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Obit: Stephen Gately
Sure, I despise Boyzone, and their bland, soul-sapping music. But nobody would wish a cruelly early death on them, like the one which has claimed the life of Stephen Gately at 33.
Details of his death are sketchy at the moment - apparently it's not suspicious, and he died in Majorica (which is probably all we need to know, although it's likely we'll be force fed more).
Gately joined Boyzone at point of manufacture in 1993, sticking with them through the decommissioning in 2000. He'd issued his unsurprising coming out announcement just before the band split - too late to avoid the appearance of having kept his sexuality quiet for the sake of business.
His post-Boyzone career was fairly predictable: A slightly disappointing run of solo singles; a turning of attention to the musical theatre; pantomime and the inevitable reunion. In 2007, he sealed his position as a musical Oblomov by appearing on ITV in one of their celebrity game shows - the ice-skating one.
Nevertheless, he was well-loved by his colleagues, and popular amongst those who enjoy the sort of thing he did. And nobody should die at 33.
5 comments:
This is gun-churningly tasteless. If you can't bring yourself to report someone's death without feeling the need to sneer at everything they stood for, you shouldn't cover the story at all. Shame on you.
I think it would have been more tasteless to suddenly pretend that I thought he was a wonderful singer, that Boyzone were anything other than a manufactured act or that he had a successful solo career. It's not, I don't think, sneering to point out that post-Boyzone, he struggled to find a role.
I was shocked when i heard the news about Stephen Gately, he was still so young
There was absolutely no call to point out his career failures (completely ignoring the successes), nor to use words like 'despise'. A young man is dead - show some respect.
And, as I said, it is a tragedy that he has died, and died so young. But that doesn't alter the fact that Boyzone were a despicable act - an opinion I have held since they started. I choose to respect Gately by not hypocritically recasting his career.
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