Devastated by news of the One Direction singer’s untimely death, for former boyband singers Five the tragedy had a chilling resonance.
Rocketed to overnight fame by their 1997 hit Slam Dunk (Da Funk), the next four years brought a whirlwind of success and scandal for Abz Love, Ritchie Neville, Jason ‘J’ Brown, Sean Conlon and Scott Robinson. Eleven top 10 singles, four top 10 albums and a BRIT Award came with a price for the now middle aged men, who have just completed a 25 date reunion tour, playing to more than 250,000 fans.
Now 46, Scott tells The Mirror: “Liam Payne is an absolute tragedy.” Liam died, aged 31, on 16 October 2024, after falling from a fourth floor hotel balcony in Argentina. Richie, also 46, adds: “It did resonate. And I think it affected us slightly differently than perhaps it would somebody ‘normal’, because we’re in a band – and it was in a hotel room.”
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They certainly understand how easily partying can tip over into alcohol abuse, as the pressures of fame saw Five (also known as 5ive) earn a reputation for wild behaviour off-stage. Richie and J, now 49, were arrested and charged after a drunken brawl in Dublin and they once attacked each other with baseball bats and took mentor Simon Cowell’s car for a joyride.
In 2001, with over 20 million records sold, the band split, after “serious mental health issues” for Sean, now 44, while Scott “had a breakdown”. But today they are very grown-up versions of their former selves.
Scott who instigated the reunion in late 2024, recalls: “I phoned Abz [now 46]. And the five of us met up to speak as friends. Too much time had passed, where I would look at Abz or J’s number on my phone and think, ‘Why haven’t I called? Once upon a time they were my brothers’.” Richie adds: “It was 24 years since we’d all been in the same room at the same time.”
Originally signed to RCA Records when J was 20, Abz, Richie and Scott were 17, and Sean was just 15, in quick succession, Five released hits When The Lights Go Out, Keep On Movin’, Everybody Get Up and many more. ‘It was a hot, fast, rocket that took off. It ended abruptly, and proceeded for the next two decades to completely affect our lives,” says Richie.
J says: “It’s better this time around in all respects. We’re all in a different headspace, individually and collectively. We’re older and crucially we all 100% actually want to be in it this time. We’ve got brilliant people around us. “The first time around we were fending for ourselves a lot. We were young kids. We didn’t have any idea about where we were. We were thrust into fame, taken out of our lives, put in a house together and thrown into this crazy thing. We were given half an hour’s media training above a pub in Primrose Hill with [TV presenter] Kate Thornton.”
Sean interjects: “I was 15 years old, straight from school. “To go from that to instant fame, with no space away from it or days off was wild.” Richie agrees, saying: “Problems were going to arise, someone was going to crack. Or go nuts.” Having too much of everything too soon, J feels they were destined to implode. Unlike bands like Boyzone, who at least did school tours and slowly built a fan base, they had no warm up, according to Scott.
He says: “We signed our record deal, did a Radio One Roadshow as our first ever gig, and then the very next gig we did was the Smash Hits Pollwinners Party, which we won. We were playing arenas from the get-go, it was just mental. I left the band at 21, still a baby, I’d travelled the world and had a breakdown. No wonder it took us so long to get us back onto the stage. We had to fix our broken minds for 20 years. Piece ourselves back together.”
But they have clearly healed and their strong performances are matched by a strong mental outlook. J says: “The first time around it felt like one big fight, the five of us against each other sometimes.” The reunion has helped Richie to make sense of the past. He says: “My memories of Five would have always had a jagged edge if we hadn’t got back together. I’d have always thought, ‘what was that and why did it happen to me?’ Now it makes sense.”
And it has helped to Abz to appreciate their talent. He says: “I am starting to truly believe that we are the best band ever. We rock, we’re so good.” But their wilderness years saw them take quite diverse paths. J threw himself into archaeological studies, Richie opened a restaurant, and the others remained in the music industry, writing and performing as solo artists – although Abz was the only one to release a solo album.
Scott says: “I always thought it was my fault we had broken up, I carried that for years. I spent a long time afterwards trying to get the band back together. But it was never the right time. It would never have worked.” They did get back together briefly in 2013 – although without J – for the Big Reunion Tour, which also featured nostalgic bands 911, Atomic Kitten, Honeyz, Liberty X, Blue, and B*Witched. J says: “I never thought I’d do anything like this again. I’ve spent 25 years going in probably the furthest direction anyone could ever imagine from Five. I was so tainted against the music industry. I was disgusted by it and hated what it had done to me and my friends.”
Meanwhile, Richie spiralled into a drink problem when Five split. He says: “I was enjoying a lot of drinking. Then I got depressed. Then I drank every day to forget. Three years I did that for. I’d sit and think, ‘what are you going to do next?’ Like J, I didn’t want to get back into the music industry. Simon Cowell rang and said he wanted me. I just couldn’t do it. It was the wilderness years. I was completely and utterly lost. My partner at the time said to me, ‘Rich, I have never seen anyone as lost as you’.”
When Five announced their return back in February, with all five members on board, fans went wild. They were not disappointed, with the band’s 2025 tour winning five star reviews. Sean says: “The songs have stood the test of time. People love them now.” He also thinks the band members are now better equipped to appreciate each other. “When we met up for the first time, I instantly felt this magic,” he says. “We appreciate each other now. In the 90s we couldn’t, we were so young. Rabbits trapped in the headlights. Our management definitely made mistakes in the past, but one thing they got right was putting us together. We’ll always thank them for that.”
And there is no danger of them being silenced any time soon. On Sunday, they were the surprise guests at Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball at London’s O2 Arena, while this weekend they will perform on Strictly Come Dancing. Richie adds: “We enjoy each show like it’s the last one we’ll ever do. Because it could all end. The first time around I didn’t ever consider that.”
Sean adds: “But nobody anticipated what our songs would mean to people so many years on. The industry got that wrong.” Some of their most loyal fans have grown up with Five. Scott says: “We once gave a group of girls some yellow blankets outside a hotel, because they were freezing and in the rain – and they came back to see us this year. They were 16 then – this time they brought their kids. It’s crazy.”
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