ATLANTIC STARR LIGHTS A FIRE ON CHARTS

Atlantic Starr--the R&B; group that sings the Top 5 single “Secret Lovers”--has always been known as a bland band. That’s a knock on the band’s image, not its musicianship.

This simply is not a fiery soul unit. The problem is that Atlantic Starr is known primarily for its ballads. And how many ballad bands have a sexy, exciting image?

The band members are quite aware of its stodgy image. “People always say, you guys aren’t exciting, and you don’t do anything exciting,” noted the band’s spokesman, Wayne Lewis, in his soft monotone. Even in a quiet restaurant--deserted after lunch--it wasn’t that easy to hear him.

Vocalist/keyboardist Lewis, 28, sprang to the band’s defense in his typically low-key manner: “We’re not dull. We concentrate on singing well and playing well and writing good songs. You can’t knock us for that. We’re just not flashy.”

To counter this damaging image, Atlantic Starr decided to focus on faster, funkier material for its latest album, “As the Band Turns.” To a degree, this plan has worked. Though the up-tempo singles weren’t smashes, the album has done fairly well on the black charts.

“But it still wasn’t satisfactory,” Lewis insisted, recalling the album’s first months in release. “It was like our other albums--doing OK on the black charts but still not going gold (500,000 copies sold).”

Long after the album was released, pop radio wasn’t tuned into Atlantic Starr. Most pop fans still had never heard of the band. Lewis blamed Atlantic Starr’s invisibility in the pop market on A&M;’s lack of effort. The company, of course, claims the problem was that pop fans simply didn’t care for the “As the Band Turns” material.

But then the fourth single, “Secret Lovers,” clicked. What a surprise. First of all, the album has been around for nearly a year. It’s rare for a single from such an old album to become a hit.

Even more surprising is that “Secret Lovers” is a ballad. After all that effort to energize the image, a slow, romantic song--the kind long identified with Atlantic Starr--becomes the band’s first major pop hit. Also, the album, No. 25 on the Billboard magazine pop chart, is the first Atlantic Starr album to sell more than 500,000 copies.

Does this mean a dead end for Atlantic Starr’s up-tempo direction and a reemphasis on ballads?

“No,” Lewis replied. “We’ll continue doing the fast stuff.”

Now that pop fans are finally enraptured by Atlantic Starr’s ballad sound, the band wisely is going to give the people what they want. The next single, “If Your Heart Isn’t in It,” is a ballad.

It turns out that Atlantic Starr hasn’t been as squeaky clean as most of us thought. “There hasn’t been a lot of gossip about us,” Lewis pointed out, “but there was some stuff--some of it nasty--going on before we did this last album. There were some conflicts. We’ve just kept things pretty quiet--until now.”

There’s a reason they were able to keep the turmoil quiet. No one was interested in it. A little over a year ago, Atlantic Starr seemed doomed. Bands that seem headed for the pop music graveyard don’t get too much media attention.

What happened was that the band went through a bitter battle that polarized its nine members. The conflict surfaced during the recording of “Yours Forever” (1983), the band’s fifth album since its formation early 1976. Recording that album virtually destroyed Atlantic Starr.

Leading one faction was Lewis and his brothers--singer/guitarist David and trombonist/keyboardist Jonathan. Joe Phillips, the original percussionist, was also on their side, opposing the other five members.

“Everybody wanted to do what David and I were doing,” Wayne explained. “We’re the main writers and we work hand in hand with the producers. All of a sudden everybody had their own ideas about concepts and directions. There was a tug of war in all directions.”

Producer James Anthony Carmichael, fed up with the in-fighting during the sessions, quit after “Yours Forever,” his third consecutive album with the band. Disjointed and dreary, it’s easily the worst Atlantic Starr album. Lewis disliked it so much that he didn’t even want it released.

“The album reflects the conflicts we were having,” he explained. “There wasn’t a whole lot of harmony. When people are fighting and thinking about breaking up they obviously don’t work together very well. It’s hard to do your best work when there’s tension all around. The magic wasn’t there.”

Not too many fans liked the album either. The previous albums sold about 400,000 each--which is quite respectable. “Yours Forever” sold half that.

According to Lewis, when A&M; discovered that Atlantic Starr was being rocked by internal turmoil, the company first froze its royalties and then dropped the band from it roster.

“There was no money coming in,” Lewis recalled. “Money was held up from the summer of ’84 to the end of ’84. Our houses and our cars were in danger. We were inspired into doing something about our situation. Actually, we were scared into acting.”

The nucleus of the group, the Lewis Brothers, stayed with Atlantic Starr, along with percussionist Phillips. The others left.

Some thought the most devastating loss was singer Sharon Bryant. Actually, her importance with Atlantic Starr was always exaggerated. The band’s sound is much more polished and sensual without her. (Incidentally, her solo career has been a bust so far.) Her replacement, 21-year-old North Carolinian Barbara Weathers, is a superior singer.

“We can do more things with Barbara than we could with Sharon,” Lewis insisted. “With Barbara, we’re a more exciting group. And anything or anybody that’s going to add excitement to our group is welcome. We need all the excitement we can get.”