Zappa's music 'connected with sex'

A notorious piece of music once denounced as "filth for filth's sake" is going to be performed live in this country for the first time.

Frank Zappa's 200 Motels, a colossal work for full orchestra, rock band, singers and actors, was banned on the grounds of obscenity in 1971.

Now more than 40 years later, it will be performed at the Royal Festival Hall next week.

Frank Zappa died in 1993 and, in a rare interview, his widow Gail Zappa spoke to the BBC's arts correspondent Rebecca Jones.

One woman explained why the performance was rejected by the Royal Albert Hall.

"You could say it was connected with sex," she said.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday 24 October 2013.