In an era packed to the brim with boy bands, Five was the British group who seemed to be having the most fun in the late ’90s, with dancefloor-dominating number-one hits, including Everybody Get Up and If Ya Gettin’ Down.
But behind the baggy pants, dodgy hairstyles and 20 million records sold worldwide, things weren’t so rosy away from the spotlight, with members suffering from mental breakdowns and exhaustion. Now 25 years after they last toured Aotearoa, Sean Conlon, 44, Richard “Abz” Breen, 46, Jason “J” Brown, 49, Ritchie Neville, 46, and Scott Robinson, 45, have reunited – and they’re bringing their cheeky, energetic brand of pop to Auckland for one night only.
Here, the lads chat to Woman’s Day about the backstage drama and how they healed each other…
What are your memories of last time you were in New Zealand?
Scott: Blimey, it was a long, long time ago!
Ritchie: Last time I was there, I came down with chickenpox. It was pretty full-on. But I do love New Zealand – it’s beautiful. Scottish people always say God put New Zealand there as a gift to Scottish people, so they could be as far away from English people as possible and still feel like they were in Scotland.
OK, pop quiz time. Can you each name a place in New Zealand?
J: Auckland.
Ritchie: Christchurch.
Sean: Wellington.
Abz: That’s the three I know. Not fair! Tasmania?
Scott: New Zealand Land?
I’ll give you guys a pass.
Can you name a famous New Zealander?
Scott: Someone from Crowded House.
Abz: Rhys Darby!
Sean: Robbie Hunter-Paul played rugby league. Oh, and Jonah Lomu! Is Ladyhawke from New Zealand?
Ritchie: I was going to say Jonah! Jacinda Ardern then.
J: Er, God?
We would’ve accepted Lorde. Hmm, let’s Keep On Movin’…
How is band life different these days?
Abz: Nothing has changed. We’re brothers and that bond will always be there. The dynamic is still basically five teenagers.
J: We’re reliving a part of our youth that we didn’t fully live then. There’s an energy when we’re all together.
Scott: But we’ve got a newfound respect for each other’s feelings. Back in the day, we’d each think we were the only person going through a certain situation, when in reality, we were all dealing with exactly the same thing – we just didn’t voice it.
Sean: We respect and appreciate each other a whole lot more. In the ’90s, we were aged between 16 and 21, so it was over-whelming, but now we’re more grateful that people enjoy our music.
Were there some awkward conversations getting back together?
J: Not awkward, but we needed to say to each other, “This really fked me off,” or, “This wounded me.” We needed to clear the air.
Abz: I did walk into J’s hotel room once and there was a llama with a video camera strapped to his head. That was awkward.
J: We’ve talked about this. The llama was just filming me playing Mario Kart, OK?
Ritchie: But seriously, when we first joined the band, it was like strapping ourselves to a rocket and fame did stuff to us from such an early age, when we were just trying to find our way in the world. Now we’ve grown, processed it and reconnected. We understand the shared experience we had together.
Scott: We’ve all lived good individual lives, but there was always that thing in the back of our minds, like, “What if we never do that again as a five- piece? That would be so sad.”
Sean: It’s not really a reunion, more like continuation, because our journey was cut off too soon. We’ve all been quite tortured for 25 years.
Ritchie: We were left questioning, “What was that?”
Sean: Like the Lorde song!
J: It’s like if you’ve been in a really fking heavy relationship with someone, then it ended before it had even had a chance to wind down. It got ripped away from us and we had no closure.
Scott: We were still married – we never got divorced!
Sean: Getting back together has taken a massive thing off our chests. It’s beautiful.
Are there any ’90s fashion moments you cringe over?
Ritchie: All of them.
J: Everything across the board.
Sean: We looked daft, but it clearly worked at the time.
Scott: I was very, very skinny, with a size-28 waist, but I’ve found a pair of trousers from back then that were size 40-something! You guys had some high-profile girlfriends, like Melanie C, Billie Piper and Atomic Kitten’s Natasha Hamilton.
What was it like dating in the spotlight?
Ritchie: It was annoying. You couldn’t go shopping or just walk to a restaurant. It was like being in a James Bond movie, where you’d tell your driver to lose the car following you. It put a lot of stress on the relationship.
J: Abz was dating a hermaphrodite camel who didn’t want any limelight.
Abz: I kept myself out of the dating scene intentionally back then, but I’ve got a nice list that you would love to know. Not just the hermaphrodite camel.
J: Myself and Melanie are still good friends. The time we were together was really f**king cool. It would’ve lasted a lot longer if we hadn’t been under so much pressure with what we were doing.
Abz: It all went a bit weird when J pulled out the gas mask and the tangerines. That’s when she called it a day.
J: She’s not into citrus fruits or latex, unfortunately. But she’s still my favourite Spice Girl! She’s just a very cool, normal chick.
What was the craziest thing you guys got up to back in the day?
Ritchie: Frigging hell! We used to get blind drunk just to escape our lives, drinking vodka out of the bottle to the point where we had to be taken to bed. But then we’d be off again the next day.
J: We were not professional. I remember dancing half-naked on top of a bar in Manchester at six o’clock in the morning, doing shots of Sambuca. Actually, Melanie was there. We were ripping it up! And we had a show the next day. We’re a lot tamer these days.
Sean: But Auckland is the last stop on this tour, so we’ll be partying hard for sure. See you on top of the bar!
Five plays Auckland’s Trusts Arena on Monday, 25 May. Tickets are available on ticketek.co.nz.
