There were these two fellas standing outside the Church, and the bells were ringing.

"Just you listen to that music" says the one.

"What was that you say?" says the other.

"JUST YOU LISTEN TO THAT MUSIC!" says the first.

"I CAN'T HEAR ANY MUSIC - THOSE BLOODY BELLS ARE DROWNING IT OUT!"

But clearly the second fella had cloth ears.

There are a couple of fine songs about bell-ringing - there's the one about a bellringing contest in Devon sung by Tony Rose ("the men of North Looe rang so steady and true that there never was better in Devon I own"), on "Young Hunting"; and there is "Hanley Church Bells" sung by Tim Laycock on his CD Fine Colours, with a tune of his own to a poem written in 1823.

Complaining about bells not playing tunes is a bit like the people who say "All that diddly-diddly music sounds the same". Best answer to that was a fella I heard on te radio talking about Irish music. "When I first heard it, I thought it all sounded the same. Then I got into it, and I realised it wasn't all the same at all. And then I got really into it, and I decided it was really all the same tune at the heart of it - and it was a tune I liked."