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Richard Hughes of Keane.
Richard Hughes of Keane: unhappy. Photograph: David Levene
Richard Hughes of Keane: unhappy. Photograph: David Levene

General election 2010: Keane furious after song used at Tory launch

This article is more than 13 years old
Band member Richard Hughes tweets that he will not vote Conservative and says they have nothing to do with the party

The pop band Keane said they were "horrified" today to learn that one of their songs had been used as part of the soundtrack to the Conservative party's election manifesto launch.

Richard Hughes, the group's drummer, wrote on Twitter that the Tories had not asked the band's permission to use their 2004 hit Everybody's Changing. He told his 2,000 followers on the microblogging site that he would not be voting for the party.

Around 500 Tory candidates, new party members and supporters were in the audience at Battersea power station to hear David Cameron's speech.

Other tracks played to the crowd before the speech also included David Bowie's Changes – echoing the "Vote for change" slogan displayed on banners.

Hughes tweeted: "Told the Tories played Keane at their manifesto launch. Am horrified. To be clear – we were not asked. I will not vote for them."

Mike Shepherd, a music lawyer, said he thought the Tories would have had to have asked permission from the band's record company.

"In a nutshell, if they want to use Keane's music to help win an election then they should get permission. The question here is all about context. It depends on how they used the track, whether it was in the background or more prominent," he said.

"When advertisers want to use music on an advert, they have to ask permission from the record company, but when it is used in the background – for example, playing in a cafe in EastEnders – they don't have to ask first and just pay a fee to the Performing Rights Society, which collects royalties for bands.

"I think here they would probably need a licence [from the label] because the Tories were probably using the song to say, 'Hey! We're changing!', so to make a political message."

It is usually at the record label's discretion whether to consult the band first, said Shepherd, adding that most bands' contracts include an exemption clause obliging their labels to consult them before agreeing to allow their songs to run in an advert for political parties, smoking or feminine hygiene products.

A spokeswoman for the band said: "Apparently no one was asked. But permission doesn't need to be given; events like that are covered by the venue's PRS licence."

The Conservative party restricted itself to a short statement: "It's a great song and David's a great fan."

Keane are not the first band to complain about their music being misappropriated by a political party. Last year, the British National party was forced to remove a Manic Street Preachers song from one of its YouTube videos after legal threats from the band's record label.

The band's anti-fascist track If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next had appeared on the BNP website playing over clips of an article which, according to the far-right group, revealed the "violence, hatred, fragmentation and despair" wrought on London by the "great multicultural experiment".

Labour did not ask permission when it chose the D:Ream track Things Can Only Get Better as its anthem for its 1997 campaign. But the group's singer, Peter Cunnah, said last year: "I didn't mind it being used at the time because my band was nearly finished and I thought it would make us part of history.

"We'd had so long of the Tories we wanted a real change and I was happy to go along with that."

More on this story

More on this story

  • General election 2010: David Cameron launches Conservative manifesto

  • General election 2010 live blog: Tuesday 13 April

  • The Conservative manifesto at a glance

  • Conservative manifesto plan for elected commissioners worries police chiefs

  • David Cameron's brave one-way leap

  • Can David Cameron build a nation of do-gooders?

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