East 17’s Tony Mortimer is no longer in touch with his former bandmates.
The 54-year-old singer shot to fame in 1992 with the boy band’s first single ‘House of Love’, with East 17 becoming the ‘bad boy’ alternative to Take That.
However, Tony says he and original members Brian Harvey, Terry Coldwell and John Hendy don’t speak anymore.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column as he prepares to re-release their 1994 festive classic ‘Stay Another Day’ for charity, Tony said: “When you’re that close it’s intense.
“We were very young and people forget how young we were. It was a great time but it’s a huge change.”
After Brian got caught up in a drug controversy and was sacked in 1997, Tony quit the group due to creative differences.
The band reunited in 2006, but after a one-off concert, Tony quit again after an alleged altercation with Brian, with East 17 continuing as a trio.
Today, Terry Coldwell performs as East 17 with Joe Livermore and former Artful Dodger collaborator Robbie Craig.
As he prepares to release ‘Stay Another Day’ on vinyl to raise funds for music therapy non-profit Nordoff and Robbins, Tony Mortimer has admitted he never intended for the song he penned about the heartbreaking suicide of his brother Ollie to be released, but their record label knew it would be an instant hit.
He said: “Stay Another Day wasn’t supposed to be released.
“It was so personal. 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’.”
As well as being their only No.1 in their native UK, ‘Stay Another Day’ also topped the charts in Denmark, Ireland, and Sweden, and was also a Top 10 hit in countries including Australia, France, and the Netherlands.
The iconic music video saw the group – whose ups and downs were documented in the recently released BBC Two series ‘Boybands Forever’ – don over-sized puffy white coats, and while Tony still has the garment, he no longer fits in it.
He laughed: “Mine is in the garage.
“I weighed nine stone back then, I’d never fit in it now.”
Released on vinyl on December 13, £1 from the sale of each ‘Stay Another Day’ record will go to Nordoff and Robbins.