IT’S not just the Christmas song, ‘Fairytale of New York’, that has been subjected to recent censorship from the BBC.
Scottish band, The Scottish Quest All-Stars, has had its song, ‘Santa’s a Scotsman’, banned by BBC Radio Scotland.
Though it may be just a publicity stunt by BBC Scotland’s head of radio, Jeff Zycinski.
Writing in his blog, he wishes he was enjoying the recent publicity being bestowed on radio stations, talk107 – which boasts presenter, Tommy Sheridan, charged the other day with perjury – and Radio 1, which got itself offended by the word, ‘faggot’, in the lyrics of ‘Fairytale’.
Claims Zycinski – perhaps with tongue firmly in cheek – ‘Santa’s a Scotsman’ is apparently guilty of containing “negative stereotypes about Scottish people”.
Like ‘Fairytale’, ‘Santa’s a Scotsman’ has been around for a while. This time last year, it is reported to have knocked off Leona Lewis from the No. 1 spot in the download charts – albeit for about 25 minutes.
The Scottish Quest All-Stars is also the band behind the hit single, ‘Scotland, Scotland… Jason Scotland’, released during last year’s football World Cup,
Ironically, BBC Radio 2 DJ, Ken Bruce, has been regularly playing the song this week, saying on Monday: “I’ll get that song to No. 1 if it kills me.” Indeed, the song even appears on a Radio 2 Christmas trailer.
Says the song’s composer, Richard Melvin, perhaps also tongue-in-cheek: “I think it’s a real shame, it’s clearly just a bit of fun and everyone who has heard the song can see that. I think Jeff Zycinski is cynically trying to get himself publicity off the back of our success.”
Melvin is currently penning a song about climate change: Should we care if it’s sunny in Scotland?
And working on an album expected to be released at the end of next year.
