The former school children who sang on Pink Floyd's 1979 single 'Another Brick in The Wall' have begun action to secure royalties for their part in making the record.
Music legend has it that Bob Ezrin, producer of 'The Wall', brought in the children to sing the chorus to the song when Pink Floyd themselves, not interested in the potential the album track had as a single, refused to return to the studio to add any more lyrics. The pupils were recruited from Islington Green School in North London, somewhat controversially because their headmistress, unaware of their involvement in the song, objected strongly to her pupils singing: "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom - teachers leave them kids alone".
While the Inner London Education Authority described the involvement of school children in the song as "scandalous", the school later accepted £1000 for the children's involvement, and a platinum record of the song. However the 23 pupils involved never received anything themselves.
Copyright expert Peter Rowan now reckons that the pupils are due a substantial payment for the use of their voices in the legendary track, and he says he is now representing several of them to secure those royalties. "They [the former schoolchildren] are owed their money and we lodged the first claim last week. I've been working on it for almost two years."
One challenge facing Rowan is proving which children were involved. They were never individually credited and, after their school became outraged over the track, were banned from appearing in any video or TV performance of the song. However the headmistress who forced that ban is said to be now supporting her former pupils' case for royalties.