Rugby World Cup chief exec defends song choice

The British song chosen for the 2011 Rugby World Cup advertising campaign is "about selling tickets", and is not the tournament's official song, Rugby World Cup chief executive Martin Snedden says.

A cover of the Jesus Jones' song Right Here, Right Now had been recorded by New Zealand band The Feelers, it was announced yesterday.

The Christchurch band's version of the song would be heard on advertisements for World Cup tickets, the first of which would go on public sale on April 27.

Entertainer and poet Gary McCormick announced this morning he would be starting a campaign to change the song to a New Zealand one.

"The people of New Zealand are stumping up a couple of hundred million dollars so far and rising towards this World Cup and it's being held in New Zealand, the very least we can do is have a New Zealand song for the anthem for the World Cup," he told NZPA.

But Mr Snedden says Right Here, Right Now is not the official anthem, and was only chosen to appear in advertisements, to be played in New Zealand and overseas.

Ad agency Clemengers went through around 100 songs with a brief of what was required before selecting the song, he told Radio New Zealand.

Right Here, Right Now was "about selling tickets. It's not the official song for Rugby World Cup".

World in Union was the official Rugby World Cup song, and had been the theme of the past five world cups, Mr Snedden said.

New Zealand music would feature extensively during the tournament, he said.

"There will be a heap of opportunities throughout the tournament and throughout the festival that's wrapped around the tournament for New Zealand artists to be showcased and we will be taking heaps of those opportunities. This is one facet of the tournament and it's about selling tickets in a television commercial..."

The song, originally released in 1990, was inspired by events that led to the end of the Cold War, including the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The lyrics include: "I was alive and I waited for this,

Right here, right now, there is no other place I want to be."

Mr McCormick told NZPA the song choice "reeks of all that colonialism again".

"It's been sort of foisted upon us. It's not ours, and the very least we're entitled to hear is our song."

His preferred song was Loyal by Dave Dobbyn, which "would sound wonderful reverberating round the stands".

Loyal was used by Team New Zealand in its 2002 America's Cup campaign, and was chosen as New Zealand's greatest song ever in a 2006 survey.

Right Here, Right Now was being used in a campaign by Ford Motor Company this year, and had previously been used by Kmart, American cable channel TechTV, and a Canadian political candidate.

McCormick's planned campaign would be run through the website of radio station More FM, where he co-hosted a breakfast show.

He was aiming to create a petition which would be passed on to the Rugby World Cup organisers, but he did not believe it had a great chance of success.

Prime Minister John Key, who attend the unveiling in Auckland of the World Cup ticketing process, had no qualms about an overseas song, rather than a New Zealand one, being used, saying it was a catchy tune.

"It's an international event and sometimes using an international song that's so well known make a lot of sense," he said.

- NZPA