Today sees controversial punk band The Kunts release their attempt at a Jubilee Number One with ‘Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce’. Check it out below, along with our interview with frontman K.
The Kunts’ previous two singles, ‘Boris Johnson Is A Fucking C**t’ and ‘Boris Johnson Is STILL A Fucking C**t‘, both reached number five in the UK singles chart in 2020 and 2021 respectively as they attempted to score a Christmas Number One.
Now, the Essex punks are attempting a Number One single in time with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations next week with a new single that lampoons The Duke Of York. The third child of the Queen, Prince Andrew stepped down from royal duties in the wake of a civil sexual assault case that was recently brought against him in the US by Virginia Giuffre. He strongly denied all wrongdoing.
The song is based around the children’s rhyme ‘The Grand Old Duke Of York’, and aims to “re-open the conversation around [the Queen’s] son Prince Andrew’s conduct at this time when the establishment appear to want it swept under the carpet”.
Lyrics in the song include the section: “The grand old Duke of York / He said he didn’t sweat / So why did he pay 12 million quid / To a girl he’d never met?”
“For me, having grown up with the folklore around The Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save The Queen’ getting robbed of the top spot in ’77, a Jubilee celebration has always felt like it could be a good chance to air any grievances one may have with our unelected head of state and her feckless offspring,” frontman Kunt told NME.
“The timing this year felt perfect, given Prince Andrew’s bizarre, shameful, and cowardly behaviour as he attempted to dodge any sort of accountability for the alleged sexual assault on Virginia Giuffre, followed by the attempt to sweep it all under the carpet with an out of court settlement.”
On the message he hopes to send to the monarchy of the UK, Kunt said: “I can’t help thinking that in a day and age where there are families reliant on foodbanks to feed their children and old ladies riding around on buses because they can’t afford to heat their homes, the idea that there is this family who live in castles and palaces, and whose crowns gilded with gold and jewels get ferried around in specially built Rolls Royces does feel a bit like something that we as a society should have risen up and put a stop to by now.”
Kunt went on to say that the band had received a fair amount of backlash from Royalists, but argued that they were among the Brits that are “just stuck in a rut of how things have always been and are generally scared of change”.
“It feels like that’s how the system carries on, by making us fear that if things change we might be worse off. But how bad has it got to get?”
Following on from their past two attempts at establishment-toppling Number One singles, Kunt said that the groundswell of support for the band had been “heartwarming”.
“I was really touched by the sense of community that developed from people getting behind the songs,” he said. “When we released ‘Boris Johnson Is A Fucking C**t’ for Christmas 2020, it was just a bit of a last minute shot in the dark so to actually end up being talked about as a possible contender for Christmas Number One was unbelievable.
“Despite the ‘Boris Johnson Is STILL A Fucking C**t’ campaign a year later getting much less press coverage, getting dug out in an interview by LadBaby seemed to fire everyone up and make them even more determined to spread the word.”
Asked if the band would be going for a Christmas Number One again if the Prime Minister were still in power – despite the ongoing Partygate scandal – Kunt replied: “There’s a bleak thought. But if he is, obviously, yes.”
Kunt went on to express how he was disappointed but not surprised that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had not yet resigned.
“If I lived anywhere else apart from deepest Essex I would probably be surprised, but people round here seem unable and unwilling to want to break free from the Jedi mind trick Thatcher played on their aspirational mums and dads in the ’80s when she dangled the carrot of them being able to join the middle class,” he said.
“You hear it repeated a lot that Boris has done a good job under difficult circumstances and how no one could have done any better. When you consider that he has presided over 150,000 COVID deaths, the handout of PPE contracts to the Tories’ mates, his Health Secretary nobbing his secretary in the middle of a lockdown, discharging old people with COVID into the care homes, and attending parties while we couldn’t hug our nan, the idea that no one – not one single person in the country – could have handled it any better does seem a bit far-fetched.”
As for their next move, The Kunts have “10 different mixes and versions” of ‘Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce’ ready for release along with remixes from the likes of Ricardo Autobahn and B3ta founder Rob Manuel. “We pile them high and sell them cheap to give the song the best chance of hitting the charts,” said Kunt.
“That’s our way of trying to level the playing field with the major label acts who get promotion from The One Show and BBC Breakfast.”
Kunt also added that his hopes were fading of representing the UK at Eurovision. “I’ve been waiting for them to call for 20 years,” he added. “It’s getting to the stage where I think I’m just gonna have to take my song to Moldova instead.”
Andrew, who repeatedly denied allegations that he sexually assaulted Giuffre when she was 17, reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in February. The settlement, which makes no admission of liability, will see Andrew pay Giuffre an undisclosed sum as well as make a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.
‘Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce’ is available for download and streaming now. Visit here for more information.
