A big stoush has unfolded in the hardcore music world today after Leeds band Captives were forced to change their name, after being yeeted off Spotify and YouTube as a result of a pre-existing Australian punk band of the same name registering a trademark on the moniker in the UK.
Things have gotten messy on social media following the news, with fans of both bands hurling abuse at the opposition.
The UK Captives, who are signed with Sharptone Records (the home of Polaris, Alpha Wolf & more) have now changed their name to CASKETS, which means their music will soon be released back on to streaming sites under the fresh nom de plume.
They’ve released a statement on social media explaining the change, which reads in full:
Dear fans,
It is with heavy hearts that we inform you that, in order to continue with our release plans this year, we have no other option but to change our name from CAPTIVES.
There is a band by the same name based in Australia who decided after 8 years they would register the name as a trademark in the UK (currently the UK is the only territory in which the Australian band hold the trademark) and then promptly issued us a cease & desist, as well as contacting the various platforms on which we exist to have them remove us with immediate effect – including having our music removed from Spotify and our YouTube channel deleted.
It would take us 9-12 months to have the issue resolved, during which time we would be unable to release new music (or even have our back catalogue available anywhere in the world). For us, the only thing worse than having to rebrand would be to ‘disappear’ for 12 months of legal battles over something trivial like the name of the band.
Since our inception, this band has endeavoured to share our message of light through the dark. This has always and will always be our unwavering purpose and our promise to everyone who has believed in us to date.
Our music and message will not be silenced because it lives through you, our beloved fans.
We pride ourselves on spreading love and positivity so we implore you not to seek out this other band or cause them any discomfort.We ask that you join us in continuing our journey together, albeit under our new name “CASKETS”. With this name change; we anticipate that our Spotify and YouTube will be reinstated at some point this week with the new name.
With all that said and done; we are excited to announce that our new single ‘Lost in Echoes’ is out on the 7th of May, along with details of how and when you can get your hands on our upcoming debut record on Sharptone.
‘“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Now, more than ever, we need your help. Every share, every comment, every stream, every playlist – you are helping to solidify our future as a band. We are nothing without you.Yours forever,
CASKETS (Formally known as ‘CAPTIVES’)
Despite the band now known as CASKETS’ request that fans refrain from seeking out their Aussie namesakes and bothering them, it seems the directive unfortunately fell on deaf ears.
The OG Australian-based Captives have since released their own statement, after copping a wave of nasty abuse on the heels of CASKETS’ initial post.
Theirs reads:
Hi gang. We just want to address an issue that has arrived on our doorstep in the past 24hrs.
We have copped an absolute barrage of abuse today from the fans/followers of a band in the UK who started a band two years ago and named themselves “captives”, who have since had to change their name.
We don’t dwell on comments across social media all that much, but messages and comments like ‘C*** suckers’, ‘Kill yourselves’, ‘Go die’ are a little too much to ignore.
And on top of that, for their record label to align themselves with these types of comments in our opinion only goes to show what kind of views they, the band and their fans truly hold.
The reason that there cannot be two bands with the same name, is because in the music world in 2021 everything is online and there has been confusion when we are both touring internationally and releasing music worldwide.
This band has been our passion and our labour of love for the last eight years and it seems only fair to us that we continue under the name we chose all the years ago.
We may not have a million Facebook likes, we may not have a million Instagram followers, but we put everything into our music, our time , our money and in return we hope we put a smile on some people faces.
So yeah it’s been a shitty day but we are pushing forward with our new album, we are hopeful we will be seeing the end of this Covid mess really soon so we can pick up where we left off and continue on our journey.
We want to end by saying thank you for your continued support and regardless of the backlash we have received we wish the other band all the best in their future endeavours under their new name.
– Captives
You can peep both of their posts below.
