Chumbawamba, a punk band from Britain that identifies as anarchist, has requested that Winston Peters, the deputy prime minister of New Zealand, cease using their top charting song “Tubthumping” at his rallies and gatherings. This is because the band disagrees with the agenda of the populist politician.
Peters, an experienced politician and part of the governing coalition with New Zealand First, has frequently played and referenced the 1997 song with lyrics “I get knocked down, but I get up again” at his public events and in his speeches.
Peters employed the tune before his address on the current state of the nation, during which he addressed a variety of issues such as eliminating gender and sexuality teachings from the educational program and drawing parallels between co-governance (a joint decision-making process between Māori and the government) and the racial ideologies of Nazi Germany.
According to Boff Whalley, the main guitarist of the band, Chumbawamba did not authorize Peters to use their song and disagrees with his views on race relations. He has requested that Peters refrain from using the song to support his misguided political beliefs.
According to Whalley, Chumbawamba composed the uplifting song “Tubthumping” to inspire hope, making it unusual that New Zealand’s deputy prime minister Winston Peters is incorporating the refrain “I get knocked down…” into his divisive and narrow-minded speeches promoting bigoted policies.
“Let [us] reiterate that the song was specifically created to honor and celebrate the strength of everyday individuals, rather than promoting the manipulative tactics of wealthy politicians through baseless conspiracy theories and harmful racist beliefs.”
The band has requested that their record company, Sony Music Publishing, send a cease and desist notice to the party.
Peters did not reply to the Guardian’s inquiry, but made two posts on X (formerly Twitter) where he stated: “The article regarding the use of the Chumbawamba song was started by a biased reporter who deliberately sought out a former band member, who disbanded twelve years ago, to provide their subjective evaluation of my speech. This resulted in a poorly executed attempt at a story, which only serves to prove the validity of my remarks about these types of media organizations.”
He stated that New Zealand First has not received any legal notice to stop from the band or their representatives and does not anticipate receiving one.
Peters stated that the reporter lacked knowledge of the law and instead chose to publish biased and inaccurate news.
In a subsequent statement, he mentioned, “It appears the media is more interested in the Chumbawamba story than we are. We truly aren’t concerned. There is no need to ‘stop or refrain’. The song was very effective at our initial public gathering following the election. The large audience of over 700 people also seemed to agree. If we ever do receive a ‘stop and refrain’ notice, we will store it in a secure location. I would quote another one of their popular song titles to conclude this post, but unfortunately they only have one.”
Local news source Stuff announced on Wednesday that Apra Amcos, the music licensing organization for New Zealand, plans to send a cease and desist letter to New Zealand First on behalf of Sony Music Publishing.
According to Apra, the location where Peters gave his speech on the state of the nation, the council-owned Palmerston North convention centre, has a license for live music events. However, this license has restrictions, such as not allowing music that implies support for a particular artist, business, political party, or cause.
Apra stated that it is common for political parties to request the use of music, but there was no effort made to seek approval from either New Zealand First or Peters.
Chumbawamba has previously requested that a particular party refrain from using their song. This occurred in 2011 when the band expressed shock over UK politician Nigel Farage utilizing the hit at a Ukip conference.
The National party in New Zealand was instructed to pay $600,000 to Eminem due to a copyright violation. The court ruled that the party used a version of the rapper’s popular song, Lose Yourself, in a political ad during an election.
Source: theguardian.com
