Banned musician, aged 12, lays siege to BPI HQ

12 YEAR-OLD singer-songwriter Amy Thomas staged a protest outside the headquarters of the British music industry yesterday, following a decision to ban her from a new school kids' music chart because of her views on downloading.

Amy and a "flash mob" of 50 children gathered outside of the office of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for 15 minutes holding balloons with messages of support for the young singer.

Amy had been chosen as one of ten young artists to feature on the My Music chart that launches in October across 1,400 UK schools.

But her inclusion was blocked by the BPI after its snoops discovered she is signed to Flowerburger Records, an independent record label which is running an online petition drumming up oposition to the BPI's policy of suing music fans who use p2p websites.

Amy gained a following of schoolies after posting details of her plight on kids' networking site Bebo. Its members are now encouraging each other to boycott the My Music chart in favour of Amy's debut single, Just Smile, which is released the same week as the schools' chart.

Holding a balloon with 'Just Smile' emblazoned across it, the publicity-seeking youngster said of the practice of downloading songs from P2P sites: "All my friends do it. It just seems like the natural thing to do." µ