Bombshell doc uncovers dark truth behind 90s boybands – from violent bust-up with Simon Cowell to staggeringly low wages

WHEN boybands ruled the charts in the late Nineties and early Noughties, there was not much attention paid to their mental health or the pop industry’s duty of care to them.

Now some of the biggest heartthrobs from that era have come together for a new docuseries to reveal what they really went through behind the scenes.

It tells the story of a time when bonkers and brilliant bands made fun pop to entertain the nation.

But it also exposes a dark side of stealing, backstabbing and conniving to make as much cash as possible from acts — at almost any cost.

Revelations include tales of a violent bust-up between 5ive’s Scott Robinson and music guru Simon Cowell and how East 17 were paid just £150 a week while their manager made millions.

Band 911 claim pop megastar Beyonce stole her most famous dance move from them, while Robbie Williams reveals a randy fan performed a sex act on him at a meet and greet.

And Westlife’s Brian McFadden says he was fat-shamed by the band’s manager Louis Walsh.

But Simon Cowell, who helped put 5ive together, has insisted pop stars cannot complain about gruelling schedules and being constantly followed by screaming fans.

He says: “There is a contract you sign which says, I will be available to shake every hand, to have my picture taken whenever requested and my privacy now has pretty much disappeared. It’s just a fact.

“If you don’t want that, be an accountant. You can’t have it both ways.”

‘I’d lost my mind’

Three-part series Boybands Forever, which starts on BBC Two on Saturday, features in-depth interviews with a slew of stars who lay bare what it was really like to be famous at a pivotal time for British pop music.

And the career of one of Britain’s biggest-ever boybands almost ended before it began.

Robbie Williams, 50, has admitted he was close to quitting Take That after their first two singles — Do What U Like and Promises — failed to make a splash.

He confesses: “I wanted to leave. I think everybody felt the same way.”

And their manager Nigel Martin-Smith, 66, recalls: “At one point they nearly did disband.

“I heard noises in the label coming back that if the third record wasn’t a hit, they were going to drop them, so I was in panic mode.”

Luckily, they soon had a No1 hit with Pray. It featured Robbie on lead vocals, which worsened a growing divide between him and the band’s chief songwriter Gary Barlow.

I did a rap in a song called Once You’ve Tasted Love. I can remember Gaz taking me off and going, ‘That rap, it doesn’t add anything to the song. If you want any publishing, I’ll take it off the record’

Robbie Williams on Gary Barlow

He says: “It was Lord Of The Flies. Gary was Nigel’s cash cow.

“Songwriting was for people who had been touched by the magic unicorn. I was resentful.

“I did a rap in a song called Once You’ve Tasted Love. I can remember Gaz taking me off and going, ‘That rap, it doesn’t add anything to the song. If you want any publishing, I’ll take it off the record’. You kind of learn your place.”

Robbie also had a fractious relationship with their manager, who he felt had singled him out.

He says: “Nobody goes through that level of fame and comes out the other side completely sane.

“Then if you mix that with a manager that wasn’t incredible at man management and emotional management, that’s a toxic workplace.”

When 5ive formed with Sean Conlon, Ritchie Neville, Scott Robinson, Abz Love and Jason “J” Brown in 1997, it was a familiar story of exhaustion and frustration.

Ritchie, 45, says: “No one truly cared about your wellbeing. It was all about making them money.”

Simon Cowell was instrumental in putting the group together and wanted to “create chaos”, which was an idea shared by their manager Chris Herbert, who had previously formed the Spice Girls.

Chris, 53, says: “A lot of girls like a bad boy. Take That and Boyzone would come and bring you a bunch of roses, and 5ive would be sh**ging you up against the garage door.”

But on their tiring schedule, Ritchie says: “It was relentless. You’d finish late, then you’d drive somewhere and then they’d have you up at 3am. You’d literally have two hours. It was insane what they expected us to do.”

Spike Dawbarn, 50, from trio 911, remembered a similar pace, saying: “We still worked even though we were ill.

“I can remember I was being sick, and they had a sick bucket there, and they were holding me up while we did a photoshoot. You couldn’t even control your p***.”

5ive had a string of hits, including Keep On Movin’ and Everybody Get Up, but gave up caring, with Ritchie and J getting arrested for a bar fight in Dublin which they hoped would anger their bosses

But Ritchie recalls: “The phone rings and it’s Simon Cowell. Oh s**t. Thinking he’s going to be like ‘What the hell?’.

“His exact words were, ‘Well f***ing done, you can’t f***ing buy publicity like that. This is amazing’.”

And the boys almost sabotaged their own success by rejecting tracks that went on to be hits for other artists — including Britney Spears.

Manager Chris says: “We brought the boys into the studio and said, ‘You’re going to listen to this song, it’s called Baby One More Time’. And the boys went, ‘It’s f***ing w**k’.

“We also got offered Bye Bye Bye which then became a massive hit for NSYNC as well. The boys turned that one down.”

But the pace of life in the fast lane took a particular toll on Scott, who was away from his now-wife Kerry for long stretches.

On reaching a breaking point in 2001, he remembers: “I pinned one of the big cheeses at the record label up against his desk with my foot, crushing him into the wall, and said, ‘I will f***ing leave this band, you try and f***ing stop me’, with Simon Cowell trying to fight me off him.”

Simon, 65, admits: “We almost ended up in a fist fight. I was that close to punching him in the face.”

Scott adds: “I’d lost my mind. They had to call security and carry me out of the building kicking and screaming like a f***ing wild dog.”

Reflecting on when they split later in 2001, Ritchie says: “The big calling for me personally was: The prison sentence and nightmare will be over. I can just be Rich from Birmingham again.

“You were 100 per cent a commodity and a product. That’s how you felt, almost like a plastic doll.”

Speaking about the industry, Simon says: “You could make a lot of money, but it’s a really horrible, disgusting business at times. You’ve got to have thick skin.”

But there were certainly perks, being a young man in pop with thousands of women throwing themselves at you. On one early fan encounter, Robbie says: “There was a meet and greet and all of these girls filtered into this room.

“And a girl, very pretty, backed into me, grabbed my penis, and started to . . . do the thing.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, the prophecy is true. This is what happens when you’re in a band’.

“Nigel obviously thinks differently. He comes out and goes, ‘Get out! You, bed! You, bed!’”

And Blue’s manager Daniel Glatman said Antony Costa had a penchant for glamour models, recalling: “I remember him telling me once that he had just slept with Linsey Dawn Mckenzie and Jodie Marsh.”

He was in one of the biggest bands in the world and he was on £150 a week

Danielle Westwood on then-boyfriend Brian Harvey of East 17

East 17, who had 11 Top Ten singles including the festive No1 Stay Another Day, said they felt swindled out of a fortune by their manager Tom Watkins. Actress Danniella Westbrook, who was dating the band’s Brian Harvey at the time, remembers: “He was in one of the biggest bands in the world and he was on £150 a week.”

On one run-in with Tom and his boyfriend Biff Stannard, singer Tony Mortimer says: “He went, ‘Alright boys, it’s Biff’s birthday. You’ve bought him a studio’.

“‘What do you mean bought him a studio?’ ‘I’ve taken it out of your money, boys’. Hold up, what’s going on here? I was not happy.

“Like, ‘Alright Biff, do you like the studio? We ain’t got no money but we’ve bought you a studio’.”

They hatched a plan to end their contract with their manager, although after Brian delivered the news, they believe Tom had it in for him.

Months later, Brian gave an interview where he bragged about taking ecstasy and was swiftly sacked.

His bandmate Terry Coldwell, 50, says: “Tom thought, ‘S**t, I thought they was all going to sign back with me. We’ve got to try and get rid of Brian because the other three will sign back with me’.

“I think there was some sort of engineering going on to get rid of him.”

Pop trio 911 had hits including More Than A Woman and A Little Bit More, but it was their dance move to hit single Bodyshakin’ which proved to be influential.

The band’s Spike Dawbarn, 50, says: “We did a TV show with Destiny’s Child. We performed Bodyshakin’ and Beyonce was like, ‘Show us that move, keep doing it’.

“We were there, doing it, because if Beyonce asks you, you did it.

“[When I see her] doing the booty shake, I’m like, ah she robbed it. We did it first.”

But it wasn’t only their schedules that were controlled, as was made clear when Blue were put together and told to overhaul their image to meet feedback from music fans.

 Simon Webbe was even made to shave off his afro to land a part in the group.

Simon, 46, says: “I was modelling so I needed my hair for modelling. But if I’d cut my hair and I didn’t get in the band, then that’s my modelling out of the window.

“Lee went, ‘Cut your hair, bruv’. I walked into the label and they went, ‘Ah, there he is!’.”

It was also a time when race was a major factor in music, and Simon said he was referred to as “token” as he was the only black member.

Their manager Dan Glatman concedes: “It was important. I think it gave it a point of difference to put a black guy in there.”

But all-black R&B group Damage said they struggled in the industry and were told they couldn’t be on the cover of Smash Hits magazine because sales would decrease.

‘I hated Louis’

For Westlife’s Brian McFadden, it was their manager Louis Walsh, who went on to become a judge on The X Factor with Simon Cowell, who made the experience hard.

He says: “I hated Louis. Louis would walk into a room and go, ‘Hey everyone’, and then he’d look at me and go, ‘Brian . . . ’ (Blowing his cheeks out). Basically saying that I’m fat.

“He was just horrendous. But very few things that he touched didn’t turn to gold.

“I was working in McDonald’s as a security guard and six months later Swear It Again went to No1.”

Brian was in the band from 1998 to 2004 but had a dramatic departure as he struggled to juggle fatherhood with being in the group.

He says: “It was made very clear to us by the powers that be that our personal lives 100 per cent came second to Westlife.

“We had times where we had relatives die and we couldn’t go to the funeral because there was a gig or an interview that day.”

I hated Louis. Louis would walk into a room and go, ‘Hey everyone,’ and then he’d look at me and go, ‘Brian . . . ’ (Blowing his cheeks out). Basically saying that I’m fat.

Westlife’s Brian McFadden on manager Louis Walsh

Now many of the stars who became famous more than two decades ago have found peace with their experiences.

Robbie Williams says: “Being in a boyband is a tremendous gift but we’ve had to work out how to make the gift a gift.”

East 17’s John Hendy, 53, adds: “I ain’t got no bad feelings, nothing bad about it. I didn’t get no money out of it, that’s the only bad thing I can say.

“When it all finished, I thought, I’ll just pick my tools up and go back to roofing again.”

• The first two episodes of Boybands Forever are on BBC Two on Saturday at 9.15pm and 10.15pm.