RIP Stephen Gately - died yesterday at the age of 33. Cause yet unknown.
He was a member of the Irish boyband Boyzone. I can't say I was a fan of the band per se (ballads and sitting on stools not being my thing) but I acknowledged he had a talent. From the band he went on to work that was more my thing, for example
Joseph,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a Dr Who audio play.
What I admired more was the way he handled his personal life. Irish and in a boy band he still came out, and in fact in Boyzone's last video (for
Better, although I had to look that up) a gay couple was included in the lovey-dovey soft focus shots. Not being dismissive - soft focus & lovey-dovey are boyband standards, a male couple is groundbreaking - Boyzone were nominated for a Stonewall Award for this reason (a LGBT charity and pressure group). Gately committed to Andrew Cowles in Las Vegas in 2003 and married in 2006.
Worth mentioning for the connection. Matt Lucas's ex Kevin McGee (32) hanged himself. It's only a connection, as I knew little about him - he was on the production side of showbiz - but it meant Matt Lucas had to pull out of Prick Up Your Ears (a play currently running in the Wesy End about Joe Orton) which I was kinda hoping to see. For those who don't know, Joe Orton was a playwrite who was bludgeoned to death by his lover Kenneth Halliwell and immediately committed suicide by overdose. Some of the same issues of one partner becoming far more successful and famous than the other appear to be a factor in both cases, so it obviously wasn't reasonable to expect Lucas to continue in the role. I can't mourn him myself, but the violent death of a young man is bound to affect people who knew him.