THERE’S an Irish boyband theme on the south coast tomorrow evening with two of the biggest musical heartthrobs of recent times coming together.

Ronan Keating will take to the stage of the BIC with his Fires tour and support on the night will come from his good friend and fellow Irish-Aussie Brian McFadden.

Ronan was the driving force of chart-topping Irish boyband Boyzone, while Brian McFadden enjoyed massive success with Irish group Westlife.

Keating has been touring with a reunited Boyzone and taking his first steps as an actor, judging on X Factor in Australia as well as climbing mountains, running marathons and swimming seas.

Ronan’s last appearance at the BIC in 2010 was a bitter-sweet affair as he recalled his last visit three years previous had been with Boyzone band mate Stephen Gately.

The tragic death of his “best friend”

coloured many sad songs by the Rollercoaster singer as he recalled during the show: “October 10 was the worst day of my life when I heard ‘Steo’ had passed away.

“It still seems wrong and I’m still dealing with it every day. He was an incredible man – my best friend. We are just putting one foot in front of the other each day and seeing where the road leads us.”

Tomorrow night’s show should see plenty of Ronan’s big solo hits, having sold over 25 million records worldwide alongside the 30 million records with Boyzone.

Keating will be reuniting with his Boyzone bandmates Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch this year to celebrate their 20th anniversary as a group.

The new album is due for release in the summer and will feature 10 new songs and 10 songs rerecorded with two singles.

This month it emerged that the new album is likely to include three songs with Stephen Gately’s vocals on it – however, there is a row over who owns the singer’s estate and so these songs will not be released yet.

The band is also expected to tour later this year around the UK, Ireland, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Providing support for Ronan at the BIC will be Brian McFadden who makes his first UK appearance in seven years. He released an album last year called The Irish Connection, which is an apt name for this particular tour too.

The album saw Brian record some of his favourite tracks with some of his favourite artists, including, of course, his mate Ronan. Brian said Ronan heard the entire album and chose to duet on U2’s All I Want is You.

McFadden feels it was the perfect way to finish off the album.

Other tracks on the album include covers of songs by The Cranberries, Snow Patrol, Van Morrison, Mary Black and Damian Rice.

With Westlife, Brian was in the band at the height of their fame from 1998 to 2004 and the group accumulated 14 numberone singles in the UK (the third-highest in UK history, tying with Cliff Richard and only behind The Beatles and Elvis Presley) and 26 top