It was reported in the papers today that Mike Batt had to pay a reported £100,000 out of court settlement for having a one minute silence on his album Classical Graffiti.

It was paid to the relatives of John Cage, famous for his piece 4'33", which consists of a pianist sitting down for four minutes and thirty three seconds and doing nothing. They sued that the concept of a performance that constituted silence was already copyrighted.

It looks like the out of court settlement was paid up so Batt would not have to spend millions on lawyers, even if he won.

So don't leave too many pauses in your compositions, maybe if they are too long you might end up sued!

This story is not a wind-up!

By the way, the funniest comment on the original piece of 4'33" was by Andre Previn who asked the composer "What do you do if the pianist doesn't show up?"