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‘If Jesus and Buddha had our work schedule, they’d have fallen out too’: boyband Five on bullying, Britney and their blockbuster return

After being fast-tracked to stardom, the bad boys of Y2K pop butted heads and burned out. They explain how they faced their demons for an arena-sized reunion – and why Simon Cowell was ‘a proper winker’

They were due to visit the US, where the lascivious When the Lights Go Out had got huge, but Five – Ritchie Neville (curtains), Scott Robinson (spiky hair), Abz Love (hats), Sean Conlon (baby-faced), and Jason “J” Brown (eyebrow ring) – had other ideas. One night, after a launch party for unlikely label-mates Wu-Tang Clan, they returned home, having had “a few sherbets”, and decided to put up a 3ft poster of the rappers on the living room wall, using a pan for a hammer. “Backstreet Boys had hit massively in the States,” says Ritchie, “so while we were releasing our first single, Clive Davis” – the industry legend behind dozens of stars from Janis Joplin to Alicia Keys – “signed us in America.

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