Five, Glasgow review: 'not short of bangers'
This reunion show appeared to mean every bit as much to the original members of Five as it did to the capacity crowd at the Hydro, writes Fiona Shepherd
Five, Hydro, Glasgow ★★★★
In the fertile boy band landscape of the Nineties, Five were self-styled as “five bad boys with the power to rock you”. Landing like Take That’s mischievous little brothers, they made judicious use of the two rappers in their line-up, Abz and J.
Inevitably, it ended in tears and breakdowns first time round, with successive line-ups shrinking to Four, Three and even Two. Now in their late 40s, the full original line-up, completed by singers Scott, Ritchie and Sean, have reunited for a tour which appeared to mean every bit as much to them as it did to the capacity crowd at the Hydro.
The Five catalogue is not short of bangers, with lyrics requesting a deal of getting up and getting down. They opened with debut single Slam Dunk (Da Funk), then, as now, an infectious showcase of their blend of old school hip-hop and pure boy band pop.
To their credit, the quintet were just about on top of those original dance moves as they hoofed it straight into the busy funk pop of Shake, with Abz and J trading bars. Another early single Got the Feelin’ shamelessly referenced the summer sounds of De La Soul.
Their band were able to get their teeth into the AC/DC-sampling Lay All Your Lovin’ on Me and their passable Queen cover, We Will Rock You, but their feeble spin on The Human League’s Human was a reminder of the trial and error in building a boy band identity.
They had their own reedy ballads anyway, but thankfully were more often characterized by their stomping party anthems, fully represented here from the explosively funky If Ya Gettin’ Down to Let’s Dance, their most satisfying synergy of disco, pop and hip-hop, and on to the righteously rocking Everybody Get Up and pure sunshine joy of Keep On Movin’.
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