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Daily Star
July 31, 2005
HUNT FOR NEW RONAN
LOUIS Walsh has stepped-up his bitter battle with Ronan Keating
- asking his ex Boyzone pals to join a reality show to find a replacement.
Walsh, the group's former svengali, believes
the band can launch at least one last lucrative tour.
And he says Keith Duffy, Stephen Gately, Shane Lynch and Mikey
Graham WILL reform - but with a new singer.
Louis told the Daily Star Sunday: "Now Keith's out of Coronation Street
I can't think of a better time to do it.
"Even though they split up in 1999, Boyzone still sell more records now than
most bands in the charts."
The most recent accounts published for Boyzone's company Lunaria, show profits doubled in
the year to last August.
Buoyed by sales of a recent Greatest Hits CD, the company - of which Duffy, Gately, Lynch
and Graham are directors - saw profits jump more than £200,000.
Louis admits his idea for a reality TV talent search
is based on the VH1 series INXS: Rock Star - in which wannabes compete to fill the shoes of tragic singer Michael Hutchence,
who died in a Sydney hotel in 1997.
Firing the latest salvo in his three-year war of words with Ronan, Louis joked:
"The only difference between our show and the INXS one is that Ronan hasn't died - unless you count his gig in Cork last week."
In
the new show - which Walsh says is in development with a UK production company - potential Ronan replacements will audition
each week in front of Louis and the Boyzone boys.
The eventual winner will be offered a contract for a Boyzone world
tour.
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