BBC Radio 1 censoring Pogues & Kirsty McColl lyrics

r3nu4l

Yesterday morning on the way to work I heard the Fairy Tale of New York byt he Pogues and Kirsty McColl on BBC Radio 1. I was annoyed to hear BBC censor the lyrics to remove the word "****" from the line "ya cheap lousy ****, Happy Christmas me arse, I pray God it's our last".

Turns out I'm not the only one who wasn't happy.

So do you think radio stations should censor the word ****? What about other words referring to guns and the "N-word". Does the context matter?

aidan_walsh

A Beeb spokesman offered: "This step has been taken as this is a word that members of our audience would find offensive."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/18/faiytale_censorship/

Its nice that they're now telling us how to react to words. Its a good public service, saves time forming a reaction of your own.

DMC

Note that BBC Radio 2 will still allow '****' to be aired in this song uncensored. Its only BBC Radio 1.

Very odd decision.

smashey

About time too. Every time I heard the song, I was so offended I wanted to kill.

Homer

Hey smashey, think you left a word off the end of your sentence there

jawlie

Its actually a cynical attempt by the BBC to regain some interest in this hackneyed and boring song....

mike65

So what happens do they "duck" it or is it replaced with another word like meat-ball?

Mike.

Gauge

Maybe they should dub in the line 'You're cheap and you're haggard' from the awful Ronan Keating version.

whiskeyman

Radio 1 and BBC1 (Top of THe Pops) always censored this song as far as I can remember.

When this was on TOTP, the slagging verse was nearly totally replaced with other lyrics... with Kirsty calling him a 'Haggis'? Sounded like it anyway!

r3nu4l

mike65 wrote: »

So what happens do they "duck" it or is it replaced with another word like meat-ball?

Mike.

Nope, yesterday morning it was the good old fashioned "bleep" noise!

jawlie

and here we all are talkling about it, just as the BBC wanted. You are all pawns to their machevillian tricks, I tell you.

faceman

You obviously havent heard ronan keating's version!!!

smashey

industria wrote: »

Hey smashey, think you left a word off the end of your sentence there

Not at all. I just wanted to kill indiscriminately.

Homer

Equal opportunities killer.. You've got my support..

DMC

whiskeyman wrote: »

Radio 1 and BBC1 (Top of THe Pops) always censored this song as far as I can remember.

When this was on TOTP, the slagging verse was nearly totally replaced with other lyrics... with Kirsty calling him a 'Haggis'? Sounded like it anyway!

YouTube to the rescue. It was never censored on TOTP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcU3S2drNKk

byte

And, what a surprise, Radio1 have reversed their decision...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/newsbeat/071218_fairytale.shtml

What was more annoying is the fact that so many radio programmes here felt the need to talk about it. D'arcy covered it, as did Matt Cooper, and whoever was on RTE R1 around 2pm.

I believe Moyles is trying to push this song to Number 1, so that it won't be another Xmas No1 for an X-Factor winner.

r3nu4l

byte wrote: »

And, what a surprise, Radio1 have reversed their decision...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/newsbeat/071218_fairytale.shtml

What was more annoying is the fact that so many radio programmes here felt the need to talk about it. D'arcy covered it, as did Matt Cooper, and whoever was on RTE R1 around 2pm.

I believe Moyles is trying to push this song to Number 1, so that it won't be another Xmas No1 for an X-Factor winner.

Yeah, I heard Scott Mills (who is gay btw) play it in full on the way home, three cheers for common sense!

Moyles is also pushing for Space Pirates to get into the charts...Dominic Byrne voices one of the parts (Zorst) on the show.

FlutterinBantam

:eek:

OMG!! The fact that anyone gives a fiddlers * bleep* about that stuff in 2007 has me nonplussed.

Some bent producer in the BBC probably saw it as his chance for the '15 mins'.

I despair.

Snickers Man

If my aged memory serves me right, I think TOTP were instrumental in "Censoring" the Pogues original name.

When I first heard of them back in the 1980s, they were known as Pogue Mahone and they were mentioned in a late night BBC rock program in a piece noting a "movement" of up and coming bands playing punked-up traditional Irish music. The Shillelagh Sisters was one such (whatever happened to them?) and I think The Men They Couldn't Hang were mentioned as another.

I'm sure that it was mentioned that Pogue Mahone were not allowed on TV before the watershed because some rotter had told the BBC what their name meant in Irish. So to get on TOTP in the first place, they had to change their name.

r3nu4l

Snickers Man wrote: »

If my aged memory serves me right, I think TOTP were instrumental in "Censoring" the Pogues original name.

When I first heard of them back in the 1980s, they were known as Pogue Mahone and they were mentioned in a late night BBC rock program in a piece noting a "movement" of up and coming bands playing punked-up traditional Irish music. The Shillelagh Sisters was one such (whatever happened to them?) and I think The Men They Couldn't Hang were mentioned as another.

I'm sure that it was mentioned that Pogue Mahone were not allowed on TV before the watershed because some rotter had told the BBC what their name meant in Irish. So to get on TOTP in the first place, they had to change their name.

If that's true then that's kind of funny

jawlie

r3nu4l wrote: »

Yeah, I heard Scott Mills (who is gay btw) play it in full on the way home, three cheers for common sense!

Moyles is also pushing for Space Pirates to get into the charts...Dominic Byrne voices one of the parts (Zorst) on the show.

It is curious that you need to tell everyoine that he is "gay btw". Is it relevant?

r3nu4l

jawlie wrote: »

It is curious that you need to tell everyoine that he is "gay btw". Is it relevant?

Why yes it is, you see the whole reason BBC Radio 1 censored the word "****" is because it was considered by them to be a word that would be offensive to gay people. So the fact that Mills played the song uncensored and commented on how ridiculous the whole thing was (which I left out of the original post you quoted) is interesting because it's obvious that the folk in BBC1 who make these decisions didn't even have the cop-on to consult staff and say "Eh, would it be OTT to censor that word?". I'm pretty sure that most gay people would say "Yes, it would be very OTT"...any of the gay people I know couldn't really give a toss about whether it's censored or not.

As for "needing" to say that, I didn't need to but it was relevant...now, why do you feel the NEED to pick that part of my post and comment on it rather than the issue at hand? Is it relevant?

Brendan552004

I wonder if the word "Paddy" instead of "****" was in the song would they have banned the word, the Beeb do not allow the "Niggzzer" or "Packzzy" word as they are racialist.

Brendan
Jumped in from the Media Board

passive

jawlie

It is curious that you need to tell everyoine that he is "gay btw". Is it relevant?

Clearly, in this context. Are you an idiot?