From the start, the intention was clear. “Five bad boys with the power to rock you,” got here the shouty introduction of their first video, all hoodies and hair gel, the bandmates swaggering by way of a dim, strobe-lit hall that recommended they may be trespassing – or on the very least, flouting a well being and security rule or two.
Signed by a then little identified Simon Cowell to create “chaos”, 5 (or 5ive) have been the antidote to the squeaky clear boybands of the period. The picture was powerful 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 ladies’ partitions with Slam Dunk (Da Funk) in 1997, and continued with hits together with All people Get Up, If Ya Gettin’ Down and Maintain On Movin’. That they had 11 prime 10 singles in whole, together with three quantity ones, stuffed arenas, and even had their very own dolls (which is if you actually know you have made it).
Behind the scenes, as we now know has been the case for thus many younger pop stars, issues weren’t at all times as carefree as they appeared. The inevitable cut up got here after simply 4 years, and a full reunion at all times appeared unlikely. A few comebacks concerned totally different members, however by no means J.
“I hated the industry,” he mentioned throughout his look on I am A Superstar… Get Me Out Of Right here! in 2007. “I ran away from it all.”
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5 reunited (L-R): Sean Conlon, Jason ‘J’ Brown, Abz Love, Ritchie Neville and Scott Robinson
Earlier this 12 months, nevertheless, the announcement was made: 5 – all 5! – have been making a comeback. A month later, after just a few weeks to course of the response (the preliminary enviornment tour dates have greater than doubled, resulting from demand), I meet them at their publicists’ places of work in London. A relentless stream of simple ribbing must be gently interrupted to get the interview going.
Now of their 40s, the bandmates are conscious the web has cottoned on to how typically 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’re completely happy to be again in one another’s firm. Again within the day, there have been squabbles, however by no means any severe fall-out, they are saying. 5 cut up as a result of they have been uninterested in the business, not one another.
“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 launched, that includes a life-size cardboard cut-out of Sean instead of the true factor, it was claimed he had fallen sick. In actuality, the pressures of the band, and fame, had grow to be means an excessive amount of. Scott was additionally struggling, determined for a break and to spend time along with his girlfriend, Kerry (the couple married shortly after 5’s cut up). By the point they referred to as it a day, they have been all worn out.
‘Our bond wasn’t spoken about’
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Successful an MTV Award in 1998. Pic: PA
“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 a few stress “to live up to being a lad”. They have been 5 younger males given the chance of a lifetime, so some laddish behaviour was par for the course. However it wasn’t the entire reality. “Really, we are five big softies.”
It was Scott who picked up the cellphone 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 primary time in virtually 25 years all 5 had been in the identical room.
Initially, they weren’t reuniting as 5, merely as associates. However phrase acquired out, the provide got here in.
“We didn’t sleep,” says Sean, recalling the evening earlier than the launch. “We were scared stiff… petrified.” Given their large stardom again within the day – and following profitable nostalgia-filled reunions by ’90s-’00s contemporaries reminiscent of Steps and S Membership 7 – certainly they realised the comeback can be one thing of a cultural second?
Ritchie says not. “We’re just normal dudes that did something that went bigger than I thought.” There have been fears of ending up “with egg on our face”, J provides. “We release it as this big thing and it could have just gone ‘pfff’.”
Staying in a lodge the evening earlier than the announcement, Scott referred to as Kerry. “What if no one cares?”
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Scott took half within the Boybands Perpetually together with Ritchie and Sean. Pic: Mindhouse Productions/ Harry Truman/ BBC
Only a few months earlier, tens of millions had watched Ritchie, Sean and Scott collaborating within the docuseries Boybands Perpetually, which pulled again the curtain on the darker aspect of fame. Their honesty concerning the psychological well being struggles all of them confronted throughout their time in 5 little question contributed to the groundswell of help 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’re eager to emphasize they’d plenty of good occasions. “So many highs,” says Ritchie. “We played Rock In Rio. How many people was it?” “16 billion,” considered 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, including with mock false modesty: “I don’t like to talk about it.”
Whereas they loved a lot of it, it acquired to the purpose the place they have been all desperately craving normality, and a relaxation. Now, they are saying it is “massively” vital to speak concerning the low factors, and the way the business can be taught from its errors.
‘No one’s life is that good’
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The 5 dolls got here in 2000, the 12 months earlier than the band cut up. Pic: John Stillwell/PA
“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,” provides Ritchie. Again then, psychological well being was not a part of the dialog – significantly for 5 “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 provides. “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.”
Issues are totally different now, Ritchie continues. When he joined the band, he was 17 and “didn’t know what too much was”. However signed artists now have entry to counselling and help, 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 did not realise we have been cool’
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Selfies because the band attended the Brits earlier this 12 months. Pic: Sky Information
There’s additionally now not such a snobbery round 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 cut up, they tried to “run away” from the music, he provides.
J and Ritchie, who “hung out a lot” in later years, would inevitably get requested about it once they have been out collectively. 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 sufficient time handed, he now appreciates the 5 again 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 business mistake, says Sean, and artists paid the value. “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.”
However right here they’re, 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.”
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The early days of 5 (L-R): Sean Conlon, Scott Robinson, Jason ‘J’ Brown, Ritchie Neville and Abz Love. Pic: Shutterstock
In the meanwhile, there aren’t any plans for brand 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.” Possibly later down the road although, he provides.
Given all the things they’ve been by way of, the highs and the lows, what would their recommendation be… “Don’t do it!” Abz interrupts, laughing, earlier than I get the prospect to complete the query concerning the boybands following of their footsteps.
Get the “right people” behind you, Ritchie says, significantly. “Sleep in the breaks,” provides Scott.
However would they advocate it? Particularly given a few of them are fathers now. “I’d do it all again, but different,” says Abz. To which Sean shortly reminds him he’s now doing precisely that.
All of them are. 5 not-so unhealthy boys – however nonetheless, it appears, with the facility to rock you.
