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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to really not like the military wive's song...

230 replies

KittyFane · 06/12/2011 18:45

I LOVE Gareth Malone and love choirs and I think it's great how he has put it all together but I don't like the song at all.
I feel unreasonable as I am being made to feel ( by constant press/ radio coverage) that I should love it.
I don't even like it.
Anyone else or just me?

OP posts:
Original poster
KittyFane · 06/12/2011 19:13

I think so, very 'wow, all of these women, couldn't sing a note and now look...' they have been trained for months by the gorgeous Gareth.

OP posts:
unfitmother · 06/12/2011 19:15

YANBU, makes me cringe.

youtalkintome · 06/12/2011 19:17

yanbu it's a load of tosh

sparkle12mar08 · 06/12/2011 19:18

I like it but I do think their singing is vastly over rated. The studio produced single is all wonderfully tuned, but every time I've heard or seen live performances from them they are very badly out of tune. Very badly. I'm surprised in that they've had nearly five months of practise now. I also think the tempo of the song is much too fast and should also be pitched an octave lower.

I'll still buy it though, to support them as a unit, and the charities they're working for.

Sparklingbaubles · 06/12/2011 19:22

It's not about the singing. It's about the Military wives, getting together while their husbands are away and doing something positive for themselves. People who like the song can buy it and raise money for 2 great charities.

herbietea · 06/12/2011 19:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

newgirl · 06/12/2011 19:25

I genuinely like it - I find it moving. I'm not a military wife btw might be bit hormonal though

MaryWiselyornotatall · 06/12/2011 19:29

Hate it. Manipulative and sentimental.

Esta3GG · 06/12/2011 19:34

Picture the scene at the Beeb as the producers decided to cobble this together just in time to give Cowell's ITV Xmas pukefest a thorough stuffing.

Prince of peace? Prince of fucking peace?
Do people have no discernment at all?
I have no problem with Malone and his choiry telly thing. I have no problem with wives of squaddies singing if that is what they fancy doing.
But the song is abhorrent and the performance execrable and I am sick of every single BBC DJ creaming their pants over it.
Our army has no conscripts in it - these people are professional soldiers. Plenty of people are overseas and away from their families at Xmas - why do we always have to endure this sycophancy over the military?

Marymaryalittlecontrary · 06/12/2011 19:35

I'd never heard it before so because of this thread I've just found it on YouTube. I thought it was beautiful and it made me cry (but I think that was more the video than the song). Lovely song I think.

winterfox · 06/12/2011 19:36

seems manipulative to me too, though i don't particularly like him

GingerWrath · 06/12/2011 19:45

Jesus, cynical or what?! The song was written for them to perform at the Remembrance Festival. Public pressure caused them to record it and it just so happens 6 weeks after Remembrance day is Christmas!

It is a heartfelt song and SSAFA is especially deserving of the money as it is a terribly overlooked charity that helps families as well as the Serving personnel and veterans.

Kudos to the ladies for getting off their asses and doing it while their blokes were away.

'Prince of Peace' is actually correct as technically the Afghan mission is now a peacekeeping one.

I am sure one of the choir members will be along shortly as some of them are MNers.

KeepInMindItsAlmostChristmas · 06/12/2011 19:47

i do not like the line about prince of peace, the rest is a bit Disney but I will buy it, anything to keep those X factor twats off of number one

squeakytoy · 06/12/2011 19:47

I dont like it, and I dont like the Wootton Basset song either that has just been brought out. It is a remake of When September Ends by Green Day and it really isnt a great version...

Esta3GG · 06/12/2011 19:49

Public pressure caused them to record it

According to the BBC PR Department.
Not cynical Ginger - just well informed.

handsomeharry · 06/12/2011 19:51

I honestly thought that the 'point' of the choir was to perform at the concert for Remembrance.

I do love the song and find it very moving.

My dad was in the services and so that may have influenced me.

GingerWrath · 06/12/2011 19:52

I have actually spoken to some of the members.

winterfox · 06/12/2011 19:56

does it matter if some of us are cynical? its a dead cert to be christmas no 1 isn't it whatever

forceslover · 06/12/2011 19:58

It is fab, I love it, you cynics can have your x factor crap, the wives are real, what they have been through is real, the charities the record is supporting do fantastic jobs. So go girls!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 06/12/2011 19:59

It's tricky IMO. I think if it makes those women feel better, and their children feel better, that is important because it must be so scary.

But I think the song is awful - the words are dire, and it does seem out of place to sing about the 'prince of peace' referring to men fighting a war. Not just for the Christian reference although yes, that is a bit misjudged, but also because these men are doing something that is likely to be very demanding if not absolutely traumatic, and I think referring to it like that romanticizes war when we actually need more realization of the stress and trauma people in war zones go through, not less.

I don't know what I feel on balance.

TBH, I don't see what is wrong with it being marketed at all - why is it cynical to want something to be a success?

AitchTwoOHoHoHo · 06/12/2011 19:59

oh i'd have thought that the bbc would have had a fair inkling/hope that it might be taken up as a single, but i don't object to that at all. better than simon cowell.

and weren't the lyrics all taken from the letters from wives? that's why i like that prince of peace line, because whoever wrote that really believes in what he is doing out there. as for being on the side of good, they are on the british side... not necessarily the same thing.

WhatsWrongWithYou · 06/12/2011 20:00

I've only heard it once or twice thank God. Agree with whoever described it as terrible caterwhalling. Can't stand the way such low standards are held up as inspirational - so patronising.

Scary to think that's what it sounds like post-production. On the plus side, at least a few high notes are attempted - we normally only hear them from boy bands these days since female singers seem to record in their lower register.

And yes, the song is awful.

Esta3GG · 06/12/2011 20:01

Exactly Winterfox. Millions will buy (into) it.
But we are destined to have it pumped out at us in every Superdrug and Poundstretcher for at least the next 20 Christmases.

GingerWrath · 06/12/2011 20:02

Yes, the lyrics were all taken from letters sent to and from Afghanistan. The title comes from words engraved on a bracelet that one of them gave his wife before he left.

AitchTwoOHoHoHo · 06/12/2011 20:02

will you also be taking your protest to Noddy Holder and Sir Cliff, Esta?

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