It all started in the Autumn of 1993, when Louis Walsh auditioned 300 hopefuls to be part of Ireland's first pop/boyband. The original line-up consisted of six members who were Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch, Ritchie Rock and Mark Walton. In the beginning, there were money problems, and Ritchie wasn't getting on with John Reynolds, Boyzone's co-manager. There were problems with Mark too, as he was always late for meetings and rehearsals. In the end, Mark and Ritchie left the group and Louis had to find a replacement member. Louis had always had his eye on Mikey Graham, so he was called in to be the replacement.
There first taste of fame was when they went on Gay Byrne's 'The Late Late Show'. This was before Mikey joined, and Mark and Ritchie were still in the group. It was a total disaster - so much so, it is now on Before They Were Famous, and other shows like that!
Now that they had the final line-up, they started recording songs. Their first single was 'Working My Way Back To You', which was only released in Ireland. It reached number 3 in the Irish charts. They knew they had to break into the British charts, so they recorded a vesion of the Osmonds track 'Love Me For A Reason' and peformed it on the Smash Hits tour. They won 'Best New Act' and that single reached number two.
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