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Boyzone to perform at Epsom Downs
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Shane Lynch: Boyzone
Boyzone will play at Epsom Racecourse on July 31
Pop singer, petrolhead, family man, Christian: Shane Lynch is a man of many parts. With Boyzone under starter's orders for Epsom, Emily Horton finds the Surrey resident in irrepressible form
Before One Direction had even climbed out of nappies, Boyzone was the stellar boyband of its day. Formed by music mogul (now X Factor judge) Louis Walsh in Dublin, in 1993, Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Stephen Gately, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch were five fresh-faced teenagers picked to be the Irish Take That.Worldwide fame and adulation ensued. With its earnest, soulful ballads, the band found itself on stage with icons such as Pavarotti, Michael Jackson and Madonna.
“We were singing with some of the best in the world. We sat, ate and drank with them,” says a buoyant Shane, down the line from his Surrey home. “We were never starstruck though. They were part of our world, as we were part of theirs.”
But unlike many other manufactured bands, who have reached the dizzy heights of fame and then fallen victim to it, Boyzone remains an item after21 years. And the recently released album BZ20 has been more than favourably received. “They've grown up,” declared a review in The Guardian. “The adult Boyzone – should they now be called Menzone?”
At 37, Shane is the band's youngest member. Dark-haired, handsome, with magnetic blue-green eyes, he exudes a gracious, disarming enthusiasm that sits intriguingly with his image as the edgiest member of the band. He sported a prominent scar across his eyebrow in the group’s 90s heydey, along with multiple piercings and tattoos – a stark contrast with wholesome, baby-faced bandmate, Ronan Keating.
Since 1998, Dublin-born Shane has lived happily near Redhill, with his wife Sheena and daughters Marley and Billie.“I love it,” he reveals. “Back in the 90s, when things started to get busy, we were in London so much that I decided that I'd prefer to live there than stay in hotels. After that I just kept moving south, and eventually out into Surrey. There are such great opportunities in the UK.”
Like what, in particular?
“I am a big petrolhead. I was a car mechanic before Boyzone, and when it came to the fourth pay cheque my choice of car was a Porsche. In Ireland, young people didn't really drive fast cars, so I couldn't get insurance there. That was a key reason for moving to the UK.”
In fact, Shane’s love affair with the internal combustion engine was no mere flirtation. A talented racer, he won the Portuguese BMX Championship at 14; and in 2001, as the band embarked upon what proved to be a seven-year break, he latched onto the world’s fastest-growing motorsport: drift racing. Today he is one of the top five drift racers in Europe.“It's an extreme sport,” he explains.
“Like snowboarding or freestyle skiing; stylistic stuff. Whatever I do, I love to win. Whatever I take on, I go all out to be the best. To conquer, I suppose.”
Recorded at the Metrophonic studios in Clandon, near Guildford, the new album looks set to become a triumph in itself. Shane is thrilled with it, relishing its folkier elements. Six years on from their reunion, the grown-ups of Boyzone seem more in harmony than ever.
“It’s a pleasure to meet up. We're men now, not fighting for position like immature boys. To do what we do, standing on stage in front of 20,000 people, is an amazing honour, but you don't understand that as a 17-year-old. When you have a house, a mortgage, a family, you realise life is tough out there. To lead the life we do is incredible.”
Even so, he sympathises with the likes of One Direction, the current darlings of pop, for the weight of pressure heaped upon their shoulders.
“You're releasing an album, you love it, but you're talking about it continuously and there's nothing but that album in your world. It can be 18 months on one thing – enough to wear anyone out.
“Nobody's going to take a break for you. No one says: ‘Ah, you know what lads, I think you should have some rest.’ It’s a moneymaking machine, and you can quickly get into that state where you no longer know who you are.”
Perhaps Shane himself lapsed briefly into this spiritual amnesia, to judge from the column inches once devoted to his sometimes rebellious behaviour. Like the time he turned up at an awards ceremony in a tracksuit, while his four bandmates sat beside him in suits.
“I was very outspoken,” he admits. “That’s fine, as long as what you are speaking out about is correct. With me, it often wasn’t. Be honest, be assertive, but know what you're talking about. In our world there was no such thing as social media training. You learnt from your mistakes very quickly.”
The only real low point, however, came in 2009, just a year after Boyzone had returned to the fray. That was the passing of band member Stephen Gately, who died at his home in Majorca from a heart condition at the age of just 33.
“As a group we continuously pay tribute to him,” says Shane. “Visually we’re a four-piece, but Boyzone will always be a five-piece band to us. Whenever the four of us are together, our Stephen is very much alive and part of our world.”
Yet the path of sorrow was paved with the love of God. Converted to Christianity back in 2003, Shane goes weekly with his family to The Tabernacle Church in Lewisham, South-East London.
“The world we know, the world of material things, should be fantastic. I had that, but I lacked a certain amount of joy. So I went back to church to find out about God and it changed my world from the inside. I see now that I didn't really have anything until I got into my faith.”
And there’s just one more thing before I ring off: that bushy beard of his which caused a storm on Twitter after Boyzone appeared on BBC Sport Relief.
“For some reason, this is the year of the beard. All of a sudden I'm a trendy guy!” he says, somewhat bemused. In fact, the beard is for Shane’s alter ego in his comedy troupe, the Hillbillies, which also includes his dad, brothers and friends. They’ll be filming ‘The Hillbilliies do...Ireland’ in September, he says. But will they ever ‘do’ Surrey?
“I don't know, actually,” laughs Shane. “I'd be afraid that if anyone saw us in Surrey, they'd know it was me. It's pure mischief and I think I'll leave Surrey out of it – for now anyway.”
Boyzone play at Epsom Racecourse on July 31
