Boyzone bandmates plan to release album featuring Stephen Gately

Stephen Gately's Boyzone bandmates are planning to release a new album featuring the late singer. The 33-year-old star died suddenly last month in Majorca at the holiday villa he shared with his civil partner Andrew Cowles.

Ronan Keating revealed that Stephen had already recorded two tracks for the group's forthcoming album. "He was so excited about this, he actually texted me just before he went out on the night he died and he said he couldn't wait to get started," Sky News quoted Keating as saying.

"I had never seen Stephen so full of life, so happy, so healthy and just so alive. "That's what's making his death all the harder for us. We are spending a lot of time sticking together because it is helping us to deal with our grief," he added.

Mikey Graham spoke of the band's pride at how the city of Dublin turned out to give Gately the "greatest send off ever". "We had the job of our lives organising it and we are so proud of how it all worked out, he said.

"The people of the city turned out to pay tribute to one of their own and I don't think I have ever been more proud to be Irish than I was that day," he added. "We got our sleeping bags out and we lay there telling stories and laughing at the memories, it was peaceful and it was perfect," said Keith Duffy.

"The next day when the hearse was leaving for the crematorium and people threw roses down for Stephen, well I don't think I have ever seen anything more beautiful in all my life," he added.

"Stephen was one of my best, best friends in life. I miss him dearly. But we have a faith and we know he is in a magnificent place, looking down at us and smiling," said Shane Lynch.