90's UK boyband Five are currently touring sold out concerts in Australia and New Zealand during March 2024 with local Sydney acts Sister2Sister and DJ Levins. Five are one of those rare boybands from my childhood that, not only did I actually like, but also managed to stick around in the 2020's and even make a great new album out of it a year or so ago. The group these days consists of 3 of the original 5 members, but to the sold out crowd of the 1000 at Sydney's Metro Theatre, that didn't seem to bother them. I was just happy to see the boys back in our shores again after such a long time.
My story of discovering Five was back in the late 90's. They formed in about 1997 and they were supposed to be the answer to The Spice Girls for boys. Ironically, they would eventually outlive the Spice Girls who went their separate ways in the early 2000's. I remember when 'Keep On Movin'' was a big hit and everywhere. I really liked the song. It had a lot of good energy and positive vibes, just a fun and catchy anthemic song to sing along to. When we were in school, my sister had the original 'Five Greatest Hits' album and I would end up stealing it from her. But that's how I got into them and I loved all of their songs. Sadly, they only made 3 albums in their heydey and eventually disbanded during the mid 2000's, however they reformed a couple of times to much success, and decided to ... Keep On Movin'. The current version of Five features originals Ritchie Neville, Scott Robinson and Sean Conlon. Although J Brown and Abz Love are not involved in the new version, they have given the reunion their blessing.
The MC and Host for the evening was local Sydney DJ, DJ Levins who's made quite a name for himself over the years. The meme-obsessed DJ has previously toured with Five and Sister2Sister before. The night started with an unapologetic 1 hour DJ set from Levins, who performed a lot of fan favourite 90's and early 2000's era songs. That's Ok because Five performed for about 105 minutes. A lot of the songs DJ Levins played I knew from my childhood and the audience and myself were all quite happy to sing along to them. The vibes were great, and DJ Levins kept the crowd entertained.
The first band to come out on stage was 2000's girl pop duo Sister2Sister, who recently reformed a few years ago, and also have a new song or two out at the moment. I'm not sure if they're working on a new album but it would be nice if they did. The last I heard from this group was back in 2003 when they were really big, so I was already familiar with some of their songs like 'What's A Girl To Do' and 'Sister'. The Muscat singers were happily jumping & bouncing around on the stage for about 35 minutes, and looked like they were having loads of fun. They even popped in a new song or two during their set.
At one point they told us they were '28 when they supported Five for the first time back in the early 2000's and now they're 48 and continuing to support Five', I regretted not meeting them during the interval, but since I went to this concert alone I had to hold my spot. I would have loved to met them otherwise as they had some old CDs they were giving out to people with photos, etc. I hope to catch them again another time.
After another brief set from DJ Levins, Five stormed the stage. As I mentioned before, it didn't matter that only 3 of them are in a band that they still called Five. People were still here to see a great band perform great songs to a great audience. They opened up with "Let's Dance" then breaking into an absolutely blistering version of their classic cover of Queen's 'We Will Rock You'. You might be thinking that most bands from our era just mime on stage, but no. Five don't mime and Sister2Sister didn't either. I could hear the breaths of their voices during the songs when they were speaking. None of these acts were miming at all throughout the whole performance and their vocals sounded amazing throughout. It's as if they never changed and they were the same band I remember from when I was a kid. They were bouncing around on stage in big retro jackets as if they were still in their 20's. The audience was responsive throughout the whole performance and never bored or never stopped singing or dancing with them.
It felt more like a rock show than a pop concert and Five are great entertainers, very encouraging towards the crowd and things never seemed to slow down. The set was a mixture of Greatest Hits and new songs, from the most recent album of theirs, 2022's Time. I really enjoyed their new album and I was pleased to see a bunch of new material in the set that the audience really seemed to respond well to. Some new tracks performed were 'Kick The Wall Down', 'Reset', and 'Keep On Movin' (2021 Remix)'. They also performed a couple of rare tracks such as 'Got The Feelin', 'My Song' and 'Lay Your Lovin' On Me', which featured a hybrid mix of the hit AC/DC riff Back In Black, exclusively for the Australian tour much to the crowd's surprise. Of course their big hits, like "Keep On Movin'", "Slam Dunk Da Funk", "Everybody Get Down", "When The Lights Go Out" & more were also performed.
In the end I don't think I was alone. I was with 1000 other great fans who were all there to have a good night out with DJ Levins, Sister2Sister and Five. They made me forget that there are problems in the world for about 3 hours.
Many thanks to the Metro Theatre, Metropolis Touring and of course DJ Levins, Sister2Sister and Five for a great night out.
Five setlist:
Live at the Metro Theatre in Sydney, Australia 10 March 2024
01. Let's Dance
02. We Will Rock You
03. Kick That Wall Down
04. Got The Feelin'
05. My Song
06. Until The Time Is Through
07. When The Lights Go Out
08. Keep On Movin'
09. Written In The Sun
10. It's The Things You Do
11. Slam Dunk (Da Funk)
12. Reset
13. Human
14. Lay Your Lovin' On Me
15. If Ya Gettin' Down
16. Everybody Get Up
17. Keep On Movin' (2021 Version) ~ Reprise
Five's 'Greatest Hits' tour concludes in Australia until the end of this week with stopovers in Perth and Adelaide.
Photos supplied: Cameron Hons
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