Ronan Keating is fast evolving into a man for all seasons. He is a singer, a songwriter, front man of Boyzone, a father, a husband, co-manager of pop sensations Westlife and he is still only 23 years old, writes Pookie Hudson.

Born in Dublin on March 3,1977, Ronan showed musical flair early, writing and playing music from almost year dot but did manage to get chucked out of his school choir for not being able to sing!

"The choir was dead boring," he recalls. "But I used to do it because I learned about music. I was taking the mick the whole time. The teacher wasn't having any of it and said 'Get out. You can't sing and you're a messer!'"

As a young lad he did the usual string of humdrum weekend jobs from working in shoe shops to sweeping up hair at his mum's hairdressers.

But it wasn't until 1993 that he took his first steps on the path to worldwide fame. Ahed 16, he was among 300 hopefuls who pitched up for an audition for what was heralded as 'Ireland's answer to Take That' .

Little did Ronan and his fellow nervous new friends know that they were about to become one of the biggest boy bands ever. Six years down the line, 16 top three singles, six of which were number ones, four number one albums (selling more than 12 million copies worldwide), dozens of sell-out UK tours and millions of fans the world over. Boyzone are undoubtedly Ireland's most successful pop export of all time and have paved the way for other Irish acts such as Westlife, The Corrs and B*Witched.

"I think it was all to do with our timing," Keating says. "Our songs are just great pop songs, you can't beat them. We got slagged off for doing cover versions, but we sold more records than anybody else so we did something right."

In the summer of 1999 Ronan Keating released his first solo single, When You Say Nothing At All', taken from the soundtrack of Notting Hill.

Not wishing to break with traditional Boyzone chart history, Ronan's first solo offering naturally crashed into the charts at number one and When You Say Nothing At All became one of the love songs of the year, selling in excess of half a million copies. As an artist Ronan has already received virtually every accolade known to man from numerous Smash Hit Awards for 'Most Fanciable Male' and MTV Awards for "Best Pop Band" to a coveted Ivor Novello Award for Picture Of You joining the salubrious ranks of George Michael and Sir Elton John.

When Boyzone announced that they were going to take a year out to work on solo projects, Ronan flew out to Los Angeles in January, to write and record his eponymously titled debut solo album which was released back in July.

Ronan describes the album as "a real mix of pop, rock and traditional music. I'm proud of every single track. Each song sounds and feels very special.

"I was really nervous at first about going in to the studio on my own without the other lads, but it was exciting to create my own stuff and to write with new people. I'm really happy with the result.

"I never really planned to have a solo career," he adds. "It was more of a natural progression."

And you can bet that Keating's progess hasn't finished yet.

Ronan Keating is at the Oxford Apollo on Sunday. His new single, The Way You Make Me Feel, is out on November 20.