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1 November 2013
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1 May 2011
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News story involving ‘Happy Xmas’ from the BBC
… Channel That’s TV has been found in breach of three of Ofcom’s broadcasting codes based around violence on screen and the watershed, suitability for children and potential to cause offence.
The channel featured a range of Christmas-themed programmes last year including The Best Christmas Ad-Free, which contained an uninterrupted sequence of Christmas-music videos.
Ofcom received one complaint about the inclusion of a music video that accompanied the song Happy Xmas (War is Over) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a broadcast on Christmas Eve at 2300 GMT.
The music video contained real-life video footage and imagery of the aftermath of war, including footage of an adult holding what appeared to be the body of a dead child wrapped in fabric and a deceased child in an open coffin.
The channel confirmed that the music video was broadcast 17 times during episodes of The Best Christmas Ad-Free between 24 and 28 December 2020 and that 11 of these broadcasts occurred before the watershed.
On each occasion, it was shown in between music videos of other well-known Christmas songs such as Walking in the Air and All I Want For Christmas Is You.
In mitigation, That’s TV explained that it held two music videos for the song Happy Xmas (War is Over) in its archive – one that was released in 1992 (which was intended to be included in the programme), and a second version produced in 2003 which contained images of the aftermath of war.
It said it had only approved the 1992 version for broadcast but, due to human error, the 2003 video was accidentally inserted into the schedule instead.
Following the incident, it has reviewed its procedures to minimise any risk of a similar occurrence.
While Ofcom acknowledged human error was to blame, its report noted that “these errors were not identified by the licensee over the 17 instances the video was played over a four day period”.
The promo is on youtube but behind age verification.
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6.57am
31 March 2008
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In early December 2021, charities and record shops around the UK were sent special acetates of Happy Xmas (War Is Over). Of the 50 cut at Abbey Road , 25 were sent to charities and the remainder to record stores. A cover letter signed by Sean Lennon said they could do with them as they wished, but suggested they be sold to raise money for good causes.
My local store, Spillers Records, was one such recipient. They donated it to a refugee charity, Oasis Cardiff, who raffled it. I entered 21 times (20 times, plus one for luck; it was also #21 of 50, and 2021) which cost me about £107. Oasis raised £1,637.10 altogether, but one of these sold at auction for £6,000 (others went for £2-5k). Phew.
https://www.oasiscardiff.org/A…..prize-draw
I calculated that 21 tickets would give me a one-in-five chance of winning, and it worked! I won the disc, and picked it up from Spillers earlier in the week:
Yesterday we were delighted to pass our unique #HAPPYXMASVINYL acetate on to the comp winner 🥳
Congratulations Joe, you lucky person!!
Thank you to everyone who entered, raising money for @OasisCDF
Diolch eto @seanonolennon 🙏🏼
A lovely way to end one year & begin another pic.twitter.com/rk6l7ogWib
— SPILLERS RECORDS (@spillersrecords) January 5, 2022
Here are some shots of the sleeve and the letter:
#HAPPYXMASVINYL pic.twitter.com/irZcRdQskT
— The Beatles Bible 🍏 (@beatlesbible) January 5, 2022
I haven’t played the disc, but it’s the 2020 Ultimate Mix so I have the song anyway. My understanding is that acetates degrade easily and aren’t meant to be played often, so I’ll try to keep this in mint condition. Something for my kids’ inheritance. It’s nice to have a Beatles record owned by only 49 other people in the world.
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27 November 2016
Offline That is so cool Joe, congrats! Couldn’t have ended up in a nicer guy’s care.
That would have made your Christmas… a very merry Christmas! (or at least a Happy New Year). 
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17 December 2012
Offline Congrats, @Joe! I’ve been to Spillers (on your recommendation) and did wonder if… when I saw this John Lennon retweet before Chrimble…
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17 June 2021
Offline Congratulations on getting the acetate @Joe! It’s very well deserved.
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20 August 2013
Offline Regarding the campaign…
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-en…..e-61174089
Headline and a bit of the story…
A Christmas card sent by John Lennon and Yoko Ono to Harold Wilson declaring “War is Over!” has gone on show.
The card, part of the couple’s 1969 peace campaign, was rescued from what was then labelled the prime minister’s “nutty filing” cabinet by Beatles fan and secretary Ruth Ferenczy.
Her daughter Alex Rowe, from Manchester, said it had been marked “no”, meaning no reply would be sent.
Ms Rowe said it arrived at 10 Downing Street in December 1969 and was put in a pile for “strange post”.
“There was a thing called the ‘nutty filing’, so any strange post that came to No 10 was put in the ‘nutty filing’,” she said.
“My mum was filing one day and came across this card, so she said to her boss: ‘Look at this, the Prime Minister doesn’t want it, can I keep it?’ and the boss said yes she could.
The card
So, to contribute to the “is this song a Christmas song” discussion, I think johnandyoko thought it was. They had Christmas cards made with the message on it.
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6.44am
30 August 2021
Offline I enjoy semantics so I’ll say NO it’s not a Christmas song but YES it should be played at Christmas.
John and Yoko used any opportunity to promote their activism, in this case intentionally in counterpoint to the sentimentality of the season.
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12.34am
14 December 2009
Offline From CREEM magazine’s August ’72 issue, a first-hand report on the recording of the single:
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11 June 2015
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That’s interesting VB, thanks!
Many artists preserve the songs Christmas cred by skipping the “War is over, if you want it” vocal.
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10.42pm
30 August 2021
Offline I remember hearing one DJ back-announce the song as “Happy Christmas – The War Is Over”, which seems to miss the whole point of it.
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20 August 2013
Offline There’s a new short film inspired by Happy Xmas (War is Over).
The trailer
The film is written and directed by 20-year Pixar alum and Oscar-nominee, Dave Mullins and Produced by Golden Globe-Nominee, Brad Booker. Sean Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono serve as Executive Producers. Animation was produced by Peter Jackson’s W?t? FX using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. The score was composed by 15-time Oscar-nominated, Thomas Newman.
One story I read said they are looking for a distributor now.
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12.36pm
14 June 2016
Offline My sister’s school sang the song last Christmas – it was well done.
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