Green Day Attack Wal-Mart Over Censorship

The release of Green Day's follow-up to 2004's monster hit American Idiot has not been smooth for the pop-punk kings. A question of censorship has seen them come to blows with U.S corporation Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart - who own the the ASDA chain of supermarkets in the U.K - have refused to stock the band's new album after them deemed it 'unsuitable' for their fragile customers.

Front-man Billie-Joe Armstrong had the following to say on the situation:

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it. There's nothing dirty about our record. They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there. We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something.

"If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day ... to think that to get your record out in places like that, but they won't carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself. what does that say to a young kid who's trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It's like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it"

Wal-Mart company policy states that they will not stock any music adorned with the "Parental Advisory" sticker.

It's a fair policy though, there's nothing like a bit of bad language to really push you over the edge when you're in Wal-Mart queueing for your pack of 50 hangun bullets, firearms accessory bag, copy of Grand Theft Auto and the A-Z of the local high schools.