National candidate Scott Sheeran learned to fire spin while backpacking through Cambodia.
Wellington Central’s National candidate has deleted a video of him fire-spinning over music licensing confusion.
Scott Sheeran uploaded the video of himself spinning fire poi on Wellington’s waterfront to Instagram on Monday, proclaiming voting was open and the National Party was “on fire”, but by this morning the video was deleted.
When questioned by the Herald, Sheeran said there had been some slight confusion over whether the music he used was licensed or not.
“There was a lack of clarity around whether the music was licensed because I thought it was, and I think it probably is - but we just want to be certain so I took that down but I’ll be reuploading it soon.”
The song he uploaded it with is Royal Deluxe’s Day is Gonna Come - which is officially licensed by the National Party for its campaign - however, Sheeran said he wasn’t sure if the song was covered for this use.
“I’m not sure it’s covered, but I’m not an expert. Better safe than sorry.”
He said he was quite proud of the video and his fire spinning, telling the Herald he first learned how to do it while he was backpacking as a younger man.
“So I went to Central America, South America and through Southeast Asia. And, you know, the first time I actually, I tried [fire-spinning] out was on, at a beach bar on a little island of Cambodia. And I remember seeing some people doing that and that looks interesting. I’ll give that a go.”
National party candidate for Wellington Central electorate Dr Scott Sheeran.
He said it’s not a hobby he practises particularly often and in fact, he had bought the fire poi he needed for his video - but they were “kind of rubbish”.
“So I had to go down and get some chain from Bunnings actually and do it myself because I, you know, I’m actually pretty handy because when my Dad was at home, he taught me a few things.”
He said he intended to re-upload the video later today with a different soundtrack as he thought it “looked quite good”.
A spokesperson for the National Party said they have a license to use the song during the campaign - including on social media - but out of “an abundance of caution” the song was swapped.
“Scott is running an incredible campaign in Wellington Central and fire spinning is just one of his many talents.”
It’s not the first time National’s run into problems with music used during an election campaign.
The National Party bought Eminem Esque from a company called Beatbox, which in turn bought the licence from California-based music library Labrador.
National’s campaign manager at the time, Steven Joyce, described the use of the Eminem Esque track as “pretty legal” - however the High Court disagreed, ordering the party to pay $600,000 in damages.
No additional damages were awarded because the National Party’s actions were taken after getting professional, commercial, and media advice. The court found the party had not been reckless.
Vita Molyneux is a Wellington-based journalist who covers breaking news and stories from the capital. She has been a journalist since 2018 and joined the Herald in 2021.
