Ronan Keating

Time of my Life

By Louw Mulder

The boyband Boyzone takes me back to the late 90’s. Those definitive varsity years, some would say the forming years of adulthood. This was the nostalgic sentiment that stood with me during the whole performance of once lead singer Ronan Keating’s concert at the Teatro in Montecasino this week. A solo artist in his own right, and a creator of those type of songs, that so easily and magically has the ability to link memories to every tune.

I was privileged to see Keating’s set during the 2006 BIG Concerts’ Unite of the Stars event, where he shared the stage with artists like Will Young at the Dome in Johannesburg. I felt that the intimate setting of a Theatre set-up, combined with his matured selection of newly written songs, was doing the style of Ronan Keating’s genre, perfect justice.

With the aim to market his 10^th solo album after breaking away from Boyzone, audiences were truly entertained by the newly written songs on this album, titled Time of my Life. In my humble opinion, I can say that the maturity of Keating’s music is making this one one of his best albums released yet. The seriousness, arrangements, and theme of Time of My Life, are also aimed at the market that grew up with him. This is what one can expect from this 39 year old Irish musician with more than 23 years in the industry.

With this being my prerogative, my favourite songs on Keating’s new album, includes Let me Love You, In your Arms, Landslide and Falling Slowly. These songs were brought to life with an 8-piece band accompanying Keating on Stage, which brought the mastered tunes on the album to a live reality.

Overall, this show had so much more to give than just the music of another successful Ronan Keating Album. Short, but effective snippets were shared before each song, and how it came to life in his kitchen. The contribution of his wife also played a huge part in the creation of this album’s material. More so, the background of each song gave that little bit more emotion and meaning to the songs he performed.

With this all being said, and the raving credit given to Time of my Life, it was the trip down memory lane that make the shows of all these international artists a memory to treasure. With songs that served as fragments of nostalgia, the audiences were loud in their singing along with Keating hits, like She Believes in Me, If Tomorrow never Come’s, The Way you make me Feel, I Love it when we do and When you say Nothing At all. Highlights for me, was his rendition of Father and Son, and the hit that ended the night with the whole house on their feet, Life is a Rollercoaster.

Over the years, Keating has become an expert on how to effectively getting the audience involved as a key contributor to his repertoire. I also believe the popularity of his songs makes this more the easier, with every other song, being a crowd pleaser.

I thoroughly enjoyed this show, as it had that element of memory-blazing melodies, which will stay with one for a lifetime. No review can actually capture this experience, mainly because, you say it best, when you say nothing at all.