Pop band D:Ream have banned the Labour Party from using their hit song “Things Can Only Get Better” during their election campaign. Prime minister Rishi Sunak ’s general election announcement was drowned out by the track being played by a protester blaring it through a loudspeaker in the pouring rain. It led to speculation that the song could make a resurgence in the runup to the general election on 4 July.
The song was originally the sound of Tony Blair’s 1997 general election campaign. But band members Peter Cunnah and Alan Mackenzie have said that they will deny any request by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to use the song at this year’s election. The pair admitted their first thought when it went viral after the announcement was, “Not again.
” “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,” Cunnah told LBC radio. “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.
” After the UK became involved in the war on Iraq, the band said they were often accused of “having blood on their hands” and the ensuing regret led them to think differently about the place of music in politics. “I remember clearly, there was this wonderful sea change, and the nation had this feeling that there was a need for change,” Cunnah said. “Everyone was really beh.
