23rd January 2010
http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/01/24/keith-duffy-i-m-not-sure-i-could-sing-in-boyzone-without-stephen-115875-21990101/Grief-stricken Keith Duffy has revealed that he may never be able to perform on stage with Boyzone again.
“The rest of the lads want to, I’m the only one at the moment who is uncertain,” admits Keith, still struggling to cope with the tragic death of Boyzone bandmate Stephen “Steo” Gately.
“The dynamics on stage without Stephen would be very different. Time is a healer and we’ll see how I feel, but at the moment I couldn’t step on stage without him – no way.”
Keith returns to Coronation Street next month as cheeky barman Ciaran McCarthy – and he says that is helping him come to terms with Stephen’s death.
“That’s what is so great about coming back to Corrie,” he says. “It’s separate to what I did with Stephen and it also helps take my mind off my grief – I’m busy filming during the day and reading my lines at night time.
“I’m living in Manchester, close to the studios, and my wife and kids are in Dublin, so I spend a lot of time on my own, which has given me a lot of time to deal with my inner demons.
“I still get waves of grief and moments when Stephen’s death hits me like a ton of bricks and disbelief kicks in again.”
It is only four months since Stephen died from heart failure at the age of 33 while on holiday in Majorca with his partner Andy Cowles.
The news shocked the music world and while the band is about to release new single I Gave It All Away – featuring Stephen’s vocals – Keith, 35, admits he is still coming to terms with what happened.
“We were friends from the age of 17 and travelled the world together – it is just a massive loss,” he says.
“I looked after him and minded him and we had a great relationship. He was a very spiritual person and he’d get freaked out in hotels and come and stay in my room a lot of the time.
“He preferred company and he’d sleep a lot better if he knew someone was in the room with him.
“But apart from how upset I am, the biggest thing is I feel sorry for him. He had his whole life ahead of him and he’s been robbed. He was so happy and vibrant and friendly and talented and gorgeous and he had so many things he wanted to do.
“He was so excited about the new Boyzone album and so happy we had got back together. He’d had a tough life, but for once everything seemed so clear for him and there was nothing standing in his way.”
When Stephen died Keith and his fellow band mates – Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch – flew straight to Majorca. When they returned to Dublin they visited Stephen’s grief-stricken parents, who asked the group to take over the funeral arrangements.
Keith says: “I said, ‘Right, let’s give our mate a send-off that we’ll never forget.’ We wanted to make sure that it was dignified and respectful. Unfortunately part of organising the funeral meant going into a showroom full of coffins.
“That was so horrible and surreal – picking a box your friend is going to lie in.”
The night before the funeral Keith and the rest of the band slept inside the church with Stephen’s body.
Keith says: “His mum Margaret said he didn’t like being on his own, so we said we would stay in the church with him overnight.
“I was terrified, but we had a lovely night. It was the last night the five of us were together and it was really special.
"The guy who ran the local camping shop sent us sleeping bags, the local pub sent down a crate of beer and some wine and the local chip shop delivered fish and chips and we sat around chatting and talking and laughing about things we knew Stephen would’ve found funny.
“There were pictures of him up all around the church and we all had little chats with him. We did feel he was with us that night.”
While Stephen is still never far from his thoughts, Keith is preparing himself for his second stint in Coronation Street.
He initially joined in 2002 and was only meant to stay for three months, but viewers quickly fell for the charms of Irish barman Ciaran – and he ended up staying for three years.
Keith quit to spend more time with his family, but on February 1 Ciaran returns to the cobbles when Peter Barlow and Leanne Battersby accidentally bump into him in a restaurant.
“He walks in to the Rovers and spots Michelle and the Irish charm and blarney start coming out and my goodness do the scriptwriters write blarney for him!” Keith laughs.
In his five years away from Coronation Street, Keith appeared on screen in two Irish dramas, and after Boyzone reunited in 2007 toured with the group.
But the devoted dad spent much of his time with his wife Lisa, son Jordan, 13, and daughter Mia, nine. Mia was diagnosed as autistic when she was 18 months old and Keith admits it initially threatened to tear his family apart.
He says: “It was very hard for me and Lisa – it was a massive blow and we were young and didn’t know much about autism. It became clear very early on that there were no services available so that’s when I started campaigning and that took away my frustration at not being able to help Mia directly; I was helping her on a grander scale.
“It was different for Lisa. She was in denial for a while and couldn’t deal with it. Obviously that caused some problems between us but we fought through it.
“We had the rows and the fights, but it was honest and now we’ve come out the other side stronger.”
Keith’s campaigning has been nothing short of phenomenal.
He initially wanted to raise enough money to fund more places at Ireland’s only school for autistic children, to ensure Mia and 11 other children on the waiting list could all have places.
But he has gone on to raise nearly £5million in seven years and, with other parents in the same position, has helped to open 13 other special schools. Now he is hoping to turn his attentions to Manchester and raise money to open a school there.
Thanks to the specialist help, Mia improved enough to attend a mainstream school, where she has been for the past three years... and Keith is delighted at her progress.
“Academically she’s doing well and socially she’s doing much better – she did tend to spend a lot of time alone doing what we call silly talk, where she recites things she has seen on TV or in a book and gets completely lost in her own world.
"On her seventh birthday she wanted a ballet party but she had no friends and I would have put on a tutu myself for it to have happened. But two years later for her ninth birthday we had 14 friends over to Hamleys toy store for a Barbie party. That’s the level of progress she’s made, so we’re very lucky.”
Cheerful, friendly, passionate and with bags of energy, Keith Duffy comes across in many ways as the archetypal Irishman – much the same as his screen character, former Navy sailor Ciaran.
Yet as his passion for helping autistic children shows, there is a much deeper level to him. And he admits the death of Steo has made him even more reflective – and more appreciative of his friendships with Ronan, Mikey and Shane.
“God forbid anything should go wrong in my life, but nothing can take away the bond I have with the other lads,” he says. “Stephen’s death has made us realise it and be grateful for it.
“It’s the closest bond anybody could ever have in life – I have two brothers and I love them dearly, but this brotherhood with the band is just amazing and a fantastic feeling of security.
“There’s nobody in the world as close to us as we are when we are together.
“We didn’t realise what we had until we were lying on the floor in the church with our mate that night.”
Also on the 1st December, the Duffy family went along to the RDS for the 7Up Christmas on Ice. To see some fab pictures of Keith, Lisa, Jay & Mia on the Ice, check out the facebook page for the skating rink below...
23rd March 2010
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