The youngsters who sang the chorus in Pink Floyd's rock opera The Wall may be pushing middle age today, but they stand to collect a tidy little sum for their vocal contribution to the album.
Twelve pupils at Islington Green School in north London, aged 13 to 16 at the time, were roped into recording the title track in 1979 at the recording studio just around the corner where Pink Floyd was laying down tracks.
"We don't need no education; we don't need no thought control ... Hey, teachers! Leave them kids alone," sang the schoolboys in what became one of rock's best known protest anthems.
Students in South Africa were among those who embraced The Wall, singing the line in protest against the apartheid regime.
Now, one of the students who lent their voices to The Wall, Peter Thorpe, has filed a claim to access royalties owed to session musicians and vocalists for broadcasts of The Wall.
Peter Rowan of RBL Music, an Edinburgh-based royalties agent, said the money would not be paid by Pink Floyd or its record company EMI, but from a fund that is paid into by broadcasters each time they play songs on the air.
Rowan said on Friday that he tracked down Thorpe, who still lives in London, through Friends Reunited, a British Web site. He also contacted a few other former students, but none of them were interested in claiming the cash.
"It's a legal right and the [royalty] money is building up," Rowan said. "There's probably around five or six thousand pounds (US$9,450 to US$11,350) there already, so they would get a few hundred each."
Islington Green School itself has a platinum record of the song. It also got a cheque for ?1,000 at the time -- a sum equal to more than ?2,500 today.
A spokesman for Pink Floyd, which never made another hit album after The Wall, had no comment.
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