from FLUID Magazine (UK) - September 2001, www.5iveUSA.com
5ive ALIVE
After a year away from the music scene, the UK's best-loved (and most fancied) lads' band return, and Christian Guiltenane can't wait to get down with the bad boys of pop.
"Mm...let's see," muses Abs, as he tucks into his mixed salad, "I like J's butchness... I'd have Ricky for his understandingness... Scott for his cheekiness...!" "Oi, you're only allowed to go for one," booms J, clad in a tight khaki vest, which shows off his freshly tanned chest in all it's glory.
"Okay," concedes Abs, giving his beefy band mate a final once over. "I'd probably just end up rocking you, J."
Eh? Have Five something to tell us?
"Well," chirps up Brummie Ritchie, formerly of heavy-metal combo Anal Beard, "If I had to choose one of the guys, I'd go for Abs or J, 'cos they're both good-looking guys! However, I think Abs would be the best kisser. He has a nasty habit of licking."
A nasty habit of what?
"He licks," Ritchie continues. "Well, he doesn't anymore. He used to lick a lot. You know, you could be sitting there, reading a book, and all of a sudden you'd feel this big wet tongue on your ear!"
In case you're wondering what the hell is going on, 5ive - well, three of them as Sean's tucked up in bed with glandular fever and Scott's taking some time out to play dad - are merely demonstrating why it is after four long years on planet pop, 5ive are still this country's favorite and best-loved boy band.
Since they first stormed the charts with their brilliant debut offering, Slam Dunk Da Funk, back in 1997, which modestly peaked at number 10, the band have gone from strength to strength, having notched up a fine collection of top ten hits along the way. Luckily for them, they don't seem to have lost sight of who they are, and maintain that they're still the same cocky, down-to-earth lads they always were. They're not even afraid, as we discover, to consider which of the others they'd sleep with if they had to be gay for a day.
"We're completely normal guys and we've never changed," J says. "People always say, 'Yeah, you'll change' but we've been ourselves from day one. We've had to put on no false pretense. If you've been in a band for four years and you're constantly having to remember a false age or say you don't get drunk or don't have sex, it starts to grind you down. I don't know how Take That coped with having that regime."
From the outset, 5ive decided that they were going to have more control over their careers than most of their all-singing, all-dancing peers. Although most of their first album had been written for them, the boys demanded that they be involved in the creative process.
"When we first started, we pushed to write tracks," J, the band's self-appointed spokesperson explains. "Luckily, the writers Denniz Pop and Herbie Crichlow were fucking lovely people. They asked us to co-write. We were lucky - most pop bands have to wait for years before they're given that chance. On the second album, we said to the record company, 'We're not being stuck up, but we're not gonna write with anyone who won't give us a credit.'"
Clearly these boys know what they want and aren't afraid to let people know it, manfully pissing all over the idea that boybands are just muppets on greedy manager's strings.
"To be honest, the record company didn't want to release Let's Dance as a single," Ritchie says about the song currently riding high at the top of the charts. "They wanted us to release more of a rocky-rap type thing. But we wanted to go with something different."
"It was one of the biggest battles we've had in our career," J adds, "The record company wanted to release Lay All Your Lovin On Me, which has an AC/DC sample on it; that's quite a typical Five song. We'd been away for about a year and they were like, 'Let's play safe! Let's release that!' As soon as we wrote Let's Dance, it was like, 'That's a fucking smash of a track! This is massive!' And we argued, argued, argued with them, and they finally gave in.
It seems that the need for power, independence and originality is an important part of Five's make-up, especially when it comes to having their say about other bands.
"You always get bands who have success with one or two albums, and when they come back with a new one, they try and go a different route, 'We're not pop, we're R & B,' which is far more credible."
Sounds familiar... could they be talking about their favorite four-piece, A1, who have swapped their hi-erg pop for r 'n and now, apparently look set to release - terrifyingly - a rock album?
"I don't mean to laugh," Abs says, shaking his head in disbelief, "Bless them boys, but how to they expect people to understand them? One minute they're doing dance routines, then they're playing acoustic guitars and all that shit, and now they're gonna do rock! I tell ya!"
Fair enough, but Ben and the boys do write their own ditties, don't they? Ain't that good enough to get the Five seal of pop approval?
"Yeah, A1 write their own songs," sighs Ritchie, "But they write songs that don't push the boundaries. Why can't they be more original? If you pick any of their pop songs, any other pop band could do them and get away with it."
So, does that mean Five are breaking down musical walls?
"We've never said we're better than sliced bread," Ritchie continues, "but we think we do something slightly different, we bring a bit of originality into it, mixing it up so you never know what we're going to be releasing next."
"At the end of the day," Ritchie muses, "your A1s and your Hear'Says are all young people trying to make their dreams come true. You can't blame anyone for that. Good luck to them. I hope they do well."
However, the boys have developed a grudging respect for pop acts that once-upon-a-time they would have dismissed as quickly as anything.
"Before I got into the band," J confesses, "I hated the whole boyband thing and I'd sit and watch TV with me mates and I'd be like, 'Look at them, man! Boybands! I wouldn't do that for a million quid.' And you DO that because there's something about it which isn't what you're really about. But because we're five normal lads, people can relate to us straight away."
"I remember," Ritchie admits, "I used to think that Peter Andre was the biggest prick in the world. I was like, 'How could he do that? What's all that shirt-lifting about?' But when we met the guy, he was the loveliest bloke, and that's when I thought, 'Don't hold a grudge!'"
"Yeah, he was a decent guy, " Abs agrees. "He was doing what he was trying to do. He was surviving. When you see people that are genuine and are real, that's when you relate to them."
But things are a-changing in the land of Five. Four years of schlepping around the world have seen the boys grow, and even seen one of them become a father. How have they seen their own lives develop?
"Our mentality has changed over the past year, " says Abs. "When we first started, it was all about wanting to be famous and make money and all that. Now it's about being a bit more healthy, a bit more happy, 'cause you've achieved certain things and you want to achieve more."
But things must be different for Scott, who's now going to have to balance a busy pop career with the demanding role of dad!
"Yeah, he's changed a lot," says J. "When he phoned us after the birth - and I know it sounds cliched - but there was a definite change in his voice, like he'd grown up. He'd watched his partner go through what she went through, saw a part of himself coming out, that's really gonna change you."
Being the oldest, J can't help but feel a touch concerned for young Scott, and admits that he can't help but admire him for the way he's handled his relationship and the birth of Brennan Rhys.
"I don't know how he's gonna deal with it. It's quite an achievement that Scott and Kerry have stayed together for three years. Scott's been with her since he was 17, 18, so going through all this pop lark is an achievement." He looks thoughtful as he continues, "When I was 21, I was a bit blind, like you are. You think you know it all, then you get to this age (25) and you realise you didn't know shit then. I'm sure it's gonna happen again throughout my whole life."
With one Five guy now the proud father of a wee ankle-biter, do any of the others have any plans to help populate the planet?
"I've always said that I wouldn't want any children," says J flatly, "And I'm still of that mindset that I don't want any. I feel like I've got too much to do. A lot of people say I'm great with kids. I helped raise my nephew with my sister for a couple of years. Looked after him, bathed him, everything. And I do enjoy it, but I believe if you're going to bring a kid into this world you need to be able to know that you can dedicate 110%! There's so much that I wanna do, that I wouldn't be able to dedicate the time."
With the August release of their third album, XL (changed to KINGSIZE later) already in the bag, J's probably right not to get too distracted with babies and relationships. Five have a busy time ahead of them. Once the promotion for Let's Dance subsides, they have to start thinking about their next release - the smoochy ballad Closer To Me - start rehearsing for next year's tour and then go back into the studio to work on extra tracks for a greatest hits collection which is due next Christmas. Together with balancing relationships, children, record company demands and silly questions about who they'd shag in the band, Five have a hell of a lot on their plate!
But just before we bid adieu to the boys, which one of Five would beefy J fancy the most?
"Er...," he groans, looking more thoughtful than embarrassed. "It's a hard one to answer. But I'd definitely say that Ritchie would be the first one to jump in the sack with one of us!"
