作者 mavisronan (bzthebest) 看板 Boyzone
標題 愛爾蘭獨立報中Ronan的專訪
時間 Sat Oct 20 04:31:28 2001
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就是之前發片消息的訪談....裡頭提及了進軍美國失敗的原因及最新唱片進度,和他對於愛
爾蘭愛恨矛盾的心境...和...這另每個bz fans來說心頭複雜的話題...Ro對bz的看法...及
Ro在911事件後,在前幾天前往洛杉磯表演的心情...bla bla..大家慢慢看吧,內容狠豐富的
一篇訪問....
Interview Irish Independent, October 2001
Ronan Keating talks exclusively to JOHN MEAGHER about life, love and success
and why he has so far failed in his dream to make it big in America
Take a look at the top of the American album charts. Up there among the rappers
, hip-hop artists and hard rockers is Enya. Her eighth album, A Day Without
Rain, climbed to number four in the Billboard 200 this week. It has been on the
chart for 45 weeks.
The reclusive singer, who rarely ventures from her castle home on Killiney Hill
, has racked up millions of sales Stateside for this record, with very little
fanfare in Ireland. Slightly further down the US charts is her near neighbour,
Bono, with U2's anthemic album All That You Can't Leave Behind.
On the other side of Dublin Bay, at his mansion in Malahide, Ireland's
best-known pop star can only dream about their US success. Ronan Keating has
never got close to the Billboard 200. His latest album wasn't even released in
America because the sales of his first US single were so low.
At the start of the summer US record label Interscope thought the time was
ripe
to launch the former Boyzone singer in North America; $300,000 was spent
filming a video for Lovin' Each Day in California and they helped him
cultivate
a look for America a James Dean/Bryan Adams hybrid. He even had his teeth
fixed
to give him a genuine Hollywood smile.
Ronan, too, felt America was his for the taking. But for the first time in a
meteoric career, there was to be no instantaneous success. The single only
shifted 25,000 copies in two months. At its peak, it sold no more than 2,000
units a week. Although a hit in Europe, it attracted such scant attention in
the States that MTV did not play the video. By contrast, his friend Samantha
Mumba sold 400,000 copies of her debut single Gotta Tell You in the US alone.
The plan was to launch his debut solo album, Ronan, in the US during the
summer
but that has been put on hold, despite Interscope spending a rumoured $2
million launching him in the US.
Initially, Ronan was reluctant to talk about his American experience. Manager
Louis Walsh explained: "He doesn't do much Irish press any more because he
gets
slagged off so much." Later, he changed his mind. "But don't stitch him up."
When you walk through the front door of Ronan Keating's new home, it's like
stepping into the pages of Hello! magazine. There is a serious amount of money
on show. The carpets, curtains, couches, crockery, even the door-knobs, look
expensive. The kitchen wouldn't disgrace a city-centre hotel. At the far end,
an enormous flatscreen television hangs on the wall. Across the lobby, there's
a gleaming grand piano.
Ronan wants to use the 'office' to talk. The 'office' is a two-storey building
at the bottom of his back garden which doubles as a garage for his motorbike.
Upstairs the focal-point is a black-baized pool table. Downstairs there's a
toilet with gold and platinum discs on the the walls.
Ronan is reluctant at first to talk about America. He plays tracks from his
new
album, provisionally titled Destination, which is due for release in February
or March. The first track, Love Don't Work If We Don't Try, has been earmarked
as a single and will be released in the New Year. It's a slick, upbeat number,
typical of his solo work.
As the song booms out of the speakers, Ronan bounces up down on the sofa,
singing along his face contorted with emotion. He seems like a teenybopper at
one of his own concerts.
"You've got to hear this one," he exclaims. "It doesn't sound like a Ronan
Keating number." And, sure enough, Come Be My Baby doesn't sound like him at
all.
So we've listened to the album. Now down to business. What about America,
Ronan?
"You go in head first. I was expecting far too much, far too soon and it
didn't happen."
It was last April when a vastly confident Ronan Keating told me that he would
move with his family to the US for three months. But that didn't happen.
"At one stage I was saying (to the record company), 'let me go out there, I'll
live there and I'll do the radio and TV shows and see what happens.' But it's
not the way it works out there. The single is given to radio. If they like it
they'll play it."
A new single Life is a Rollercoaster a huge success on this side of the
Atlantic is about to be released in the States. "We're always waiting for that
call to say, 'pack your bags'."
He thinks that song should have been released first "it was the stronger
single
" but he doesn't want to blame anybody. Not publicly, at least. He admits he
didn't have much control over the way he was marketed in America.
"In America it's very hard to put your foot down and say this and that. In the
rest of the world I make all of the decisions."
He says he finds it frustrating. "But you have to trust these people that's
their job. Jimmy Iovine was the man who produced Rattle And Hum (U2's 1988
album) and is now president of Interscope Records in America. He's got all the
big bands in the world right now. He is the man who is controlling my record.
I
sat down with him and we went through the record and he's into it, he's
pushing
it, he's putting money behind it. You have to trust this guy.
"He's done no wrong. I can't say no to this, no to that. I don't know the
market. I've learnt a lot, I have to say, in the past six months. The next
time
round will be different."
He says there will be a "next time", and he will probably approach the States
via Canada, where he has been more successful. But only marginally so. His
album was released there in August to general indifference. After six weeks in
the charts it now rests at 89. It peaked at 81. (He was promoting the album in
Toronto during the terrorist attack on the US.)
For someone who has been famous since he was 16, he says it's hard to get used
to travelling in America without being recognised. And, he says, it was
strange
having to introduce himself and his background to every journalist he met.
Some
could not even place his nationality. Teenmag described him as "a former
member
of the British boy-band Boyzone".
Earlier this year he spent ￡20,000 on cosmetic dentistry. Formerly his teeth
were crooked and off-white. Now they are as flawless as any American star.
Record company pressure?
'I swear on my mother's grave, may God strike me dead, they did not ask me to
change my image. I got my teeth cleaned up and fixed up because it was
something I wanted to do. You've got to keep going in and out of the dentist
to
get that done. I was on the road for six years (with Boyzone) I didn't get a
chance to do it.
"There are lots of things I'd love to get done," he adds. "I'd love to get fit
properly, to get into the gym, but I don't have time." You can't help
noticing,
as he says it, a noticeable paunch underneath his loose blue denim shirt.
Questions on image seem to get him worked up. "I just leave myself open to
ridicule," he says, mentioning some of the things that have been written about
him in the press. "I don't like the vindictiveness. There are people out there
who will write bad stuff. But I know what it is. It boils down to one word
jealousy. Write that in bold f***ing letters. Every journalist that's been
nasty to me has been jealous. People just f***ing hate to see me doing well."
He says he did not release the song he was commissioned to write for the
Millennium celebrations because of the way he was treated by the Irish media.
"You know, it's hard going from being the golden boy and everybody wanting a
piece of you and everybody thinking you're great and the next day people just
take the piss and start slagging you, so I thought, 'what's the point in
releasing this?"'
He is particularly sore about the reaction to his song The Long Goodbye, which
he co-wrote with Paul Brady. "It was one of the best songs I've ever written,
and you know what? People never gave me credit for writing that song. That
hurts.
"I'd love to come home to this country, like U2 do, and be the biggest band in
the world and people shake your hand and say, 'fair play to you'. We're all
ambassadors for our country and people forget that. This is the thing. I go
out
there and I tell everyone around the world what a magical place Ireland is.
Then I come home to the usual shite."
He is also keen to dismiss the notion that he is a celebrity. "Celebrity," he
says, venomously. "That's the f***ing most dangerous word at the moment. It's
horrible. I'm not a celebrity. I don't want to be involved with that word. A
celebrity is someone who turns up and gets photographed hanging out of some
girl." He says he will not take part in photo-stories with the likes of Hello!
or OK! again.
Does he worry about the boy-band tag? "I can't blame anybody for that. I was
the one who accepted it. I went into a boy-band and will be labelled with that
for the rest of my life. Robbie Williams seems to think he's hip and cool, but
just look at the band he came from.
There's nothing you can do about it. George Michael will always be George
Michael from Wham! I'm not saying I'll ever be in that sort of league ... "
His
voice trails off.
By his own admission, he says he has been quiet of late. "I've loved it. It's
been very odd. I've been getting sick. You feel tired all the time. In
Boyzone,
I was not allowed to feel ill or sit down for a minute and relax. You'd take
two weeks' holidays and by the time they were finished you'd only have just
started to relax. It was a go, go, go situation."
The manner of the breakup of Boyzone has hurt him. "At the end, we planned to
do something maybe a tour. We sat in a room and agreed to do solo projects.
Then things happened. And people fell out. I'm not going to dish the dirt on
anyone, because it's not my style. We were great friends but things went a
little odd. I still feel a bit sad about that because I would love to be
friends with some of the guys in the band still."
He says he doesn't see any of them now. "I will not sit back and take the
blame.
It's not my fault."
Could he patch up their differences? "I don't know about that," he says.
"Shane
(Lynch) has been f***ing mouthing off about all kinds of things. I just didn't
konw them as well as I thought I did.
"We went through so much together. It's hard, because we never thought it
would
end this way. But it's like old school friends you think you'll have them for
the rest of your life but as soon as you walk out that door you never see them
again."
He says he cannot imagine Boyzone ever reforming, adding that the Eagles said
the same thing. He laughs, but one senses that the acrimonious split has hurt
him deeply.
Unlike the other members of Boyzone, Ronan says he is not interested in a side
career as a television presenter. "Every day I get another offer to host TV
and
I don't want to do it. There's one gig coming up that they want me to do the
MTV Awards in Asia. I'll do it if they let me perform on the show. I won't do
it if they don't let me."---->結果是由Mandy Moore主持了首屆的Asia MTV music
Awards.....哎呀....今年的Europe music awards在法蘭克福舉行,Ro雖沒入圍,但將有歌
唱表演....
On Wednesday, Ronan flies to Los Angeles to perform a song for a Stevie Wonder
tribute show. He's apprehensive about the flight. "I don't like flying at all,
especially after what happened in America. I've been a nervous wreck these
past
few weeks. I've a real problem and I think it's since I had kids."
It's not the first time he mentions his family. The conversation is littered
with references to Jack, his seven-month old daughter Marie, and his wife of
almost four years, Yvonne.
"I didn't marry Yvonne to be away from her. It's important for me to be at
home
to tuck the kids into bed every night. But my career means a lot too. And I'm
going to try hard to make it work." That will mean a world tour to promote
Destination, starting in South Africa in February and calling at Australasia,
Europe and America.---->????where is asia????不解???Ro忘了可愛的台灣歌迷嘛...
哎呀呀....
But right now, Ronan has a more pressing engagement. Jack has to picked up
from
the kindergarten. "I've got it all." He flashes those American teeth. "I
really
couldn't be happier."
--
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作者: GAtely (Snow) 看板: Boyzone
標題: Re: 愛爾蘭獨立報中Ronan的專訪
時間: Sat Oct 20 09:50:16 2001
嗯~~不知該說什摸一直以來喜歡的是boyzone裡的Ronan
希望的也是Ronan能放下某些東西重回boyzone或合作
但我們都是聰明人 也不過是個旁觀者
Ronan被扯後腿是個事實
但其他人的結局也是個未定數
想到我最喜歡的Stephen現在的狀況
其實真的讓人很洩氣
但這也不是政治版
就事論事而言 Ronan所受的委屈 Snow一點一滴都看在眼裡
如果事情有如果...
如果他帶著boyzone的頭銜闖蕩美國成功
我現在的心情一定會非常驕傲 就像當初bz以no matter what創下奇蹟銷售一般
這是歌迷都期待看到的童話結局吧!
然事實並非如此,人生就是這樣,不管是Ronan.Stephen.Keith.Mikey.Shane
mavis或Snow.每個陪著bz走過風風雨雨的人
只能說看的多 學的多,學習去面對任何現實狀況,想辦法來突破@@
bz這個大家族的時間希望能靠著這份精神綿延下去
曾經有人說Ronan就代表bz 但Snow有不同的看法(絕對不是針對或要減低Ronan的地位)
但是以某個層面來看Stephen.Keith.Mikey.Shane.在一些歌迷的心中比例反而比較重
當然這不是只接受媒體訊息而未進入boyzone世界的朋友所能理解的
對Snow而言 許多熟悉的fans如mavis.版主就已經跟bz畫上等號嚕
關於boyzone的種種好像一本書 可以反覆咀嚼 甚至回味很久 @@
--
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