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'Never again': D:Ream would snub Keir Starmer request for victory song now after 1997 New Labour regret
1 June 2024, 00:02 | Updated: 1 June 2024, 11:20
D:Ream say they'd refuse permission for Labour to use their songs again
The band behind New Labour’s 1997 victory song, D:Ream, has exclusively told LBC it would snub a request from Sir Keir Starmer if they were asked for permission to use another track.
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The band’s founding members, Alan Mackenzie and Peter Cunnah, who are now working on their fifth album, said they were dismayed when they heard ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ behind Rishi Sunak’s election announcement.
They revealed their first thought was: “Not again.”
Speaking from his recording studio at home in Donegal, Cunnah said: “The fact that it’s gone back to a political thing, I find disturbing. I was thinking, can we get on with our lives? But now it’s come back.
“You question, are we just some sort of protest song on a speaker down at the end of a street? It's like some very odd piece of gravity that you just can't escape.”
The band has expressed regret at letting Tony Blair use the track in ‘97, saying they were accused of “having blood on their hands” after the UK got involved with the war in Iraq.
Cunnah said: “I remember clearly, there was this wonderful sea change, and the nation had this feeling that there was a need for change.
“Everyone was really behind it and giving Labour the benefit of that doubt. But after the war, I became politically homeless.”
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His bandmate, Al Mackenzie, who spoke to us from his home in the Midlands, also added: “I don’t think politics and music should be linked.
“It's happened to a lot of other bands as well in America and here because songs get sort of intrinsically linked to something, it can really affect it in a negative way.
“I mean, I'll be voting to get the Tories out, but I don't really want the song to be linked to that.”
When asked what they’d say if they had been approached by Sir Keir Starmer with a request to use one of their songs, Mackenzie told LBC: “There’s no way - our songs and politics, never again.”
Cunnah agreed, telling us: “I've learned the hard way. No, no, no,” adding, “this is a change of guard, I don't see this as an election. It's just a change of guard, someone handing the baton on".
Referring to ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ drowning out Rishi Sunak’s election announcement last week, he said: “Obviously doing that was, for most people, a funny move.
“But for me, the whole world turned up again, everyone was ringing on the phone promising me the earth again like it's 1997. I'm too long in the tooth to get pulled into that, you know.”
The pair revealed they lost two full days of recording because of the “huge distraction” caused by their first album song going viral again.
D:Ream, which originally also included now-Professor Brian Cox, split up shortly after New Labour’s victory in 1997 - but Peter and Alan reunited in 2008 after a chance meeting.
This summer, they’re preparing to play Glastonbury for the first time.
Pete told LBC: “It’s exciting. I've been rehearsing all week and we've got some gigs before Glastonbury which is going to help us.
“You know, the whole Blair years thing now to me is a footnote in the history of my life. So, I would just like to move on to the clean slate, to be honest.”
