Dismay as Radio 1 censors 'offensive' Fairytale
By Anita Singh, PA Showbusiness Editor
Published: 18 December 2007
The mother of late singer Kirsty MacColl has branded Radio 1 "pathetic" for banning the words 'fa***t' and 'slut' from her hit Fairytale Of New York.
MacColl's duet with Pogues star Shane MacGowan is heading up the charts again this Christmas.
But Radio 1 has decided to bleep out the word "fa***t" from the line: "You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap, lousy fa***t."
MacColl's mother, Jean, hit out at the decision.
She told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast: "I think it's pathetic, I really do.
"It's absolute nonsense. Really, this is too ridiculous."
Mrs MacColl said the offending phrase was spoken by the character MacColl was playing in the song.
"Shane has written the most beautiful song and these characters live, they really live, and you have such sympathy for them.
"These are a couple of characters who are not in the first flush of youth, I wouldn't have thought. They are what they are, this is the way they speak.
"Today we have a lot of gratuitous vulgarity and f****** and whatever from people all over, which I think is quite unnecessary. But these are characters and they speak like that.
"It's like a play and it's very amusing and sad, and it's a great song."
She added that the likes of Shakespeare often used bawdy language.
Presenter Nicky Campbell suggested the song lyrics might be unsuitable for children hearing it on the school run.
But Mrs MacColl said: "As a parent, whatever age your child is, you have to guide them. You would say, 'well, some people talk like this'. But they'll know that from TV."
A Radio 1 spokesman said: "We are playing an edited version. It is a word members of our audience would find offensive."
Fairytale Of New York was first released in 1987 and reached number two in the charts.
Fans are campaigning for it reach number one this year, scuppering the chances of X Factor winner Leon Jackson.
MacColl died in 2000, aged 41, when she was hit by a speedboat while diving during a holiday in Mexico.
Radio 1 has also decided to bleep out the word "slut" from the lyrics but has kept in "arse".
The lyrics read: "You're a bum/You're a punk/You're an old slut on junk/Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed.
"You scumbag, you maggot/You cheap lousy fa***t/Happy Christmas your arse/I pray God it's our last."
Radio 1 has played the song uncensored for the past 20 years.
But a spokesman for the station explained: "We continually review the language used in music and the impact it will have on our audience. The judgment was made by our head of music, who felt the time was right."
Over on Radio 2, the song is still being played in its entirety.
This is not the first time Radio 1 has run into controversy over the use of potentially homophobic language.
Breakfast DJ Chris Moyles sparked a complaint when he dismissed a ringtone as "gay".
But the BBC Board of Governors ruled that the word now means "lame" or "rubbish" to young people
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article3261339.ece
