The Streets have denied any wrong doing after songwriter Michael Gagliano, a member of tribute band the Counterfeit Beatles, accused Mike Skinner of stealing the music from one of his original songs for the latest Streets track 'Dry Your Eyes', which was released yesterday.
After Gagliano made his claims in the Sun newspaper, a spokesman for The Streets told reporters yesterday: "The strings in The Streets single 'Dry Your Eyes' were taken from a sample CD which provides royalty free samples for artists. This is standard practice nowadays. Obviously, Mike has never heard the other song in question. Apparently it was released towards the end of 2003, and 'Dry Your Eyes' was recorded as early as March 2003 and CDs of the track have been kicking around the label and people involved ever since. We have no idea how the other artist thinks Mike heard his music before recording it and find it all a bit strange."