“Harry,” Pulp & Radiohead’s Wyrd World
Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker is a Harry Potter fan. Canadian folk band the Wyrd Sisters–not so much.
The Winnipeg-based group has conjured up a $40 million lawsuit seeking to block the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in North America all because the film features a performance with a same-named band fronted by Cocker and backed by members of Radiohead.
The suit was filed late last month in both the U.S. and Canada and touched off a firestorm in the blogosphere as fans of Potter, Radiohead and Pulp threatened to go Dark Arts on the Canadian group.
In the original book, Potter scribe J.K. Rowling christened the band the Weird Sisters, but Warner Bros. changed the spelling to Wyrd for the movie. In both the book and film, the magical group plays a party attended by Harry and pals. The film’s band consists of Cocker along with Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood and drummer Phil Selway (reportedly subbing for Franz Ferdinand, which turned down the gig).
According to the lawyer for the Wyrd Sisters, the band was tipped off that Goblet used the moniker back in June, when Warners offered the trio $5,000 for name rights. The band, which has been together for 15 years, refused. Warners reportedly upped the offer to $50,000. No dice.
The group then launched their lawsuit, seeking $40 million in damages from Warner Bros., as well as Cocker, Greenwood and Selway. The real Wyrds are also asking that the film be blocked from release on Nov. 18.
Now, Warners says it has removed any reference to the band, Weird or Wyrd, from the film and soundtrack.
“The name the Weird Sisters is not being used either in the film or on its soundtrack and we’ve submitted sworn affidavits to the court stating that fact,” the studio said in a statement Tuesday. “Last week, we even showed plaintiff’s counsel the film in its entirety to prove that point.”
The statemenet may, or may not, be good enough for the Wyrd camp.
“Until recently Warner had them credited and the official word was that the name of the band was ‘The Wyrd Sisters’,” the group’s lawyer, Kimberly Townley-Smith, said in a posting on the band’s Website. “They’ve already created an association between the name and the band and that’s all you need.”
Or, as the band’s singer and cofounder Kim Baryluk told the music site ChartAttack.com: “They are so much more huge than us in their reach that we’ll go out on tour a month after the movie comes out–and we’ll go all over to Australia, to New Zealand–and people will wonder who are these strange people stealing the Harry Potter name.”
As the Wyrd dispute winds its way through the legal system, it’s proving difficult for Warner Music’s marketing group to hype the soundtrack, which is eagerly anticipated by alt-rock fans.
In a press release announcing the album, due Nov. 15, Warners simply says there are three original tunes performed by the now unnamed band: “Do the Hippogriff,” “This Is the Night” and “Magic Works.”
Cocker, who wrote two of the Goblet tracks, told E! Online Monday that he was proud of the project.
He was making an L.A. appearance at the small Los Angeles club Tangier, where he tried out a new song that may well end up on his forthcoming solo debut, titled “C–ts Are Still Running the World,” with a little help on stage from former Beck drummer Joey Waronker and Donnie Darko composer Michael Andrews on guitar.
However, he did seem a bit taken aback by the Wyrd folkie attack.
“I didn’t know they had lawyers in Canada,” the singer deadpanned before playing the pick-up gig Monday night.
“I thought Canadians were supposed to be polite.”
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