Spice Girls bounced on my bed, I partied with Robbie and Gazza but I’m happier as a van man, says former boyband legend

AS a boyband hunk in the 90s he played sold-out arenas, had groupies throwing themselves at him every night and partied with A-listers – until it all came crashing down, leaving him penniless. But three decades on, the former pop star says he is far happier in an ordinary job – as he finally reveals why he chose to turn his back on the “tragic madness” of the music industry. The former chart-topper quit fame for a very normal job Credit: Tiktok/@johnhendye17 John Hendy, kneeling, with bandmates Terry Coldwell, Brian Harvey and Tony Mortimer in 1995 Credit: Getty East 17 star John Hendy says life is better than ever since he ditched the music industry to work as a roofer, driving his battered van around Essex. Although this may shock fans, John says stories about East 17 raking in millions back in their heyday could not be further from the truth. He admitted: “Despite what the public might think when they see my face on an old magazine or a television screen, I left East 17 with absolutely nothing. “There is a massive, common misconception that if you were in a famous band, you must be a multi-millionaire living in a mansion. It’s not true. “I look back at the sheer, tragic madness of the pop world, the gimp suits at the album launches and the chaos of our youth, and I just choose to laugh. “To be honest I feel more at home now having a pint and a few laughs with my rodding mates. I prefer my life now – it’s certainly less hectic!” John, 55, and his wife Nina are settled in Essex with their two children Aaliyah, eight, and Usher, seven. Back at his original job as a roofer, John is also looking back on the glory days in his new memoir Stay For Another Day. After several line-up changes, John finally quit the group for good in 2018, went to live with his dad and started dating Bulgarian-born Nina. “I realised I simply wasn’t enjoying being in a pop band any more. I found myself deeply longing for the quiet stability of a normal life back home. “The fire in my belly had completely gone out. I didn’t have it in me to step back onto that relentless conveyor belt and do all of that again. “I’m glad I’ve done the book. I’ve waited 30 years to tell my story.” Formed in 1991, John and fellow bandmates Tony Mortimer, Brian Harvey and Terry Coldwell enjoyed a chart career spanning seven years, selling 20 million records and notching up 30 number ones around the world including House of Love, Deep, Steam and Let It Rain. Their most successful song – the Christmas classic Stay Another Day – sold 1.6 million in the UK alone and is set to hit 100 million streams by the end of the year. The four lads, who grew up in Walthamstow, East London, which has the postcode E17, originally called it a day in 1999 after some wild times. John said: “I am just an ordinary working class kid. When I look back, I cannot believe who I met and what I did. It’s crazy.” John Hendy with wife Nina their daughter Aaliyah and son Usher Credit: Louis Wood News Group Newspapers Ltd The Spice Girls burst into East 17’s hotel suite one night after a showbiz bash Credit: Getty One particularly crazy night ended with the Spice Girls bouncing on John’s bed after the two bands met at a glitzy showbiz bash. He recalled: “We’d been booked into a massive suite and Tony, Terry, Brian and I were just chilling out when there was hammering on the door and the Spice Girls just burst in. “They didn’t even say hello or anything. They just ran into the room screaming and were jumping up and down on the massive double bed and the sofa. “They were crazy. They were on a high. They jumped around for about 20 minutes. Then they sat down and we had a chat. “Everyone behaved, there was no kissing, but I was like ‘This is the Spice Girls, man! In our room! Mad!’.” At the height of their fame, the media loved to fan the flames about chart rivalry between ‘bad boys’ East 17 and ‘clean cut’ Take That. But John will never forget the time he met Robbie Williams, who had just quit Take That. He recalls: “We were in a hotel and this guy came along wearing sunglasses and a big floppy hat. Robbie Williams said he wished he had been in East 17 instead of Take That Credit: Getty John had a boozy night out with Gazza Credit: Getty “We clocked it was Robbie and he went, ‘You alright guys?’ and he told us he’d been listening to our song Deep on his Walkman. “He said, ‘Do you know what? I wish I was in your f***ing band’. “We said we were sorry to hear he was out of Take That and he said, ‘I’m glad I’m not in that band no more. I’m gonna go out on my own. When Gary (Barlow) said I wasn’t going to be in the band, there was a bowl of fruit on the table and I asked Gary, ‘Is it alright if I take this bunch of bananas?’ and I just walked out of the room. I just picked the bananas up and left’.” John also met his football idol Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne and he admits he would like to remember more about their encounter but the pair got so drunk together, that his recollections of their night together are blurred. East 17 pose for a shoot at the peak of their fame in 1994 Credit: Getty John can barely remember some of his hedonistic times Credit: Louis Wood News Group Newspapers Ltd He laughed: “I was invited to this fashion boutique store opening in London and I remember thinking, ‘What the f*** am I doing here, man?’ I felt out of my depth. “So I went downstairs to the toilet and as I was coming back I saw Paul Gascoigne and he’s like, ‘You alright mate? I know where they keep the champagne.’ “We went into this store room and there were boxes of champagne. I love a drink and thought, ‘F*** yes. Result!’ “Neither of us wanted to go back out into that awkward crowd, so we cracked a bottle open right there in the corridor and downed it. “Within no time, we were laughing and talking deeply about the sheer madness of life. “We drank a lot. In fact I struggled to stand up let alone get back up those stairs. And to this day I have no idea how I got home, let alone what happened to Gazza that night!” John working on a roof near his Essex home Credit: Instagram/johnhendyeast17_official John has no regrets about quitting the pop world Credit: Tiktok/@johnhendye17 Another time that John could not believe his luck was when he and bandmate Terry were flown out to Milan for Donatella Versace’s birthday bash. Her father, fashion icon Gianni, had invited them to his mansion as a surprise because his daughter was a huge fan. When they arrived, their music was blasting through the speakers, and when they left, Gianni told John: “Anytime, anywhere in the world, if you ever see something you want in one of my stores, you just walk right in and take it.” On their return to the UK, he decided to test this out and ventured into the flagship Versace store on Bond Street in London. He revealed: “The minute I walked through the door, the high-end security guards started giving me some right looks and the staff were watching me like a hawk. “One tapped me on the shoulder and said bluntly, ‘You look like a person who isn’t able to buy from here’. I was properly insulted. “I laid it out for the manager. She looked a bit taken aback, disappeared to make some urgent calls to Milan and twenty minutes later, the atmosphere in that shop completely transformed. “The manager marched out trailing an assistant who was carrying a chilled bottle of expensive champagne, while another staff member brought out a massive, ornate chair – a proper throne – for me to sit on. John’s memoir is available to pre-order Credit: Supplied John and Liam Gallagher hung out back in the day Credit: Getty “They couldn’t do enough for me. “I sat back on my throne, sipped the bubbly and picked out a few beautiful new custom suits and a luxury bag. “ As I walked out of the front door, I caught the eye of that original security guard and whispered right in his ear, ‘See, mate? I don’t even need to buy it. I get it for free’.” And then there were the fans. Teen girls often went to great lengths to get close to boys. John said: “A lot of them had originally been hardcore Bros fans, but the minute we arrived, they jumped ship and moved straight over to East 17. “They became incredibly territorial over us. “After one of the German shows, I was relaxing on the tour bus and suddenly Brian came running back down the corridor, shouting that there was a random fan tucked up in his bed. “To this day, we have absolutely no idea how she managed to bypass security and get inside. We had to turn the tour bus around to drop her back off. “She didn’t speak a word of English, making it a right awkward journey.” But it wasn’t the young fans that East 17 had their eyes on – it was actually their mothers. John laughs: “Our teen fans used to bring their mums along to gigs and come to see us afterward which was fine by us. John had fans, and their mums, throwing themselves at him Credit: Getty John left the band ‘with absolutely nothing’ Credit: Getty “It was the mums who fancied us so while the fans were happy to get autographs, we’d be cracking on with their mums!” Even after the East 17 split, John was gobsmacked when Oasis star Liam Gallagher spotted him, working in his original day job. He said: “We hadn’t really ever spoken to Oasis much in our early years but I do remember after we’d done the Resurrection album, I had gone back to working on the roofs. “I was in South Kensington and I’d just got off my ladder and Liam Gallagher came walking past me – he’s got that swagger. “I thought, ‘I ain’t gonna say anything to him because he ain’t gonna recognise me’ and to be honest I was a bit star struck but he went, ‘Hey, you alright, John? What you up to?’ “And we had a good chat for about 15 minutes in the street.” The cracks started to show in 1997 when Brian went on the radio and made controversial comments about the drug ecstasy and was sacked from the band. Tony left not long after. The band did briefly reunite for a concert in 2006 but have since gone their own separate ways and now rarely speak to one another. Tony, 55, currently works as a singer/songwriter, producer and DJ, Brian, 51, regularly posts about his life and views on social media and has produced some new music, while Terry, 52, is touring under the name East17 with two new members Robbie Craig and Joe Livermore. * Stay For Another Day is available to pre-order now.