Proclaimers removed from coronation playlist over ‘anti-royal’ views

Scottish musicians The Proclaimers have been removed from an official playlist for the King’s coronation after being criticised for holding “anti-royal” views.

Their global 1988 hit, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), previously featured on the playlist which has been curated by the UK’s Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS).

The playlist also includes music by other prominent artists including David Bowie, Queen, The Beatles, Tom Jones, Kate Bush and Emeli Sande.

It comes after an interview Charlie Reid did with The National, seemingly in support of a man in Oxford who was arrested for heckling King Charles last September.

The man shouted, during a proclamation event: “Who elected him?”

The Proclaimers singer said: “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.

“The way they report that everyone in Britain feels the same way, they don’t. This is just simply untrue.

“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.”

The Reid brothers have previously described In Recognition, a song which features on their 2007 album Life With You, as a representation of “our overwhelming contempt for people on the left in this country who snipe against the royal family and then end up taking honours”.

A DCMS spokesperson said: “The playlist has been created to celebrate British and Commonwealth artists ahead of the upcoming coronation.”

The Proclaimers’ management has been approached for comment.