Five on ’90s fame, counselling, and finally reuniting: ‘We were scared stiff’

Published

2 days ago

March 30, 2025

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From the beginning, the intention was clear. “Five bad boys with the power to rock you,” came the shouty introduction in their first video, all hoodies and hair gel, the bandmates swaggering through a dim, strobe-lit corridor that suggested they might be trespassing – or at the very least, flouting a health and safety rule or two.

Signed by a then little known Simon Cowell to create “chaos”, Five (or 5ive) were the antidote to the squeaky clean boybands of the era. The image was tough egos, not hearts, on sleeves.

Jason “J” Brown, Abz Love, Scott Robinson, Ritchie Neville and Sean Conlon burst into the charts and on to teen girls’ walls with Slam Dunk (Da Funk) in 1997, and continued with hits including Everybody Get Up, If Ya Gettin’ Down and Keep On Movin’. They had 11 top 10 singles in total, including three number ones, filled arenas, and even had their own dolls (which is when you really know you’ve made it).

Behind the scenes, as we now know has been the case for so many young pop stars, things weren’t always as carefree as they appeared. The inevitable split came after just four years, and a full reunion always seemed unlikely. A couple of comebacks involved different members, but never J.

“I hated the industry,” he said during his appearance on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2007. “I ran away from it all.”

Earlier this year, however, the announcement was made: Five – all five! – were making a comeback. A month later, after a few weeks to process the reaction (the initial arena tour dates have more than doubled, due to demand), I meet them at their publicists’ offices in London. A constant stream of easy ribbing has to be gently interrupted to get the interview going.

Now in their 40s, the bandmates are aware the internet has cottoned on to how often they used to sing about getting up – and getting down – in most of their songs. “We were aware of that at the time,” half-groans Ritchie. “We count a lot as well,” laughs J. “We’re an educational band.”

They are happy to be back in each other’s company. Back in the day, there were squabbles, but never any serious fall-out, they say. Five split because they were tired of the industry, not each other.

“We broke up out of love,” says Ritchie. “Sean was having a bad time, he was 15 when he joined the band, and it is a high-pressure, high-stress situation. We were thrown into the deep end and it’s sink or swim. It had been nearly five years of 18-hour days. We were worn out.”

When the video for the band’s penultimate single, Let’s Dance, was released, featuring a life-size cardboard cut-out of Sean in place of the real thing, it was claimed he had fallen ill. In reality, the pressures of the band, and fame, had become way too much. Scott was also suffering, desperate for a break and to spend time with his girlfriend, Kerry (the couple married shortly after Five’s split). By the time they called it a day, they were all worn out.

‘Our bond wasn’t spoken about’

“We ultimately made the call that it doesn’t matter how many number ones you have, it’s not worth this,” Ritchie continues.

“Our bond wasn’t actually spoken about,” says Sean, “because of that ‘bad boy’ image.” There was a stigma, he says, and some pressure “to live up to being a lad”. They were five young men given the opportunity of a lifetime, so some laddish behaviour was par for the course. But it wasn’t the whole truth. “Really, we are five big softies.”

It was Scott who picked up the phone first. “I hadn’t seen J or Abz for a long time. I kept on hovering over their names.” Abz first. “Was it ‘cus I’m at the top – A, B?” he laughs. Scott reassures him it was an intentional dial. “That means a lot, man.” An AirBnB was booked and that was it – the first time in almost 25 years all five had been in the same room.

Initially, they weren’t reuniting as Five, simply as friends. But word got out, the offer came in.

“We didn’t sleep,” says Sean, recalling the night before the launch. “We were scared stiff… petrified.” Given their huge stardom back in the day – and following successful nostalgia-filled reunions by ’90s-’00s contemporaries such as Steps and S Club 7 – surely they realised the comeback would be something of a cultural moment?

Ritchie says not. “We’re just normal dudes that did something that went bigger than I thought.” There were fears of ending up “with egg on our face”, J adds. “We release it as this big thing and it could have just gone ‘pfff’.”

Staying in a hotel the night before the announcement, Scott called Kerry. “What if no one cares?”

Just a few months earlier, millions had watched Ritchie, Sean and Scott taking part in the docuseries Boybands Forever, which pulled back the curtain on the darker side of fame. Their honesty about the mental health struggles they all faced during their time in Five no doubt contributed to the groundswell of support surrounding the comeback.

“I suppose it’s a massive part of the healing process,” says Scott. “When I started speaking to the boys again, it was like, I’m not sad anymore. Because all of that stuff is a distant memory… I’ve gone from being a little bit broken, to complete again.”

They are keen to stress they had lots of good times. “So many highs,” says Ritchie. “We played Rock In Rio. How many people was it?” “16 billion,” one of his bandmates exaggerates. “We opened the Brits with Queen, Times Square, we went platinum in the States…”

“I won two haircut awards,” says Scott, adding with mock false modesty: “I don’t like to talk about it.”

While they enjoyed so much of it, it got to the point where they were all desperately craving normality, and a rest. Now, they say it’s “massively” important to talk about the low points, and how the industry can learn from its mistakes.

‘Nobody’s life is that good’

“I think the marketing of bands of our era was really based around ‘everything’s positive, there’s no troubles’,” says Sean. “I don’t really think that that’s good for anybody.”

“Nobody’s life is that good,” adds Ritchie. Back then, mental health was not part of the conversation – particularly for five “bad boys”. “Now, thankfully, it’s spoken about a lot,” says Scott. “I think it’s so, so important.”

“It takes a lot of pressure off you,” says J. “When we were doing it – and we were children doing it – and we are in this position of being on a pedestal almost. You’re going through some really rough times and you just want people to know… [but] when you try and voice it to anyone else outside of this collective, it’s like [the response is], ‘you’ve got the world at your feet, you’re this age, you’ve obviously got millions in the bank’…”

“And that makes you feel a million times worse,” Ritchie adds. “I remember having this conversation with one of my best friends. They were like, ‘what have you got to be down about?’ It actually broke me.”

Things are different now, Ritchie continues. When he joined the band, he was 17 and “didn’t know what too much was”. But signed artists now have access to counselling and support, he says.

“We’ve already done it and it’s absolutely amazing to be able to speak to someone and go, this is what I’m feeling,” says Scott. “We didn’t have that. We’re not blaming anyone for that. It was a massive time in the ’90s where we were all learning at the same time… We’re older, they’re older. We’re more experienced and so are they.”

Abz chips in: “When you’re so wrapped up in it, you’re not sure what’s left and what’s right. To have that break, as wild and as long as it was, whatever happened in that time period, to actually all be here. We’re very grateful.”

‘We didn’t realise we were cool’

There is also no longer such a snobbery around pop music now.

“We didn’t realise we were a really cool band,” says Scott. “We didn’t realise how good our songs were, and that’s not blowing our own trumpet.” After the split, they tried to “run away” from the music, he adds.

J and Ritchie, who “hung out a lot” in later years, would inevitably get asked about it when they were out together. They hated it. “We used to apologise a lot,” says Ritchie. “Oh yeah, we’re from that rubbish band.” He pretends to wince. “Sorry.”

“It’s a ridiculous thing, a really adolescent mindset, the whole, ‘I’m selling out’,” says J. “I had that for a long time, unfortunately.” With enough time passed, he now appreciates the Five back catalogue. “When I hear it, I can hear it fresh. And I’m like, that’s why people were digging it.”

The pop conveyor belt was an industry mistake, says Sean, and artists paid the price. “They looked at our music and bands like us and they thought, okay, it’s not really got a lot of depth to it, it’s not really moving people in that way that they’d be able to do a tour 25 years later. So we’ll get them working all day and all night, maximise it, profit-wise.”

But here they are, 25 years later. “Our music – and not just our band, the whole ’90s era – meant so much to so many people. We’re witnessing that now.”

At the moment, there are no plans for new songs. “I think fans want to hear the old music,” says Scott. “They want to remember a simpler time when they didn’t have a mortgage to pay. They want the nostalgia.” Maybe later down the line though, he adds.

Given everything they have been through, the highs and the lows, what would their advice be… “Don’t do it!” Abz interrupts, laughing, before I get the chance to finish the question about the boybands following in their footsteps.

Get the “right people” behind you, Ritchie says, seriously. “Sleep in the breaks,” adds Scott.

But would they recommend it? Especially given some of them are fathers now. “I’d do it all again, but different,” says Abz. To which Sean quickly reminds him he is now doing exactly that.

They all are. Five not-so bad boys – but still, it seems, with the power to rock you.

Entertainment

‘They have to come up with another model’: For many the BBC licence fee increase is a bad joke

Published

31 mins ago

April 1, 2025

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'They have to come up with another model': For many the BBC licence fee increase is a bad joke

For those who’re on modest means, the cost of the licence fee going up by £5 on 1 April of all days is a bit of a bad joke.

Certainly, for residents at St Crispin Retirement Village, it’s hard to see the funny side.

Among them is 83-year-old Stan Fritton who, since last November, has been embroiled in a battle over how much he and his neighbours should be paying for the BBC.

Their accommodation coming under one roof, they previously paid £7.50 each, qualifying for an accommodation for residential care (ARC) licence.

They then turned a former storage room into one of two spaces for visitors to stay the night and were told by post they’d contravened the TV Licensing Act.

Letters demanding residents pay full price started turning up addressed to almost 100 of the residents.

As Mr Fritton puts it they were “being sent to 95-year-old widows [who are] seeing something that says investigation with a big stamp and what have you… it’s frightened them to death.”

He says demands for payments have even been sent to those with dementia.

“They’re not listening and they’re choosing not to listen,” he says of interactions with TV Licensing.

While Mr Fritton says the retirement village’s managers have now shut the room and will be reapplying to get the licence back, he is adamant they haven’t broken any rules but can’t get an officer to come out to see that the room isn’t a dwelling.

Resignedly his main frustration is that: “They’re choosing to antagonise residents here needlessly.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for TV Licensing said they “continue to liaise with the managers of St Crispin’s… and hope to have this matter resolved as soon as possible.”

Price rises to £174.50

How the BBC collects its money is an issue that extends way beyond one retirement village.

Under the current BBC charter, prices will now rise for the next two years based on inflation. It was £169.50, from today it is now £174.50.

Of course, maybe that’s OK if we’re getting more of what the BBC does best but the corporation’s income is down £1bn a year in real terms compared to its funding in 2010.

Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky recently gave a written statement to parliament on how the second series of his acclaimed drama was very nearly canned because the financing in public service broadcasting is “insufficient to make high-end TV drama”.

‘I think we are in real trouble’

But it’s even a tough time for those public sector broadcasters who rely on advertising – the producer of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Patrick Spence, telling Sky News he wouldn’t even pitch the drama now in the current commissioning climate.

“I do want to say I think we need to pay the sub postmasters first before we then turn our attention to television – let’s get our priorities right – but yeah I think we are in real trouble – there is a form of British television story telling that is going down if it is not supported.”

While some reports have claimed the government is looking to find a way to put a levy on streaming services, the Department for Culture has previously said they “do not comment on speculation” – not ruling it out.

‘Lots of people are saying it’s a very dated system’

As a former BBC News controller and government communications director, Sir Craig Oliver has seen licence fee negotiations from both sides.

He says: “I think everybody has come to the conclusion, including privately the BBC, that they have to come up with another model.

“I think that there will probably be some element of the licence fee still existing, but it may be that there are subscription models on top of that.

“The problem with all of that, of course, is that the devil is in the detail… how do you make sure that people aren’t hacking in? Lots of people are saying it’s a very dated system.”

This year the BBC says it’s launching its “biggest ever public engagement exercise so audiences can help… shape [the corporation]”.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The public cares about the BBC… We want to continue to reform and evolve and look forward to engaging with government on the next Charter and securing the long-term future of the BBC.”

But with seemingly little or no consensus over how that future might be funded, the only certain thing for now is that it’ll mean households being switched on to licence fee prices going up this year, next year and the one after that.

Entertainment

Sir Keir Starmer hosts creators of hit Netflix drama Adolescence – and tells them he’s ‘not found it easy viewing’

Published

19 hours ago

March 31, 2025

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Sir Keir Starmer hosts creators of hit Netflix drama Adolescence - and tells them he's 'not found it easy viewing'

Sir Keir Starmer has met with the creators of Adolescence for talks on how to prevent young boys being dragged into a “whirlpool of hatred and misogyny”.

The prime minister hosted a roundtable in Downing Street with co-writer Jack Thorne and producer Jo Johnson to discuss issues raised in the series, which centres on a 13-year-old boy arrested for the murder of a young girl and the rise of incel culture.

Opening the meeting, which was first revealed by Sky News earlier this month, Sir Keir thanked the show’s creators for the conversation they have started.

Politics Live: UK expecting to get hit by Trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariffs

He said he and his wife had watched the drama with his 14-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son, and that “as a dad, I have not found it easy viewing”.

Sir Keir said the four-part series raises questions about how to keep young people safe from technology.

Previously it was thought they were more at risk outside their homes but that’s now being “overtaken by a greater danger, which is what’s happening in the home, what’s happening in the bedroom, in the places where they’re on their own,” the prime minister said.

He referred to real-life cases such as that of Kyle Clifford, the crossbow killer who watched misogynistic content before he murdered his ex-girlfriend and her mother and sister.

This type of violence against women “isn’t new” but Adolescence shows it has taken “different characteristics”, Sir Keir added.

‘No simple solution’

The meeting came as the government announced Netflix had made the show free to watch in all secondary schools across the country to help pupils understand “the impact of misogyny, dangers of online radicalisation and the importance of healthy relationships”.

Sir Keir said there is “no simple solution” or “policy lever to be pulled”, describing misogyny as “almost a cultural issue”.

He said the aim of the round table was to discuss “what can we do as a society to stop and prevent young boys being dragged into this whirlpool of hatred and misogyny”.

‘Brilliant meeting’

Speaking after the round table, Thorne told Sky News’ arts and entertainment correspondent Katie Spencer it was a “brilliant meeting”, with young people, charities, and representatives from Netflix also present.

“There needs to be more dialogue with people cleverer than me, that’s the big solution to this problem,” he said.

“It’s about putting money in, having conversations, creating an environment which is safer for our young people.”

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Adolescence topped the charts amid mounting concern over violent and sexist social media content being served up to teenagers, and calls for the government to get tough on tech firms.

Ministers have faced calls from MPs to take radical action such as raising the age of consent to use social media from 13 to 16 – something Thorne has previously backed.

Entertainment

Dr Kildare and Shogun actor Richard Chamberlain dies

Published

2 days ago

March 30, 2025

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Dr Kildare and Shogun actor Richard Chamberlain dies

Richard Chamberlain, who starred in the TV medical drama “Dr Kildare” and the 1980s mini-series “Shogun” has died at the age of 90, his publicist said.

Chamberlain became a heart throb and an instant favourite with teenage girls as the handsome Dr James Kildare in the medical drama that ran from 1961 to 1966.

Photoplay magazine named him “most popular male star” three years in a row from 1963 to 1965.

His breakout role in Dr Kildare marked the start of a six decade-career that spanned theatre, films and television.

He was dubbed the “king of the mini-series” after appearing in several TV dramas in the 1980s.

This included being the original Jason Bourne in the 1988 mini-series The Bourne Identity.

Chamberlain was nominated for Emmys for his roles in two mini-series – Shogun (1981) and The Thorn Birds (1983).

He was also nominated for Emmys for his roles in the 1985 movie “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story” and the title role in the 1975 movie “The Count of Monte-Cristo”.

He also earned plaudits for his appearances on stage – including Professor Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady” and Captain von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” to Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Richard II.

Most of his roles were as romantic leading men, which is why he did not publicly reveal he was gay until he was 68 years old.

He feared it would ruin his career and so for much of his life he said he pretended to be someone else.

“When you grow up in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s being gay, it’s not only ain’t easy, it’s just impossible,” he told the New York
Times in 2014.

“I assumed there was something terribly wrong with me. And even becoming famous and all that, it was still there.”

Chamberlain said it was a huge relief after he acknowledge his sexuality in his 2003 autobiography “Shattered Love: A Memoir”.

He said in a 2019 interview: “I had no fear left… It was a wonderful experience. People were open, friendly and sweet.”

After coming out publicly, he played both gay and straight characters in TV shows including “Brothers & Sisters,” “Will &
Grace” and “Desperate Housewives.”

Born George Richard Chamberlain on 31 March 1934, he was the youngest of two sons.

He had hoped to be an artist but switched to acting after attending Pomona College in California.

His acting career was put on hold when he was drafted into the US Army in 1956 and served in Korea.

In the late 1960s, Chamberlain moved to England where he honed his acting skills in the BBC series “The Portrait of a Lady” and as Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

“Dr Kildare was a huge hit in England, and I heard that all the London reviewers were coming to rip this interloper to
pieces,” he said in an interview.

“But we got very good reviews.”

Chamberlain lived in Hawaii for many years and had a three-decade relationship with actor and writer Martin Rabbett, his co-star in the 1986 adventure film “Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold”.

The couple parted in 2010 but remained close friends.

“He is free and soaring to those loved ones before us. How blessed were we to have known such an amazing and loving soul,” Rabbett said in a statement after Chamberlain’s death.

Chamberlain’s publicist said the star died from complications from a stroke in Hawaii on Saturday.

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