for best breakthrough and best UK and Ireland act, and Boyzone, up for best album and best pop categories.``This year's awards is going to have the strongest performer and presenter line-up we've ever had,'' said an MTV spokesman. ``We expect a billion people to tune in.'' *     Irish Echo (thanx a lot to SARAH JOHNSON n2351421@sparrow.qut.edu.au  for providing the information to all fans)  Irelands latest pop sensation Westlife are set to go down in the record books after becoming the first boy band to hit no 1 with their first three singles in Ireland.The heartthrob band scored a hat trick when they topped the charts onceA gain with their third single off their first album "Flying without Wings".The boys have now joined an exclusive club of bands who went straight to the top slot with their first three singles, including the Spice Girls and B*Witched. The all-girl B*Witched went a step further last year when they hit number 1 with their first four singles, becoming the first Irish band ever to achieve the feat. Westlife- managed by Boyzone manager Louis Walsh adn frontman Ronan Keating - are said to be thrilled with the sales of their singles. The teenage singers, from Sligo and Dublin, were hand-picked by Walsh for chart success and are set to take over form Boyzone as the No 1 all-male pop band.

7th November 1999 *       Yahoo News (thanx a lot to pat_bz@hotmail.com  for providing the information to all fans) 1999 looks set to be the last year of Boyzone - as lead singer Ronan Keating let slip it's unlikely the group will reform after their year-long break.During a flying visit to Copenhagen, Denmark at the weekend, the When You Say Nothing At All singer was caught off guard and explained that there are no Boyzone plans for the future - and their solo careers are "all that really matters".He said: "In January 2000 all of us will be pursuing our own personal goals until next Christmas - and then maybe, and it's only just maybe, we will pick up where we left with Boyzone. After six years living in each others' pockets, we need to go our separate ways. Certainly I cannot commit to Boyzone if my solo career takes off."Fellow band members Mikey Graham, Steven Gateley, Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch have their futures neatly laid out already with Graham and Gateley ready to record solo albums. Duffy is set for a career as a TV host and Shane Lynch is aiming for a fully fledged career in rally car racingafter landing a contract worth more than a million pounds." *       Article in The News Of The World newspaper  (thanx a lot to debbiemccaffrey7@hotmail.com  for providing the information to all fans) BEAUTY LEFT ME FOR RONAN Race ace Eddie Irvine bedded a beautiful model just months before she married pop star Ronan Keating. Ferrari golden boy Eddie, worth £12 million,  seduced Yvonne Connolly as she became drawn into his whirl of superstar parties. The 33-year-old-pin-up, who made his last-ditch bid for the world championship at the Japanese Grand Prix this morning, admitted: "I do make it pretty clear what my intentions are - and they're certainly not honourable.  Yvonne and I were never destined to be a big love job." Eddie's romance with Yvonne, 25, ended bitterly after a skiing holiday when she dumped him.  Within months she met and wed Ronan. Opening in heart in an astonishing new biography called Eddie Irvine: Life In The Fast Lane, the driver admits: "Yvonne doesn't speak to me anymore.  There was a lot of talk about her child being mine, mine but that was rubbish.  I think thats enough to say it didn't work and she went off and married Ronan.  And I'm happy for her."Remembering every moment of the seduction, Eddie gave an insight into the astonishing world of wealth, privilege and beauty that Formula One stars come to reguard natural. The night I met her, I was nicknamed The Doc," he said, "He and I went to an international models' do at The Point in Dublin.  We were in the front row with all the glitterati behing us and afterwards we went to a nightclub along with a number of models - Yasmin Le Bon, Karen Mulder,Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Yvonne.  I was eyeing up Yvonne so The Doc went over to her and said, 'I know a mate who fancies you'. She said; 'I know'.  He asked, 'How do you know?'  Well, he has been looking at me all night, hasn't he?'Two days later we went down to a beach in Kilkenny Strand with a group of friends.  The folowing day we went down to Cork to an Oasis concert, where we stayed with a friend and had a good laugh and all got on really well together.After the weekend, Yvonne became a core member of our group until we had that great but slightly strained skiing holiday.On our return she seemed to go her own way.  To the surprise of all of us, a few months later Yvonne went off and married Ronan."The Boyzone star, who had a recent solo No1 with 'You Say It Best', (What?, not my mistake, the papers! - Debbie) couldn't have been more differnt from Eddie. The 22-year-old heart-throb stunned his fans by marrying Yvonne in the Carribean last year, just three months after meeting her.