A BID to ban what is billed as the most controversial show at the

Edinburgh Festival has failed.

Conservative Councillor Mrs Moira Knox yesterday appealed to Edinburgh

District Council's recreation committee not to allow the Jim Rose Circus

Sideshow to go ahead on Calton Hill.

The committee was considering an application by Regular Music for the

use of Calton Hill for ''a series of cultural events'' during the

Festival. One of the events is the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow which

describes itself as bizarre and outrageous and claims: ''You may not be

able to look, but you will never forget it. Not for the nervous.''

The show includes people piercing their bodies with a variety of

implements and a force-feeding, where the contents of the stomach are

brought back up by means of a pump.

Mrs Knox said that Glasgow had banned the show. ''I think for Calton

Hill to be sullied by something like this is awful,'' she said.

Convener Councillor Steve Cardownie, said: ''Worse things happen on

Calton Hill.'' He added that it was not the committee's place to act as

a censor.

The committee approved the application by Regular Music, including the

Jim Rose Circus.