Weird Choir song choice?

[cavendishcute]

The primary school choir teacher is getting the whole junior school to sing Justin Hawkings 'Christmas Time Don't Let The Bells End' at the end of year concert. Is that an odd choice? I'm old enough to remember that song. But for primary kids? I feel like they are being set up. AIBU?

Can imagine they do!

@cavendishcute Well, if it really makes you sick I guess you should complain. Have you asked how other parents feel about it? To me it's harmless fun but it's your right to speak up if it's your kids school. I feel the more attention drawn to it the more it might get to be known by the little ones that there was 'naughty' words. Therefore they'd probably find it all the more amusing?

That's an urban myth - a good one, but a myth nonetheless.

Sorry to disappoint you!

No
Its not an urban myth
Look at the names!

Oh, love, you're going to feel a bit silly when you Google it.

"An urban myth about the children's cartoon Captain Pugwash involved sexual innuendo with characters like Master Bates, Roger the Cabin Boy, and Seaman Stains. The creator of Captain Pugwash, John Ryan, was devastated by the rumors and sued the papers to have the stories retracted. The court case was successful, but the urban myth remained."

I’ve just looked all that up and whilst I see he didn’t appear to mean the names to be rude or suggestive.
Clearly they are.
So parents would still have been having a giggle as their kids told them all about the latest on Captain Pugwash.
I see the word pugwash is in the urban dictionary now as well.

In the Young Guardian of September 13 [1991] we stated that the Captain Pugwash cartoon series featured characters called Seaman Staines and Master Bates, and for that reason the series had never been repeated by the BBC. We accept that it is untrue that there ever were any such characters. Furthermore, the series continues to be shown on television and on video. We apologize to Mr. Ryan, the creator, writer and artist of the Captain Pugwash films and books. We have agreed to pay him damages and his legal costs.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/captain-pugwash-double-meanings/

I’ve just looked all that up and whilst I see he didn’t appear to mean the names to be rude or suggestive.
Clearly they are.

No they're not.

There was no Roger the Cabin Boy - the actual character was called Tom the Cabin Boy.

There was no Master Bates - there was a character called Master Mate.

There was no character called Seaman anything.

"parents would still have been having a giggle as their kids told them all about the latest on Captain Pugwash"

Why would they? You just made that up.

Why can't you just accept that it was an urban myth?

I didn’t mention a Roger or a Master Bates I said Master Mates
I did mention Seaman Staines and yes he wasn’t a character, I was wrong there.

Ive already said he said he didn’t mean the names to be suggestive but in the same vain of this thread ie Bells End some of the names in Captain Pugwash as I said are suggestive.

Some people may not think Bells End is suggestive, I didn’t till I read it here but I can see some people thinking that. Just as some parents would think Captain Pugwash is.

The only urban myth about Captain Pugwash is that the writer intended for the names to have a sexual innuendo. I however didn’t say that the writer intended this, just that the names do, hence this aspect is not in fact an urban myth.

Our choir at primary always sang Sloop John B by the Beach boys as their party piece.
I don't recall noticing singing "drinking all night, got into a fight" as anything other than word with a nice tune that rhymed.

And only a few years ago I got a group of young teens singing Roll me over in the clover, with just a small alteration, without a giggle in sight. None of them commented on the innuendo, and I can assure you they were very quick to pick up on other things.

I think if the teacher approaches it right it will be fine.

How?!!

Hahahaha sorry just clocked your username

“Some people may not think Bells end is suggestive “ - well some people may not, but the songwriter did, he wrote it that way on purpose and thought it was funny to get it past naiive people and onto the radio. So if you don’t think it is suggestive, you are not in on the joke, and are one of those naiive people.

www.prsformusic.com/m-magazine/features/i-wrote-that-christmas-time-dont-let-the-bells-end
‘The thing that was important to me was “bells end” and “ring in piece”,’ says Justin. ‘Okay, they’re nearly rude. But what we had the children’s choir sing was bellend and ringpiece.’
When Justin explained it to him, Bob was wholeheartedly on board.

ho ho, eh?

DD, as a mid teen, pointed out to the teachers at her school that prep school girls singing 'House of Fun' by Madness was inappropriate. The teacher was shocked that DD knew the song, DD pointed out her mum was a 80s teen. 😅

Actually you’re right. It’s not ok to use children to unknowingly play a silly ‘joke’ a la ‘I’m mad and bad’/aren’t I cool’

Speak to him and tell him and gauge his reaction. If you are confident he does know what he’s doing, take it to the head.

A young, male teacher colleague of mine once got his class singing in a parents’ assembly.

The song he chose was a Bruno Mars and included the line ‘just wanna have some sex’ or something.

Oh the raised eyebrows nearly took the roof off. Bloke genuinely didn’t have a clue, so maybe it’s a mistake.

Ive already said he said he didn’t mean the names to be suggestive but in the same vain of this thread ie Bells End some of the names in Captain Pugwash as I said are suggestive.

One name. Just the one. And only when it's changed from Mate to Bates. Which is a bit of a stretch. Maybe just accept that you were taken in by the urban myth. I watched the show all the time as a child and remember wondering years later what people were banging on about with all the made up double entendres. If there's one thing I'm good at remembering (and there isn't much) it's names.

Dd's drama group announced the musical with that as the main song, as the next show the year she was leaving. She was 18yo, there were a smattering of other secondary school children, but the vast majority were primary school, and a fair number were infant age
I was😲
The leaders were ladies in their 20s who didn't seem to think parents might have an issue. Whereas I'd thought doing Grease the previous year with roughly the same age demographic was pushing it

So it's all like haha those little kids singing about bell ends and ring pieces and they have no clue! hahaha! It makes me sick.

If it really ‘makes you sick’, then pitch up at the school and say something. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s about some 16 year old lad being responsible and buying condoms. Why is that so “shocked face”? 😂

Um... because nearly 50% of the drama group at that stage was under 8yo. 90% were primary school aged.

It didn't feel the right show to do with those demographics. I suspect a lot of parents agreed with me because the group had hovered between 40-50 children since dd had started, so for the last 6-7 years. The number that actually did that show was less than 15, and they'd lost pretty much the entire infant age group.

Good heavens.
Just the final chorus would be fine but the rest of it... no.

What was the outcome to this, op? Did you report it?