Blur’s Dave Rowntree fails in bid to become Labour MP
nme.comUK general election yesterday (July 4), Blur drummer Dave Rowntree was unsuccessful in his bid to become MP for his Mid Sussex constituency.Rowntree was beaten to a seat by Alison Bennett, the candidate for the Liberal Democrats.When he announced he’d been selected as Labour candidate last March, he said: “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to become Labour’s first Mid Sussex MP.
Residents have their best chance in a generation to make their vote count and return a Labour MP to parliament.”If you want to get rid of the @Conservatives in Mid Sussex, vote @UKLabour #Win24 pic.twitter.com/ZGcXM1bhRd— Dave Rowntree (@DaveRowntree) June 29, 2024Sir Keir Starmer has now fulfilled that aim, with Labour sweeping hundreds of seats across the country and ending 14 years of Conservative rule.The FAC, for whom Rowntree is an Artist in Residence, have extended their commiserations to the X drummer, but have said they look forward to working with “a new influx of MPs” following the Labour win.At the end of year FAC AGM in 2023, which NME supported, Rowntree highlighted the financial difficulties musicians were facing because of streaming.“Our Blur album ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ on week one in the UK sold just over 44,000 units – including 22,000 vinyl albums, 13,000 CDs, 3,000 cassettes and 2,000 sales-equivalent streams,” he said.“In fact, the album had tens of millions of streams on Spotify alone but the cassette sales had a bigger impact on our chart position.
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