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And Finally Artist News
Proclaimers track removed from coronation playlist over anti-monarchy statements
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 24 April 2023
Another track has been removed from the official playlist put together by the UK government to celebrate the upcoming coronation of King Charles III. This time it’s those monarchy-hating Proclaimers who have had their song axed from the tracklisting.
The playlist was put live in February supposedly to “celebrate British and Commonwealth artists ahead of the upcoming coronation”. However, it immediately proved controversial because of the inclusion of ‘Dance Wiv Me’, Dizzee Rascal’s 2008 collaboration with Calvin Harris.
That was deemed inappropriate by many because of Dizzee Rascal’s conviction in March last year of assaulting his former fiancée Cassandra Jones, a judgement the rapper had unsuccessfully appealed just a week before the playlist was published.
‘Dance Wiv Me’ was quickly dropped from the royal tracklisting, with a government spokesperson declaring: “A track featuring Dizzee Rascal was included in error and as soon as this was identified it was removed”.
But why has Proclaimers song ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ now also been dropped from the playlist? Well, that seemingly relates to comments made in an interview with Scottish newspaper The National by one half of the sibling duo, Charlie Reid.
Commenting on the coverage last year of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, he mused: “The way they’ve acted you’d think the story was that it’s just about people’s grief and people respecting her, but the real story is that in 2022 an unelected head of state has died”.
“Her son, similarly unelected, has taken over and the media has encouraged no debate on that – they’re unquestioning”, he went on. “The way they report that everyone in Britain feels the same way, they don’t. This is just simply untrue”.
He then referred to an incident that occurred during a proclamation ceremony for King Charles III in Oxford, in which a man was arrested for declaring “who elected him?”
Reid continued: “On the proclamation of King Charles in Oxford, I think one guy was lifted for shouting ‘who elected him?’ and I thought that guy spoke for me, and he speaks for loads of other people. Not just in Scotland, but right around the UK”.
Those comments seemingly resulted in some people complaining about the inclusion of ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ in the coronation playlist, ultimately resulting in its removal.
We are now less than two weeks away from the formal crowning of King Charles III. Which poses the interesting question: could we find reasons why the 26 tracks still appearing on the playlist should also be removed? I’m sure we could if we tried hard enough.
