Walking through venue shaking hands with the predominantly female audience its clear that something's happened to Ronan while he's been away. At the age of 23 he's finally made the journey from boy to man, but he's always been a step behind the rest with him until recently being the most famous virgin in pop. Its just so far away from world of Boyzone, exit quiet and unassuming Ronan and enter the new sexed up model.

Whipping the audience into a frenzy with the upbeat "Heal Me", its an indication of the night ahead. Its pretty safe to say that he's swapped the herbal remedies for some potent Viagra, a swivel of the hips and you could almost imagine him to be an Irish Elvis. When he manages to bring the Bryan Adam's penned track "The Way You Make Me Feel" to life its a sense of relief that if he can do that he can do anything. You get the instant feeling that the next time he plays the town he'll be at the Arena while Stephen Gately continues down the same route to obscurity as Gary Barlow.

With a nod to the past he returns complete with cowboy hat to do a trio of Boyzone songs - "Picture Of You", "Baby, Can I Hold You" and "Father & Son". While many would scorn at Boyzone in the same way they did Take That, there are few who could deny there place in pop history. Obviously the highlight of the night is the number 1 single "Rollercoaster" with the over excitable backing vocalist's adding an extra element of comedy to the show.

With an encore sticking to the un-written rules of pop he features 2 cover versions, "Whisky In The jar" and "Fairy Tale In New York". Surprisingly they both work with the latter obviously cutting out the expletives. With new songs written for the second solo album you could say this is the final nail in the Boyzone coffin but whether he'll ever reach the crossover audience that Robbie went for remain
s to be seen.

Alex McCann