Tony Dribbleworth of Sheffield has launched an audacious bid to take back the money that he feels he is owed by alarm clock manufacturers the world over.
Dribbleworth claims that he created the tune played by virtually every alarm clock created since 1980. The raucous cacophony that has been waking people up for thirty years, the cross between an electronic screech and a duck quacking is apparently the work of Dribbleworth who created it while playing for his Sheffield based band, Interference during the late seventies.
"Our track, Screech, has that soundtrack running through it," said Dribbleworth. "It took me weeks to get the level of screech just right on the synthesiser. Now every time I wake up, I hear the track I created blaring at me. I just want what I'm owed."
In the hearing, which could lead to a civil action and net Dribbleworth millions from every alarm clock manufacturer in the world in royalties, the jury were played both Screech and a random alarm clock, bought at Hurrys, a local electronic retail story. Both woke jurors up very effectively, but neither was capable of waking the Judge.
The jury did come to the conclusion that the two were very similar, and in his summing up, the Right Honourable Judge Julian Dates, announced: "I accept that there is enough similarity to warrant a civil suit, but I must say that I really detest this modern music."
