Boyzlife bring 90s and 00s pop to Portsmouth Guildhall

If your best nights out are still measured in 90s and 00s pop, there's a date worth circling on the calendar. Boyzlife are bringing their tour to Portsmouth Guildhall on Friday 23 October, with doors at 7.00pm, and it's built entirely on the kind of nostalgia that's hard to argue with.

The line-up is the draw. Boyzlife is a duo made up of Keith Duffy, formerly of Boyzone, and Brian McFadden, who left Westlife in March 2004. Between them, their old bands sold over 55 million records and racked up 17 number one singles in the UK, and that's exactly what they lean on for the setlist. Expect Boyzone's 'I Love The Way You Love Me', 'All That I Need' and 'No Matter What' alongside Westlife classics like 'My Love' and 'I Lay My Love On You'. It's not a cover band in the usual sense; it's the two men who actually sang the songs, working together since 2016 to run through the hits with a full live band, pyro and special effects thrown in for good measure.

They aren't just relying on the back catalogue, either. The duo have released two albums of their own, 'Strings Attached' in July 2020 and 'Old School' in May 2022, and they weave new material into the show. Their most recent single, 'Lovebirds', came out in October 2025 and reached number 76 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart, so there's a bit of fresh material to go alongside the songs you already know by heart.

The venue is part of the appeal. Portsmouth Guildhall, over in Guildhall Square, is a grand old building from 1890 that was renovated in 2018 and has been run by the Portsmouth Cultural Trust since April 2011. It's the city's biggest room for a night like this, with a standing capacity of around 2,200 to 2,500 and room for 2,000 seated, and it sits right in the middle of the UK touring circuit, so it's well-used to a show of this scale.

On the practical side, tickets sit between £40.20 and £52.50, with the advertised price including a 17% booking fee, and there's a ticket restoration levy on all events. If you want a drink before the show, The Square Kitchen and Bars open from 6.15pm, which gives you time to settle in before the 7.00pm door time. A few house rules are worth knowing before you go: 14s and under need to be with an adult aged 18 or over, cameras and tablets aren't allowed inside, and there's no external food or drink permitted, except for medical needs. There's no premium seating package on this particular show, but discounted parking can be sorted online or at the box office.

It's one stop on a long UK tour that runs through October and into November, with dates in Sheffield, Swansea, London, Leicester and Birmingham among them, so if you've missed it elsewhere, Portsmouth is the place to catch it. For anyone who spent the turn of the millennium with Boyzone and Westlife on repeat, it's a straightforward, high-energy night out that doesn't ask you to do much more than turn up and sing along.