Since opening the Official Mike Batt website, we have received more corespondence about Zero Zero than any other project. The album was recorded in 1982 during Mike's round the world voyage aboard his motor yacht 'Braemar'. It was originally commissioned by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) as a live concert to be performed at the Sydney Opera House to celebrate their 50th anniversary. It was, however, actually recorded as an ambitious studio production directed by Mike and Australian John Eastway. Zero Zero's ambitious graphics were part of Mike's original concept, and his sketches for the sets, costumes and animations began at sea on the voyage from Los Angeles to Australia via Honolulu and Fiji. When he arrived in Sydney he had a nearly completed score and a set of quite advanced drawings from which to work in the production of the piece.

The production was dogged by union problems, and cancelled twice before eventually being produced as a co-production between Mike's own company and the ABC. The weird deal stuck with the Australian Equity Union was that two quite separate productions would be made; one with Mike playing the lead part of "Number 17" and one with an Australian (Graeme Watson, the choreographer) playing "Number 17". This was in order to preserve work for Australian Equity members but ended up creating artistic havoc, and double the expense for the ABC, who scrapped two operas in order to make the show, because of budget restrictions. The deal deprived several hundred equity members of employment in the operas and meant that every shot of the TV show had to be recorded twice, once with Mike in the lead and once with Graeme in the lead. The version with Mike (the international version) was agreed never to be shown in Australia, and the version with Graham was agreed never to be shown outside of Australia.

Thankfully, Australian equity is a far different organisation these days than it was then, and insane deals of this type are hopefully a thing of the past.

The show was transmitted on Channel 4 in the UK (Mike having bought the international rights to the production from the ABC), and when initially transmitted only one side of the stereo soundtrack was broadcast! Channel 4 therefore retransmitted a few days later and over the years the show has built up something of a cult following. The duration is 42 minutes, and it takes the form of a visual and musical 'trip' into some time zone in the past or future, where love has been abolished and is regarded as a disease to be avoided. Our hero, Number 17 ("but you can call me Ralph") falls in love with Number 36, and is eventually committed to an Emotional Decontamination Centre called Zero Zero. The name Zero Zero is therefore completely coincidental and does not refer in any way to either the year Zero of Polpot's Khmer Rouge, nor is it a reference to the year 2000.