Brian Harvey's tumultuous life from East 17 fame to bizarre outbursts and potato-gate

Brian Harvey rose to fame in 1990s boyband East 17. (Image: Getty)

Brian Harvey, the former lead singer of 1990s boyband East 17, has been no stranger to controversy and personal struggles.

Harvey, originally from Walthamstow, initially auditioned as a backing singer for East 17 but was quickly promoted to the lead role when music executives recognised his vocal talent.

As the frontman, Harvey became synonymous with the band, which produced chart-topping hits like Stay Another Day and It's Alright.

However, his first major public scandal occurred in 1997 when he was dismissed from the group after seemingly endorsing the use of ecstasy during a live radio interview.

The singer, who said he took 12 tablets in one night and then drove, even drew criticism from John Major in the House Of Commons. Despite issuing a public apology, his position in the band was ultimately terminated, reports the Mirror.

Brian Harvey was removed from East 17 in 1997. (Image: Getty)

In a shocking turn of events, 11 radio stations removed the band from their playlists in a bold protest.

In 2001, tragedy hit when Brian endured a savage attack that necessitated reconstructive surgery after he was set upon by thugs outside a Nottingham nightclub.

The extent of his injuries was so severe that police initially suspected a machete or an axe had been used, but later deduced it was a smaller weapon.

Following the brutal assault, Harvey underwent plastic surgery and faced a gruelling recovery process.

Brian Harvey needed reconstructive surgery after he was attacked by thugs. (Image: PA)

Harvey has battled with depression throughout his adult life, but things reached a crisis point in 2005 when he was hospitalised following what was believed to be a suicide attempt.

This distressing episode occurred amidst claims from fans that Harvey was feeling "desperate" in the weeks leading up to the incident, struggling with the decline of his music career and the loss of his grandmother.

In another bizarre incident in 2005, Harvey found himself in hospital after being run over by his own car. In a strange twist, he attributed the accident to having eaten three jacket potatoes topped with tuna mayonnaise and cheese, claiming he fell out of the vehicle while trying to vomit due to feeling overly full.

The peculiar mishap left him with punctured lungs, several broken ribs, and a pelvis fractured in seven places.

Brian Harvey was hospitalised after potato-gate. (Image: Harry Hudson/Youtube)

Despite his fame and success in the 1990s, selling 18 million records and enjoying 17 top 20 singles with his bandmates Tony Mortimer, John Hendy and Terry Coldwell, Harvey found himself struggling financially after his boyband days.

He is still remembered for his hit song Stay Another Day, which is a Christmas favourite, but he revealed that he did not receive any royalties from it.

"We sold 18 million records and the frustrating thing for me is that I have to sit there every Christmas and listen to myself while I don't even have the money for a Christmas dinner," he confessed during an interview on LBC.

Things got so bad that the once-successful star had to resort to benefits in 2015 and faced the fear of being evicted from his home. "His situation is very desperate," Simon Danczuk, Harvey's MP told the Independent.

"It's been a few weeks since we did the interview but I've been speaking to him over many months. He is on benefits and is in a fairly desperate situation to be honest."

Brian said he didn't receive any royalties from Stay Another Day. (Image: Getty Images)

Harvey has also made headlines throughout his career for his worrying public outbursts. In a lighter moment, he is still remembered for mocking himself in 2015 when he sang Meridian Dan's German Whip but replaced some of the lyrics with "jacket potato and cheese and that".

Hilariously, he also admitted: "I haven't eaten a jacket potato since."

In a startling act back in 2015, the former East 17 member damaged the platinum discs awarded to him during his time with the famous boyband in a YouTube clip. The disturbing video bore the furious caption: "This is what i think of you all. F*** your record industry."

Expressing his deep-seated anger regarding his departure from East 17, he was filmed strolling through an alleyway, clutching his commemorative plaque, and declaring to the camera: "East 17 one million sales this is what it means."

Brian Harvey has had several public outbursts. (Image: Youtube)

He made his feelings crystal clear by violently smashing the plaque against a rubbish bin, exclaiming: "That's what I think of you're f***ing music industry."

Not long before this incident, the entertainer had also raised eyebrows after dramatically barging into Downing Street, intent on conversing with then-Prime Minister David Cameron.

Witnesses were left agog at the spectacle, taking to Twitter to share the astonishing events as they unfolded, with one claiming that Brian was fiercely gesturing with a ring binder at a sizeable security guard, insisting that it contained "'evidence' of how much money the govt had stolen from him".

Additionally, within the same tumultuous year, he lashed out at BBC Radio 1, branding it a "commercial poo bag station," in a scathing tirade. Having stumbled upon a YouTube rendition of his chart-topping single, Stay Another Day, performed by Rae Morris for the Live Lounge segment, his irritation was palpable.

Brian Harvey outside the High Court in 2023 (Image: Getty)

Brian Harvey's life will be discussed in BBC Two's Boybands Forever when it airs tonight (November 16).

The two-part programme, narrated by Craig Parkinson, explores the story behind some of the UK's most successful boybands.

It will detail East 17's rise to fame and how they were set to dominate the charts after Take That's spilt in 1996, and how Brian's ecstasy outburst sparked the band's downfall.

Boybands Forever airs on BBC Two from 9.15pm.