It’s November 1994. That makes me 12 (depressing). I’m in my room flicking through some crappy teenage magazine. My mind starts to wander. People at school were all wanking on about various bands – the stand out favourites being obsessed Take That fans and depressed Nirvana types (still mourning the recent loss of Kurt Cobain). I realised that i didn’t really have a band. And I probably should. It seemed to be what you did. But who? How to choose? I knew I wasn’t destined to wear all black, walking round in long coats & oversized boots, acting like i didn’t give a fuck (so Nirvana were out) and other than Robbie, who was okaaay, I really didn’t see the appeal of TT…

Whilst pondering this latest dilemma I reached the centre of the magazine which, as all teenage mags did back then, had this pull out A3 poster. On one side was PJ & Duncan (Hmmm. Possible contender? Maybe? Maybe Not.)… The other side was split into 5 boxes, each filled with head shots of, what was quite clearly, a new boyband. I’m not going to lie, as much as i love them all now (yes, yes, laugh it up) i very quickly skimmed the first 4 with little interest. No 5 however most definitely caught my eye. Ronan though? Ronan? What kind of name is that? Who cares? He’s fit and he’s going on my wall. Decision made; i had a band. Well… I had a gorgeous-bloke-in-a-band poster on my wall. That’s as far as I got. I didn’t know anything about them, let alone their music. We’re 4 years from Google people.

Anyway, it’s now December and there’s this song being overplayed constantly on the radio; no doubt trying to contend for that all-important Christmas No. 1. I, however, didn’t mind that seemingly every station felt the need to repeat the song God-knows how many times throughout the day, coz i loved it. I’m sat in the back of my parents car singing along (I remember it very clearly coz my mum asked me to stop singing because i was so out of tune. Rude.) and as it ended I just caught the DJ say something like ‘Boyz one’? Boy zone? Boyzone. Why do I know that name?

 Get home, go to my room and there it is. At the bottom of what had become known as the ‘ronan poster’ was this little circle logo and quite clearly ‘Boyzone’. Fuck off. So I actually like the music this fit-weird-named boy and his friend do? Result!*

Those 2 months and specifically those two incidents impacted the next… Jesus, near-on 19 years of my life. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you go from a bandless, sad twelve year old to a band-obsessed, (some would say still sad) twelve year old in 5 weeks. #Boom!

I don’t have the time or energy to go through all the Boyzone/Ronan (as solo) related stories through the years of ‘94-’13. It would literally be a book. But let’s just say i was (am) a big fan. I mean BIG fan. Wall-to-wall posters, many (many) concerts, every bit of memorabilia you could image (even underwear. oh yes), standing outside TV studios, standing outside hotels, standing inside (whoop) restaurants, getting parents to take me here, there and everywhere in my quest. I could go on. They consumed my every waking hour; and rightly so, they deserved it. I would image shaving the ‘Z’ (from the centre of their symbol) into the back of my head best illustrates the extent of my obsession. No. I’m not joking. School tried to suspend me. Whatever. (Maybe i was more ‘Nirvana’ than i thought?) I digress…

I do however, have to tell you about the most recent Ronan related incident… But I am aware that I have taken up a lot of your time already. That’s because it’s only fair you know the long-standing history and background to what turned out to be the second** best day of my life.

I really have to tell you every little detail (I can almost feel the overwhelming vibe of excitement from you all. fuck off.) so I’m going to love you and leave you for now. But make sure you come back and “read all about it”…..

*Sad geeky fan-fact alert: In case you were wondering (didn’t think so), the song was ‘Love Me For A Reason’ and no, it didn’t quite make No.1… it reached No.2 and was kept from obtaining the (then) elusive Christmas Single by East 17 of all people with ‘Stay Another Day’.

**Rob might be reading this.