Richard Breen's Biography

Richard 'Abs' Breen was born in Hackney, East London on 29th June 1979. Abs is taken from his middle name Abidin.

Abs only had a brief spell in Love Island 2006 before he was evicted. Asked by ITV2's Aftersun, whom he fancied, Abs replied:

"Initially Bianca's whole vibe ...I was like, hmm, not too bad. And Colleen obviously, they both know how to rock a bikini. But then for like two, three days I held the door for Bianca and she didn’t say thanks and that just put me off straight away ..."

Abs's father was Turkish and his mother Irish. Abs went to the Italia Conti Stage School. He developed skills in ballet and DJ-ing.

At 17, Abs joined 5ive (sometimes referred to as Five). The members of the band were "hand-picked from 3,000 hopefuls at an audition set up by the creators of the Spice Girls".

5ive's debut single Slam Dunk (Da Funk) reached number 7 in December 1997, and was the first of many hits including When The Lights Go Out, Got The Feelin', Everybody Get Up, Until The Time Is Through, and If Ya Gettin' Down.

5ive reached number 1 with Keep On Movin' and their cover version of Queen's "We Will Rock You' as well as Let's Dance.

The group comprising Ritchie Neville, Jason Brown, Scott Robinson, Sean Conlon as well as Abs announced in September 2001 that they were disbanding.

In September 2003, Abs released the well-received Abstract Theory.

It followed the release of "What You Got" in 2002, under the auspices of Simon Cowell, who then got sidetracked by American Idol.

In The winter of 2006 Five re-formed. Jason Brown, Ritchie Neville, Scott Robinson and Abs Breen joined forces again, although they were not joined by Sean Conlon.