Gorillaz 'accused of plagiarism over Stylo'

Eddy Grant has revealed that he is consulting lawyers over what he considers to be substantial similarities between Gorillaz's new single 'Stylo' and his 1983 track 'Time Warp'.

Grant told NME that he is convinced the keyboard riff on his song is identical to the animated band's recent release, even suggesting that the group's creator Damon Albarn is aware of the steal.

"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, before admitting that he had not previously realised the Blur frontman is responsible for Gorillaz.

Grant went on to say that both he and Gorillaz are signed to the same publishing company, EMI, criticising the firm and Albarn for not raising the issue with him prior to the 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 said.

Grant also claimed that EMI had contacted a musicologist to compare the two tracks before he had been told that the Gorillaz song existed.

"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?' 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 later added: "This is a private matter between Eddy Grant and Gorillaz, and we're not intending to make any further comment."