The Jenny Jones Interview

How long has Five been together as a musical group?

Abs: We've been together about a year and three months, actually we never knew each other before. Let's just get the questions you were GOING to ask out of the way first, right!

Thanks.

Abs: We'd never met each other before we got into the band. We lived in a house together in Surrey. It was a mad house. We lived there for about 6 months together and Rich, J and Sean still lived together and Scott and I went home to Mum.

Scott: (babyish) Yeah, home to Mum! Everything went quite fast, we didn't have a long stretch of time where we weren't active. We were put together by the original management who put the Spice Girls together and obviously they parted company, but we're still with them- they're a good management team and RCA Records in England and Arista Records over here.

Abs: Basically we had four singles in Britain.

Scott: All Top 10!

Abs: Well, one Top 10 and three Top 5Ö and over here our current single 'When The Lights Go Out' is at number 10 on the Billboard Music Charts it's been there for about 7 weeks. Out next single coming here is a song called 'It's The Things You Doî followed by the third single which is called 'Everybody Get Up' which was a number two in Britain.

Have you hung out with the Spice Girls then?

Rich: We haven't hung out with them, but we've met them. Sporty Spice, she is so nice. You know that Liverpoolian accent, 'Ay ya, awl yoo awlrioght?' She's very sweet.

So you're all from London?

Rich: No Abs is from London, Scott's basically from London, from Essex and I'm from Birmingham.

If I was thinking about moving to England, where would you suggest I live?

Scott: In London. Definitely.

It's really expensive!

Rich: It is really expensive. If you want a really good city- do you like going out?

Of course, who doesn't?

Rich: Right. If you want a really good bargain and a really good time go to Birmingham. Everyone talks to everyone and if you go out for three nights to the same place you'll end up knowing most of the people.

Abs: It smells there.

Rich: It doesn't smell!

Yeah, I was going to say, isn't it a big industrial city?

Rich: It doesn't matter, you have everything there that you need.

How old is each of you?

Scott: Abs is nineteen, Scott's eighteen and Rich is nineteen. J is twenty-two and Sean is seventeen. J being the big one.

Tell me about the creation of this new album, Five.

Rich: In Europe there are a lot of all-male bands and they all sing really sweet love ballads to get the girls crying and we were like, 'We don't want to do that!' So we went in without any intentions- thought we'd just see what would come out and what came out is what we do.

Scott: We set out with the album to make every track as good as the first one and we didn't just make four singles and then throw a bunch of other tracks on there. We think we've got a strong album, all of which we want to do every time and we've got in the Top 10 with our first single in America.

What is it like spending several months on a road tour?

Rich: It's very hard, life on the road.

Scott: You miss your folks.

Abs: You miss your family and your friends, but then we have a good ol' time!

(Scott feigns weeping, and Abs pretends to console him.)

Scott: You never get to see ëem!

Abs: C'mon, Scott, it's all right now, c'mon. C'mon! (pats him on shoulder)

Scott: Always touring, on the road, never home! (wiping eyes, everyone bursts out laughing)

You guys are sick! You're all obviously good friends though. Do you all hang out together when you're not touring or do you want to get as far away from each other as possible?

Rich: It's not that we want to get as far away from each other as possible, it's more a case of.. you know, we're together all the time and we work all the time and on the days we do have off.

Scott: Öwe try to get as far away from each other as possible. We don't get to see family that much, so we have to see family because if I hang with the lads every single night and we're always going out for drinks and stuff it'd just be Five, Five, Five, Five, Five, you know? It'd be Five all of the time. So there's got to be some time where you forget about Five and you think about your mum and dad.

Rich: And if you didn't, your mum would be really hurt that ëyou're spending all your time with the boys again.'

You guys seem to be really family-oriented.

Scott: We sure are.

Are any of you married?

Rich: Yeah, I've got two children. One's thirteen months old and the other's one's four.

That must be difficult then. Are you lying or are you serious?

(They all laugh)

Rich: I'm lying.

Ha ha. So none of you are married, none of you have kids.

Scott: I'd like to have kids though.

Rich: We'd all like to have kids someday though!

Scott: No no, J would rather die.

Abs: J would much rather die. But the rest of us do.

Do any of you have girlfriends back home?

Abs: I do.

Rich: Yeah, Abs does.

Aw- that must be tough. Does she come on tour with you?

Abs: No, she works as well basically it's meant to be then if we stay together.

I imagine it's difficult or impossible to walk down the street back home and not get mobbed by your fans have you experienced any of that here in the U.S. yet?

Rich: Not too much.

Scott: Not yet, that's why we're going shopping today.

Rich: Yeah see, we go back to England today.

Are you sad about that?

Scott: We're very happy to go back but the difference is we can get away with walking around out here doing whatever and not getting mobbed. In Britain we'll go out on a Saturday morning early and go out to the town to go shopping and we'll suddenly hear this, 'Aiiiiiiiiiyyyyeeee!' It's weird. It's hard.

Rich: The thing is, we've kind of had time to get used to it- it's been a progression, you know. We released our first single and a few people knew us, and with the next one a few more and on and on.

It's kind of fun though, huh?

Rich: It IS kind of fun, but it's just sometimes you're tired and you just want to put your cap on and you just don't want to speak to anyone.

Scott: But then other times you walk outside and everyone is going 'Oh my God, look over there!'

Abs: And we're like, 'We're famous!'