Tony Mortimer has rolled back the years in an interview with Music Week to mark the 30th anniversary of East 17’s beloved Christmas classic Stay Another Day.
The emotive ballad topped the charts in multiple countries and beat Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You to the 1994 festive No.1 in the UK, where it spent five weeks at the singles peak.
Boosted by belated discovery in North America, it amassed 20 million streams last year alone and has current UK sales of 1,627,605, according to the Official Charts Company. With the flood of Christmas songs back in the chart, streaming is set to propel Stay Another Day back into the Top 75 this week with a 98.3% week-on-week consumption boost, according to the Official Charts Company Midweek sales flash.
London-born Mortimer penned the Ivor Novello-winning track about the suicide of his late brother Ollie and is looking to reconnect it with its original meaning, partnering with music therapy charity Nordoff And Robbins to raise awareness of how music “can offer hope, expression and healing to people everywhere”.
The 54-year-old will perform a special rendition of the song at the Nordoff And Robbins Carol Service in London today (December 10), alongside performances from Jamie Cullum and Lemar. For ticket information, click here.
“It's going to be me on a piano, with a choir and a little orchestra,” he told Music Week. “It's a first for me and it's going to be awesome. It's in a lovely church where Charles Dickens got married and I'm a big fan of his. I'll have to concentrate because it will be overwhelming if I look up and see a choir full of children at Christmas in a church, but it's going to be wonderful and I'm really looking forward to it.”
London Records will release a limited edition ice clear 7” vinyl of Stay Another Day on December 13, also featuring new artwork and a previously unreleased live version of the song from East 17’s 1995 Letting Off Steam arena tour. For all items sold via www.stayanotherday.co.uk, London Records will donate £1 to Nordoff And Robbins Music Therapy.
Here, Music Week speaks to Mortimer to get the lowdown on the Christmas standard that almost never was, and why its message is more pertinent now than ever...
What led you to celebrate the anniversary of Stay Another Day in this way in the first place?
“The record company approached me about releasing something for the 30th anniversary, but I didn't want to just release something, I wanted to give something back. The label agreed and came up with this idea of doing it in conjunction with Nordoff And Robbins and got them on board.
“It was a wonderful idea that gave me a spark again as opposed to just re-releasing it for the anniversary. I'm really into the healing power of music – I'm writing a book at the moment and it’s got some stuff about that in it. I'm so proud to be a part of Nordoff And Robbins for this short period of time; I've been down there and it was wonderful to see the effect that music has on people's lives. I'd love it if I could use it as a platform to get that out there this Christmas for parents with children that are struggling and might need the help of music therapy.
“This isn't the first time the record company has done something charitable with the record and they've been fantastic. We were all energised by it and it made us feel a bit Christmassy.”
I get so many messages saying, ‘It's not Christmas until I hear that song,’
Tony Mortimer
Was it even meant to be a Christmas song?
“It was never meant to be a Christmas song! For me, it was never meant to be released. but the record company and management loved it and obviously what they say, goes. As soon as they heard it, they said, ‘That's a Christmas No.1.’ And I said a) it’s nothing to do with Christmas and b) I wrote it in August in a hot, sweaty studio in West London. But it has turned into a Christmas song and it's humbling that I go to Christmas markets 30 years later and still hear it playing in the background. I get so many messages saying, ‘It's not Christmas until I hear that song,’ which is strange but lovely. It feels like Christmas songs are a closed room now. In the '70s, '80s and '90s, there were only a handful of stations and the Christmas No.1 was such a big thing. We've got so many other options to entertain ourselves now, but I still love it. It's just a special time of year. To be rubbing shoulders with the Mariah Careys and Paul McCartneys of this world is cheeky and I like that – it's just a bit of cheek from four lads from Walthamstow – and I think we’ve done okay.”
What are your memories of writing it?
“With some songs, you get stuck or write yourself into a corner, but that never happened with that. The melody came quite easily, but I didn't put any words to it at first. I had the title of Stay Another Day flying around in my head and I wanted to do two ballads because I used to copy Prince – really badly – and he’d always have a couple of ballads on his albums. Obviously, I used the inspiration of my brother's suicide and of longing for someone at the end of a relationship, so it was quite personal, but it was going to be like a little secret. It was going on the album [1994’s Steam], but there were lots of other singles – I think we released six off that album – and I didn't want Stay Another Day to be a single because people always ask you, ‘What's that song about?’ And I didn't really want to talk about it, so I was like, ‘If you don't mind, we just won't release that one,’ but the record company persuaded me to release it.
“I remember sitting outside with [producer] Ian Curnow. He was smoking a little cigar and he was saying, ‘How do you see it going?’ And I said, ‘Building to a crescendo with a huge orchestra,’ and he totally got that. He said, ‘That’s my thing – that’s what I love doing.’ I mean, every instrument is thrown in there at the end! It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and that was what I wanted.
“I think it was [London Records MD] Colin Bell who asked, ‘How's the album coming on?’ And from the feedback I was getting, I said, ‘I think we've got five hits and a classic.’ I remember speaking to him afterwards and he said, ‘You weren't wrong were you.’ And it has turned into a bit of a Christmas stayer – no pun intended!”
Can you remember how you felt when Stay Another Day was confirmed as the Christmas No.1?
“It was so special because I was given a blackout by the management company. I rang to get a midweek [chart update], but couldn't get through. Then we tried the record company and couldn't get hold of them either, so I was angry that I had to sit at home and listen to the radio like when I was a kid to find out what position my flipping song was at! So I listened to the Top 40 and it went on and on and on. But in the end, it was No.1 and it is so emotional even now.
“Having a No.1 at that point meant so much to me, because we were in competition with a band called Take That who were having No.1 after No.1 after No.1. And I was the principal songwriter in our outfit and I wasn't giving my boys a No.1, so I was putting pressure on myself. So when it came, I'll just say it was very emotional. Then I heard from the record company and management – they’d known it was going to be No.1, but wanted me to find out that way – and it was wonderful.”
How has your relationship with the track changed over time?
“Do you know what? No one has ever asked me that in 30 years and my relationship with it has changed, because I've let go of it. Obviously, it still means what it means to me, but you learn to let go of it and you have to move on. You can't be trapped by the past. You can look back on it, as I do, but my relationship with it – and it was a hard one to learn – is that it's no longer my song, it's the public's song. And when that happens, it's the ultimate compliment.”
It's no longer my song, it's the public's song
Tony Mortimer
Why do you think it was a hit and has endured through the years?
“If I knew the answer I would write one every week! I can't pinpoint it. Why was it a hit? I don’t know, timing? It's hard to judge your own music, but I think it's a nice song and because it went to No.1 at Christmas, it's just rolled on and on every Christmas thereafter. I'm sure it'll end one day, but it's been 30 years, yet it does seem like yesterday that it happened. And it's my only No.1, so I can't top it. I'll always be known for it, no matter what I do musically. I remember the record company would say, ‘What we want is another Stay Another Day.’ I was like, ‘Really? Do you not think I do?!’”
It’s interesting how far the conversation around mental health – particularly among men – has come in 30 years, given the message of the song…
“It wasn't spoken about as much back then. And had it been, it would have helped in a lot of ways – especially with men. I know I'm talking nonstop at the moment, but we don’t talk about how we feel because that's just not the way we're designed. I think we keep a bit quiet about it, but it has changed a lot now and there are lots of places to go to and people to speak to. A friend of mine has just started a charity called Legend On The Bench and it is connected to the Samaritans. These benches are now appearing in parks [complete with QR codes linking to 24-hour support services] and I think that is so important. Sometimes, you don't want to talk to your mates or your family because men, we see it as a weakness. But if you can talk from behind a barrier or something to a stranger, I think men are more inclined to do that.”
Lastly, could you ever have imagined 30 years ago you’d still be being interviewed about the song in 2024?
“Not in a million years! I could not think that far ahead. I remember speaking to accountants who’d talk about setting up pensions back then and I’d be like, ‘What?!’ So to still be talking about it now is surreal. It's the 30th so it's probably the end of it now for me – I'm going to bow out and not speak about it again and I think this will be my last performance of it, so it’s poignant. But what a blessing it is to be speaking about a song all that time later. It's surreal – that's the only way I can describe it – and it's a wonderful thing every year. I’m not complaining.”
WORDS: James Hanley
PHOTO: Lawrence Watson
