Crack

Boy bands aren’t what they used to be. In the world of current market leader, JLS, it seems to be a never-ending mission to see how many products they can get their moisturised mugs on (this includes your penis in their responsible, if not slightly unnerving, condom range).

Boy bands and pop music are important as they set the stall for a generation of teenagers. So if boys that look like girls and facial creams are the order of the day, you can’t help but look back with a certain fondness to the days when East 17 were ruling the chart roost.

More than a little rough around the edges, and fronted by the dynamic twosome of Brian Harvey and Tony Mortimer with backing singers John Hendy and Terry Coldwell, their urban dress sense, goatees and shaved heads made them a boy band with a bitof attitude. In a five year on-and-off chart battle with Take That, they actually sold more records than their rivals and spawned a whole generation of teenage boys wearing their caps sat on top of their heads, hooped piercings and baggy khaki – not to mention the white parkas in the Christmas nuber one Stay Another Day video.

Back together minus one man quote-machine Brian Harvey, a new outlook and a new member, it remains to be seen if that 90s boy band magic can be recreated. Original member, song-writer and the music man of the group, Tony Mortimer, is optimistic.

How are you doing?

I’m doing good. I might call my new album Crack! Where the fuck did you get that name?

Well it’s taken on a bit of a life of its own, and you definitely don’t forget it. So what was the inspiration for getting back together?

Well, you know we all grew up together and we always kept in touch. At the start of last year we just fancied writing some new songs. Brian didn’t want to do it, but I just thought let’s go for it. We’re just going to have a laugh and see what happens. There was no pressure, we aren’t going to go and write another Stay Another Day. Our new member, Blair (Dreelan), was the producer working with us and he’s a fantastic singer, so we asked him if he wanted to join the group.

How long has it been in production?

Since the start of last March. We didn’t want to mess it up again. Brian was doing some kind of video editing thing and didn’t want to do it, and we were faced with a choice really - do we leave it and never do it again, or do we give it a crack. I’ve got to say it’s been worth it!

So has it been like a new lease of life? Have you got that fire back?

Yeah, it started a bit of fire in the old belly. We’ve had a couple of false starts, so it’s good to be back. It’s a lot of pressure, but we thrive on it and it’s fantastic.

Did you try hard to get the original line-up back with Brian? Are you still friends?

He’s doing his thing so I don’t mind. I haven’t seen Brian in ages. We did a gig for Born Free (wildlife charity) a while ago and I thought it went really well and I was chuffed with it. I took a driver to his house to pick him up and made a fuss over him, but then I saw on the internet that he said he was never, ever going to perform again. So I don’t know what I did. Maybe he’s lost his mojo. I though ‘oh right’! He’s editing videos or something now.

What style have you gone for on the new record?

The first single is a good old happy pop song and it makes me laugh when I hear it. It’s not Chaz and Dave make ‘em laugh mind.

So are there any ballads on there. I know you said you didn’t want to write another Stay another day, but surely you must have been tempted.

No, I had a look at the back catalogue and we’ve sort of steered away from it to be honest. We’ve tried to keep it up-tempo.

When a lot of people look back at East 17, they see a lot of the songs like Steam and House of love had a real up-tempo energy to them. They were essentially pop songs but with a dance vibe. Well we kind of came from the dance scene. But I think we’re a bit poppier now. It’s evolving with Blair. Blair sounds better at being Brian than Brian does.

I’m sure Brian would love that! After coming back into the music industry after quite a long break, how do you feel about the state of boy bands and their lack of musicianship?

I find it frustrating because I play the guitar, bass, drums and piano, I’m a jack-of-all trades, master of none really. I don’t know, there’s some cracking singers out there, but I think the boy-band thing has had its day for a while. I suppose the market is a bit girl group orientated these days really.

What about JLS?

JLS don’t really appear to be in control of their own destiny.

What’s your proudest moment as one of the original members of East 17?

Ahhh...God. Getting a British number one gave me a bit of a lump in the throat. That definitely stands out. There were many wonderful moments.

Crack read somewhere that you actually sold more records than Take That the first time round, despite their ridiculous success. Did you ever think there was a class separation between yourselves and Take That? That you represented a more working class mentality?

I don’t know, were they middle class? But they certainly weren’t from East London. I think we were just the underdogs. I like being the underdog.

When you were selling millions of records it must have been an amazing period to live through for four very young chaps.

Yeah, I mean Terry was 17! I was OK because I was 21, but God knows what was going on in Terry’s head – he had only been out of school for half a year! That must have been fucking crazy for him. One moment he’s doing his GCSEs, the next moment he’s in a boy band that the public really took to their hearts.

You were icons across all boards, not just music, you had some pretty special fashions as well! Between the khaki, the parkas and Brian’s unique way of wearing a hat, you had a few styles on lockdown.

You had loads of little East 7-teenies walking round the streets. But fashion is bigger than anyone really, it just does its own thing. I look back and I accept that moment in my life. I used to have massive trouble looking back, but now I go, ‘that was me, that was part of my life’ and I’m comfortable with it. But there were some crazy clothes we wore. The white parkas though – I like ‘em! I wanted to get them out for the new tour, but I’ve got to be honest it didn’t go down too well with the others.

What have you been up to in the last five years?

Well actually I’ve been training in martial arts to keep fit. I got terribly out of shape and it’s a lot harder to get back into shape than it was to get out of it. I’ve been writing songs because it’s really hard to stop. I’ve been listening to a lot of classical music and taking bits from Beethoven as inspiration.

So what’s going on in the East 17 tour bus these days?

Well Blair is the party guy, so he’ll DJ. I like a bit of peace and quiet after coming off stage.

I doubt it was like that back in the day?

Yeah, we needed a lot of looking after, we had security and we realised after a while that the security was there to protect the fans from us and not the other way around! You can imagine, touring the world and all of that success, fame and fortune at such a young age – it was fantastic. I’ve come through all of that, but I’ve got to be honest – I just scraped through to the other side! I’m impressed I managed to survive!



- - - - - - - - - - -

Tune: Steam

http://www.myspace.com/east17

- - - - - - - - - - - -