'Full recovery' for singer Harvey

By Ian Youngs
BBC News entertainment reporter

Brian Harvey is hoping to revive his musical career

Pop singer Brian Harvey has made a "full recovery" six months after sustaining serious injuries in a freak car accident, his manager has said.

Doctors gave the former East 17 star a one in 50 chance of survival after the crash, Simon Harrison has told the BBC.

But he is now walking and driving again and is likely to go back into the recording studio next month, he said.

"He's a fighter at heart and has got some tremendous willpower that seems to pull him through," he said.

Harvey was in a coma after being crushed under the wheels of his own car in May. He suffered a broken leg and pelvis and a crushed abdomen and ribs.

"The doctors at the time were giving him a 2% chance to live - it was as low as that," Mr Harrison said.

'Surprisingly quick'

"The surgeon said to me: 'Don't hope for anything better than maybe one or two first steps before Christmas'."

But the recovery process had been "surprisingly quick", Mr Harrison said.

"They did the operation on his pelvis and took the pins out a number of weeks ago. He had some intense physiotherapy and come out of that and is walking OK."

Harvey said the crash was a freak accident and not a suicide attempt.

He said he was reversing down a narrow cul-de-sac when he felt violently sick, undid his seatbelt and leant out of the car door.

But he hit the accelerator pedal instead of the brake, his car shot into a main road and was hit by another car that ripped the door off, taking Harvey with it.

'Sceptical'

"Having come fairly close to bouts of depression and suicide attempts, people were obviously slightly sceptical as to whether this was just another one," Mr Harrison said.

"But as he said: 'I'm certainly not brave enough to do that'."

Harvey is also hoping to resurrect his music career after getting an enthusiastic response to a new song.

I Can, which Harvey recorded before the accident, has received interest from major US record labels after being anonymously posted on a music industry website, Mr Harrison said.

Comeback

"I think I'd prefer to do it over there where we can start afresh with a clean sheet - have a hit record based on the fact that it's a record rather than Brian's back story."

And East 17 could follow fellow 1990s boy band Take That by reforming if the right offer came along.

Mr Harrison said he had been in touch with Tony Mortimer for the first time since he left the band in 1997.

"I would love it to happen but it's got to be triggered by somebody saying: 'We've got a tour lined up - it's not Butlins, this time it's Wembley Arena, and here's the money'."