Wednesday, December 10 2008, 05:52 GMT

By Sarah Rollo


Rex Features
Coldplay have responded to an accusation that they used "substantial, original portions" of a US rocker's song, insisting that any similarities are "entirely coincidental".

Guitarist Joe Satriani filed a copyright lawsuit last week which alleged that parts of the song 'Viva La Vida' were taken from his 2004 track 'If I Could Fly'.

Coldplay said in a statement: "If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him.

"Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write the song 'Viva La Vida'. We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours."

Now Pis* Off - LondonStyle view on the matter

Coldplay have been nominated for a Grammy for the song, which spent six weeks at the top of the UK chart this summer.

There is an older Rolling Stone interview where perhaps jokingly Coldplay said they were not original writers, just "really good plagiarists". There is another track out there that sounds just like it, too.

This happens to a lot of artists.. Coldplay has sampled and borrowed samples many times. They are one of the biggest bands in the world, and I assure you they aren't gonna pull something like that on the lead single, nor any song.

They sampled on Talk, and The Escapist.