More than just words
Ronan Keating delights fans at his solo show on Wednesday night and promises to be back with Boyzone next year
Singer Ronan Keating honoured the promise he made six years ago on Wednesday, returning to the Thai capital for his “Fires Live’ show at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani.
The lead singer of the 1990’s best-selling boy band Boyzone, who last performed here in May 2007, entertained an audience of some 5,000 fans with 20 songs. First though, the audience was treated to an opening set by Thai pop singer Two Popetorn backed by the six-member The Begin and two girls on chorus that included his hits “Tha Ther Pai” (“If She Leaves Me”) and “Pood Thammai” (“Don't Say That You Do”).
Keating, 36, then made his way out on stage to loud screams, pausing to greet his Thai fans with “hello” and “thank you” in Thai and a wai before launching into his set of ballads and up-tempo songs. He was backed by six veteran musicians and singer Jo Garland, who Keating introduced as “my family on stage”.
Many of the songs performed were from Keating’s latest album “Fires”, which was released last year after a gap of six years. They included “Fires”, “I’ve Got You”, “Nineteen Again”, “Easy Now My Dear”, “Love You and Leave You”, “Close Your Eyes”, and “Wasted Light”
He duetted with Garland on “Last Thing on My Mind” and played the guitar on “If You Love Me” and “Friends in Time”.
Fans applauded loudly as he performed popular blasts from the past “When You Say Nothing At All”, “If Tomorrow Never Comes”, and “The Way You Make Me Feel” and Boyzone favourites “Life Is A Rollercoaster” and “Separate Cars”.
Keating also performed “Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)”, American singer-songwriter Christopher Cross’s Academy Award-winning song, bringing laughter as he replaced “New York City” with “Bangkok City” in the line “If you get caught between the Moon and New York City, The best that you can do is fall in love”.
Towards the end of the concert, Keating climbed down from stage to meet and greet the audience, happily shaking hands and posing for photos before closing out the show. He returned briefly to the stage for a two-song encore that included a reprise of “When You Say Nothing At All”, bringing fans to their feet to dance and sing along to the lyrics.
A little after the show, Keating tweeted from his @ronanofficial address: “Holy Moly, what a gig. Bangkok you were incredible. Hell of an audience. Let’s do it again soon”. Fans were thrilled too, leaving a swathe of messages of the singer’s Facebook page and describing his Bangkok concert as “amazing”, “purely fantastic”, “wonderful”, and “awesome”. A fan wrote, “Hope to see you (and Boyzone) again! Maybe in next 10 years?”.
Keating first performed in Bangkok with other jet-lagged Boyzone members in 1994. At his “Fires Live” concert, Keating promised that he would not wait so long before coming back, adding that Boyzone was planning to come to Bangkok early next year, as part of their Asian tour to mark the band’s 20th anniversary.
