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Wednesday, Dec. 31
The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Members of children's chorus sue Pink Floyd

Group demands royalties for 'Another Brick in the Wall'

LONDON -- Members of the children's chorus who sang on Pink Floyd's anti-authoritarian 1979 hit, "Another Brick in the Wall," are owed thousands of dollars in payment, a royalties agent said.\nPeter Rowan said he was representing one of the group, Peter Thorpe, in a bid for unpaid royalties. Rowan said he hoped other members of the group would join the claim for royalties from a fund set up in 1997 to compensate session musicians.\nTwo dozen students from Islington Green School in north London sang on the chart-topping track from the album "The Wall," which was recorded at a nearby studio in 1979.\nThe song attracted controversy for the chorus sung by the children: "We don't need no education/ We don't need no thought control/ No dark sarcasm in the classroom/ Teachers, leave them kids alone."\n"It was seen as being quite improper," said the school's present head teacher, Trevor Averre-Beeson.\n"The Wall" has sold more than 23 million copies and is the third best-selling album of all time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.\nThe school received a platinum disc and a payment in return for the children's efforts, but the pupils weren't paid.\n"It's a legal right and the money is building up," Rowan said Friday.

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