Hottest Tickets: Take That, Westlife, Boyzone and the Enduring Appeal of Boybands
Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Written by Stereoboard
Boybands have always been big business, but have manbands become even bigger business? A quick look at Stereoboard’s Hottest 100 list suggests that they might well have. Over the coming weeks, Westlife will get their 25th anniversary celebrations underway at the Royal Albert Hall in London, while next year both Boyzone and Take That will hit the road for colossal stadium shows. Here, we take a look at just why these groups continue to resonate with people so deeply.
The men for a big occasion: Westlife
Westlife’s career is dizzying. Since putting out their first album in 1999, the Irish group — initially a quintet, then a quartet and currently a trio with Mark Feehily on hiatus — have sold more than 50m records worldwide, landing 14 UK number one singles along the way, putting them right up there in joint third on the all-time list, behind only Elvis and The Beatles. They were even at the top spot when the new millennium ticked over, having notched a Christmas number one with their brace of ABBA covers, I Have A Dream and Seasons in the Sun. That is history.
At the start they were in Boyzone’s slipstream, with Ronan Keating involved in their early moves as manager alongside Louis Walsh, but their own brand of hyper-earnest balladry soon began to stand out. Built around Feehily and Shane Filan’s lead vocals, they were almost the polar opposite of a Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC, with a song-first approach that often trumped the glitz and dance routines of their peers when it came to straight-up hitmaking, launching a million first dances in the process.
At the Royal Albert Hall, where they’ll play two nights on October 27 and 28, they’ll be joined by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, bringing some extra pizzazz and drama to their suite of chart-busting singles. The dress code: cocktail, apparently, so put your gladrags on. After that, they have a further series of big bashes in the diary, having announced residencies at Dublin’s 3Arena and the SSE Arena Belfast for next autumn alongside breaking news of some monster UK shows. Head here to search for tickets through Stereoboard.
What’s their signature song? Look, there are a lot of hits here, as we’ve already established. But it’s hard to see beyond Flying Without Wings. Released all the way back in 1999, the band’s third single (and third number one) does everything you want a Westlife song to do — there are uber tasteful acoustic guitars, a big crescendo, and loads of staring into the camera in the video. No one has done this sort of thing better, before or since.
The men with a legacy to seal: Boyzone
Following the eye-opening hit documentary No Matter What, Boyzone announced a massive brace of shows at Emirates Stadium in London, billed as Two For The Road. Their final dates before putting the stools and mics away for good, they’ll also be the biggest headline sets ever undertaken by the band, who last toured in 2019 to mark 25 years in the game. Looking back now, it’s hard to overstate how much of a big deal Boyzone became at their mid-90s peak, with Ronan Keating and the late Stephen Gately leading the way on some truly mammoth hits.
Really, they excelled as all-rounders. They could get misty-eyed and romantic with the best of them and take classic or underappreciated songs and make them their own, with Mikey Graham, Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch threading multi-part harmonies beneath Keating’s commanding brogue and Gateley’s seemingly effortless versatility and emotional range. But they also had a cheekier side, exemplified by tracks such as Picture of You and their take on Billy Ocean’s When the Going Gets Tough. There will be plenty of lighters in the air moments in North London next summer, but also time to dance. Click here to find tickets through Stereoboard.
What’s their signature song? So much of Boyzone’s outlook has been shaped by the loss of Gately. They have framed these shows not only as a send off for the group but another opportunity to pay tribute to someone who won’t be there alongside them. No Matter What is Boyzone’s biggest hit and also Gately’s finest hour fronting the band, taking its origins in musical theatre and reshaping them as a chart-ready ballad with generational appeal.
The men for all seasons: Take That
You want to talk about staying power for a bit? Take That’s initial split was almost three decades ago. Their reunion album was released close to 20 years ago. It’s been 15 since Robbie Williams stopped by to take their membership back up to five for the first time in a long while, and 11 since Jason Orange left the band, leaving Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald to roll on as a trio, scoring their 12th number one in 2014, 21 years after their first. That they’ve weathered all of these changes and reshuffles without their popularity suffering one bit is testament to a songbook way, way beyond the reaches of most boybands. Beyond the reaches of any of them, really.
Next summer, Take That will dip back in time again to rekindle one of their greatest successes. The Circus Live Tour takes its cues from the group’s monster 2009 run, which was a blockbuster that shifted some 600,000 tickets in only a few hours and featured some no-hoper called Lady Gaga as support on a number of dates. In returning to the well, Barlow, Owen and Donald will do what Take That have always done: give the people what they want. The setlist will be packed to the gills with hits from both their boyband and manband days — it’s rare that a later single such as Patience might be greeted with the same fervour as an early benchmark — while the staging will be spectacular all over again. Click here to join in the fun by finding tickets through Stereoboard.
What’s their signature song? Take your pick. Greatest Day? Shine? Pray? Never Forget? But it’s probably always going to be Back For Good, the song that made snobs everywhere admit that this boyband had some juice when it came to writing their own stuff.
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