A significant issue was whether the music was more likely to have been composed on a guitar, which would support Mr Geldof’s claim to have composed it, or whether it could only have been composed on a piano, which was Mr Moylett’s case. Bob Geldof, who wrote the remaining lyrics, claimed sole writing credit. Mr Moylett (Johnnie Fingers), the keyboardist, claimed that in 1979 he had written the music and some of the lyrics for the band’s hit song I Don’t Like Mondays.
Less esoteric but potentially as interesting is this application brought before Carr J in the Chancery Division by the “well known music band”, the Boomtown Rats. Go to the end of this post for a reminder of that entertaining litigation and its outcome. The focus of that dispute was the organ line in the 1967 hit Whiter Shade of Pale, and Blackburne J’s judgment is imperative reading for anyone interested in the law’s dominion over music, ideas or intellectual property in general. Music nerds may remember with fondness the great copyright wrangle involving Procul Harum and Bach. Moylett v Geldoff and Another (unreported) Chancery Division (Carr J) 14 March 2018
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