Five Star - Crazy (Tent)

Say hi to the New Edition! Five Star are a family of five black Brits, including three Crolla-clad girls with lightened hair and a pretty good Michael Jackson clone. Someone in the Five Star camp knows a hook when he hears one. They should give him a raise and sack their stylist. (Sunie, No1, November 24, 1984)

Five Star - Strong As Steel (RCA)

Having fought off the gum diseases induced by the Crunchie [British chocolate bar] frenzy on the last tour, those bad ass muthers Five Star are back with a Wacko Jacko style ballad. And just like Wacko singing (and lying) about how 'Bad' he is, squeaky clean Five Star's smouldering lurve song is just as laughable; a bit like the Pope rapping along to 'She's On It'. (Ian Dickson, Record Mirror, October 10, 1987)

Now here's a funny thing. This sounds exactly like Five Star pop discs always do but also uncannily like "Man In The Mirror" from Michael Jackson's Bad LP - except it's not quite as good - which proves, as they can't possibly have copied it, that the Pearson family are plugged into the same cosmic bio-rhythms as their idol Wacko Jacko. Quintuple spook! Whatever next, viewers? Perhaps Doris and Stedman and the rest will start having plastic surgery to look like Michael and then they'll buy a chimp and maybe a snake and, heavens, where will it all end? (Lola Borg, Smash Hits, October 7, 1987)

The Write Stuff: While the A side was written by famous songwriter for hire Diane Warren, the B side "The Man" featured the vocals of one Buster Pearson, Five Star's manager (and father, of course).