PETER CUNNAH Touring with Take That, former band mate Brian Cox... and why things can only get better
His famous hit found renewed popularity during the Clap for Carers. The D:ream star talks to Claire O’boyle about pop, politics and being a proud parent
It was one of the most iconic hits of the 1990s with D:ream’s frontman promising a generation of dance fans Things Can Only Get Better.
And almost 30 years on since its original release, the song has seen a huge resurgence once again as an anthem of hope during the coronavirus outbreak, with the city of Nottingham adopting it early in the lockdown during its weekly ‘Clap for Carers’.
Lead singer Peter Cunnah, from Londonderry, says the euphoric hit, which was famously adopted by Tony Blair and the Labour Party during the 1997 election campaign, has a tendency to reappear when people need a lift.
“It takes on a life of its own,” says Peter, who has been living in Co Donegal, not far from the border with Northern Ireland, since last October with his second wife, Ruth Pilkington.
“It just comes back any time a pickme-up is needed. It wasn’t intentional, we thought it would just work well in the clubs, but it’s just the effect the song has had.
“I wouldn’t support it coming out as a record again. I’ve moved on. It’s coming up on 30 years since we released it, but I know and accept now, being an older gentleman, that I can’t leave a party unless I sing it.”
And while D:ream hit the big time in 1994 when the song spent four weeks at the top of the charts, it had actually been released a year earlier, reaching a comparatively modest spot of 23 in the charts.
It was after the band supported pop sensations Take That on tour that its popularity went through the roof.
“Take That were massive,” says Peter. “They said they wanted us on the tour but when word came through we thought, ‘Well, we weren’t really on the same kind of page’.
“But then I got a call from the dance DJ Paul Oakenfold who had been on tour with U2 so we thought, ‘Okay, let’s give it a go’.
“The lads themselves were brilliant but we were two different things. We were a bit of a square peg in a round hole.”
But with the tour came a massive boost for D:ream’s profile, and the impact on sales was huge.
“It gave us a number one,” says Peter. “And the rest is history. We went from having 40,000 clubbers who bought our records to put us in the Top 40 to playing in front of half a million Take That fans.
“The numbers just leapt up. I was getting all these teddy bears. I came back to an office full of teddy bears. It looked like someone’s front room gone wrong, and we were saying what are we going to do with all these teddy bears?
“So we just put them in bags and would take them down to the local hospice and local hospital, and handed them out.”
After the huge success of its second appearance in the charts, the song was back in the limelight in 1997 when D:ream was approached by the Labour Party to see if they could use Things Can Only Get Better as the tune for their campaign.
“I was Green before then, but I went to Labour because I wanted change, and we’d had 18 years of the blue team and I hoped the red team would do better,” explains Peter. “But it turned out they did the same thing really.”
And while he remembers “nice” moments from the historic election campaign, like the former prime minister learning to play the song on his guitar and bumping into Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics at Downing Street, Peter says he was “gutted” over the government’s decision to go to war.
“We were all gutted,” he says. “I couldn’t believe they did it.”
Moving away from life in the public eye, the musician was able to focus then on his home life, and on being a dad when daughters Poppy and Madeleine, now in their teens, came along.
“I was able to walk away for a bit,” he says. “It was after the Labour thing. We had a lovely dog, the girls came along and I was able to be a stay-at-home dad. I got the absolute best out of it, bringing them up.
“I was with my lady wife at the time, we’re not together now, but back then we had a wonderful little bubble.
“We had enough money that I didn’t need to worry about working. I became a dad and I really loved it. I got all the firsts, their swims, the bike rides. We went diving and did scuba. It was great. I know other friends who missed out on birthdays and those things. I was lucky, I was able to do be there for all that.”
Perhaps Peter’s most well-known former bandmate is TV scientist Professor
Brian Cox, who played keyboards in the band.
“He’s so lovely,” says Peter, who had been prepping for D:ream gigs this summer alongside bandmate Al Mackenzie before the pandemic disrupted events.
The pair reunited in 2008 after a chance meeting in the park, and this year are working on their fourth studio album.
“Everything you see on TV with Brian is him. He’s a nice man, that’s it, period, but he’s got certain flaws when it comes to making biscuits and tea.
“The basics aren’t there. The complicated stuff is there, but the practical stuff, absolutely not. So after a while, we used to say, pick a number, Brian’s driving. Sometimes we’d get there, sometimes not. We thought, ‘We need another driver’.
“But he was so lovely we had to get him in the band — and he looked great on stage. He’d been in a rock band and he was great on the keyboard. He was brilliant to have around
“On the coach one day I was reading a book about Napoleon, because I’ve got little man syndrome, and someone else was reading OK! magazine and Brian was there reading a book that would look the same to me if you turned it upside down.
“He actually prepped for his TV career on that tour bus because he’d be explaining this incredibly complicated stuff to people who didn’t have a clue. We helped make him who he is today.”
Now living in Co Donegal, musician Peter says he doesn’t miss life in the city — but does miss seeing his daughters, especially since the Covid-19 out
I’ve always had home studios but in Donegal ... I can turn my music up properly ... away from the possibility of complaints
break resulted in restrictions to travel. “I miss my kids,” he says. “They’re incredible, they’re very talented. Poppy, who will be 18 later this year, is an actor — not an actress — and Madeleine, who’s 15, is a young ballerina. She’s already done stuff with the English National
Ballet and worked in Monaco. They’re great — not that I’m a proud dad or anything.
“But I was in London for the last 30 years so I don’t really miss the city. I’ve done it, I’ve got the T-shirt and I’m ready to move on. Coming here with my new wife Ruth has been very different. It’s good. We’re here looking out over the beach and it’s a very different vibe.
“It transpires that way back, Ruth’s family were O’boyles who came from Muff, and she’s like the most Irish English woman I’ve ever met. She has all the chat and humour.
“We came back last October, so it was long before all this happened with the pandemic. I came back to spend time with my parents and my mum passed away in November. It was good to be with her before she went.”
Now settling down in Donegal, Peter and Ruth are making the most of their rural life.
“Right now I’m looking out over the beach,” he says. “We’ve got nesting house martins who are busy building their nests. I’ve never been much of twitcher, but it has really been remarkable here. We’ve bought a very old house, like an old ship rammed into a hillside, and it’s fighting us tooth and nail.
“We’ve had to have some emergency work done on frames on the windows, and my lady loves doing all that stuff so I can go into my little studio and work away.
“I’ve always had studios at home, but now in Donegal rather than London I can turn my music up properly for the first time in 30 years, away from the possibility of complaints.
“Before the lockdown we were really starting to settle in. We were getting to know people and you realise it’s the very simple things (that) really pick up the spirits. Things as simple as having a bit of a chit chat with people is good for the soul. The vibe here is very different.”
And while a string of D:ream gigs have been shelved this year because of the pandemic, Peter is staying positive.
“I’m an optimist,” he says. “I’m sure I annoy people with that, but we’ll come through it. We don’t know completely what the future holds, we just can’t, and predictions are often flawed. Lots of gigs have been postponed and I can’t see us being on stage until next summer.
“We had lots of festivals planned, which would have been great, and it was all just shot down so we’ve lost a lot of work.
“But I have a lot of hope for the future. I hope normality will start to prevail soon and we’ll all come out the other side once the planet has had a bit of a breather. I’m trying to take it as a moment of reflection.”