A leading classical music composer's got so fed up with mobile phones going off during performances that he wants offenders to be fined and ejected from the venue.

It's been described as one of the great artistic blights of our time: the ringing mobile phone in the middle of a particularly quiet and moving piece of music, or just as the lead actor in your favourite play is about to deliver his lines… To be, or not to… BEEP!

For some it's a nuisance; for others an act of vandalism. Sir Peter, who is the Master of the Queen's Music, has called it artistic terrorism.

After at least three mobiles interrupted a concert he was attending, he said he'd write to mobile networks to find out how a penalty system could be introduced. Any money raised by the clampdown would go to a musicians' charity.

Many agree with his hard-line approach. But others argue that too many stringent rules will put people off going to concerts. Musician and journalist Samara Ginsberg reckons audiences are self-policing anyway. She thinks they let miscreants know very clearly their mobile use is unacceptable. If they do it again they understand ''they'll be strung up,'' she said.