Coldplay: 'We DID NOT rip off Cat Stevens!'

Coldplay drummer Will Champion has denied that the band have ripped off any other artists for their music, following Yusuf Islam's (formerly known as Cat Stevens) suggestion that they ripped off his song 'Foreigner Suite' for their own hit 'Viva La Vida'.

Furthermore, Chris Martin and co are being sued by guitarist Joe Satriani, who has accused them of plagiarising his song 'If I Could Fly' for the song.

However, Champion has insisted that the band are innocent, telling Hamptonroads.com that the band "haven't done anything wrong".

He said: "It's tough when people accuse you of stealing something when you know that you didn't. We accept that it's part of the territory and know it is only for some reason the successful songs that seem to be the ones that are accused of being stolen. So you go figure it out."

The drummer added that he believed some kind of musical crossover between artists was inevitable.

"There are elements of our music that I've heard in other people's music," he said, "but a very difficult thing to define. There are only eight notes in an octave and no-one owns them. There are probably about 12,000 songs that feature the exact same chord progression. I think it [plagiarism] lies on an intent to steal, which we certainly have never done and never would.

"It's unfortunate but it's the way people are. That's that. We're confident we haven't done anything wrong."

Blog - Coldplay vs Cat Stevens: plagiarism or coincidence? Listen and judge for yourself.