East 17 star Tony Mortimer has re-released their iconic festive classic Stay Another Day to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
The singer-songwriter, 54, put back on the iconic white padded jacket as he teamed up with charity Nordoff and Robbins for the re-release.
But Tony is no longer in touch with his bandmates Brian Harvey, Terry Coldwell, and John Hendy, so is releasing the track on his own.
Tony hopes the song can again challenge for the Christmas number one spot, and admitted his label had been keen to celebrate 30 years since its release in 1994.
‘The record company said they wanted to do something for the 30th anniversary, I said I couldn’t just stand there; people would pelt me,’ he said.
East 17 star Tony Mortimer has re-released their iconic festive classic Stay Another Day to celebrate its 30th anniversary
The singer-songwriter, 54, put back on the iconic white padded jacket as he teamed up with charity Nordoff and Robbins for the re-release
‘They suggested getting Nordoff and Robbins involved. Seeing how much good they do, I wanted to do it for them.’
Tony will perform Stay Another Day alongside bassist Ruby on December 10 at Nordoff and Robbins’ Carol concert.
Of drifting apart from his bandmates, Tony said: ‘We were very young, and people forget how young we were. It was a great time, but it’s a huge change.’
MailOnline contacted Tony’s representatives for comment.
Last Christmas, Tony’s former bandmate Terry released another track as East 17 with two new bandmates, Joe Livermore and Robbie Craig.
They replaced the originals Brian Harvey, who dipped out of the band permanently in 2010, Tony, who left in 2013 and John Hendy, who said his goodbyes to East 17 in 2018.
Brian was soon replaced by Blair Dreelan in 2011 – he left the same year – and John’s place was quickly filled by Terry John in 2018, but he then left the following year.
When shooting the music video, the group agreed to give Santa cancer this year in the hope of raising awareness about the dangers of smoking.
But Tony is no longer in touch with his bandmates Brian Harvey, Terry Coldwell, and John Hendy, so is releasing the track on his own (Pictured singing with Blue)
Tony hopes the song can again challenge for the Christmas number one spot, and admitted his label had been keen to celebrate 30 years since its release in 1994
Tony will perform Stay Another Day alongside bassist Ruby on December 10 at Nordoff and Robbins’ Carol concert
When asked if he thought their new Christmas hit will do as well in the charts as Stay Another Day, Terry replied, ‘Yeah, but obviously they are two totally different tracks’.
‘Two different tracks, but hopefully, with LadBaby being out of the way this year, yeah, we’ve got a good shot,’ he added.
The trio have been as thick as thieves for more than a decade now and are still dominating charts across the globe.
Their recent album 24/7 made it to seventh place in Turkey, fourth place in Norway and number sixty two in Japan on the iTunes Chart this year.
In an interview with MailOnline, he said: ‘It’s a Christmas cracker to encourage people to quit smoking.
East 17 is back with their iconic white winter coats after it released a brand new Christmas hit, Merry Quitmas, on Friday
The three-minute-shoot saw ‘Elton John get locked out of his cab’, ‘George Michael breaks the window’ and Noddy Holder as a gardener
When shooting the music video, the group agreed to give Santa cancer this year in the hope of raising awareness about the dangers of smoking
‘We’ve got Ed Sheeran, Elton John, George Michael, Noddy as well as Slade. It’s not usually an East 17 cut type song, but it was a good laugh.’
Stay Another Day entered the UK charts at number seven, and for the last three weeks of 1994, the track solidified its place at No.1 for at least three weeks running.
It outsold Mariah Carey’s hit single for the weeks commencing 11, 18 and 25 December, selling roughly 130,000, 120,000 and 160,000 copies.
The sales took the lead over Mariah in the week before Christmas was around 60,000, and thus securing 1994’s Christmas number one to East 17.
