This morning, when I was reading China Daily Brief in my cell phone, a news came out–“A member of Boyzone died”. Astonished by this news, I just prayed in my mind “it should not be Stephen”. But the detailed report broke my fantasy soon. It is Stephen that had died in Spain on Oct. 11th. Then I found the same news from NYTimes, which got this news from The Associate Press. I have to acknowledge that this cute boy has passed away.

Driving home at dusk, I heard the <No matter what> on radio FM 91.5 which expressed their respect to Stephen through this song. I recalled that I was one of the fans of Boyzone and their songs had left numerous memory for me and those days of my youth.

I began to listen to their songs in the summer of 2000, when I was still a freshmen in BNU. I bought my Disc-man and some CDs, one of which is the collection of Boyzone. I was touched soon by the songs such as <words>. Then I found I had heard their another classic hit song <no matter what>in May 2000. It was a rainy day during our military training when I heard that song from a radio program of Live Concert dedicated to Loyd Webber’s birthday. There are also other songs from this fantastic band:<every day I love you>,< love me for a reason>These touching songs had accompanied me in a lot of  sleepless nights. Actually,  this band’s heyday had passed when I began to listen to their songs, but it did not hinder me from falling in love with their music. However, as band composed by  6 persons, I did not pay particular attention to any member of them until one of seniors of our faculty  told me Stephen’s story. I was surprised by his great courage to admit his own sexual orientation. I thought whether his orientation could be accpeted by us or not, his courage to face the real ego deserved respect from everyone.

After disbanding of Boyzone, Stephen released his personal album<new beginning>in 2000. Honestly speaking , as far as I am concerned,  this album is not so good as the songs performed by Boyzone, but it also reached number 3 in the UK charts. Afterwards, he released another album but I did not buy them even never heard of them. I continued to listen to old song of Boyzone, sometimes I also read some news of Stephen , such as his new boyfriend and his civil union marriage. Until Boyzone  announced its reformation last year, this band did not attract attention for a long time. But its live performance in 2008 was so successful. I believed many audiences must found their youth from the idol of their teenager years. To find the boys in yesterday had  became mature men, it must inspired so much complex emotion among every one's mind. 

So everyone who love Boyzone is stunned by this sudden tragedy when we were still dreaming for the  new begining of Boyzone. It is too hard to accept this fact that Stephen had died only at the age of 33. It is not difficult to imagine he could have a lot of time to spend with his band and his family if only he had not left us too early.

As the Former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said  " Gately's death was a huge tragedy to Irish entertainment, Irish music and further afield as well.Boyzone and Stephen, they've all been part of Irish life and far wider than that, the last 15 years, and so successful, so it's a huge, huge tragedy. It's so sad.'' Maybe Stephen could not be as great as Michael Jackson, he would not be a legend in the history of music, but he still would be a part of our youthhood  and his voice and songs would live in our memories. 

Farewell to Stephen Gately, wish you a good journey !