To be surprised that the school are using a rolf harris song in the xmas play?

[mybeardisblack]

DS1 (yr 1) was singing the song his class are dancing to in the Xmas play, googled to check (he confirmed that it was the version). It's a rolf harris song. I appreciate he has not been convicted just charged, and that they are likely to have purchased a production some time ago...but still I would have thought they might have swapped it for something else?

Not going to complain but it made me a little , what do you think?

westiemamma

I wonder if they had a mike Oldfield album and someone "accidentally" set the track to Tubular Bells instead of In Dulce Jubilo?

Because I would do it for a laugh personally

As an aside... I just googled his portrait of the queen and now I think
I'll have nightmares tonight!

At first glance I thought 'it's not that bad, what is everyone on about?'. But the longer you look at it, the more wrong it looks. Those eyes! And teeth! After a few seconds she looks like she wants to jump out of the picture and eat your brains! argh!

For all we know Shakespeare may have used underage prostitutes, it just gets silly.

Crohnic

I really hope Rolf is found to be innocent, I think he's great.
The Gary Glitter rewriting of pop history annoys me, all these 70s and Glam rock retros that just ignore him.
He was /is a creepy paedo but I loved his music as a kid and he was constantly at the top of the charts for a few years.
Pretending he never existed seems rather naziish even if it's just done to avoid giving him royalties.

Pagwatch I swear on all things chocolate, it's the truth. It was the local Catholic school too. It took every ounce of self control I had not to burst out laughing.

I was giving my boys a lovely rendition of '2 little boys' this evening! :) love that song!

Ah. A chocolate oath. It must be true

Polanski was tried for a variety of sexual offences against a 13 year old girl including sodomy and rape and giving her drugs. He accepted a plea bargain and was convicted of a lesser offence of sexual misconduct with an underage girl, apparently. But he thought he was going to escape prison, and when he found out he wasn't he fled the country and hasn't been back to the USA since. I don't think France will extradite him (?) to face trial in the USA. The girl's version of events was very disturbing -she went to do a few photographs, he got her drunk and raped her. She was a virgin to boot, despite Gore Vidal saying something about who cares about a few drunken hookers. I used to be a fan, but I can't watch his films now. I feel the same way about Woody Allen (I am not saying he did the same thing, I am saying I feel the same way).

gordy My is for the people who came out in force to deny Polanski committed rape. My "favourite" perhaps being Whoopi Goldberg's attempts to explain that Polanski hadn't committed "rape-rape".

www.theguardian.com/film/2009/sep/29/roman-polanski-whoopi-goldberg

As regards the issue of art versus artist, my rule is: if the rapist is alive to profit from his work, I don't buy it.

'I'm Jake the Pake with my extra lake'??? (for those who thought Pake was better!)

I just read that article in the Guardian. So intoxicating, raping and sodomising a 13 year old child isn't rape-rape, it's something else? And we wonder how Jimmy Saville got away with it for so many years...

At my daughter's church school nativity play I was somewhat hmm when the angels skipping out was accompanied by The Exorcist theme tune.

That has made me laugh.

There is an art to producing plays/films that can be enjoyed by adults and children but for totally different reasons.

I think the issue for me is payment. I don't want certain people to gain financially and with music that can be every time something is played on the radio or sung by someone.

I also think with sound and vision (in the cases that have been proved) a victim can be going about their business, say shopping in a supermarket and suddenly the voice of their abuser is coming out of the speakers.

It's a bit different with Art in the form of sculpture / painting. I don't think Eric Gill's work should be chiseled off broadcasting house. Yes a victim could come across the sculptures but would that have the same impact?

Also Gill is not being paid whenever anyone looks at his work.

Tuhlulah I know...

I still can't believe that "artistic merit" can blind people so much. I really don't care if people still love and play their Gary Glitter CDs on a daily basis, but love of the works shouldn't mean that you have to defend a criminal, whatever they do.

Is it 6 white boomers? Thats a tuuuune!

He will get a fair trial because despite what defence teams feel obliged to say about pre trial press the great British public when reduced to 12 (or 15 in Scotland) take jury duty very seriously. All that matters is they and the judge, whose job it is , deal only with the evidence presented in court. The jury get told what they can take account of and what they can't and most of the time they deal with it well.

The Vicky Price jury got a bit of stick about not being able to decide but even there they were correct to let the court know they were struggling rather than plumping one way or another.

So far as the merit of the work, he's not been convicted of anything, if he is I think you'll have to make your own rationalisation. Polanski is a brilliant film maker, I've seen several of his films since it all came out.
I've never knowingly heard The Lostprophets so I don't have to consider Ian Watkins' conviction

everyone seems happy to ignore woody allen's relationship with his own daughter (albeit adopted)

with rolf - innocent til proven guilty

for those found guilty it comes down to your 'talent'

I had never heard of the lost prophets either so have no idea of their songs thankfully.

If Rolf Harris is convicted I will, like R. Kelly (who wasn't convicted, but he married an under age Aaliyah and wrote "age aint nothing but a number" for her) revisit his catalogue and see if lyrics are up for reinterpretation. R. Kelly failed my "Oh, That is what he meant" test." Chocolate Factory" and "Pied Piper"...talk about hiding in plain sight.

RH in news again for more offences, 3 more.

Anti-semitism does taint the works of Wagner for me, very unpleasant associations. Given we know where that line of thinking ended up.

Glitter is also unlistenable but that's far easier because it was never that good in the first place.

Michael Jackson - feel differently about it now he's dead and not profiting/alive to see his work being appreciated.

Rolf - I'm hoping somehow it's all a terrible mistake. But if he were to be convicted, I guess that would put him in the same category as Glitter. Shame as I do hum Two Little Boys occasionally but I can live without it.

I put on a Christmas CD the other day in my classroom. I had completely forgotten about the Gary Glitter song on it! I don't think any of the children noticed but my TA and I looked at each other and weren't sure whether to leave it on or fast forward it with a load of questions.

I'm not sure about whether we should avoid anything produced by these people. I was watching something the other day and there was a bit of Jimmy Saville in it - I couldn't decide whether it should be taken off air or not.

He hasn't been convicted of anything and even if he was, what would be the point of banning children singing his songs? I'd much rather a kid sing 'two little boys..' than any of the songs referencing sex that they're too often exposed to and repeat today. The content of the song is important, not the morality or lack thereof, of the writer.

teacher, I'm sure they are editing JS out of old episodes of TOTP - highlights are sometimes shown on BBC4 and we caught one the other day where dh pointed it out.