March 15, 2010 16:09

Eddy Grant claims Gorillaz' 'Stylo' copies his song

Grant says band's recent single rips off his 1983 track 'Time Warp'

Eddy Grant said he is consulting lawyers after claiming there are substantive similarities between Gorillaz' recent single 'Stylo' and his 1983 song 'Time Warp'.

Speaking to NME.COM, Grant said he feels the keyboard section on his song is the same as the recent release from Damon Albarn and co, and even suggested that the track's creators were aware of the clash.

"Damon Albarn knows in his heart of hearts – it's unfortunate that we cant get into people's hearts – he knows that this is a song that he's loved, in his club days…I don't know the guy…but he knows this is a song he loves," he claimed, although he admitted that he had never met Albarn and had not realised the Blur man was behind Gorillaz until recently.

Ironically, Grant explained that both he and Gorillaz/Albarn share the same publishing company, EMI, and was critical that they had not highlighted the issue to him before the new song's release.

"It has to go back to the beginning, where it should have started with a phone call from Damon to my publisher. My publisher would have contacted me – the publisher being of course the same EMI that looks after his [music]," he explained.

Grant suggested EMI have consulted a musicologist to compare the two tracks before he had been made aware of 'Stylo''s existence.

"In a properly configured relationship I would have gotten a call from EMI to say, 'Damon wants to use 'Time Warp'. What arrangement can you guys come to? Would you claim 100 per cent, would you claim 60 per cent, or 70 per cent of whatever it is?'," he suggested.

"That phone call never came. Instead what happened is somebody went straight to a musicologist, implying that there was some kind of pre-knowledge of some kind of infringement."

A spokesperson for EMI Publishing told NME.COM: "This is a private matter between Eddy Grant and Gorillaz, and we're not intending to make any further comment."

Blog – how similar is 'Stylo' to 'Time Warp'? Listen now