Rachael Dexter and Brendan Wrigley
Jimmy Barnes’ backlash over Reclaim Australia’s use of his music at anti-islam rallies has highlighted the lack of agency artists have over the way their music is publicly played.
Dr Nicholas Suzor, Senior Law Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology said Reclaim Australia’s only legal obligation was to obtain a Casual Public Performance licence from APRA/AMCOS.
“Legally speaking Reclaim Australia has done nothing wrong, presuming they got a licence.”
He said although it is common for musicians to become frustrated with their music being associated with political messages, they have few legal avenues to pursue.
“[Artists] have the right to have their music not performed in a way that is prejudicial to their honour or reputation”, he said, “but in most cases the law doesn’t provide a clear remedy for that either”.
He said APRA was unlikely to ever discriminate on who they grant licences to, despite protest from their authors.
“We don’t necessarily want an organisation like APRA making a decision about who’s entitled to use music and who’s not if they’ve paid the royalties”.
The Melbourne Reclaim Australia rally also played Men at Work’s Down Under and Peter Allen’s I Still Call Australia Home.
The latter song was made famous in a 1998 QANTAS television ad featuring the Australian Girls Choir and National Boys Choir singing with children from different countries.
Neither QANTAS or Colin Hay from Men at Work have spoken out about the association of their music and brands to the rallies.
Mr Barnes took to Facebook yesterday to publicly disassociate himself from the Reclaim Australia movement saying “None of these people represent me and I do not support them”.
Mr Barnes’ 1979 hit Khe Sanh was played at the Brisbane rally on Sunday, as well as John Farham’s The Voice.
Today the official Facebook page for the National Reclaim Australia movement replied to Mr Barnes, stating they were “deeply saddened” by his statement.
“We are & will continue to support you privately as you are an Aussie Icon, however if it’s your wish, we will no longer play your songs at our Rallies,” they wrote.
We are deeply saddened at the news of Jimmy Barnes asking us not to play his songs at our rallies..Mr Barnes, you have…
Posted by Reclaim Australia Rally – Australia wide on Tuesday, 21 July 2015
It’s not the first time the controversial group has angered musicians by playing their music at rallies.
Earlier this year John Schumann from Australian band Redgum asked rally organisers to stop using their music after they played I was Only 19.
The issue was raised again recently in the United States, when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump used Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World.
While Trump did not breach any copyright laws, he removed the song from his campaign after Young’s management said the artist aligned himself with Democrat candidate Bernie Sanders.
Reclaim Australia were contacted for comment.
Image Credit: JamesDPhotography (flikr)
