A rising Bradford band has criticised YouTube after their recently-released music video was banned from the site for being ‘too popular’.

Man Can’t Fly said they were “devastated and bewildered” by the decision to remove the video for Take Me Home, which was based upon a suspicious rapid increase in the number of times it was viewed.

Singer and keyboard player Ben Wadsworth said YouTube believed the increase was generated by an internet ‘robot’, rather than genuine clicks by people wanting to see the video.

“We spent a lot of money, and put a lot of time and effort in to producing this video, so it’s really demoralising that YouTube have just removed it,” said Ben.

“We are an honest band, with no desire to cheat to gain views – we wouldn’t even know how to!”

The video had gained 4,994 views in the two weeks it was available on YouTube. The band say the video gained substantial support on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Ben said that 87 fans had ‘shared’ the video on Facebook, exposing it to a larger online audience. He said: “Such exposure is believed to be essential for bands who are interested in breaking the industry.”

Click on the video link here to see the banned video.

The video was part of a self-funded PR campaign to gain exposure ahead of their EP release next year.

Man Can’t Fly – made up of Ben, James Waterhouse on guitar and vocals, Sam Connor on bass guitar, and Oliver Cottenham on drums – have had airtime on BBC Radio One. They also performed at this year’s Leeds and Reading Festivals and Bingley Music Live.

The band has appealed against YouTube’s decision and plans to re-upload the video. Ben said: “If our re-appeal is rejected, with gritted teeth we will re-upload our video to YouTube.”

A YouTube spokesman said: “While we can't get into specifics on individual videos or accounts, if a video violates YouTube’s Community Guidelines we act quickly to remove it.

" We send a message to the uploader to let them know why we removed their video and give them information on how to address it.”