The TV's on and tuned to the tune channel. Your face flashes across the set. Do you scream and shout or sit back and pout? Find out how the fun-lovin' lads of Five handled seeing themselves on TV for the very first time. Abs, Sean, Scott, J and Ritchie knew it had to happen sooner or later. And the psyched songsters thought they knew exactly how they were going to handle it - totally in control - when BAM!, there they were on the tube, singing the first notes of their single "Slam Dunk Da Funk"! "We just sat there watching, not expecting our song to come on," Ritchie Neville, 19, remembers. "And all of a sudden the video came on. We were like, 'Who's that? Oh my God!" We were really excited."
Calm, cool collected crooners the funky fellows weren't when they first saw their debut video, which has only been released in Europe. "We were jumping up and down on the sofa and stuff going, 'I don't believe it!" Scott Robinson, who turns 19 next month, laughs. "It was all so new to us."
Of course, the second time around - when their first U.S. single and video for When the Lights Go Out from their self-titled CD were released earlier this year - wasn't such a shock for the video veterans. "People know who we are now," 19-year-old Abs Breen relates. "So it was a bit different, definitely."
As the novelty wears off a bit, the Brit babes may not go as bonkers over the release of their upcoming videos, but that doesn't mean that it gets any less weird that being on TV isn't just a dream anymore. There's only one way Sean Conlon can even begin to explain to you how it feels to turn on the set and actually see himself singing and dancing. "Well, it's like, you know when your mom films you on a camcorder, and then she puts it on and plays it back?" Sean, 17, asks. "It's kind of like that."
Well, that doesn't sound strange at all, especially if you're a shy person like Sean, who isn't exactly into having the spotlight shining on him. But then think about the fact that even if you're at home alone, or just with the fam, thousands of people around the world are watching and criticizing your every move, too.

Stressing about their tresses
Still okay, you say?! What if you're having a bad-hair day? "I feel like there's always something wrong with me," soft-spoken Sean confides to BOP about how he thinks he looks on television. "I look a bit uglier or something." Well, Sean may be hard to convince, but Boppers like you know that this guy's got the goods no matter where he's spotted. But, believe it or not, even these babely babes come equipped come equipped with pesky insecurities, just like the rest of us, that prevent them from being totally confident about themselves. Take totally gorgeous Abs; for example. Even though the dark-haired dude looks to-die-for when he croons straight into the camera (especially in his solo rap section), the handsome heartthrob doesn't get as much delight as we do watching him in When the Lights Go Out. "I don't like watching myself," the sweet-natured singer sighs to BOP. "I like performing, but I don't like watching myself." Still, you'd switch places with him in a split second if you could only be on TV, wouldn't you? But remember the time that, even though your friends said you were gorgeous, you refused to pass out your school picture to your pals because you thought it was absolutely atrocious? Well, these babes can't just keep their videos in their pockets if they don't like them. "All the others can say, 'Abs, you look really good," the modest mate shares. "I am like, 'No, I look stupid'" (Hardly!)
Knowing how unbelievably hot he is, you can get an idea of how your friends will feel the next time they try to convince you how good you look, too. But Abs isn't the only babely ballad belter who has reservations about how he translates on TV. "You always think, 'The way I acted on TV, that isn't actually how I act,'" 22-year-old J Brown worries, "but that's how everybody else is going to see me." And Sean, his best bud, totally relates: "I think, 'Is that really how people see me?'"

Showing the real deal
Making sure their fam, friends and faithful fans like you see how they really are is super-important to the songsters. Obviously, the crooners are not worried about things like looking a little silly (like when their faces look kinda funny in the fish-eye lens in their video), but they are concerned about the image they project to people.
And that's why, J explains, you will never get to see the super-sexy version of their video the way it was originally written - because that's just not them. "There was this one part in the American version of 'Lights,'" J explains to us, "when it was supposed to be like this fabric hanging down, and a fan was supposed to blow it against our bodies so it sort of clung to you. But straight away we said to everybody that we don't do that kind of thing. So that got taken out of the script." Standing up for themselves and asking for the script to be revised so that they feel more comfortable with it may not have been the best part of making the video, but the boys still had a blast. "Videos are really fun to do," Scott, the most outgoing guy of the group, raves. "Yeah, big time," Abs agrees, adding that they've got many more in store!