Some celebrities have gone on to have wildly successful careers in politics. Just look at Ronald Reagan and Sonny Bono. Some, like British rocker and cult icon Screaming Lord Sutch, were less successful. Despite running for more than 40 positions and founding a still-operating political party—the Official Monster Raving Loony Party—Sutch managed to lose every single on of them.
October 15 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Sutch's ill-fated first run for a Parliamentary position in the UK and as such Music Times has gathered a list of other UK musicians who have tried for political office, ranked from least to most successful.
While you read, consider Sutch's cult classic Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends, one of the few albums that is deserving of the status of being so bad it's good, much like Plan 9 From Outer Space or The Room.
Mark "Bez" Berry of Happy Mondays
The vocalist for "Madchester" band Happy Mondays found his political calling in protesting against tracking in Britain. That's reasonable and well justified. He branched from that into declaring his intentions to run for Parliament in place of Hazel Blears, who is stepping down during 2015, declaring that "I can give free energy. I'm going to give free energy for everybody." That statement is a tad less reasonable. He continued to promise free food and "free anything." Sounds great but, uh, yeah. Part of his plan is wealth redistribution which might t go over as well in an economy as capitalist as the UK's.
David Van Day
David Van Day found some degree of success as a vocalist with the groups Dollar and Guys 'n' Dolls but he has hedged his bets recently as a perennial appearer on British reality television programs. He took to politics during 2007, running for city council in East Brighton. His campaign hit a roadblock when it came out that he had previously made some rather homophobic remarks. That sort of thing is problematic enough in the most conservative of regions but the high homosexual population in Day's district ensured his failure.
Dave Rowntree of Blur
Blur's drummer serves as a pretty good example that celebrity alone will not guarantee political victory in a well-structured system. Rowntree has run twice for city council positions and twice for Parliamentary elections, losing in each case. We're not trying to suggest that he doesn't have a firm grasp on politics—in fact he seems to be a perfectly rational individual—it's just nice to know that if someone like Lars Ulrich were to run for office in the the States, they wouldn't automatically win based strictly on name-recognition.
Stuart Hughes
Stuart Hughes was a popular British DJ who bought into Sutch's Official Monster Raving Loony Party, running twice for Parliament, albeit unsuccessfully. He must have realized that he needed a more legitimate political body representing him if he were to win, thus he split from the OMRY and founded the Raving Loony Green Giant Party. This, mind-blowingly, won him the East Devon District council election in 1991, marking tnohe first time a Loony had ever actually won an election. Alas, he eventually sold out and joined the Conservative Party, although he still organizes music events and he still runs the "Stuart Hughes Disco Show."
Pete Wishart
One has to wonder if, during the ten-year span that Pete Wishart and Donnie Munro were both members of Celtic rockers Runrig, if the pair ever made a bet to see who could launch a more successful career as a member of Parliament. Munro left his role as vocalist of the band after 20 years during 1997 to unsuccessfully run for office as an MP. He failed. Keyboardist Wishart left the group during 2001 to launch his own political career and, if it existed, won the bet. He's served in the House of Commons ever since.
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