14 DAY TRIAL // The four remaining Boyzone members have chosen to make of the video for the first single off the upcoming album a touching tribute to their “brother” and friend Stephen Gately, who passed away in October 2009 while on vacation in Spain. The official video for “Gave It All Away” is hardly scripted and comprises footage of the four men remembering Steo, as the Mirror informs.
The video shows the four members separately remembering Stephen and then bursting into tears. It ends with them in a dark room sitting at a table where a chair is left unoccupied. Above, there is a photo of Stephen, in what could be seen as silent confirmation that his place within the band will always remain his. Despite the sadness that seems to prevail in the rest of the video, there is a certain bright note as the four are seen laughing as they recall past happenings.
“Boyzone have dedicated the entire video for their new single to their dearly-missed bandmate Stephen Gately. The promo sees Ronan Keating weep openly while he pens a letter in tribute to his friend, who died suddenly last year aged just 33. Written by Mika, the song ‘Gave It All Away’ is the first to be taken from their forthcoming new album and one of the last songs that Stephen sang on,” the Mirror writes.
The purpose was not to bank on the tragedy of Gately’s death, but to show emotion just as it is, Ronan Keating said in several interviews. The camera crew sat with them for an entire day and shot their every move. At the end, they just edited the footage and were left with what is now the video for the single, he also said, stressing that neither the tears nor the laughter was in any way scripted.
“[It’s] a great tribute and a great memory, thank God we have it,” Keating said. “It’s a very special song for all of us, it’s a song with a great story behind it. It would be fantastic if it’s a huge success in memory of Stephen, but the most important thing is that we have it recorded for ourselves so that on those sad and lonely days we can listen to it – I don’t know if it will cheer us up, it will probably make us more sad, but it will be great just to hear his voice,” Keith Duffy added.
The album “Brothers” arrives in March this year. See below for the video for “Gave It All Away.”