- Stone Court
Stone Court is the name of the
Berkshire mansion lived in by UK pop groupFive Star between February 1987 and sometime in 1990.Located inSunningdale , Stone Court became the main focus of the UK media when Britain's then most famous pop group moved there from their humbleRomford semi-detached home. Famously, security gates and CCTV was installed byBuster 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 through 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 aLamborghini Countach , Lorraine aFerrari 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 photographs 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.
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