TooTall – Member

rOcKeTdOg – Member

what did i do?

*facepalm*

nope, not a clue, did i turn down your amourous advances once?

It is an awful national anthem – it says nothing about the people, the country ,our values or what we represent and stand for. The tune is dour and slow it is a trully epic fail as a national anthem. I honestly could not care what god does with the monarch as I have zero affinity to either.
I struggle to stand up for the anthem as I dont agree with the message

should be changed to something more relevant

Problem is that when you do that you end up with something awful that tries to be oh so PC.

Look at Ireland. They had a great, stirring anthem in The Soldier's Song. But because some folk pretended to be "offended" by it they changed to the utterly bland Ireland's Call. Well as a fellow Celt, Ireland's Call offends me by being so totally inoffensive.

TJ – i was asking about your claim that The Scots Anthem was written in the 60's? 😯

Flower of Scotland was written by Roy Williamson of the Corries (folk group) I think it was first played in the late 60s.

Well i never!

So what was the previous Scottish anthem – was there one???

GStQ is still the offical anthem in Scotland. Scotland the Brave was used at the Commonwealth Games though.

national anthem is dire
jeruselem is a better tune but its got a load of jesus loving nonsense lyrics

muddydwarf – For Rugby, God Save the Queen was used, in other sports such as the Commonwealth Games and I believe some soccer tournaments, Scotland the Brave was used

I have no strong feelings about the national anthem. I certainly don't find it stirring.

I'd like some (any, but if it was the UK that'd be fun) country to replace their national anthem with this. Simply replace it's lyric with the name of the country. It's upbeat and fun and even the most boneheaded of sportsmen would have difficulty forgetting the lyrics. 🙂

DIT: and the three lions is the best badge and the union jack is the best flag (after st.georges cross of course)

Union flag please!

The 3 Lions are actually Welsh

And lions are actually from.. Africa or Asia. Right 🙂 FWIW the Scottish thistle is part of an important national story, and the Welsh dragon is also from a legend of national defence except that it refers to the original British against the invading Saxons 🙂

Welsh Anthem:

Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi,
Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri;
Ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mâd,
Dros ryddid collasant eu gwaed.

(Cytgan – Chorus)

Gwlad, gwlad, pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad.
Tra môr yn fur i'r bur hoff bau,
O bydded i'r hen iaith barhau.

Translated not quite literally:

The land of my fathers is dear unto me,
Old land where the minstrels are honoured and free:
Its warring defenders, so gallant and brave,
For freedom their life's blood they gave

Land!,Land!,True I am to my land!
While seas secure,
this land so pure,
o may our old language endure

Vindaloo Vindaloo Vindalooo nah nah nah nah nah nah VINDALOO! Nuff said.

Er, the Three Lions are actually lepoards!

Yeah i know, but they are Heraldic beasts and no-one back then had really seen a lepoard so thats what they came up with! Originally they came over with William the Bastard as a duo but became three with the reign of Henry II in 1154.

Remember they were not a National Badge but the personal coat of arms of the King, and each Monarch since has had a different coat of arms.

According to the Observers book of Heraldry page 64 they are lions passant anciently known as leopards a name in use until the 19th century.Some people still speak wrongly of leopards of England,but it does no great harm as it is an ancient expression

I love British national anthem because it's, well, so British.

Although I think the lyrics should be changed slightly to, "God bless the Queen".

On account that Mrs. Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg doesn't need 'saving' from anyone.

'Cause she got the best soldiers in the world to look after and take care of her………..and Gawd bless'em too.

well if we are being picky
st edmund is the real patron saint of england

the normans ousted him and replaced him with george (who was either palestinian, greek, georgian or albanian)
as part of our colonisation

This thread is all the history we skived at school!

It should be Blake's 'Jerusalem', particularly since its Swedenborgian undertones offend the Church of England….I only found out about this after they strongly dissuaded me from having it sung at my wedding claiming that it was better suied to the WI etc etc. Great man, great anthem.

Can I nominate the theme tune from the Flumps. During medal ceremonies our conquering champions would remain stoic and respectful until the very last bar where they'd do a cheeky little jump and kick their heals.

if we are being picky

st edmund is the real patron saint of england

the normans ousted him and replaced him with george

Which as far as I can figure out, means he is no longer the patron saint of England.

well seeing as im an aetheist like most people in this country saints are all pretty irrelevant

……saints are all pretty irrelevant

Tell me your godless republican heart wasn't touched by Saint Diana…………..you sneering commie traitor 😐

Look at Ireland. They had a great, stirring anthem in The Soldier's Song. But because some folk pretended to be "offended" by it they changed to the utterly bland Ireland's Call. Well as a fellow Celt, Ireland's Call offends me by being so totally inoffensive.

just to clarify, we still have Amhrann na bhFiann as our anthem. Ireland's Call is only used for rugby internationals because you get the odd loyalist from the north playing. And actually, it's grown on me over time…"the four proud provinces of Ireland"…possibly pisses loyalists off a little bit anyway, seeing as Ulster is bigger than NI.

WTF! Is it broken? 👿

DD – The odd loyalist? Blimey, that is bit a demeaning to a group that includes the great Willie John McBride.

No.

GSTQ – awful

Flower of Scotland – worse

But does make me laugh when the French slow them down anad play them like a dirge at rugby games.

Best anthem ever was Waltzing Matilda, I think they had to change it because they couldn't remember all the words. Oh Canada ! has it's merits too. New Zealand now has 2 minutes of mumbling while people can't sing the Maori words in the first verse.

.I only found out about this after they strongly dissuaded me from having it sung at my wedding claiming that it was better suied to the WI etc etc

Yes, I have encountered this recently, with exactly the same put-down as to why we shouldn't have it at our wedding. I'm tempted to be insistent now…

Which as far as I can figure out, means he is no longer the patron saint of England.

Depends on your point of view. 🙂 To me, England and the English evolved from the Saxons, not the Normans. Sure, a lot of the aristocacy were French but we speak a language, and live in a society evolved directly from Anglo-Saxon, not French. William the Bastard and his cronies mean zilch to me. I'm English 🙂

Flower of Scotland is fairly slow anyway – its a lament IIRC. the french have been known to slow it further. |its a bit of a dreadful dirge but it caught the public imagination.

PP – the Saxons – you mean that bunch of German invaders?

Mefty, I'm not saying I wouldn't have them in the team. But it has been funny over the years watching (some of the particularly orange ones of) them having to stand for Amhrann na bhFiann…pure devilment on my part, nothing serious. I do love my anthem though.

My mate had Jerusalem at his wedding. Que us 8 serving and retired squaddies and the groom and best man belting it out at the top of our voices and a rather embarrased looking bride and congregation.

England and the English evolved from the Saxons

Well.. the English are evolved from the Saxons and Normans. One of the Norman (plantagenet?) guys decided he really admired the Saxons so led a big 'English' romatic revivalist movement which brought Saxons and Normans together as English. I think it was Edward III.

If you're going to split hairs about English/Normans then you might as well start banging on about Britons/Saxons/Vikings or any of the other immigrant/invading/conquering peoples.

it think we can safely say Wales has the best anthem and flag for that matter 😉

mind you the italian and french ones are good too (anthems not flags)

While we're at it, it seems that the use of the word "celt" in reference to any british people (scots, welsh, cornish etc) is factually incorrect

Myths of British ancestry

http://www.webmesh.co.uk/nice/newhistory.htm

backhander, there was a group of Indo-European peoples with a similar shared culture and similar languages. They all had individual names for themselves, but because they had a taboo against wtiting, their own names have been lost, and the term 'celt' was used by later /or other cultures to descibe them ( like the way the name 'Crow' is used to describe the Absaroka people)
I suspect you knew that but were just stirring.

No, there was a post in the past by someone far more educated than me.
The term celt was invented by the greeks i think for peoples who lived away from the coast.
The term celts when used towards the british people didn't occur until the 18th century and was apparently started by a notoriously poor welsh scholar.
this is all from memory but the gist is correct.

Interesting west kipper. How do we know they had a taboo against writing, did somebody else write that down for them ?

Aye, those Italian leather-skirt wearing skinheads fae Rome :-)(I've forgotten what they're called) did have writing, and made detailed, but biased accounts
Back on topic though; I still reckon we should look at The Sex Pistols GSTQ as the national anthem- can you imagine how brilliant a whole stadium of people all singing "…AND WE MEAN IT, MA A A M MM!" would be?
…Enough to make even me feel British! 😯