Graeme Thomson

Does it matter how posh pop stars are?

There was a time when rock and rollers aspired to the aristocratic. Nowadays, the aristos have taken over

Abigail Morris, who was educated at Bedales and is lead singer of the Last Dinner Party, narrowly averted a PR disaster recently. Photo: Mat Hayward / Getty Images 
issue 22 June 2024

‘A working class hero is something to be.’ Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer must have missed the conflicted, sardonic edge to John Lennon’s lyric, from his 1970 song ‘Working Class Hero’, given their rush to scrub away the whiff of privilege in the crudest manner imaginable. Sunak, desperately, by means of bemoaning a childhood forever blighted by lack of access to satellite TV; Starmer by dully hammering home that he is the son of a toolmaker.

A country pile, a double-barrelled girlfriend and a mock-regal drawl were valued plunder in 1960s pop

As in politics, so in music.

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