Friendly Fires have blasted the Conservatives’ use of one of their songs at their party conference.
The indie band were enraged to learn that their track Blue Cassette was used as the prime minister walked on stage to make his speech on Wednesday.
In a scathing post, the band – made up of Ed Macfarlane, Jack Savidge and Edd Gibson – insisted they did not approve the use of their song at the conference, which is being held in Manchester.
“We do not endorse the Conservative party’s use of our track Blue Cassette.
“Our permission was not sought and we have asked our management to make sure it isn’t used again.”
They then posted: “If we’d have intended them to use it, we’d have named the track ‘Blue Bunch of Corrupt Wankers’.”
The band also shared a headline of a 2017 BBC News story about Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg describing food banks as “uplifting”, adding: “If Boris Johnson needed something uplifting to walk on to, perhaps he should have used the sound of a busy food bank.”
HuffPost UK has contacted the Conservative Conference team for comment.
It is far from the first time an artist has objected to the use of their song being used at the Tory Party Conference.
After Theresa May entered the stage to the Rihanna and Calvin Harris collaboration This Is What You Came For in 2017, the DJ tweeted by way of a response: “Conservative party conference playing my song was not approved - I do not support nor condone happy songs being played at such a sad event.”
At the same event, Florence + The Machine’s cover of You Got The Love was played at the end, when Theresa May left the stage.
Singer Florence Welsh tweeted: “Today’s use of You’ve Got The Love at the Conservative party conference was not approved by us nor would it have been had they asked.”
She also requested that the Conservative party “refrained from using” her music at future events.
