Cliff songs to scare off the Young Ones

Cliff Richard performs. File picture / Hawkes Bay Today

LONDON - The antisocial behaviour order may be today's weapon of choice against British teenage yobs and hooligans. But now a more terrifying deterrent is to be deployed - the music of Cliff Richard and the Carpenters.

Local councils will get official advice this week telling them they should disperse unruly youths from public places by playing music "so uncool" they can't stand to listen to it.

A Local Government Association memo calls for "pilot projects for the Manilow method", a system tested in Sydney, where the strains of Copacabana and Mandy were piped through loudspeakers into a car park where youths congregated.

The memo advises local councils to experiment with songs that young hooligans "would find almost unbearable to listen to and too uncool to hang around".

An initial list has been drawn up by the LGA. Among the hits recommended as deterrents are Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream, Close to You by the Carpenters and, of course, Sir Cliff Richard's Christmas number one Mistletoe and Wine.

The songs could be piped into shopping centres, car parks and even town squares at night to drive the troublemakers away.

At some Tube stations, including Brixton and Vauxhall, London Underground plays classical music. But the LGA thinks that only the most cringe-making hits will drive troublemakers away "without stigmatising young adults".

"Even if we like some of these songs, no self-respecting chav would want to be seen anywhere near them," said an LGA spokesman.

The pilot projects are to be closely monitored by the Home Office's Respect task force, which has asked councils to find new methods of tackling antisocial behaviour.

"We are keen to encourage local agencies to consider the full range of innovations, schemes and practices intended to reduce crime, fear of crime and antisocial behaviour," said a Home Office spokesman.

"The Respect task force will be interested to hear from those authorities who have used music to improve the environment and deter antisocial behaviour and whether it has worked."

But some fear that songs on the Manilow method list could inadvertently become cool and even enjoyed by the young people they are supposed to deter. A deterrent device known as the "mosquito" that emits a high-pitched noise that only young people could hear was converted by teenagers into a mobile phone ringtone that their teachers could not detect.

A spokesman for the LGA Children and Young People Board said he hoped councils round the country should consider using the technique. "Anything that helps to stop antisocial youths from having a damaging effect on others should be explored," he said. "We shall be following this very closely."

Uncool and the gang

1 Mistletoe And Wine
- Cliff Richard

2 Congratulations
- Cliff Richard

3 Things Can Only Get Better
- D:Ream

4 Close To You
- the Carpenters 5

Copacobana
- Barry Manilow

- INDEPENDENT