THE POGUES - THE POGUES CENSORSHIP REVERSED

THE POGUES CENSORSHIP REVERSED

A British broadcaster has been forced to make a U-turn over its censorship of THE POGUES festive track FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK. The Christmas hit - released in 1987 - had been edited by the BBC to remove the word "f**got" from a lyric sung by late star Kirsty MACColl. But the network was forced to make a climbdown after a string of complaints from gay activists and MACColl's mother Jean. The late singer's mother says, "It's pathetic, absolute nonsense. Today we have a lot of gratuitous vulgarity, which I think it quite unnecessary. "But the people in this song are characters and they speak like that. It's a great song. It's like a play." BBC controller Andy Parfitt admitted the censorship had been wrong, adding, "The unedited version will be played from now on."