Five or Six was a UK post-punk band, originally signed to Cherry Red Records by A&R head Mike Alway, who deemed them to be the act with the most potential from the scene he had helped create around the Snoopies club in south-west London. The line-up was fluid, and apart from their key contribution to the best-selling compilation album Pillows & Prayers

Pillows & Prayers

Pillows & Prayers is compilation album released Christmas 1982 featuring artists on the Cherry Red record label at the suggestion of A&R head Mike Alway...

, they are perhaps most notable for the various activities of former members.

John Yorke became a senior executive for both Channel Four and the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and is currently head of independent drama. Dave Harper is involved in the management of bands including Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp are an English electronic music duo, formed in 1999 in London, England, that consists of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory ....

. His brother, Simon Harper, became head of international at 4AD

4AD

4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...

. Dave Knight and Ashley Wales joined Karl Blake

Karl Blake

Karl Blake is a vocalist, bassist, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. Most of his own music can be described as progressive-experimental and sometimes psychedelic.-Musical career:...

 as members of The Shock Headed Peters, with Wales then proceeding to dance/jazz duo Spring Heel Jack

Spring Heel Jack

Spring Heel Jack is an English electronic music group consisting of John Coxon and Ashley Wales.Formed in 1993 in London, England, Spring Heel Jack began their career exploring drum and bass and jungle, but have since branched out into free improvisation and jazz, collaborating with many acclaimed...

. Knight later worked with Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...

 and Danielle Dax

Danielle Dax

Danielle Dax is an experimental musician and producer most active from the late-1970s to the mid-1990s. She was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.- Biography :...

, records solo under the name Arkkon, and with Stephen Thrower

Stephen Thrower

Stephen Thrower is an English musician and author.Formerly a member of the music group Coil , his current music project is Cyclobe, with Ossian Brown...

 (Coil

Coil

A coil is a series of loops. A coiled coil is a structure in which the coil itself is in turn also looping.-Electromagnetic coils:An electromagnetic coil is formed when a conductor is wound around a core or form to create an inductor or electromagnet...

, Cyclobe

Cyclobe

Cyclobe are a music duo based in London, formed by Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown. They make hallucinatory electronic soundscapes by mixing sampled and heavily synthesized sounds with acoustic arrangements for strings and woodwind. Their approach draws upon diverse forms, including acousmatic,...

) in UnicaZürn. Julia Gilbert writes scripts for EastEnders

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

In 2008, Cherry Red released a retrospective anthology, entitled Acting On Impulse.