Treble bad! Bored drummer hits HMRC for ‘rubbish’ hold music

The longer time that taxpayers are being forced to wait trying to get through to HMRC has driven one self-employed caller back to his business mindset. Albeit while still hanging on for an answer.

In fact, Alan Drever-Smith, a classically trained freelance musician, decided to use his 40-minute call to the Revenue to transcribe the “rubbish” hold music which the department was playing.

“The tune is jarring and it’s just so horrible to listen to,” the 26-year-old also told the Daily Telegraph.

“I had my laptop in front of me, so I just had a spark of mischief after hearing that same tune repeated 20 times.”

His full score of ‘HMRC Hold Music,’ annotated with ‘Thanks for waiting. One of our advisers will be with you as soon as possible,’ has been shared on Facebook over 850 times.

But the Hull-based musician suggested that the annotation; the last sentence anyway, doesn’t ring true.

“[I] spent so long on hold today that I transcribed it [the hold music] before they picked up,” he wrote online, in a status update ‘loved’ by more than 50 people.

Receiving kudos for his finishing touch on the transcript – ‘D.C ad Nauseum [sic],’ he joked: “Had I known it would be this popular, I’d have added chords.”

The freelance percussionist reportedly regards the music as “jazzy” but far from singing HMRC’s praises, says it is “mundane” to the point of “hilarious” for being “so out of place.”