Newsnight's Party Anthems: the videos
"Things Can Only Get Better" - that was the battle cry back in 2010. Now that things have got substantially worse, is there a tune that can lift this election and put the politicians back in tune with the voters? If you get a mo, tune into Â鶹Éç Two at 10.30 tonight - it's the final part of my Party Anthems strand on . Over the last few weeks I've been charged with bringing music (and comedy) to the election - my task, to come up with 'election anthems' for each of the three main parties.
Back at the beginning, I met up with three MPs - Grant Shapps, a Conservative who likes to run from house to house whilst canvassing(!) and was apparently very into his R&B(!); Sarah Teather a Lib Dem with a background in opera singing; and Ben Bradshaw, the Labour Culture Secretary who's a keen clubber and likes his uplifting house. I asked them what they wanted me to put into the songs and then took their thoughts away to work on with bands. The idea was to get the bands to craft anthems that embodied what the parties stood for, though the bands don't necessarily support their designated parties - it's just an unusual musical challenge.
Well, the work is now over and we have three lovely pop videos that we have shot on a lavish News budget (think 50 Cent on benefits) that actually look rather tasty. Hadouken! - one of those bands who are absolutely huge with young people and absolutely unknown to people over 35 - have done a spankingly good job on Labour's anthem Things Could Only Get Worse. We shot the video in this great graffiti-plastered location and it screams out 2010 urban grittiness. Cheeky pop chappies Right Said Fred did It All Comes Tumbling Down for the Lib Dems - a Chas and Dave-esque singalong that gets stuck in your head even quicker than a Nick Clegg soundbite. And for the Tories - South London grime crew Nu Brand have done the awesome One Change which we shot very amusingly at Dulwich Croquet Club - I'm not sure they knew what had hit them.
You can watch all the videos from the links below. Check out the show tonight to find out what the politicians think - finger crossed - who knows maybe we really could rock the vote.
Let's get this party started
Comment number 1.
At 2nd May 2010, Elaena Bolton wrote:Downloadable mp3's of the songs would be awesome.
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Comment number 2.
At 10th Feb 2011, Web design wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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