Beware!In a house in leafy Camberley there's a riot going on behind the curtains.Hip hop blares from one bedroom,pop tunes fill the kitchen and strains of rock leak out from behind the loo door.....Meanwhile five lads run around like loonies spraying fart powder at each other.No wonder the neighbours are hoarse from complaining!
The bedlam makers are FIVE a pop group of five lads who together are making some of the freshest soul/rap/pop music this side of Wembley Arena.Meet Sean,Rich,Abs, Scott and J-guaranteed to clean the gunk out of the messiest of ears!
"We're a lad band,not a boy band explains Sean with a mischievous grin,the youngest of Five who's just turned 16(although he's 18 when in the vicinity of a pub!). "You see,you get your boys and then you get your lads-like us"
But before the ladfest gets in full swing,it's time to go back to their birth.The story begins with the two brains behind the Spice Girls,father & son team Bob and Chris Herbert,auditioning 3,000 hopeful young lads around the country.
"With everything we learnt with the Spice Girls,we wanted to bring together a new boy act,"says Chris."But not the usual crop of boy bands-we wanted a band with attitude and edge.As soon as we saw these five guys we knew they had it both musically and character wise."It was clearly an opinion shared by RCA,who immediately snapped up the band before a bidding war could begin.Then before the ink was barely dry,producer Denniz Pop(3T,Backstreet Boys)steamed in to work with the lads on their debut single,Slam Dunk (Da Funk).
Meanwhile just as the Spicies did,Five moved into their own pad together.The Surrey neighbours may not have been too keen but the schoolgirls camped outside every day weren't complaining.Once again,there was no doubt the Herberts are no herberts when it comes to finding talent.
First there's Leeds lad Sean Conlon,something of a musical wizzkid who started singing at the age of four,recorded his first studio session at 11 and won the Yamaha Young Composer competition when he was just 13.He was still at school when Five signed their record deal and so a tutor was arranged to give him lessons. "That didn't last long though,"he smirks.He rangest from shy to fearless,describes himself as"actually being one of the serious ones in the band" and could charm the knickers off a nun.Sean was also a promising rugby league player until he realised,"You can't do music with a mashed up face and no teeth-so I gave it up."
Despite being the youngest,Sean reckons that the real baby of the band is 17-year old Scott Robinson.An Essex boy who studied at Sylvia Young's acting school(just like Baby Spice),he has the energy of a drumming bunny in a Duracel factory and an insatiable desire to chatter-he's describe by the others as the "gabber" of the band."I like to have a laugh,"he beams with a deliciously devilish smile. Then there's Richard Neville(also 17),the soft spoken,soft natured one from Birmingham.The rest of the band call him "the emotional one",yet his musical past includes singing in a couple of rock bands.With startling blue eyes it's no wonder he's never been short of a girlfriend(or two)."Ahh,shucks",he replies bashfully.
If you want romance though,18 year-old "Abs" Breen is your man."I'd do anything for the woman in my life,"he beams.A rapper and singer,Abs is the main man in the gym,dabbles in Dj-ing and enjoys his home comforts so much that back in Hackney with his mum that he still hasn't unpacked his stuff.He's also mighty chilled, "I'm really laid back.If there's an argument I just sit back,even if it's a row concerning me.It seems to wind the others up!"
Five's other rapper/singer is J Brown,the oldest member of Five at 21."Sometimes I feel like a daddy five 'cos I'm the one who organises everyone."But don't let taht fool you into thinking Warrington lad J is the sensible one,oh no."Some people think I'm completely nuts,"grins J nuttily.He's the prankster,has a studio in his bedroom at home and once grew a beard so long it touched his chest.He also has a sixth sense when it comes to the female sex."I can sniff a beautiful woman at 20 paces."Uh-oh,trouble!
Individually FIVE are dynamite.Together they're explosive.
Be ready.....
