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Ed Sheeran furious as lawyers play exclusive unreleased track to High Court
ED Sheeran was left furious today after lawyers played his unreleased music in the High Court.
The singer, who is facing the third day of his copyright trial, demanded to know how his opponents’ legal team got hold of the recording.
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Lawyers played it by mistake instead of a tape of Shape of You - whose chorus he allegedly nicked from Sami Chokri’s song Oh Why.
When Sheeran, 31, heard the track, he asked his lawyers: “That's a song I wrote last January. How have you got that?"
Mr Sheeran then blasted at Andrew Sutcliffe QC, for Chokri: “I want to know how you got that.”
The file was accidentally clicked on while trying to find a recording of Shape of You in iTunes.
Ian Mill QC, Sheeran's barrister, later told the court that Sheeran was left "disconcerted" by the music being played while he was asked to listen to early recordings from the creation of Shape Of You.
Mr Mill explained the incident happened "by mistake" through the use of Mr McCutcheon's computer and his iTunes which "contains some unreleased material".
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He said there had been an apology, adding: "I'm sure it won't happen again".
It came on Sheeran's second day in the witness box, during which he was accused of being an “obsessive music squirrel” by Mr Sutcliffe - who previously branded him a “magpie” who steals ideas.
He said Sheeran was “plugged in” to the UK music scene in 2015 - when Chokri released Oh Why - adding: “You continued to consume music voraciously in 2015 and 2016.”
Sheeran replied: “I’m a music fan. I like music.”
The star said he lived in New York for some time in 2015 and in Italy in 2016.
And the court heard he binned his iPhone in 2016 and began using a flip-up phone from Tesco instead.
He did, however, have an iPad to email people, as well as a laptop which Mr Sutcliffe claimed he listened to music on.
'PLUGGED IN'
During his evidence, Sheeran frequently sang the Shape of You melody to explain his methods.
Mr Chokri, a grime artist who performs under the name Sami Switch, and Mr O'Donoghue, claim that a central "Oh I" hook in Shape Of You is "strikingly similar" to an "Oh Why" refrain in their own composition.
Sheeran described the hooks as using the "pentatonic scale" with "vowels" when asked if they were similar, with several early initial iterations of parts of Shape Of You played in court.
Andrew Sutcliffe QC, asked the singer: "It was a phrase you already had in your head after listening to the chorus of Sami's song Oh Why, wasn't it?"
"No," Sheeran replied.
In his written evidence, Sheeran, who admitted he "didn't take music theory" in court, said the "minor pentatonic pattern" was "very common" and used in his song I See Fire and by Nina Simone.
He sang a snippet of I See Fire, Nina Simone's Feeling Good, as well as Shape Of You, to the courtroom.
"If you put them all in the same key they sound the same," he said.
SHAPE OF YOU
Mr Sutcliffe asked Sheeran how he would feel if another artist had taken a “hook” like “Oh I oh I oh I” from him without permission.
He replied: “I don’t know. It’s happened quite a few times. I don’t really feel anything.”
Sheeran added: “As a songwriter, I know how songs are created… I’ve never sued anyone.”
Mr Sutcliffe said he is suing Chokri, and Sheeran said: “I’m trying to clear my name.”
The barrister told the court Shape of You is the fourth-most played video of all time on YouTube with 5.6billion hits, plus more than three billion on Spotify.
Sheeran said: “I didn’t know that but that’s good.”
Mr Sutcliffe said the royalties frozen by the Performing Rights Society in 2018 only include “the UK broadcasting and performance income” - which only accounts for “less than ten per cent” of its total revenue.
But the court heard Sheeran has “withheld consent” for details of “digital income” from the song to be released - and that his YouTube cash flow has not been frozen.
'THOUSANDS OF SONGS'
Sheeran said he does not know how much his songs earn, saying he simply writes them and they are released.
He also said he has penned thousands of tunes since he started songwriting aged 13.
The court heard that Shape Of You was written at Mr McCutcheon's Rokstone Studios in west London's Parsons Green, where Mr McCutcheon initially came up with a marimba sound, in October 2016.
The writers decided on including a vocal chant section using the minor pentatonic scale after the song's chorus.
Sheeran decided singing the section using the word "heya" was too "close to the bone" because it sounded similar to a song called No Diggity by the band Blackstreet.
He repeatedly told the court that he, Mr McDaid and Mr McCuctheon wrote the song together.
He previously told the court he typically writes around 25 songs a week and pens them within two hours.
Sheeran has missed out on £20million in royalties on the song since 2018, when he was suspended from receiving them by the Performing Rights Society.
The star and his co-writers, Steven McCutcheon and Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, launched legal action and want the court to rule they did not infringe copyright.
Months later Chokri, 29, who performs under the name Sami Switch, and his co-author Ross O’Donoghue then claimed “copyright infringement and damages”.
Sheeran denies having ever heard of either men or Oh Why.
The star finished giving evidence today and was whisked away from court by his entourage and into a silver Mercedes van.
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The court will hear from McDaid tomorrow.
The three-week trial, estimated to hit £3million in costs, continues.
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