Neive Devlin

Neive was a producer with a record label who approached Phoebe with an interest in signing her. She offered her a contract which gave Neive a lot of control over Phoebe, allowing her to dictate when and where Phoebe performed and what she sang. Kyle met with Neive to try and negotiate on Phoebe’s behalf but Neive refused to talk to him. Phoebe then spoke to Neive herself and, when Neive still refused to budge, dunked the contract in a milkshake. Neive came back and offered her more favourable terms.

However, Phoebe quickly began doing everything Neive asked anyway, changing her style to a more classy one instead of her previous rock chick appearance and recording generic pop songs. Neive asked Phoebe to record a song someone else had written, then remixed Phoebe’s song with one by Kyle, which had been on a demo CD that Phoebe gave her. When Kyle objected, Neive encouraged both him and Phoebe to break up with each other for the sake of Phoebe’s career, being thrown out of Angelo’s by Brax during an argument with Kyle. Kyle ended up selling the song rights to her.

When one of Phoebe’s songs was played on the radio, Neive invited her to her motel room for a celebration but Phoebe attended a party Kyle had organised instead, leading Neive to sleep with Andy. She began making plans for a 12-week tour of Asia. When Phoebe learned Kyle couldn’t go with her because of his suspended sentence, she tried to pull out but Neive said she was contractually obligated to go. Since the contract could be broken by mutual consent, Ash gave Phoebe the money to buy herself out of the contract.

Neive reappeared a few days later however, returning the money and offering Phoebe a new deal. Phoebe asked for a domestic tour and being able to handle her own publicity and choose her own backing artists. Neive agreed but had a plan of her own. She arranged a launch party in the city and, when Phoebe turned up with Andy, Ash and Matt, made plans to get the men out of the way. She decoyed Matt by getting him to perform as Phoebe’s warm-up act, then had Phoebe sent into a private room after cutting her hand, where Neive’s assistant Grant Barnes drugged Phoebe, with the intention being for him to rape her and film it. Andy and Ash intervened before much could happen but Neive decided they had all the footage they needed.

The video of the assault was leaked online, edited to look like Phoebe and Grant had sex. Neive went to see Phoebe and told her she’d fired Grant and would get her lawyers to try and get the video taken down, but then suggested taking advantage of the publicity it had generated to raise Phoebe’s profile. Phoebe went to meet Neive at the Diner with Brax, Ash and Ricky as back-up, where they questioned aspects of Neive’s version of events, notably that the ambulance she supposedly called for Phoebe’s hand never turned up. Realising Neive had set the whole thing up, Phoebe told her she’d be informing the police, and even if they couldn’t prove anything, Neive was never to contact her again.