Boyzone fans ‘shaking with anger’ at Louis Walsh remarks in documentary-Ruth Lawes and Josie Copson-Entertainment – Metro

Boyzone fans have recoiled in horror over their former manager Louis Walsh’s shock PR strategy for the 90s boyband.

In Sky Documentary No Matter What, The X Factor star, 72, admitted he planted false stories about the group to generate publicity, including that they were involved in a plane crash.

Walsh admitted while giggling: ‘I had them in a plane crash in Australia once and I forgot to tell the families I made it up. There was no plane crash. But it was a good story.’

He added: ‘I never felt guilty about it. No way. I was promoting them. I was doing my job. I would do it all again. I would do it even more again now.’

On X, the clip of Walsh confessing to his dark press strategy went viral, with many Boyzone fans saying it made them ‘feel sick.’

Among them was @roxx_rxn, who fumed: ‘The ending of this video? shaking with anger.’

Louis Walsh admitted he planted a fake story about Boyzone being involved in a plane crash (Picture: Jonathan Hession/©Sky UK Ltd)

Keating expressed his horror over multiple false stories in the press about himself (Picture: Sky)

@BougieBasic01 raged: ‘There is a special place in hell for him, for what he put Boyzone through, the man is evil personified.’

@BrightFuturesC4 commented: ‘I could only stomach a little of that video. The absolute gall of the man not to feel guilty is beyond me. Shocking.’

Echoing their sentiment, @moonlght21 added: ‘Omg that’s evil.’

@Tommos_lad28 added: ‘This makes me so sick!’

In No Matter What, Boyzone’s frontman Ronan Keating revealed the band’s confusion over the onslaught of false stories about them at the height of their fame.

Walsh insisted it was his job to ‘promote’ the band (Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Archive/PA Images)

Keating and Walsh later had a dramatic falling out (Picture: Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

Keating said: ‘We were out of the country so much, we would speak to our mums and dads and they’d say, “We’ve just read this in the paper, is it true?” And we’d say, “No, it’s not true. Who said that?” And you’d never know who had said it.”

Walsh explained: ‘Sometimes the boys would read stories in the papers about themselves that weren’t true and they’d say, “Who told them that?” No I did. I told them because I am promoting you. I’d big them up some times.’

Keating, 47, said that Walsh believed ‘any story was a good story’ so planted fake articles in the press ‘constantly.’

The Life Is A Rollercoaster singer continued: ‘[They were] about relationships with girlfriends that were non-existent, like plane crashes that were not true.’

The documentary explores the pitfalls of Boyzone’s fame (Picture: Joseph Okpako/WireImage)

No Matter What charts the highs and lows of Boyzone, one of the UK’s most successful boybands with five number one albums and 25 million records sold.

In the documentary, Keating, along with his bandmates Keith Duffy, 50, Ronan Keating, 47, Michael ‘Mikey’ Graham, 52, and Shane Lynch, 48, recall their individual struggles with global fame.

They also reflect on the sad loss of their bandmate Stephen Gately, who died in 2003 aged 33 from acute pulmonary oedema, a condition that causes a build-up of fluid in the lungs.

No Matter What concludes with Boyzone meeting up in a pub, but Mikey, who spoke about using alcohol to help him with feeling less important than his bandmates, decides to skip that reunion.

Explaining the reasoning, he said: ‘I don’t want to go back to how I felt for many years.

‘To see them, if it were for too long, would remind me of that and my future is far too important for me to waste it looking back at my past.’

Boyzone: No Matter What is available to stream on Now.

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