Boyzone pay touching tribute to Stephen Gately 17 years after his tragic death
Boyzone paid tribute to Stephen Gately (Getty Images)
Boyzone’s reunion documentary One For The Road shows Ronan Keating paying tribute to late bandmate Stephen Gately after the group’s June 2026 farewell performances.
The film, streaming on NOW, revisits the two shows at London’s Emirates Stadium where Keating, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Keith Duffy, returned to the stage and dedicated the comeback to Gately’s “legacy”. Gately was affectionately known as “Steo” within the band.
In a scene filmed after the gig, Keating reflects on the scale of the moment and the absence at its centre, saying: “To see us on a stadium stage, I mean holy s***. We did it for you, Steo. But, by God I wish you could see it.”
Boyzone’s tribute to Stephen Gately
Away from the stadium spectacle, One For The Road also focuses on the band’s memories of Gately in day-to-day moments, particularly when pressure built behind the scenes.
Duffy recalls how Gately, who died 17 years ago, could cut through nerves during rehearsals, saying: “We all obviously miss him. He had that silly little boy in him that used to come out when we were stuck in rehearsals. When we were afraid or worried, he’d skip around the place and just do things to make us laugh, you know.”
He adds: “We have to be grateful for what we had and what we shared. And treasure all those memories.”
Lynch reflects on the period after Gately’s death, saying: “We all lost our way a little bit, really. It showed the glue that Stephen was.” He later adds: “I have my memories of Stephen. Adorable memories of him. He’s alive when we’re together.”
What happened to Stephen Gately?
Gately was found dead at his home in Mallorca on 10 October 2009 aged 33. It later emerged that he had experienced pulmonary oedema, which is a build-up of fluid in the lungs.
He publicly came out as gay in 1999 and later married Andrew Cowles. In 2025, Keating spoke about the “anxiety” and “hurt” caused when Gately was forced to come out as gay after tabloid intrusion.
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