Blur / GTB&TQ / Gorrilaz / Mali mouthpiece man Damon Alban has said that children should be "forced" to learn to read musical scores (wouldn't score sound better for the plural form?) at school.

It is now possible to achieve an A-Grade at Music GCSE without acually being able to read a note, or understand the fourth, the fifth the minor fall and the major lift.

"The idea of it being completely absent from the most important exams of your childhood is disgraceful. I used to write for small orchestras when I was 15," Albarn boas... er, told BBC Music magazine. "I sold my soul to the devil and became a pop star and forgot about it, but in the past few years I have got back into orchestration after an almost 20-year hiatus. I think anyone interested in music should be forced to learn that discipline.

"If you don't learn to read music, then there's a whole tradition that becomes very exclusive and shouldn't be."