Problem solved!

I posted a query about it on that music box thread I mentioned earlier The Musical Box Society of Great Britain - and I have just had an email from a helpful fella called Mark, with the answer.

It's not "the bears" - it's "The Boers". Which makes sense - I've got a feeling I'v come across it before somewhere. A classic mondegreen, that had me and other people looking in completely the wrong durection.

Anyway, Mark's going to let me have the words, and I'll post them here.