Cycling UK Forum

al_yrpal wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote:Me thinks you're labouring the self flagellation point a bit Al. The man doth protest too much? Whatever you're into in private is your own business.

No self flagelation here... Very proud of what I have contributed to my country over my career and retirement. You are a master of couched insults and cynicism.

Ruby... look no further than this forum...

Al

Please provide an example.

Cyril Haearn wrote:The European national anthem of course

Gets played every year, has probably had more plays than LoHaG.

It was played twice in 2001 (as part of the regular program and in the hastily rearranged post 9/11 Last Night.)

Both the European anthem and the tune for Land of hope and glory are pieces of music in their own right which predate their modern use. In the case of Beethoven's 9th by centuries; with Elgar quite shortly after composition.

I only know (or more accurately knew - haven't seen him for years) one person who attended Proms concerts including the Last Night. He was/is a Kiwi and half Maori. I remember it partly because he was young and it wasn't until years later l started to appreciate classical music.

A lot of people who attend the Proms are foreign-born, it's inevitable in a city which has a huge foreign born population. The format hasn't seemed to have put them off so far, and there's always lots of foreign flags being waved at the last night.

We have tried for the last 5 or 6 years to get in but not been lucky enough yet. And the highlight for me will be waving my Northumbrian and / or Scottish Flag and singing along in full voice to the proud to be british nonsense near the end - I just love stuff like that.

Down with the beeb for even thinking of binning it off. May even withhold my licence tax as a protest.

mumbojumbo wrote:The BBC had the chance to refresh the format of the Proms.They could have scrapped Land of Hope and Rule B and replaced them with some Soviet works like Prokofiev or Shostakovich but have simply lost the singing.What would you have chosen to supplant the jingoist anthems?

My nominations

1.Gadfly
2.Finlandia
3.Carmen exerpts
4.Dvorjak New World
5.Peter and the Woof

Given the affiliation of Boris to the Russians, the millions he has accepted, and the paid-for appointment to the Lords of a Russian Oligarch, I can undertand why youi would wan more Russian representation

I thought Peter and the Woof sounded a bit fishy.

Wagner had nasty views but he died many years before the nazis appeared

Maybe it would be worth having some concerts with no German-speaking composers, just French-speaking, even English-speaking composers etc &c
There is lots of great classical music from Poland and Denmark for example

Pebble wrote:
Down with the beeb for even thinking of binning it off. May even withhold my licence tax as a protest.

You're considering withholding your licence because the BBC thought about an issue and after due deliberation, agreed with you?

Wow.

roubaixtuesday wrote:

Pebble wrote:
Down with the beeb for even thinking of binning it off. May even withhold my licence tax as a protest.

You're considering withholding your licence because the BBC thought about an issue and after due deliberation, agreed with you?

Wow.

Doubt they agree with me at all. They attempted a massive bit of virtue signalling and failed, they will not have given up on this and within the next few years the will try it again. For me the beeb have changed into something I no longer trust, they no longer seem to be the unbiased organisation I once loved and admired.

According to the Telegraph this morning the Finnish conductor, Dalia Stasevska, did not ask for Rule Britannia or LoHaG not to be sung - she's saying it was a BBC decision.

Ben@Forest wrote:According to the Telegraph this morning the Finnish conductor, Dalia Stasevska, did not ask for Rule Britannia or LoHaG not to be sung - she's saying it was a BBC decision.

I thought that was already well known. The BBC made the decision because singing in community is bann d by the government. So they are having orchestral only this year and full service next. It is a non story run as part of the anti-bbc movement exploited by others who are against the BLM or woke or politically correct or whatever term they use

The lyrics...

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And Guardian Angels sang this strain:
The nations not so blest as thee
Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish great and free:
The dread and envy of them all.
Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke,
As the loud blast that tears the skies
Serves but to root thy native oak.
Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;
All their attempts to bend thee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame,
But work their woe and thy renown.
To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles, thine.
The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coasts repair.
Blest isle! with matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves

The tune is great, far better than our national "anthem" ie dirge

The words are also far better, not requiring us to tug our forelock to a hereditary monarchy.

But they are a bit embarrassing. "Manly hearts" anyone? "Foreign strokes"?

roubaixtuesday wrote:The lyrics...

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And Guardian Angels sang this strain:
The nations not so blest as thee
Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish great and free:
The dread and envy of them all.
Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke,
As the loud blast that tears the skies
Serves but to root thy native oak.
Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;
All their attempts to bend thee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame,
But work their woe and thy renown.
To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles, thine.
The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coasts repair.
Blest isle! with matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves

The tune is great, far better than our national "anthem" ie dirge

The words are also far better, not requiring us to tug our forelock to a hereditary monarchy.

But they are a bit embarrassing. "Manly hearts" anyone? "Foreign strokes"?

One thing many people dont know about the Royal Navy in the days of wooden ships. The ships were COPPER plated bottomed. A very very expensive thing to do. And the tax payer willingly paid for this, the song explains why quite clearly. Why such a practice? barnacles wont attach to copper so the fleet could remain at sea for longer without putting into port to get them removed. The ships were also faster barnacles would create resistance to motion.

Another little nugget . Did you ever wonder about the transition from sail to steam?. It seems at first the great shops like Victory would have been tugged into battle with steam tugs. What a strange sight that would have been?