East 17

In the pop world of the 90s, the boy band was king. Playing a more streetwise Rolling Stones to Take That’s squeaky-clean Beatles, East 17 were one of the most successful British acts of the decade, selling 18 million albums worldwide. Led by songwriter Tony Mortimer, the group took their name from the East London postcode of their hometown, Walthamstow. Mortimer enlisted Brian Harvey, John Hendry and Terry Coldwell to form East 17. The debut single, House Of Love, landed in the UK top ten in 1992. Further bolstered by the chart success of Deep and a cover of Pet Shop Boys’ West End Girls, their 1993 debut LP Walthamstow topped the album charts, and was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize. A second album, Steam (1994) featured hit singles Around The World, Steam and Stay Another Day, which bagged them the much-coveted Christmas number one in 1994. Following controversial statements made by Harvey in the press, the original line-up disbanded in 1997. Various iterations of the group have released music in the intervening years. The current line-up of Terry Coldwell alongside Robbie Craig and Joe Livermore continue to tour and release music as East 17, with their latest single I Just Wanna released in 2022.