5 STAR

They were without a doubt one of my favourite groups growing up and I have their greatest hits on my current iPod playlist on heavy rotation. The fact that one of my best friends in primary school was the cousin of the group and would bring in photos of her outings up in Romford Essex, where they lived was a big deal! Boy was I jealous.

I still have the vinyl of their Silk and Steel album in very good condition. It was one of the first records I ever bought… or got my dad to buy. My fave members were Deniece, as she was the lead singer and the prettiest and Delroy as he was the youngest and closest to my age. He was about 15 when they started to have top tens hits, and I was about 10! lol! I guess I had a bit of a crush on him. I never really got Stedman though, even back then! lol!

Managed by their father Buster (just as Joe Jackson managed the Jackson 5), 5 Star were quite unique at the time in that they had their own record  label Tent, which Buster set up, and which they distributed through RCA.  Back then it wasn’t the norm to see a black group from the UK, aimed at the teen pop crowd getting that kind of love, so as a young girl growing up that was really nice to see. They certainly broke down a lot of doors within the music industry in this country.

However it wasn’t an overnight success for the siblings and although they released their first single Problematic (above) in 1983, it failed to chart, as did a few more singles after that. It wasn’t until they readied their debut album Luxury of Life in 1985 that things started to take off. The album spawned the top 20 hits hits All Fall Down and Let Love Be The One, and also produced the number three smash System Addict. These songs, and a couple of others also did well on the Billboard r&b charts in the US, and gave the group a presence stateside.

Their follow-up album Silk & Steel (1986) cemented their place as certified pop superstars by shooting to the top of the album charts, and  producing six top ten records; Can’t Wait Another Minute, Stay Out Of My Life, If I Say Yes, The Slightest Touch, Find The Time and Rain Or Shine, which reached number two in the British charts.  The album went on to sell 1.2 million copies in the UK alone. In 1987 5 Star picked up a Brit Award for best group.

Their third album Between the Lines (1987) contained two of the group’s best known songs Whenever You’re Ready and Strong as Steel, but the set failed to produce any top ten hits. And by 1988 their popularity had seriously dwindled.

The group tried to update their image to keep the buzz going, and out went the baggy jumpers with the number five emblazoned on, them tailored blazers with big shoulder-pads and slouchy boots… And in came the tight black leather big hair and rockier edge in their music! But this didn’t really resonate with music fans, and the subsequent album Rock My World marked an even bigger dip in sales and single chart placements.

Around that time there were newspaper reports saying that the group had gone bankrupt and were forced out of their Berkshire mansion. However, this is something that has always been denied by the 5 Star themselves. They even appeared on chat show Wogan to set the record straight back in the day (below).

Fast forward to the present day and 5 Star have released a few independent albums over the years, while certain members have also done some solo work. Steadman and Lorraine appeared in reality TV show The Salon a few years ago and Deniece is currently appearing in the west end musical Thriller Live. The group now performs as a threesome (Steadman, Deniece and Lorraine).

INTERVIEW:

I interviewed Lorraine from the group back in 2005, and took the opportunity to ask her to address a few of the rumours that had been floating around about the group, over the years.

Firstly, ‘come on love, you can tell us the truth now, did you guys really go bankrupt? (of course I was a bit more tactful than that! lol!) She told me:

‘We’d had a lot of success and we couldn’t get any peace, even in our own homes. People were always outside the gate, which was fine but I guess that’s the price of fame But we needed a bit of a break, a bit of holiday, some peace and quiet. So we ended up in L.A. I think it was because it was done so quietly. That’s why people thought there was something behind it, but we just let the story run. That’s what happens when you are in the public eye’.

However three years later in 2008, big brother Stedman confessed in an interview with the Guardian: 

‘We left [the UK] to try and break America and when it didn’t work out, we went bankrupt, like any other business venture. My father bankrupted all five of us; it had to go into our names and not into the group name because he wanted to revive Five Star somewhere down the line. We lost the house, everything went back, including the cars.’

‘We could have fired my father as a manager and then we would have progressed. We talked about it. My father at one point started to agree but he wouldn’t let go, so things went from bad to worse.’

I also asked Lorraine about being engaged to Eddie Murphy, back in 1988… does anyone else remember that? This is what she said (bare in mind, this was pre-Mel B):

‘Oh… Well… hmmm… We were engaged for… Hmmm. Let me see… five hours (laughs). That long (Laughs).

How did you meet?

‘I watched a show of his, and I liked him. I liked his talent, but I wasn’t in love with him. So I wrote a letter to him saying that I respected his craft, and about a week later he called and said he wanted to take me to dinner. So we went out to dinner, nothing exciting.

So how did it come to an end?

We were hanging out at my parents house, where we were all living at the time. It was a bit surreal having Eddie Murphy in our house, but to him, it was like ‘Wow, you guys are huge’. by that time I had spent a bit of time with him, but there was one moment where we had all just eaten and we were just sitting on the sofa and I looked over at him sitting on the sofa and I thought, this is not the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. We were so different.

And then he was like, ‘well we should go back to the hotel’, and I just thought, ‘Okay, you just wanna sleep with me, and that’s not gonna happen.’ So he was mad about that, and we never saw each other again. But he’s a lovely lovely guy and he is married now with five kids. I don’t regret meeting him. And no we don’t speak anymore.

I also asked her about the whole George Michael-ish incident involving Stedman (back in 1990), when he was arrested and charged with Public Indecency, after an ‘incident’ in a public toilet. She said:

‘I wish you could tell me what it was about. I just saw it in the papers like everyone else and to this day I have no idea what went on. I’ve asked my brother about it and he said it never happened, so I don’t know if he was ever there.

What about the gay rumours concerning Stedman?

‘My brother is very pretty so a lot of people assume he’s gay. I can vouch that he’s not. But then he’s prettier than I am, so maybe that’s why people make assumptions. I don’t see why people would pick on him to get a bit of rubbish press, but there you go.’

I also asked her about Stedman’s changing appearance over the years, and whether he has had any work done. She responded:

‘No, no, he hasn’t had surgery. How do people think he’s changed? I know he’s put on a bit of weight. People do forget that we were so young when we started so we all look a lot different now’

Lastly, asked her about Stedman wearing make-up. She replied:

‘Oh yeah, he loves to wear his make-up. He wears more than I do. He’s very theatrical my brother. But he’s just being himself and what people think is what they think, but I think he looks great, and he just does it for showbiz reasons, so that’s cool.’

So there you have it. Make of that what you will, and leave your comments below.

DID YA KNOW?

• The siblings have a Jamaican father and an Indian mother.

• When the  group first started Delroy was just 11. He is now a successful producer in L.A.

• Missy Elliott is a huge fan of the group and would love to work with them.