>Lorraine Pearson, singer with 1980s pop act Five Star, has hammered the current UK music scene.
The performer and her brothers and sisters notched 15 top 40 singles, including No 2 hit Rain Or Shine. She says today's acts are uninspiring.

"I don't have any interest in today's music. It seems that anyone can get on the TV and sing nowadays. Everyone is way too average," she says.

The singer says today's pop acts set their standards too low.
Lorraine, who is back playing live with the band as part of the Here & Now Greatest Hits Tour, says few acts aim to emulate the true greats.
She says: "When we started out I wanted to emulate my heroes like Diana Ross and all the other Motown greats. Now it just seems that the more dull you are the further you'll go."

Five Star are back touring the UK after almost 13 years in the wilderness.
Britain's answer to the Jackson 5 sold millions of records back in the decade that fashion forgot.
Lorraine tells Total Entertainment: "It's so much fun being back on stage. It seems our music is just as popular
as ever."

She says she doesn't miss the fame and the "madness" of the 1980s.
"I know that some people find it very hard to survive without all that attention, without press camped outsideyour door every day, but I was glad when it all ended," she says.
"I was only 15 when Five Star started so I had an awful lot to deal with as a young child. I'm quite happy now with my quiet life in LA."

The band's manager was their father Buster Pearson, a musician who had played with the likes of blues great Muddy Waters.
"It was great that our dad was our manager because he could look out for us in a way that no-one else could," says bandmember Lorraine.
"There's a lot of sharks out there, people who want to take advantage of you and he saw to it that we were protected from these people."

Five Star still play regularly in America but when they're not on stage Lorraine likes to write.
"I've been writing children's books for the last few years and it's something that gives me a lot of pleasure, I've even had a few of them published," she says.
"I also like to write poetry and music. Apart from that nothing makes me happier than sitting in and watchingDVDs with my husband."

In the early days of Five Star the band worked very hard to get their act ready for gigs.
Lorraine says: "We would practice all the routines and harmonies for hours and hours on end. We made sure we did all we could to make everything perfect.
"It was very important to us to be the best we could. That was why it worked between the five of us, because we were all equally determined."

The singer says she is amazed how popular their music remains.
"At the concerts now you see people of all ages getting down to our music. I never thought we'd still be doing this 20 years after we started, I feel very privileged."

Five Star are part of the Here & Now Greatest Hits Tour, with among others Paul Young and Kim
Wilde. For details call 0871 220 0260.

(c) 2003 Teletext UK