BBC Essex - Brian Wheeler

[Interpol Shrimper]

Quote[/b] (stid @ Mar. 31 2005,18:13)]The vast majority of the Welsh are NOT Nationalists. They're proud to be Welsh and British. This is why Plaid Cymru is floundering around looking for ideas to save themselves from oblivion now they've got the Welsh Assembly. The next step is full independence, which would be overwhelmingly rejected at a referendum and most people see no need for a nationalist party any more.

Secondly, the Welsh DON'T hate the English. The Scots seem to genuinely hate us but the Welsh just do it as a wind-up, knowing that the English will fall for it every time. The Welsh don't really hate anyone - they're just not that kind of people - but the thing they do dislike is English incomers not bothering to try to fit in with the local community or even learning to say "Good Morning" in Welsh. In that respect I agree with the Welsh entirely.

As for Cardiff becoming a powderkeg - not a chance! It'll be another great day out, hopefully with a different result from last year.

OK, some of my statement may have been a tad generalised but I'm not the first on this board to have mentioned the potential for trouble in Cardiff. I'm going for a good day out to witness, I hope, my teams first ever national victory & only the 2nd honours that will get listed in the football yearbooks!

I also don't profess to know anything about Plaid Cymru so I won't even go there.

The Scots DO hate the English as again has been mentioned on here in other threads. I do also have experience of the Welsh hating us too, not at last year's final but on 2 separate nights out in Cardiff after the Speedway GP's where a minority wanted to cause trouble if you happened to possess a English accent (particularly a southern one). Sorry but they're not my favourite people!

Oh & for the record I have a Scottish wife too

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

Quote[/b] (sufcintheprem @ Mar. 31 2005,18:22)]No no.  I think if you caught any of the 2 and a half minutes of the Azerbaijan funeral March or the Liechtenstein rip-off of ours, you'd realise ours isn't the dullest!!

Leichenstein didn't rip off OUR national anthem!!

The words of "God Save The Queen" was adapted to a tune that already existed and dated back to the 17th Century. It became the national anthem at the beginning of the 19th Century.

In fact the same melody has also been used for the national anthems of Switzerland, Russia, Prussia (and later Germany) in the not-so-distant past and Norway uses it for their royal anthem. Monserrat, Pitcairn Islands, St. Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Virgin Islands all use it (no surprise there).

The USA has used it as well (and perhaps Seth can enlighten us when it is sung) :

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing!
Land where my fathers died,
Land of thy pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring!

So ... it's not quite as unique as one thinks!

Oh! and the British anthem is rather dull!!

WS

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

Actually Mike we were the first country to have an Anthem and other countries thought what a great idea it would be to have one and this lead to many copying the British Anthem to start off with, however later on decided it would be better to have their own tunes as well as words.

Quote[/b] ]"God Save the Queen" (or "God Save the King", depending on the gender of the ruling monarch) was a patriotic song first publicly performed in London in 1745 after the king, George II defeated the Jacobite claimant to the throne, "Bonnie Prince Charlie. The song came to be referred to as the National Anthem from the beginning of the nineteenth century. The words and tune are anonymous, and may date back to the seventeenth century. There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a matter of tradition. The words used are those sung in 1745, substituting 'Queen' for 'King' where appropriate. On official occasions, only the first verse is usually sung.

The British tune has since become one of the world's most recognizable anthems, and has has been used in other countries - as European visitors to Britain in the eighteenth century noticed the advantage of a country possessing such a recognised musical symbol - including Germany, Russia, Switzerland, the United States (where use of the tune continued after independence), and even today by Liechtenstein, as a revolutionary song in New Caledonia, and as the royal anthem of Norway. (One might say that because of this fact, that the United Kingdom was the creator of the concept of a "national anthem".) Some 140 composers, including Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms, have used the tune in their compositions.

"God Save the Queen" also serves as the royal anthem for most Commonwealth countries, such as Australia and Canada. (Governor-generals of Commonwealth countries usually have bits and pieces of the national anthem strung together played as their anthem.)

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

Quote[/b] (Xàbia Shrimper @ Mar. 31 2005,20:05)]Oh! and the British anthem is rather dull!!

WS

I am sure you should have said

Oh! and the British anthem IMHO is rather dull!!

As I like it, may be it goes back to playing EA Summer and Winter Games on my old Commodores.

Of course if Land of Hope and Glory or Jerusalem, think I would have choosen them instead of God Save the Queen.

 

[Shrimp in a Kilt]

Quote[/b] (CS J @ Mar. 31 2005,16:36)]

Quote[/b] (* ORM * @ Mar. 31 2005,09:26)]Suggested that the Southend fans may wish to start their own unaccompanied version of the National Anthem on Sunday week.

Also confirmed that Southend were informed rather than consulted about the decision not to play it when the teams line up.

Personally the "National Anthem" does nothing for me but I'm always one for a protest.

Anyone got the words ? I know the first line - God save our gracious Kev - but the rest is a struggle.

that is f**kING AWFUL AND OUTRAGOUS.. how can someone who is english not even know the words to the national anthem..

'Cos it is a totally embarrasing crappy dirge.

 

[Shrimp in a Kilt]

The Red Passion board has been gently discouraging fans from singing anti-English songs, pointing out that this wouldn't go down too well with all the English who have flocked to their banner in their hour of need.

And not all Scots hate the English. A few do here in the Highlands but the vast majority work on the same principle that was mentioned for the Welsh, i.e. "Don't go around telling us how much better you do things in England, and we will get on just fine!"

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

Quote[/b] (Bob Cratchitt @ Mar. 31 2005,21:31)]Actually Mike we were the first country to have an Anthem and other countries thought what a great idea it would be to have  one and this lead to many copying the British Anthem to start off with, however later on decided it would be better to have their own tunes as well as words.

And?!

I was actually saying that it was hardly ripped off by other countries. The tune was in existence long before the "God Save The Queen" lyrics were added ...

WS

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

The tune may have been existence prior to the creation of the anthem but why did these countries then chose this tune, which everyone says is a complete dirge??

Because we used it for our anthem thus copying us or using modern day parlance 'ripping us off'

 

[stainescccsider]

I don't wish to save a Queen let alone a German one married to a Greek

 

[Mad Cyril]

Quote[/b] (Bob Cratchitt @ Mar. 31 2005,20:39)]

Quote[/b] (Xàbia Shrimper @ Mar. 31 2005,20:05)]Oh! and the British anthem is rather dull!!

WS

I am sure you should have said

Oh! and the British anthem IMHO is rather dull!!

As I like it, may be it goes back to playing EA Summer and Winter Games on my old Commodores.

Whilst we are being pedantic I feel I must point out that Summer games and Winter Games were published by Epyx, not EA!

Great games though!