Mike Batt, the man behind the Wombles and Vanessa Mae, has put a silent
60-second track on the album of his latest classical chart-topping
protégés, the Planets. This has enraged representatives of the avant-garde,
experimentalist composer John Cage, who died in 1992. The silence on his
group's album clearly sounds uncannily like 4'33", the silence composed by
Cage in his prime.
Batt said last night: "I've received a letter on behalf of John Cage's
music publishers. I was in hysterics when I read their letter.
"As my mother said when I told her, 'Which part of the silence are they
claiming you nicked?'. They say they are claiming copyright on a piece of
mine called 'One Minute's Silence' on the Planets' album, which I credit
Batt/Cage just for a laugh. But my silence is original silence, not a
quotation from his silence."
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