Banned by the BBC

Nope…I remember a pop show on Saturday morning.
They were still at it in the eighties.
I haven’t posted the famous one from then yet.

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Banned by the BBC upon its release on the Decca label in 1963, this distinctive, diggable and thoroughly disreputable record missed the charts entirely. Perhaps the world wasn’t yet ready for pop songs about serial killers.

Prohibition is good for business. When it was first released, in October 1983, Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s debut single just about troubled the top 40. Enter irate Radio 1 DJ Mike Read who, objecting to its saucy artwork and lyrics, refused to play the track during the chart rundown. The BBC then banned the song from radio and TV (the original video was all decadent nightclub scenes and allusions to “water sports”). Relax duly climbed to No 1, staying there for five weeks.

Commercial radio stations,of which there many by 1983,played it.

I do remember that.No one I knew was offended by it because until Read complained we didn’t know what it meant.
I always thought he was a bit of a drip but he was very popular in the BBC,I had to listen to him because they played his show in work

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Why…it’s that line’Hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors and puss and grime ooze from the scab crusted sores.’ .
Far too gruesome for the BBC.
They had to record a special version for the BBC with that line replaced.
Here it is

Because it included the phrase, "God-almighty world’

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Another victim of censorship due to the free advertising clause, and in the case the beneficiary was the British retailer Marks & Spencer. Songwriter David Bowie’s lyrics mentioned “Wendy’s stealing clothes from Marks and Sparks,” a slangy reference to the retailer. It was subsequently changed to “Wendy’s stealing clothes from unlocked cars” so the BBC would play it. Oddly enough, the BBC had no problem with the song describing a criminal act. Go figure.

Can’t find the ‘unlocked cars’ version.

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As long as the proceeds didn’t go to Marks and Sparks.

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While some in the tabloid press accused the Sex Pistols of treason and called for their public hanging, the BBC was more moderate in its condemnation. In response to lyrics like “God Save The Queen/She ain’t no human being,” the BBC labeled the record an example of “gross bad taste.
And Woolworths wouldn’t sell it.

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Headin’ out to San Francisco
For the Labor Day weekend show
I got my Hush Puppies on
I guess I never was meant for glitter rock ‘n’ roll
And honey, I didn’t know that I’d be missin’ you so

And Hush Puppies were -and might still be -a brand of shoe here.
So no advertising on the BBC got it banned

“Open Your Box” is a The Plastic Ono Band song by Yoko Ono, released on 12 March 1971 as the B-side of John Lennon’s single “Power to the People”.[2] Lennon played guitar and produced the song.[3]
In 1971, Ono’s risqué lyrics were received in controversy (“box” is slang for vagina). Ono sings, “Open your box, open your trousers, open your sex, open your legs, open open open open open”. The record was banned from radio in Britain, and was played on-air only when echo was added to blur the lyrics

IMO, no one missed much on that one. Not a Yoko Ono fan here.

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Has this already been mentioned - the BBC banned ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Listening to the lyrics, it becomes obvious why, but i bet most of the time people don’t listen to the words as long as it’s a great song to dance to!

Oh i see it has been mentioned!! :grin:

Yes…but they played it until one of their dj’s refused to do so.

Anything by Judge Dread

Judge Dread had all of his 11 singles that entered the UK Singles Chart banned by the BBC, which is the most for any one artist.
Sexual innuendo said the BBC

Curious to know the name of the DJ concerned, or why the BBC chose not to ban him instead of a really good song.

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Mike Read…who may have been on their breakfast show at the time.

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I remember sitting in my car after working 2nd shift (I got done at 2AM) and hearing this on my AM radio back in the very early 80’s…and was just…well… :open_mouth:

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Ian Dury wrote the song “Spasticus Autisticus” knowing it would cause trouble, and hoping it would be banned. It was written in response to the UN designating 1981 as the Year of the Disabled, as if high-lighting the ‘equalization of opportunities, rehabilitation and prevention of disabilities,’ with a motto that declared “a wheelchair in every home,” would somehow magically bring genuine equality and support where it was needed.

Dury thought the Year of the Disabled was patronizing and ‘crashingly insensitive,’ and his response was to write a song straight from the heart against the naivety and arrogance of well-meaning liberals. ‘Oh, I see, so in 1982, we’ll all be all right!’ Dury said.
The BBC duly obliged

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Not just by the BBC

One of the most seemingly innocent songs on this list, “Eve of Destruction” was sung by Barry McGuire and written by P.F. Sloan). It was banned by several U.S. radio stations after the powers that be decided they didn’t like McGuire’s opinions and thought his band was anti-war.

![|738x415](https://www.ask.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/05/d9af6e84309ac3974194ede0d6d12cc3.jpg

Some of the lines that offended were “human respect is disintegratin’, this whole crazy world is just too frustratin’,” and “…you’re old enough to kill but not for votin’.” This didn’t stop the song from becoming a No. 1 Billboard hit in 1965