Louis Walsh says he is still angry about the manner in which he learned of the death of Stephen Gately last week.

The pop manager says the first indication he got that Gately (33) had died was a text message from an Irish journalist in Dublin.

"It was just after X Factor when I got this text message from an Irish journalist. The text said 'Is Stephen Dead?' Somebody obviously contacted them before they contacted me, which I'm not happy about," said Walsh.

The news was confirmed by Boyzone's Mikey Graham who rang Walsh several minutes later.

Walsh, who recruited Gately into Boyzone in the mid-'90s, said that since the weekend he had received hundreds of text messages from a string of celebrities including David Beckham, Gary Barlow, Robbie Williams, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Matt Lucas and Graham Norton.