Jesus wept...! Who would've thought so many half wits were into folk music? There's a guy earlier today talking about the "Bogle version", which he apparently dislikes. There isn't a "Bogle version" sunshine: it's his song and that's how it goes. In the folk tradition (which I believe Eric Bogle subscribes to) minor edits and alterations to suit the tempo or style of a particular singer are acceptable, but to delete half the song to deliberately remove its core meaning and message is grossly insulting and offensive in the extreme.

When Joss Stone was tackled about her "butchery" of the song at the Albert Hall during rehearsals for the British Legion concert last Saturday (by another artist - a veteran who had been at the Normandy beaches on 6 June 1944 and knew what it was to be bombed and shot at and who was appalled by what he heard) she admitted that she had been responsible for rewriting the lyrics but claimed she had to shorten it to fit the time slot. This was a mealy-mouthed and pathetic excuse as she cannot be so dense as to have missed the significance of her re-write (can she...?). The RBL must also have been fully aware of (and must have endorsed) this censoring of the message in the song's lyrics. The guy who tackled Stone at the Albert Hall told her that if he was Eric Bogle then he would probably sue her. Bogle himself has taken a more emollient line but we should not. It's a bloody outrage and those responsible should be told so in no uncertain terms.