Rihanna's Farmer

In September 2011, Bangor barley farmer Alan Graham hit headlines

all over the world when he asked the international superstar Rihanna

to leave his field.

What was happening was not appropriate

and I told them it would have to stop.

She was shooting a video - We Found Love - which went on

to become a massive hit across the world.

Some elements of the media tried to make me out

as some grumpy old man who didn't allow people to have a bit of fun,

but I do believe there was a line crossed which was unacceptable.

The video's success online meant that its sexual content,

violence and drug-taking was viewed by millions, including children.

Are these the sort of images we should be showing our kids?

Alan Graham thinks not.

Some of these pop videos are simply porn to music.

Alan has spent the last year talking to people in the music industry,

psychologists and other experts to see if there's anything

can be done to clean up pop...

before it's too late.

Alan Graham is many things - a farmer from a long line of farmers,

a committed Christian, a DUP councillor,

a father and a grandfather.

He has gone about his duties quietly

and diligently for over half a century.

But in late 2011, his world was turned upside down.

She was wearing a bikini and jeans.

I made absolutely no complaint about that whatsoever.

But as the story goes on, the filming moved to a field away

from the road and in that field I realised that Rihanna had taken

the top half of her clothing off and that's the stage that I decided

I couldn't allow it to continue.

On her way out, Rihanna came over to speak to Alan.

She was very sympathetic to the standpoint I had.

She was very gracious, very courteous, very respectful

and we shook hands maybe four or five times

and we parted company on the best of terms.

It may have been amicable,

but very soon the press got hold of the story.

Alan became headline news.

Also on the programme,

how Rihanna's beat in the wheat was all too much

for a County Down farmer.

This is the biggest thing to hit town so far - Rihanna.

DUP councillor Alan Graham hit headlines around the world

when he told her off for stripping in his barley field.

Many thought that Alan had overreacted.

I think he's gone a bit too far.

He could have given a bit of leeway with her being a big star.

Just because she took her clothes off!

I don't think so, no.

This day and age, there's a lot worse going on in the streets.

He shouldn't have done it cos now she's not gonna come back here. And I love her.

But after a first wave of hostile news reports,

the tide began to turn.

When I saw that on the front of the Telegraph that Thursday,

it gave me a certain amount of encouragement.

Dannii Minogue was one of many celebrities

who publicly voiced support for Alan's point of view.

Very soon, the press followed suit.

Then as the week went on they seemed to swing round to my point of view.

I think they realised that public opinion was fairly much on my side.

Suddenly, Alan started getting letters out of the blue.

This one here arrived.

"Mr Alan Graham, (Rihanna shoot), Farmer Clandeboye, near Bangor."

"Mr Alan Graham, (Farmer, Rihanna's Field)

"near Bangor, Northern Ireland."

The postmen must have had a laugh that week.

"Dear Mr Graham, just a short note to offer our support to you

"for the stand you made when you asked Rihanna to leave your field."

Oh, here's another one. "You are heroic in our eyes.

"You are a treasure." Hope my wife read this. "Everyone loves you.

"The world needs you."

That's what's... that's what's so... We had a laugh at that, you know.

It wasn't long before the finished video was released.

When Alan saw it, he was horrified.

And he quickly realised that the adult content was far from unique.

SONG: "Love The Way You Lie"

My wife and I were alarmed by some of the things we were seeing.

Particularly because of the availability of all this material

to very young children.

So Alan's decided to make a more public stand.

The question for me is, "Can anything be done to stop what is happening,

"or to put the breaks on it to some extent?"

It seems to have increased greatly over the last number of years

and can there be a coming together of parents, those in the media

industry, to try and stop it for the sake, at least, of young people?

Alan's first stop is Dublin to meet someone who, like himself,

comes from a farming background,

but one whose career has taken a completely different turn.

Did you hear about the Rihanna incident in September?

I did. I heard about this grumpy farmer

in the north of Ireland that

didn't want this shoot to go ahead.

You know, but now I'm looking at it from a totally different angle.

I think you were right to take a stand. I think you're brave.

Some people criticised me.

Some people called me names that I couldn't repeat.

But the vast majority of the emails,

the letters, were all supporting what I had done.

Can we do anything about it?

The honest answer, I think, is no, because I think it's driven by

the record company bosses

and they're in control and they... Sex sells.

Louis is in little doubt that the most offensive videos

tend to come from the States.

I think that in America, mainly, a lot of the R & B, the hip-hop acts,

all the videos are very, very sexual.

They always have maybe masses of girls around a swimming pool

in bikinis, and it's the way they do things in America.

Everyone wants to have the most controversial video on MTV,

they think this is the way to do it.

"Let's get more and more and more raunchy."

And it's their way of life.

It's the R & B, the hip-hop guys' way of life.

I mean, a lot of these videos you can be talking about three

or four million dollars to make a video like this,

and most of the times I've been involved in videos, the artist

pays 50% and the record company pays 50%. It's a lot of money that they

have to recoup from sales, but then if they make the raunchy video

and it's controversial and it's sexual and it's on TV worldwide,

everyone wins.

But that's the way the business is.

Well, I must say that in my encounter with Rihanna,

she was very, very respectful and very mannerly towards me.

-That's good.

-And is it not possible that somebody's pushing her

or exploiting her or encouraging her along a certain line?

As far as I'm concerned, Rihanna calls all the shots on these things

and she wanted to be portrayed like this. The buck stops with Rihanna.

To be really honest with you,

when I heard about this I thought, "Who is this grumpy old man?

"Why didn't he just take the fee and go away?"

But then the more I read about it, I thought,

"This man believes in what he's doing."

He didn't want the money. He's got very old-fashioned strong believes.

They're good beliefs and they're his beliefs,

and I think he's got a really good point.

The only problem is, I don't know how he's going to succeed in this

business today - nothing's going to change this business.

There's too many powerful people involved in it,

too much money being made.

Taking on board Louis' belief that the most offensive videos originate

in the US hip-hop community, Alan has travelled to London.

He's at a sold-out event at the Barbican Centre to try and get

a handle on a scene that he knows little about.

"Hip-Hop On Trial" has attracted

an impressive panel of musicians,

academics and politicians

to debate the question -

is hip-hop a force for good?

I think hip-hop on one level exposes light in dark places...

Most surprising to Alan is the attitude of the veteran black

activist, the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

He firmly believes that after centuries of oppression,

black people are entitled to express themselves any way they like.

What hip-hop says to us is "I am somebody.

"I matter, and nobody can break my spirit."

It is that spirit-breaking dynamic that has captured the world

and so hip-hop is a spirit.

It is an occupying spirit that cannot be stopped.

Alan managed to grab the Reverend Jackson for a few seconds

after the debate.

Do you have any concern of the effects on young people

of quite overt sexual behaviour?

The only reason I don't, quote unquote,

is I see women fighting back.

At the end of the day,

when women fight back for their dignity

and blacks fight back for their dignity, and Jews fight back

for their dignity, there's a levelling off process taking place.

Somewhat disappointed.

I would have expected some condemnation of it from him.

He is deeply committed to the concept of hip-hop music

to allow those who feel they have been oppressed

to express themselves.

And no doubt that includes women and their right to express themselves

in whatever way, including the use of their body.

Confused, Alan looks for more insight from soul singer Mica Paris.

# It's like I'm born again

# Like I can breathe again... #

Mica's been involved with the music industry for over 25 years

and has seen the explosion of hip-hop over that time.

Hip-hop itself has changed as a genre

because when it first came round, it was actually really melodic

and soulful and had meaning and it was positive messages, you know,

you had people like Public Enemy, some really fantastic groups,

who were actually speaking about conscious issues and it was good,

but then it became gangsta and that's when it became more violent

and obviously people listening to it are going to be influenced by that.

# Shut it down, shut it down... #

I'm not even as famous as a lot of these people but I feel

I have a huge responsibility

with what I do, that I have to project an image

that is respectful to women and to women of colour.

What needs to happen, I believe,

is that they need to take away the violence because it starts there.

When they start listening to music that is, you know, promoting

peace and love and... I'm not saying everyone's got to hold hands

and sing Kumbaya, but if they change the message

and make it more positive, it can change things.

Alan's farm on the road to Belfast, just outside Bangor, is something

of a landmark, thanks to a very distinctive barn.

The hayshed had the scripture verse painted on around 1936.

Around about 1994 an east wind came and blew the side of the shed in,

so it had to be replaced then, and after that it was repainted.

Someone said that John 3:16 is actually the gospel in a nutshell.

All you need to know is in that one verse.

It also tells you something that God couldn't do

and that is that he couldn't give any more then he gave.

He gave his only begotten son and that's the very best that he had.

So it's a very interesting verse.

I know you wouldn't agree with this, Kate, there's a gospel text on it.

Kate Smurthwaite is a stand-up comedian and writer.

Politically she's miles apart from Alan, but he's keen to see

if the issue of child sexualisation crosses the divide.

It's interesting because when you say

I was upset that she took her clothes off from a Christian

"point of view" - I'm not Christian, I'm an atheist -

and I'm not... It's not the nudity that bothers me.

For me, what's worrying about these videos,

it's not that Rihanna's made one like this, it's that they're

all like this, and I think that's a problem because of the way

it stereotypes women, the way it sends out a message to young women

who, let's be honest, these videos are not aimed at people

your age or my age - they're aimed at young people,

at teenagers. And it's sending out a message to young women

that this is what's important.

There are some brilliant campaigns out there looking

at role models that young people have,

and they make these brilliant videos where they'll interview a woman

who's a surgeon and a woman who flies for the Red Arrows and women

who have brilliant and amazing and interesting lives and real women.

The only women we see on TV are rolling around half-naked

in your fields, unfortunately.

No-one will ever understand how much it hurts.

I'm getting, Kate, to the issue of, "What can we do about it?"

I think we have to look at the way that we talk about sex education

in schools, and this might sound like the opposite

perhaps of what you're thinking because the fact is,

they're getting access to these things and they're getting access

at a young age, so what we have to do is, before kids

are interested in these things, we should talk to them.

Before they're giggly about it, before they're starting to fancy

boys or fancy girls and starting to get involved in that thing,

we have to say that we're not being salacious,

we're making sure that you've got the facts.

I think kids are smart and once they've been told these things,

they will take a more educated perspective on these things.

Yes, I wouldn't argue with the need for sex education,

although I would take the viewpoint that it should be more in the home.

It should be the responsibility of the parents to teach

the children, and sometimes the school context

is not the best context for that type of education.

I agree with you, actually.

The only difficulty is that we have to accept that some kids have

parents who are not that responsible or not that comfortable doing it.

Alan is keen to find out more about the pressures on young women

in the public eye.

So, he's come to meet with Gail Porter.

A former darling of the lads' mags, her naked body was famously

projected onto the Houses of Parliament as a publicity stunt.

Did you ever feel that you were simply a commodity to help

to sell magazines?

Yeah, I did feel a bit of a commodity but I didn't mind,

to tell you the truth. I wasn't a stupid girl.

I knew what I was doing. I was having a bit of fun.

They sold their magazines and I was happy.

Heading to a festival near you, that's Embrace.

Do you feel that your whole involvement with that type

of work has harmed you in any way?

I don't think it has harmed me in any way.

I think more losing my hair has harmed my work then me

showing my bottom cos people seemed to have more - seemed to find it

more distressing looking at me being bald than, you know, naked.

Gail, do you believe there's a line that you shouldn't cross

in artistic expression?

I think people should be allowed to express themselves

as much as they want,

but if they're going to do something overtly outrageous there should be

a warning on the video or there should be a warning before you go

to see them live, you know, what to expect

but a lot of them are artists

so, you know, it all gets rolled into a big ball of creativity.

# Under my umbrella Ella, ella, ay, ay... #

I never knew anything about Rihanna until I met her in my field.

She's a beautiful young woman.

Is it not possible that she could be hugely successful

without taking her clothes off?

Definitely but, you know, she likes to do what she like to do so,

I believe in freedom of speech and, you know, creativity.

Do you not think a performer should be allowed to do whatever

they feel is necessary for the performance?

If they believe in it and they're passionate about it.

I would make the argument that the term "artistic expression"

is sometimes code for a sexual performance.

I feel that we've gone too far.

Today children, young people, have all access to computers.

There'll always be the tendency for children to be very, very curious.

It is possible to make sure

that you don't allow your children to look.

I've got an iPad. My daughter's getting the little mini one

but we make sure that she's not able to access things that we don't want

her to access, but I can see it being a problem

for a lot parents, having to keep an eye on their children all the time

and what they're watching and, you know, you can type in one word

and all sorts of things come up on the internet, so it is quite scary.

Shortly after the Rihanna incident,

Alan got a call from a reporter from The Sun newspaper.

It made him wonder about the cosy relationship between Britain's

tabloid press and the multi-million pound pop industry.

Was there any collusion between Rihanna's publicity people

and The Sun to promote her through this incident in my field?

Absolutely none whatsoever. I can tell you that hand on heart.

The first I knew of it I thought, "That's an absolutely excellent

"story" and I was really frustrated we didn't have it

as an exclusive, because we knew she was going to be filming the video in

Belfast and we'd written a bit about that leading up to it.

And when I found out that this incident had happened

between a local farmer and Rihanna, I thought

"That's a brilliant story. It's great."

I'd love to tell you that it was so cleverly manipulated

that they'd rung up in advance and told me it was going to happen

but that simply wasn't the case.

As showbiz editor at The Sun, Gordon has a very close relationship

with many of the world's biggest stars.

I've known Rihanna from very, very early on in her career. In fact,

we went bowling together when she had her first album out

and before many people knew who she was

and she was a really happy-go-lucky, carefree young spirit.

Very talented, great fun to be with.

# Baby, come tell me your secrets and tell me all your dreams... #

In the early days she was really keen

and very hungry for that fame and now she has it to a level

where she spends a lot of time under the media microscope.

She doesn't enjoy it quite as much - I do see that happen a lot.

I've been doing this for a long time.

I'll be brutally honest with you, I'm really tired of it.

I got into this job because I wanted to meet my heroes,

travel the world, see the best gigs, meet talented people,

help promote careers, all of that kind of stuff.

So when you get involved in what I would describe as the darker side

of fame and people being hungry for fame's sake,

not for a reason, that bothers me. Can I ask you a question?

-You certainly can.

-When you were growing up and you were in your late teens,

early twenties, what were you listening to

and what kind of music did you like?

We never had a television, so therefore I'm very, very illiterate

on all this pop music stuff.

I did live through the days of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones,

so on and so forth.

In Northern Ireland the other thing about the late '60s

in Northern Ireland was the, it was the start of the Troubles.

Troubles, yeah.

And I suppose there was a lot of distractions.

So my argument might be that isn't pop music

and stuff like Rihanna and Lady Gaga a wonderful distraction

for young people from a lot more serious issues?

Well, that is the case,

but I'm convinced that good singers can be very, very successful

without any sexualisation of their performances and I think

they can become very popular and very wealthy people without that.

Fair point.

Alan has decided to seek advice from some experts.

Linda Papadopoulos has had a successful career

as a clinical psychologist, and authored a report

for the last Labour government about the dangers of child sexualisation.

She's also a big rock fan, with an unexpected specialist subject.

-And your chosen subject?

-Nirvana.

Nirvana. Two minutes starting now.

Which independent Seattle record label released Nirvana's

first single, Love Buzz?

-Sub Pop.

-Yes.

I think the music industry's always pushed boundaries

and, you know, it's always been

Elvis gyrating and people getting

really upset and then people started gyrating, which was fine.

Gyrating's very different to being walked around naked on leashes

and being called a hoe.

I'm a big Nirvana fan.

I remember, back in the day, Nirvana singing against rape and against,

you know, against homophobia and it was cool and that was cool,

you know? And now it seems like we've gotten to the point that,

you know, it's cool to be calling women degrading names

and treating them badly and that's not.

Those three passes, Linda, you have 26 points

APPLAUSE

One of the most telling stats that I always hold onto is the number one

plastic surgery technique for teenagers, for young girls,

used to be rhinoplasty - nose jobs. Now it's breast implants.

That to me says a lot about the shift.

Linda, where do we go from here and what do we do about the problem?

Well, how much time do we have? I think we need to speak to parents

so that they know how to complain. I get so many notes from parents

saying, you know, "I saw this on the High Street, how do I complain?"

Or, "I saw this in a music video, where do I go?"

People always say, "You can't change it now,"

but I always think that, you know, look at the Civil Rights movement,

it went from Rosa Parks to Barack Obama in, what, five, six, decades.

Surely we can turn this around for young girls and boys.

Reg Bailey spoke to over a thousand parents for a recent report

commissioned by the coalition government.

I was really quite surprised

and a bit shocked, frankly, at some of the material I encountered.

I know you're particular experience was with Rihanna,

but actually she's not really amongst many of the really guilty.

# Me, I'm no mobster Me, I'm no gangsta... #

The report's recommendations include age ratings on music videos,

and more efficient parental controls on computers that encourage

a dialogue between children and parents.

I'd never have dreamed of allowing my children to go out

into the street

without talking to them about road safety.

And yet astonishingly we allow, so often, our children to go into

a far more dangerous virtual world without giving them, if

you like, the rules of road safety, without doing that, and sometimes

we hide behind the fact that we say we don't understand the technology.

It's a great opportunity for parents to talk with their children

and to build the confidence of their children.

A key driver for Reg was to help parents express their concerns

more easily.

David Cameron encouraged the setting up of a single website called

www.parentport.org.uk,

which is a single point that parents can go to.

Right in the middle is a thing that says Complain.

Parents then need to hear back from people.

What's happened to their complaint?

Is there anything I can do to make a difference to this problem?

The best thing you can do, Alan,

it seems to me, is to galvanise parents, galvanise grandparents,

galvanise the young people and the children themselves.

They have an acute awareness of some of the difficulties they face.

It's parent power and grandparent power.

One group that Alan has yet to hear from is the people

who are affected the most - children.

MUSIC: "We Found Love" by Rihanna

Alan has gone to see a rehearsal for Rapture, a hip-hop dance group based

in West Belfast, that has gained an impressive international reputation.

So much so that they were invited to be a part of the infamous

video shoot on Alan's field.

Well, Brona,

you were hoping to get down to take part in the video-shoot at the farm.

Yes, we were, Alan, but by the time we got there you'd already thrown

-everybody off the field!

-Yes, yes.

-Well, hello, girls. How are you all?

-Good.

-Yeah? You look splendid.

So do you.

Oh, thank you very much. Yes. Did yous all watch the Rihanna video?

-Yeah.

-What do you think Rihanna's really like as a person?

She's made out to be a certain way for her label,

like, to put across things that are going to sell more for her.

When you watch some of her interviews with Oprah and stuff,

she is a genuine, like, lovely woman

and you do feel sorry for her because she is put under

so much pressure to portray something that she isn't really.

So you think that modern-day pop stars are marketed and

they're portrayed in a certain way just really to make money?

Yeah, they're like a brand, just trying to be pushed out.

Like, see one of her CD albums, it's called Good Girl Gone Bad,

like, now she's gone really extreme.

You can see the difference from when, like, she began and now.

-Yeah.

-Like, she was innocent, now she's a bad girl image.

That's the character she has now.

But in a way as well, like, most well-known artists

are all like that, it's like what they have to be to sell

and be the best cos that's what people are like interested in.

I was very encouraged.

These young ladies seem to have their feet firmly on the ground.

They have principals. They had standards.

They believed that there was a line that shouldn't be crossed

regarding entertainment and the music industry.

If I started to do that, I'd put yous all out of business!

Alan has tried to see many people on his journey

into the pop video business, with mixed results.

Rihanna's management won't allow him anywhere near her

and requests to the big record company bosses

have fallen on stony ground.

What actually happened? What was your Rihanna encounter?

One person who can provide Alan with some industry insight is Sinitta.

A teenage pop star in the '80s, she's gone on to mentor

young people on the juggernaut that is The X Factor.

I simply asked the film crew to stop filming and that was over.

Oh, you ended the shoot, but you didn't see anything, did you?

You didn't see Rihanna without her top on, did you?

Well, I was, I suppose, a discrete enough distance away

but I did realise she hadn't her top on.

You shouldn't have been looking at it, Alan!

-It was a closed set.

-That's right, yes.

But to start us off, here is Sinitta!

SONG: "Right Back Where We Started From"

'I understand exactly where you're coming from

'because I mentor young acts.

'I have acts as young as 11, between 11 and 17.'

I'm also Christian.

I've also been a very provocative pop...young pop performer myself,

so I kind of have a 360 perspective of the whole thing.

I'm also a parent now of two young children.

So I understand completely where you're coming from

and I do think it's important that there is some kind

of censorship. Unfortunately it has to be left to parents, really.

# It's all right and it's coming on

# We got to get right back to where we started from... #

Crucially, Sinitta sees evidence that the tide against explicit,

raunchy videos has already started to turn.

Because you have acts like One Direction or Little Mix,

who I think are quite age appropriate, you know,

with their behaviour, it's not overtly sexual. Justin Bieber,

Taylor Swift. There's a lot of really clean cut, sort of,

young pop acts

out there doing extremely well so I think there's a real desire

for it, and I'm sure for parents it's a relief to be able

to sit back and know that they are the role models

that kids are looking up to now.

Over the last year, Alan has gone from a complete novice

to something of a music industry expert.

He's come to realise that the pop industry is an incredibly

powerful machine, but that ordinary people can make a difference.

I started this journey wondering what could be done.

One person will not do it but if everyone gets their act together

and puts the pressure in the right place and brings it to the attention

of government, I do believe there can be a change for the better.

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