East 17 won’t be reuniting any time soon (Picture: Mick Hutson/Redferns)
Bad news for anyone hoping for an East 17 reunion, Tony Mortimer has revealed the band is not on speaking terms nowadays.
The boy band — consisting of Tony, Brian Harvey, Terry Coldwell and John Hendy — rose to fame in the 90s with tracks like House of Love and If You Ever.
East 17 solidified their legacy in 1994 when they landed the Christmas number one with Stay Another Day.
The song will now be re-released as a single to raise money for Nordoff and Robbins with £1 of every seven-inch vinyl sold going to the charity.
However, the rest of the band are not returning for this re-release as they are no longer friends.
‘When you’re that close it’s intense,’ Tony told The Sun. ‘We were very young and people forget how young we were. It was a great time but it’s a huge change.’
They found huge success in the 90s (Picture: Tim Roney/Getty Images)
Tony has re-released their iconic Christmas track (Picture: Kate Green/Getty Images for Bauer)
East 17 were created after the success of Take That, living together in a house in Walthamstow, London.
They secured 12 Top 10 UK hits, including their Christmas number one, while cultivating a bad-boy image that proved to be their downfall.
In 1997, the group was hit by huge controversy after lead vocalist Brian spoke about taking drugs during a radio interview.
Months later, Tony exited East 17 over creative differences but returned (albeit briefly) in the early 2000s and then once again in 2010.
The song Stay Another Day was written by Tony after the suicide of his brother Ollie at age 19 and was never intended to be a festive track.
Tony said the group just aren’t on speaking terms (Picture: Mick Hutson/Redferns)
He told The Sun that Stay Another Day ‘wasn’t supposed to be released’ at all but the label convinced him to give it a chance in the charts.
‘It was so personal,’ the singer continued. ‘It was a little ballad inspired by him and I changed it into an ambiguous love song but the pain came from there.
‘As soon as the label heard it they said, “That’s going to be Christmas No1”.’
Last year, Terry — who still tours under the East 17 name – shared that he did not believe the band would reunite any time soon either.
‘As you get older you have to be on the same page and we’re just not on the same page,’ he told the BBC.
‘I’ve tried getting the band together so many times, spent so much energy doing it, but it’s never come about.’
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