Ronan Keating recalls Boyzone’s last ‘real night together’

London, Oct. 11 (IANS): Singer Ronan Keating walked down memory lane and recalled how he and fellow Boyzone members spent the last night together.

His former bandmate Stephen Gately had passed away on October 10, 2009, and Boyzone fans remembered how his bandmates slept on the church floor with his coffin the night before his funeral, reports the sun.co.uk.

Keating, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham had held an overnight vigil at St Laurence O’Toole Roman Catholic church so that he wasn’t on his own for a moment. They brought sleeping bags into the church and slept beside his coffin.

Keating told Sky News that it was a “beautiful, amazing experience”.

He added: “The four of us decided to stay with him on the Friday night in the church. All of us are so happy that we did it. It was our last night together as a five piece, our last real night together.”

“We cried and we laughed and we could hear him telling us jokes and we could hear him answering back. We didn’t get much sleep, a little bit, but that’s not what it was about, it was just about spending time with Steo and we knew Steo well; he didn’t like the dark, he didn’t like being on his own.

“Yes, we had a nice time, the five of us. We toasted and we had a drink and it was our way of saying goodbye, it was our way of dealing with it,” he added.

The bandmates emerged from the church at 6 a.m on the day of the ceremony, where they gave their sleeping bags to waiting fans who had travelled to pay their respects.

Stephen died at his holiday home in Port D’Andratx, Majorca.

His body was discovered by his husband Andrew Cowles, and the Boyzone members flew out to Majorca to bring him home.

It was later revealed that Stephen had died due to a pulmonary oedema.