WHEN Ronan Keating did his first interviews, he would be fielding such incisive questions as "What's you favourite colour?"

He was even, famously, asked at the age of 16 whether he was still a virgin and whether he would save himself until he was married. He was... but he didn't. Hardly surprising with much of the world's budding womanhood hurling themselves at Boyzone's feet.

Now he's a 29-year old father-of-three and a Ronan Keating interview is more likely to involve talk of world debt, import tariffs in Ghana or cancer survival statistics in Ireland. He's been bitten by the Bono and Bob Geldof bug. Ronan wants to save the world, and you cannot help but like him for it.

But, before we get too serious, what about that much-rumoured Boyzone reunion, Ronan?

"I wouldn't totally put a line through it, but I'm going to be on the road for the next 12 months working on this new record," he says. "It's going to be difficult for me to commit to Boyzone or anything else."

Gathering pace

Those rumours gathered pace when Boyzone's template Take That reunited. "I went to see them with my wife and we absolutely loved it," says Ronan. "You know what, they looked that good, the show was as good as it was 10 years ago."

So it is possible to be a 30-something boy band. He is now on good terms with his former bandmates, but there is still bad blood with ex-manager Louis Walsh, since they parted company in 2003.

One disagreement was over Ronan's insistence on writing his own songs for his solo work. After a poor chart showing for his last album of new material, 2003's Turn It On, Keating's judgment now appears vindicated with his new album Bring You Home, on which he had a hand in writing almost half the songs.

"The last album did not do as well as I expected it to do, so this was an important album for me. I believe I made the best record I could make," says the Dublin lad.

The first single from the album, All Over Again - a duet with folk singer Kate Rusby - has entered the chart at number six, and the just-released album, is expected to debut at three.

Though he is clearly proud of this album - a ballad-heavy collection reminiscent of the glossier end of American country music - Keating talks with more passion about his various campaigns.

The Marie Keating Foundation, named in honour of his mother who died of breast cancer in 1998, sends mobile cancer information units around Ireland raising awareness of the disease. A partnership has been struck with Cancer Research UK to do the same thing in Britain.

"What we want to get across to people is that early detection is your best chance of survival with cancer," says Keating. "If there had been a set-up like this 10 or 12 years ago, my mum would still be alive today because she would be more aware. My mother's generation were afraid to go to the doctor. Cancer was a taboo. You didn't speak about it."

One person Keating hopes will not shirk from speaking about cancer is Kylie Minogue. "We all had a wake-up call when we saw Kylie, 36 years of age, diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

Kylie Minogue

"People woke up to the fact that it is not a disease which just affects 50-year old women. I look forward to a time when she gets the all-clear and, when she's ready, to come on board with me or one of the other charities."

Keating is a also a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and a Fair Trade Ambassador for Christian Aid, and has learned how countries such as Ghana, which he has visited, are hamstrung by the conditions attached to their international debts, forbidden to subsidise their own farmers and unable to stop imports from the west.

"Frozen chickens from Holland can come into Ghana with no tariff and the farmers down the road can't sell their chickens because the frozen chicken is far cheaper because the Dutch government subsidises their farmers," he says. "The farmers go to work in the likes of a quarry, breaking stones from 6am to dark and come home with less than a euro a day."

Keating heads off in September on a mission to poverty-stricken Paraguay. But he is modest about being mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Bono and Bob Geldof.

"They are an inspiration to all of us. I wouldn't look at myself on a par with either of those lads. I'm only understanding and learning now," he says.

It's a cynical world, though, and sometimes people don't want to hear these messages from pop stars.

"Of course they don't," replies Ronan. "But if they're not going to hear it from us, nobody's going to do it and people will be left to die."

The Hallé Orchestra and Ronan Keating will be at Tatton Park on Saturday, July 29 and Sunday, July 30 respectively. Tickets are on sale at é19-é23.50, with Ronan Keating tickets at é29.20-é32.50. Booking fee is é1. Call 08708 955 578 to book. Ronan Keating's album Bring You Home is out now on Polydor.

Tweet