It’s not just Jimmy Barnes who’s unhappy with Reclaim Australia using his music during their rallies. Fellow Australian music legend John Farnham and his manager Glenn Wheatley have slammed the group’s use of Farnham’s 1986 anthem ‘You’re The Voice’ as “disgusting”.
“I have successfully pulled down the use of ‘You’re the Voice’ from YouTube that these guys have been using,” Wheatley said in a statement, via Fairfax. “The use was disgusting as it showed the decapitation of those poor souls who lost their lives.”
“John and I are seriously opposed to the use of John’s song at the rallies. It no way reflects our support in any way,” Wheatley added. “There are other means to conduct protests. Just don’t use our song or Jimmy Barnes and Lee Kernaghan’s.”
Farnham’s signature tune was one of several iconic Australian songs used during anti-Islam rallies held over the weekend. Among the other songs played were Cold Chisel’s ‘Khe Sanh’, prompting a response from frontman Jimmy Barnes.
After Channel Nine reporter Michael Best tweeted a video taken during a Reclaim Australia protest in Brisbane, during which Cold Chisel’s ‘Khe Sanh’ could be heard in the background, Barnes took to Facebook to issue a statement condemning the group’s use of his music.
“It has come to my attention that certain groups of people have been using my voice, my songs as their anthems at rallies,” Barnes wrote. “I only want to say the Australia I belong to and love is a tolerant Australia.”
“A place that is open and giving. It is a place that embraces all sorts of different people, in fact it is made stronger by the diversity of its people. If you look at my family you can see we are a multicultural family,” he continued.
“Much of the music played by the nationalistic and anti-immigration Reclaim Australia was recorded by artists not in fact born in Australia.”Barnes’ wife, Jane, with whom the singer has four children, was born in Thailand. “Australia needs to stand up for Love and Tolerance in these modern times. None of these people represent me and I do not support them.”
Reclaim Australia later issued a response, saying they would no longer play Barnes’ music at rallies. “We are deeply saddened at the news of Jimmy Barnes asking us not to play his songs at our rallies,” they wrote on Facebook.
However, as Fairfax notes, Barnes’ comments attracted abuse from an affiliated group of anti-Islamic protesters who claimed the singer “just showed the world and every Australian who grew up loving your music that you are nothing but a political correct, fold at your knees idiot”.
A video recently uploaded to The Age Facebook page also shows protestors in Adelaide playing Midnight Oil’s ‘Short Memory’ and Gotye’s smash hit ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ during a rally in the South Australian capital.
It’s interesting to note that much of the music played by the nationalistic and anti-immigration Reclaim Australia was recorded by artists not in fact born in Australia. Jimmy Barnes was born in Scotland, Farnham in England, and Gotye in Belgium.
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Back in April, Australian songwriter John Schumann condemned the use of ‘I Was Only Nineteen’, the classic Australian peace anthem he wrote as a member of Adelaide band Redgum in 1983, during a Reclaim Australia rally.
Speaking to News Corp, Schumann said the song was written to help people understand the plight of Australian Vietnam War veterans, and like his other songs, preached compassion, tolerance, and inclusiveness.
“I am very, very disappointed to see my work co-opted by what I, at my most charitable, consider to be a very confused `patriotic’ movement,” Schumann said in a statement at the time.
Schumann said the song honours all Australians who have put themselves in harm’s way for their country. “It is not to be used to advance ignorance and intolerance, especially as we approach the centenary of Anzac,” he added.
Jimmy Barnes: They don’t represent meAt anti-Islam rallies on Sunday, not only was Cold Chisel’s best-known song Khe Sanh played, but Midnight Oil and Gotye could also be heard.
Posted by The Age – theage.com.au on Tuesday, July 21, 2015
