Wasn't there a video of Queen with David Bowie for the song, "Under .......

[QUOTE] [b]Senna wrote:[/b]
I'm in NI too, can't remember any ban, why ban footage of a riot, nothing special there but I guess I could be wrong, I still have a notion the video was a BBC thing.[/QUOTE]

Well for the reasons I stated -- BBC TotP had a policy of banning controversial videos, including those that made reference to rioting in NI. The Police's Invisible Sun was banned, as was Guns & Roses' Welcome to the Jungle. I have a lasting memory -- which could be wrong -- that UP was banned by TotP. GF's info suggests that's the case, with an edited version being shown eventually. Again, I can't confirm that, but it matches with my memory of events. As for whether or not it's a BBC video or an oficial promo video, again, GF's info suggests it's an offical promo rather than something TotP put together. I dont; know if TotP ever did this. They usually used a dance troupe like Pan's People for those occasions when a band didn't provide a promo video -- with predictably hilarious results. (The BBC/Old Grey Whistle Test did make a promo video for Keep Yourself Alive though, many years before.) To confuse matters even more, here's a list of banned music on the BBC and UP isn't on it: http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/banned.html
Then again, Welcome to the Jungle isn;t on there either, and it was banned, so that list isn't complete.

Ok I stand corrected. It was a shit video anyway.

On that we can agree :)

It's too bad it can't be easily clearer. It's a small but nonetheless interesting collision of politics, Queen history and pop culture. The version we're all familiar with does include images of rioting and a burning vehicle - I don't personally recognize those images as from NI specifically but they either are or could be, which should be about the same thing for the censors. It's a bit confusing because my reading of the queenpedia entry is that the version we know with the rioting *is* the censored version, and that the earlier unreleased version was unacceptable because of footage of explosions specifically.

http://www.queenpedia.com/index.php?title=Under_Pressure_-_Promotional_Video

Though predictable, it's interesting how lists of banned videos so closely track their respective cultures. MTV for example typically bans for morality and religion and personal or shock violence vs. political violence and themes. MuchMusic in Canada used to take heat for pretty much not banning anything. The most we'd usually do is throw marginal videos in late night rotation. That's evolved some as the politics have become more uptight to the point that we recently embarrassed ourselves on the world stage by briefly banning 'Money for Nothing' on the radio for the 'fagots' reference.

There's 3 short scenes of rioting: in the first the police are definitely not N.Irish. The 2nd image of a burning van could be from anywhere. The 3rd image of police in riot gear doesn't look like N.Irish police either, although it's harder to tell. Maybe the BBC thought rioting in general was fine to show, but N.Irish people rioting wasn't -- possibly because of really bad 1970s haircuts, "mexican villain" moustaches, and flared Bay City Roller tartan trousers that everyone in NI had in those days. And that's just the police: you should see how the rioters were dressed ;)

Canadian broadcasters banned Money For Nothing? Are you sure they didn't just ban Dire Straits? That would be more understandable :)