East 17 are an English pop boy band started by Tony Mortimer, Brian Harvey, John Hendy, and Terry Coldwell in 1991.

The group continues today under the lineup of Terry Coldwell, Joe Livermore, and former Artful Dodger collaborator Robbie Craig.

It was infused with hip hop and sold by the bucketload: 18 million records across Europe, compared with Take That's paltry 17 million.East 17 had twelve top-10 hits on the UK Singles Chart between 1992 and 1998.

[8] This went against the group's image, and there was intense media scrutiny, leading to questions being raised in the House of Commons.

But without Mortimer's songwriting influence, the group's initial success soon wavered; sales of their next single, "Betcha Can't Wait", were disappointing, reaching number 12 in the charts, and their album Resurrection failed to make the UK Top 40.

[citation needed] In 2001, Harvey, now as a solo artist, released a collaboration with Wyclef Jean, with the Top-20 single "Loving You", but later returned to perform numerous gigs with Coldwell and Hendy.

In mid-February 2006, the group reformed and played their first comeback concert on 30 May at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.

[5] After reforming for the one-off performance, it was reported that Mortimer had left the group again due to a confrontation with Harvey, leading to an altercation between the two.

[4] A Channel 4 documentary, East 17: The Reunion, which charted the group's rise and fall, along with their subsequent attempt to re-launch, was broadcast in May 2007.

However, according to a BBC Radio 2 interview with Zoë Ball in December 2009, songwriter Tony Mortimer mentioned that the band were on "talking terms" and planning a comeback for 2010.

Brian Harvey left soon after, when his commitment was questioned by the rest of the group; he had been missing rehearsals and cancelling performances.

In April 2011, it was announced that Blair Dreelan had joined the band for their Back to the Future tour in August and September 2011 to promote their comeback single, "Secret of My Life".

[16] In 2017, East 17 partook in B*Witched's Australia & NZ Tour as a supporting act alongside Atomic Kitten, S Club 3, and Liberty X.

During this time, the band released their sixth studio album, 24/7, exclusively in Australia, titling it 24/7: Australian Tour Edition.