Stone Court
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Stone Court is the name of the Berkshire Mansion lived in by UK Pop Group Five Star between February 1987 and sometime in 1990. Located in Sunningdale, Stone Court became the main focus of the UK media when Britain's then most famous pop group moved there from their humble Romford Semi detached home. Famously, security gates and CCTV was installed by Buster Pearson to close the Pearson family off from the gazing media and fans, which would queue up in the hope of seeing a glimpse of their idols. Occasionally, one of the members would appear to sign autographs throught the gates, but rarely were the media invited in.
In 1987, Stedman Pearson wrote and produced an instrumental and named it 'Stone Court'. It can be found on the b side to their top 5 single of that year, The Slightest Touch
In 1988, Anthea Turner visited the group at home as part of saturday morning kids' TV show. She was shown the car park where the group kept their fleet of cars; a sports car each (most notably Denise a Lamborghini Countach, Lorraine a Ferrari 328) and a Rolls Royce tour car with a "5 Star" private numberplate.
In 1990, Stone Court featured in a Hello magazine spread. Five Star showed off their luxurious living room, kitchen and dance studio for the first and last time. Memorably, the huge living room was decked with opulent antiques and furniture, with huge portrait photgraphs of each of the members hung upon the walls.
In 1989 the group installed a state of the art recording studio in the building which they intended for their own, and other acts, use. This business never took off and resulted in the group selling Stone Court amongst a blaze of media headlines and downsizing to a nearby mansion which was (only slightly) less grand. It was around this time the group were accused of going bankrupt, and despite them stating the studio's finances were separate from those of Five Star, exaggerated stories of bailiffs moving in to reposses goods (later revealed to be tabloid reporters employed to act as bailiffs) inevitably damaged the group's image.
In 1995, music industry expert Rick Sky hilariously recalled a time as a journalist he was invited into Stone Court by the group in the late 80's when reviewing their 1995 album Heart and Soul. He recounted, as he mentioned how they were 'on the verge of a magnificent comeback', how they had cooked him a foul tasting burger, talked about being hit by a curtain rail as children by their father whilst Delroy sat, miserable, watching a tv programme on egg manufacturing techniques. The article appeared in the Daily Mail supplement 'Weekend' and without reviewing any of the tracks, Rick begged people not to buy the album, presumably so he would not be reminded of his 'ordeal' in the hands of the Pearson family.
