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Easy Life officially change band name following legal row with easyJet
And it's a pretty clever name, to be fair to them.
Emily Sergeant -
12th June 2024 
The band formerly known as Easy Life have now officially changed their name following a legal battle with easyJet’s owners.
In case you aren’t quite up-to-speed with the ongoing controversy, the alternative indie pop group – which formed in Leicester in 2017 – announced back in October of last year that they were being sued by easyJet airline’s owners, easyGroup, due to their name being too similar and therefore supposedly infringing on copyright.
After fans initially thought the band may have been joking about the legal battle, presuming the budget airline group couldn’t possibly be that bothered about the use of the word ‘easy’, it soon transpired that this wasn’t the case, and that it was, unfortunately, all very genuine.
As well as the band’s name, easyGroup – which is owned by Cypriot billionaire Stelios Haji-Ioannou, and has many companies within its conglomerate using the prefix ‘easy’ – also pointed out that the band had used an image of an orange and white plane, similar to the branding for easyJet, on a poster promoting their ‘Life’s A Beach’ tour.
Mr Haji-Ioannou labelled the band “brand thieves” in a statement at the the time.
Frontman Murray Matravers then issued an emotional statement in a video posted to the band’s Instagram a few days later, admitting that the case was going to be “extremely expensive to fight in the High Court”.
“We would be undertaking an absolutely massive, potentially two-year-long fight against a billion-dollar corporation,” he continued. “We’re not a limited company. It’s our name on the lawsuit, they could take everything and we could be completely financially ruined – they know that and they are extremely aggressive”.
While the group had initially hoped to fight the case, they were later forced to concede defeat due to finances and realising it was essentially a case of, what they called, “David vs Goliath – and our British legal system favours Goliath”.
And now, coming up to nine months since the initial announcement, the group has officially relaunched and released their first single under their new name, Hard Life.
The new single is called ‘tears’, and it’s essentially one big diss track to easyJet.
Announcing the new single, alongside an accompanying music, with a short statement shared to their official social media platforms yesterday, Hard Life briefly explained what had been happening during their absence.
“Hey it’s been a while. Safe to say the last 9 months haven’t been easy. New song tears out now,” the statement reads.
The band’s new single, ‘tears’, is instead how they’ve chosen to delve further into the legal battle situation, and, as fans have been thoroughly dissecting in the less than 24-hours since its release, contains a handful of lyrics referencing both their new name, as well as some which are obviously directed and poking fun at easyJet.
“It’s a hard life, I can’t lie, it’s been a rush. In the hard times, luck I got friends that I trust. It was easy in my twenties, now I got to lawyer up, give me air-miles or a fair trial,” one of the most prominent lyrics reads.
Another lyric reads: “There’s no use crying over oat milk, seen artists come and go, now I’ve got survivor’s guilt, but I’ll (keep those teardrops from falling).”
Read more:
- Bands left in panic as Easy Life report they’re being sued by easyJet
- Easy Life frontman Murray Matravers issues emotional update on easyJet lawsuit
- The M&S vs Aldi ‘copycat’ caterpillar cake war has finally been settled
It’s uncertain, at this moment in time, what the band – who released their first single, ‘pockets’ under their former name in 2017, and has two UK top 10 albums – intends to do next, but it’s expected that more music under the name Hard Life is to be shared with the world in due course.
Credit – Island Records / Hard Life (via Facebook)
