'Never again': D:Ream ban Labour from using Things Can Only Get Better

[Emrys]

D:Ream members regret association with Tony Blair and do not want song played at July general election

The pop group that sing Things Can Only Get Better – which became an anthem for Labour at the 1997 general election victory – will deny any request from Keir Starmer to use the track at this year’s election.

D:Ream’s founding members Peter Cunnah and Alan Mackenzie said they were dismayed to hear their song play through a loudspeaker as the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, called a 4 July general election on a wet afternoon in Downing Street.
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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 members expressed regret at letting Tony Blair use the track for his general election victory celebrations in 1997, saying they were accused of “having blood on their hands” after the UK got involved with the war in Iraq.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/01/things-can-only-get-better-group-ban-labour-from-using-song