East 17’s Tony Mortimer: “East 17 and Take That were a bit like Blur and Oasis”

In 2016, which singer posted a picture of herself wearing an East 17 tour jacket?

“Adele.”

ALRIGHT! (CORRECT). Her social media snap was captioned with lyrics from your 1994 hit ‘Around the World’.

“That was a shock but hey, she’s got great taste in music! It was funny. I thought she’d put it on for a laugh.”

She’s sung a snippet of East 17’s 1995 single ‘Thunder’ live at gigs before, and enthused about her love of the band…

“Well, we had a few fans! [Laughs] I think we resonated with people who lived in the city, but she must have been one of our younger fans back then. I love her. She’s down to earth and the things she says make me smile.”

Talking about unexpected supporters, Courtney Love recently revealed that East 17’s festive chart-topper ‘Stay Another Day’ was on her yearly Christmas playlist….

“I didn’t know that! We can add her to the list! [Laughs] When people like your songs, it’s always nice so good old Courtney! I would have thought she would have liked something else, but if she likes ‘Stay Another Day’, that’s nice of her to say.”

Even more unusually, you once collaborated with notorious East End gangster Reggie Kray on a song at his request…

“He asked to see me, so I met him in prison. He was intrigued by fame and celebrities. He said he hadn’t been out in the rain in over 30 years, and had written a song called ‘Falling Rain’ because he dreamed of experiencing that. I put music to his lyrics and sent it back to him and he really liked it, which was a compliment.”

Been around the world, but there's no place like home, oh baby pic.twitter.com/v7gtwVsqm2

— Adele (@Adele) March 22, 2016

East 17 appeared in an NME on-the-road feature following Oasis’ ‘Definitely Maybe’ tour in 1994. When both bands were sharing a hotel in Portsmouth, what did East 17 allegedly cheekily ask the Gallaghers when you bumped into them in the bar?

“I don’t remember bumping into ‘em in a hotel bar.”

WRONG. Apparently one of the band asked ‘Are you Blur?’.

“[Raucous laughter] Well, it wasn’t me! Oh God! I don’t know if that’s true!”

Oasis’ waspish response was reportedly: “No, why? Are you Take That?”

“[Laughs] That’s very bizarre. I’d question that one! This is great! I don’t remember that, so you can put that down as a fail!”

It gets better. As he gets drunker, Liam Gallagher insists he’s going to “sort out” East 17 because, he claims, you’ve “ripped off The Beatles’ ‘Imagine’” – presumably, he’s referring to your utopian rave-pop banger ‘House of Love’.

However, “half an hour later, the singer is insisting all he wants to do is sit down with East 17, neck a few beers and sort out how they can ‘topple Take That’”.

“That’s a great story that I’m hearing for the first time so I’m loving it!”

Name any two acts you introduced when you guest presented Top of the Pops in September 1994 alongside East 17 bandmate Brian Harvey.

“Bon Jovi and…Take That? No? Pet Shop Boys?”

ALRIGHT!  Apart from Bon Jovi and Pet Shop Boys, you could also have had Debbie Harry singing a ‘90s remix of Blondie’s ‘Atomic’, Europop band Corona, The Wonder Stuff, Cyndi Lauper, and Oasis performing ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’.

“Ah, Debbie Harry – of course! I assumed that, for a wind-up, someone would have made us introduce [boyband rivals] Take That. I know Top of the Pops made them introduce us when we were announced as the Christmas Number One in 1994 with ‘Stay Another Day’, which wasn’t very nice, but it was nice of them to do it! We saw Noel Gallagher in the Top of the Pops‘ corridor, and he said, ‘I like your songs’.”

 

“We spent so much time at Top of the Pops. You’d get there early and might pop to the bar across the road. More often than not, you were half-cut by the time it came to perform! Alexander O’Neal was once in the dressing room opposite me. I knocked on his door and asked: ‘Alex, could you sing something for me?’, and he started singing these amazingly soulful vocals at me. The Americans usually had entourages with them, whereas we’d pop in from down the road like four builders! [Laughs]”

You mentioned your boyband nemeses, Take That. Was the rivalry between the two bands real?

“It was a bit like Blur and Oasis. There wasn’t a rivalry, but they were our competition, which was nice. We would have been lonely otherwise!”

Which Irish rock band has a lyric that says: ‘Is there a time for first communion/A time for East 17’?

“U2 – on the song ‘Miss Sarajevo’.”

ALRIGHT!

Yeah! [Mortimer sings it] ‘..a time for East 17?’ He [Bono] said it was the only thing that rhymed! [Laughs] Is there a time for East 17? Well, obviously, there was because we had a moment. Although, no matter how many times I delete it, U2’s album [‘Songs of Innocence’] keeps popping up on my phone! [Laughs]”

What was the headline when East 17 appeared on the cover of NME in 1995?

“[Laughs] What was the headline?! I don’t know! My brain cells have gone due to rock ‘n’ roll!  I’ll just keep on answering, ‘Take That,’, and I’ll be right eventually! [Laughs]”

WRONG. It was ‘The Chip Shop Boys: East 17 Get Fried In Turkey’, where NME joined the band for an MTV appearance in Istanbul. It’s partly a reference to East 17’s 1993 rendition of Pet Shop Boys’ ‘West End Girls’.

“As if I was going to get that! [Laughs] Neil Tennant from Pet Shop Boys said he liked our cover of ‘West End Girls’. We were worried about it. It was our manager [Tom Watkins, also ex-PSB manager]’s idea because he owned the publishing, so it was thrust upon us, but I did my best with it. Neil told us he always wanted to know what it would sound like as a rap version, which was nice. Even if he hated it, he didn’t say so! [Laughs]”

Which ‘80s pop star covered East 17’s 1993 hit ‘It’s Alright’ for her ‘Snapshots’ album in 2011?

“Kim Wilde.”

ALRIGHT!

“I adored Kim Wilde’s ‘Kids in America’, so that was a ‘wow’ moment. Our version was more dancey and loved-up, and I was really happy with her take on it. So many people have done versions of ‘Stay Another Day’ because it’s quite easy to cover. Chvrches‘ version of it was haunting and lovely, and Kylie covered it, which was surreal.”

One of East 17’s earliest TV appearances was on the cult Channel 4 video game challenge show GamesMaster in 1993. But can you remember which game the group played?

“GamesMaster?! Nope, these brain cells are fried! Was it something on the Super Nintendo?”

ALRIGHT! (CORRECT-ISH). Close enough – you played Super Probotector: Alien Rebels (also known as Contra III: The Alien Wars) on the Super Nintendo.

“No, I don’t remember that at all, but if you’re willing to give me a point for the Super Nintendo, I’ll take that. No pun intended!”

Which former NME cover stars remixed East 17’s 1994 single ‘Steam’ for its B-side?

“Gabrielle*…no? I’m just testing! [Laughs] Pet Shop Boys? OK: I know it’s not them, but I’m desperate and have no idea!”

WRONG. It was south London indie-rock heroes Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine.

“CARTER USM! Gosh, yeah! That’s right! I liked them. That was a while back. Well, yeah, my brain cells are fried – you’ve made me realise how fried they were!”

*Gabrielle duetted with East 17 on their 1996 track ‘If You Ever’.

According to a 2013 interview with producer/songwriter Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard, what did East 17 allegedly want to call an album to “take the piss out of” Take That?

“[Hearty laugh] This will be interesting because there’s a lot of things that people say that are supposed to have come from us, but didn’t. Hit me with it!”

WRONG. He stated you wanted to call an album “‘East 17 & Boogie’ to take the piss out of ‘Take That & Party’.”

“No! I don’t think any of us had the word ‘boogie’ in our vocabulary. Bogie, maybe! Maybe it was discussed, but not by the band.”

Speaking of leftfield (possibly dubious) stories, media gossip site Popbitch claimed last year that your ex-bandmate Terry Coldwell once presented the band with a ballad about a place of endless pain called ‘Burger Tree’ – only for you to explain he meant ‘purgatory’.”

“[Laughs] Noooo! People can say anything online, but I don’t remember that. I’m Catholic, so I know my ‘Burger Tree’ from ‘purgatory’!”

In 2017, YouGov polled the British public on whether they considered ‘Stay Another Day’ a Christmas song. Did more or less people think it was a festive track?

“This isn’t real, is it? [Laughs] I’ll say more people said it was a Christmas song.”

ALRIGHT! 35 per cent of respondents regarded it as a Christmas song, and 29 per cent thought it wasn’t. Those who believed it was pointed out it was a Yuletide chart-topper featuring bells and a snow-filled video, while those who didn’t cited the fact it contains no references to the holiday. YouGov concluded it was the Die Hard of Christmas songs.

“[Laughs] Really?! There you go! That’s another feather in the cap that I’ve had a poll done of one of my songs! I never thought ‘Stay Another Day’ would last this long, and I’d be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. It was all unplanned. It felt like a song that’s been chosen by the public. It kept Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ off the top spot – that Mariah might even know who East 17 are feels like an accolade. I remember apologising to [dance group] Baby D for ‘Stay Another Day’ knocking ‘Let Me Be Your Fantasy’ off Number One, ‘cause I really loved that song.

“When I won an Ivor Novello for it, I was so young that I’d never heard of the songwriting award. I thought it was a person! Looking back now, it feels prestigious – better than the swimming awards I got as a kid! [Laughs]”

To mark ‘Stay Another Day’’s 30th anniversary, you’ve partnered with the music therapy charity Nordoff and Robbins, which connects the song to its original meaning – you originally never wanted to release it because it was a deeply sad, personal song about your brother taking his own life…

“Well, that’s the initials of ‘Stay Another Day’ – SAD. It did start out sad, and that’s what inspired the song. It’s about the mental imbalance of feeling that leaving is easier than staying. Since then, it’s become a Christmas bauble, hasn’t it? But it feels very sad every time I play it because obviously I think of my brother, and you can imagine how many times I’ve played it in 30 years. It’s something I try to put to the back of my mind.”

“This is my last year performing it. I’m performing it twice more this year [including at a special concert for Nordoff Robbins in London], and then that will be it because I can’t keep doing it. It’s draining.”

“But people like it for Christmas, and that side of it makes me laugh now. It reminds people of white furry coats and office parties. The public made that song Number One and kept it there for five weeks and that still blows me away.”

The recent BBC documentary Boybands Forever highlighted the pressures teenage boybands faced, and a recent ‘Liam’s Law’ petition has been launched to safeguard the mental well-being and provide adequate breaks for young artists in the music industry. Would protections like that have helped East 17?

“I was always asking for a break, but I never got one. I only needed six weeks off, but it went on and on and became a bit much. You were told to keep working with the threat that if you don’t do it, the whole thing will stop so you had that hanging over your head, thinking: ‘Well, I can’t be selfish and stop this for everyone because I need a break and I’m burning out’. Even footballers get breaks. So if management were required to put measures in place – and it’s feasible – it would be good. Anything that can help people who are mentally struggling, or even a greater awareness about the warning signs would be good, because dealing with fame is an interesting thing. If you can take fame with a pinch of salt, you’ll do well at it, but if you have any mental health issues, the music industry can magnify them.”

 

The verdict: 6/10

“At 54, I can’t remember what I did this morning! Though I question the ‘East 17 & Boogie’ one! [Laughs] As long as my score’s half as good as when Suggsy from Madness did this quiz, then I’m happy!”

Mission accomplished – Suggs only scored 3/10!

On December 13, London Records will release a limited special 7” vinyl edition of ‘Stay Another Day’, which can be pre-ordered here. For all items sold via www.stayanotherday.co.uk, London Records will be donating £1 to Nordoff and Robbins Music Therapy. Tony Mortimer will perform a rendition of the iconic song at the Nordoff and Robbins Carol Service in London on December 10. Tickets are available here.

For help and advice on mental health:

• CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably
• Help Musicians UK – Around the clock mental health support and advice for musicians (CALL MUSIC MINDS MATTER ON: 0808 802 8008)
• Music Support Org – Help and support for musicians struggling with alcoholism, addiction, or mental health issues (CALL: 0800 030 6789)
• YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
• Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
• The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day

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