Five Star: Luxury Of Life

[Sheena]

Amazed we don't have a thread for this, but THERE YOU GO.

The debut Five Star album I still maintain is a) one of the best R&B albums of the 80s and b) really fucking good. It's so overlooked- mainly because of the poppy stuff that came after and gave them a very different reputation. It's also often forgotten how big they were on the US R&B charts at this point and weren't seen as a "pop" act in America at all.

The first six tracks are absolute solid gold, though it tapers off towards the end. I still think Let Me Be The One is one of my favourite songs of all time.

10 Love Takes Over
10 All Fall Down
11 Let Me Be The One
10 System Addict
10 Hide and Seek
10 RSVP
07 Now I'm In Control
07 Say Goodbye
09 Crazy
08 Winning

And here's a nice photo of the album on my balcony this morning, which is what inspired this thread...

 

[VV]

The first four songs must be up there with the best opening four songs on an album ever.

 

[VoR]

Went to put this on now, inspired by this thread. By GOD, considering how big they were, their streams are absolutely pitiful. Less than 100,000 a month!

 

[Jocasta Clun]

It was their best album I guess thanks to a PATINA of COOL supplied by working by the likes of NICK MARTINELLI but really that's NOT SAYING MUCH

 

[Sheena]

Went to put this on now, inspired by this thread. By GOD, considering how big they were, their streams are absolutely pitiful. Less than 100,000 a month!

Entirely forgotten. Their legacy is as a schmaltzy pop act with naff costumes.

Ridiculous when you consider some of the stuff they did.

 

[VV]

I must admit I struggled to get into any of their later stuff that didn't chart, but their singles run from 1985-1988 is entirely faultless.

 

[BoysForSeles]

Let Me Be The One is such a cool, mature performance for a teen band.

Say Goodbye is a drippy low point but as it was written by Lorraine quite savvy to bung on from a royalties perspective,just like the self created instrumental bsides on hit singles they were so keen on.

 

[funky]

I’m not familiar with this album at all. I know the (hit) singles obviously.

Didn’t the second album have like 6 singles? that album I have listened to, it’s like a GH set

 

[Sheena]

I’m not familiar with this album at all. I know the (hit) singles obviously.

Didn’t the second album have like 6 singles? that album I have listened to, it’s like a GH set

This one has 7 singles!

I even thought about tagging you in this this morning. It’s right up your street- far funkier and soul based than the second album.

 

[funky]

I shall take a listen later.

 

[funky]

I can only name 2 singles on this album but once I listen I’m sure I’ll recognise more. The second album is way more familiar to me.

 

[Sardonicus]

Entirely forgotten. Their legacy is as a schmaltzy pop act with naff costumes.

Ridiculous when you consider some of the stuff they did.

Played this album for the first time ever yesterday, & yes, a consistently good & forgotten set of very decent R&B.

I CAN BE YOUR NUMBER ONE
YOU CAN DO ME UP THE BUM
R.S.V.P.

 

[Joseph]

I haven’t heard this is ages. I think that’s the car ride home set then

 

[BoysForSeles]

It always amazes me that they won the Brit Award for best group one year. Not because they didn’t deserve it but more that the voting panel allowed it to happen instead of a rock band.

Bearing in mind how big they were for a while it always feels a bit….off that they haven’t had a nostalgic renaissance or are more fondly remembered and appreciated now like many of their contemporaries are.

 

[Joseph]

Ok it’s still an excellent album. I wouldn’t rank anything below 8 except maybe Say Goodbye.

I think my fave track is Loves Takes Over

 

[Sheena]

Played this album for the first time ever yesterday, & yes, a consistently good & forgotten set of very decent R&B.

I CAN BE YOUR NUMBER ONE
YOU CAN DO ME UP THE BUM
R.S.V.P.

It really is one of the best British RnB albums of the 80s. Silk and Steel was more pop, but this was very different. System Addict was the turning point- the poppiest thing on the album being the (finally) big hit that sent the album platinum is what made them follow that path. But in things like Let Me Be The One, you’ve got genuinely credible RnB that rivalled the US and, indeed, broke through on their RnB charts.

And Deniece has one of the best British soul voices ever.

Thanks for the reminder- I’m going to pop it on this morning.

 

[Sheena]

It always amazes me that they won the Brit Award for best group one year. Not because they didn’t deserve it but more that the voting panel allowed it to happen instead of a rock band.

Bearing in mind how big they were for a while it always feels a bit….off that they haven’t had a nostalgic renaissance or are more fondly remembered and appreciated now like many of their contemporaries are.

Maybe because they were never a band really for screaming girl fans or gays?

 

[VoR]

DON’T GET MAD AT ME, SHEE

And I know they were a lot bigger in their day, but in terms of their low streams, I think they have a little of what I call the ’Louise’ problem, in that they never had that one era-defining hit that lives on in compilations, recurrent radio play and - perhaps most importantly these days - streaming playlists.

I’ve probably heard Rain or Shine a small handful of times on Radio 2, but on the whole they had a good run of second-string hits (commercially speaking) that never really had enough impact to be remembered outside a small cadre of loyal homosexuals.

That none of them have particularly stuck around in celebrity culture probably doesn’t help either. No solo careers of note, none of them terribly active in TV reality or otherwise. There really isn’t much of a trigger to remember them, unless you’re on a nostalgia show cackling over that prank call clip that gets wheeled out from time to time.

 

[Sheena]

DON’T GET MAD AT ME, SHEE

And I know they were a lot bigger in their day, but in terms of their low streams, I think they have a little of what I call the ’Louise’ problem, in that they never had that one era-defining hit that lives on in compilations, recurrent radio play and - perhaps most importantly these days - streaming playlists.

I’ve probably heard Rain or Shine a small handful of times on Radio 2, but on the whole they had a good run of second-string hits (commercially speaking) that never really had enough impact to be remembered outside a small cadre of loyal homosexuals.

That none of them have particularly stuck around in celebrity culture probably doesn’t help either. No solo careers of note, none of them terribly active in TV reality or otherwise. There really isn’t much of a trigger to remember them, unless you’re on a nostalgia show cackling over that prank call clip that gets wheeled out from time to time.

I think the celebrity culture bit is true, not least because of their downfall. The press pulled them apart- they spent big and crashed hard and were figures of fun for a while.

They suffer from their absolute biggest hit, Rain or Shine, being so twee that it’s basically unplayable for a modern audience. System Addict was as big at the time, though, but, again, it feels quite outdated, particularly its subject matter. (“Boxes that go beep” indeed).

Also, the Louise comparison is rot. She never WAS very big. She had middling hits that peaked high and tanked, mainly thanks to her lads mag profile. Five Star were HUGE at the time- and everywhere, both in the charts and on tv/ in the press.

The first three albums all sold very well and the second was massive (1.5 million ish?) in a way Louise could only dream of. They weren’t actually a gay interest band at all at the time- though I grant you that nowadays that’s their core fanbase but then outside of the 80s behemoths, that’s the same for any 80s female fronted act.

 

[lolly]

Yes, as someone squarely in the target audience at the time (I was 14 through 17 at their commercial peak), they weren't 'gay interest' at all. Obviously as a pop band (at least when they moved more squarely into pop), they appealed to gay fans, but they had major mass market appeal. Although I think VoR's 'gay interest' point was more in terms of who remembers them rather than who they appealed to, reading his post again.

I think part of the problem in terms of how they are remembered (or not) is how useless the UK record industry was for decades at handling black UK acts. They never knew what to do with them and were often paid dirt as soon as the success dried up. Which probably also helped explain the pivot into more straightforward pop ( because that the industry knew better how to promote than RnB), and then also not really giving a shit in terms of them having any status as a legacy act.

 

[VoR]

Before Steadman died, when was the last time they did anything together as a full group?

I know one of them (Deniece?) tours the nostalgia circuit occasionally as the voice of Five Star or something, but did they not all have a bit of a falling out?

 

[Sheena]

Yes, as someone squarely in the target audience at the time (I was 14 through 17 at their commercial peak), they weren't 'gay interest' at all. Obviously as a pop band (at least when they moved more squarely into pop), they appealed to gay fans, but they had major mass market appeal. Although I think VoR's 'gay interest' point was more in terms of who remembers them rather than who they appealed to, reading his post again.

I think part of the problem in terms of how they are remembered (or not) is how useless the UK record industry was for decades at handling black UK acts. They never knew what to do with them and were often paid dirt as soon as the success dried up. Which probably also helped explain the pivot into more straightforward pop ( because that the industry knew better how to promote than RnB), and then also not really giving a shit in terms of them having any status as a legacy act.

I think the latter point is also very true.

 

[Sheena]

Before Steadman died, when was the last time they did anything together as a full group?

I know one of them (Deniece?) tours the nostalgia circuit occasionally as the voice of Five Star or something, but did they not all have a bit of a falling out?

Yes. Though I think they’ve reconciled since he died. Deniece fell out with all of them and toured as Five Star with four ridiculously young backing dancers.

I don’t think they ever did anything as a full band- it was often three of them but never the full five.

 

[Sardonicus]

System Addict was as big at the time, though, but, again, it feels quite outdated, particularly its subject matter. (“Boxes that go beep” indeed).

I thought it was FOXES that go beep for absolutely YEARS & never even questioned it

 

[Sheena]

I thought it was FOXES that go beep for absolutely YEARS & never even questioned it

The Basil has never been so appropriate.

 

[Sheena]

I’ve always thought “I’ve got a hardware habit” was secretly FILTHY.

 

[Sheena]

I’m having a proper BOP on this train.

YOU GET TO DANCE WITH ME
PLEASE

I-I-I-I-I CAN MAKE YOU NUMBER ONE

 

[Sheena]

I do the SOFT SHOE SHUFFLE

 

[Sheena]

Also, part of the fun with Five Star is you just KNEW old Doris was one bag of marbles and a well placed staircase away from trying to take Deniece’s place at ALL TIMES.

 

[lolly]

I was never into the album at the time, and my score is based on that, and the singles which I remember to varying degrees. I never owned it, but remember borrowing on cassette from the library.

I think by the time Five Star arrived, I had reached peak Madonna fandom. I had been a huge pop music fan since the mid/late 70s (a run of Brotherhood Of Man/The Dooleys/Bucks Fizz carrying me through from age 5 through to early teens) but by this Bucks Fizz had waned commercially, and headed further into AOR anyway and I was looking for something else.

Madonna filled that gap more with the post disco synth funk of her first album than Five Star did for me. I did buy Silk And Steel and preferred that to some degree, but they never felt like 'my act' like all my other favourites did at their time.

 

[lolly]

Also, part of the fun with Five Star is you just KNEW old Doris was one bag of marbles and a well placed staircase away from trying to take Deniece’s place at ALL TIMES.

Doris was always my favourite. She always served face long before I had any concept of what that meant.

 

[BoysForSeles]

It was Deniece and Lorraine who had the big falling out and still don’t talk. It stems officially from Deniece working as Five Star occasionally but Deniece says she’s said they’re all welcome with her at any time and has had her mum’s blessing to take on gigs as Five Star herself.

However, Lorraine said she and Deniece were never close even as kids putting it down to sibling rivalry as they in particularly were close in age. The fact the other four did a reworked version of Let Me Be The One suggests where real loyalties lie. I think Deniece is now at least cordial with Doris and Delroy.

For me Lorraine was always the third sister in the pecking order so should not be the one causing trouble professionally.

 

[Sheena]

Doris was always my favourite. She always served face long before I had any concept of what that meant.

Absolutely. You just knew she’d cut a bitch.

 

[BoysForSeles]

Talking of Louise I think the closest comparison is actually Eternal, indeed Louise being the Lorraine of the group although Lorraine got to write and sing more. Eternal apart from IWBTOO which almost crosses the line to being a catalogue outlier are very underappreciated in relation to their success though I don’t mind the sisters not getting their flowers.