MORE than 30 years after East 17 bagged the Christmas No1 with Stay Another Day, musician Tony Mortimer continues to rake in thousands from the track every year.
As the songwriter, Tony – not the band – is entitled to the royalties for the smash hit, which was inspired by a tragic event.
Stay Another Day, one of the most popular tracks at Christmas, was written by Tony for his brother Ollie, who took his own life aged 19 in 1989.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun last year, Tony said Stay Another Day wasn’t even supposed to be released.
“It was so personal,” he said. “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’.”
He added: “It was a painful story. But if you can use that to write something that’s a sort of love song, it’s going to be quite powerful. This is my little gift to the world.”
While Tony wanted to sing the lead vocal, the band’s management said Brian Harvey should do the honours – even though his bandmate didn’t like it, reportedly declaring the song “s**t”
In 2024, Tony teamed up with the music charity Nordoff and Robbins to re-release the track, with £1 of every 7in sold going to the charity.
While he was promoting the release, he told The Sun he is no longer in touch with Brian Harvey, or his other bandmates Terry Coldwell and John Hendy.
“When you’re that close it’s intense,” he said.
“We were very young and people forget how young we were. It was a great time but it’s a huge change.”
While his bandmates do not receive songwriting royalties from the track, Tony gave songwriting credits to Dominic Hawken and Rob Kean who helped him with the demo for Stay Another Day.
One site estimates the track makes £97,000 in royalties every year.
