Monkey Business: Before Gorillaz there wasā¦ Monkey Tennis?
If the media is to be believed, then the music industry is filled with lies, deceit, and lawsuits, so whenever a spark of originality appears, itās often hard to tell how original it really is. With Led ZeppelinĀ now being sued for allegedly ripping off a guitar riff from Spiritās āTaurusā, and Kendrick Lamar facing a court case over his sampling of a Bill Withers track, it seems like as good a time as ever to visit a less publicized (for reasons elaborated later) controversy.
A few years back, a guy called Kevin Saunders alleged that cartoonist Jamie Hewlett and Blur frontman Damon Albarn - creators of the popular virtual band Gorillaz - had actually stolen his friendās idea. Saunders went on to explain that his friend designed a multi-media arts project (music, animation, web, etc.) way back in the late 90s and came up with four cartoon characters to represent this project. It was calledĀ āMonkey Tennisā (named after a gag from sitcom Iām Alan Partridge). Saunders, who was closely involved in the project, wrote up brief descriptions of each characters and his friend wanted Jamie Hewlett on board to design the characters based on Saundersā descriptions. Hewlett had done illustrations for bands in the past.
Saunders alleges (although it canāt really be proved) that his friend pitched the idea to Hewlett in his London flat. Hewlettās then-flatmate Albarn was apparently present at this meeting. Hewlett must have liked the idea, because he agreed to draw the characters. Saunders used Hewlettās sketches in promotional material for Monkey Tennis - some of which was actually published in magazines, including āThe Faceā, for which Hewlett was a regular contributor. And then, āshortly afterā after the alleged meeting, Gorillaz appeared.
The similarities between Hewlett and Albarnās virtual band and Monkey Tennis were such that, naturally, Saundersā friend wanted to sue. A lawsuit against Hewlett followed, which Hewlett was apparently upset about. Saunders claims this lawsuit was over Breach of Confidence - i.e., taking commercial advantage of something that was entrusted upon you in confidentiality - and not over the copyrights of the virtual band concept. But apparently the costs of the court case were such that an Saundersā friend was running out of money and couldnāt afford to fight his case any longer. Thus, a settlement was reached, in which Hewlett paid Saundersā friend an undisclosed sum of money (which Saunders claims was barely enough to pay back the costs of the lawsuit). But most crucially, the settlement also imposed a gagging order on Saundersā friend and Hewlett; neither are allowed to publicly discuss Monkey Tennis. Saunders was not subject to this settlement and thus is legally able to talk about it.
Because the anonymous creator of Monkey Tennis is legally unable to speak of it, the exact nature of the project will probably never be known. Saunders said the idea was to release music through a record label and create accompanying animations through a film company, which sounds an awful lot like Gorillaz. He did not, however, describe Monkey Tennis as a virtual band, and claimed the project would also potentially branch out into a TV series and video game. Ambitious, to say the least.
Hewlett and Albarn have never spoken about Monkey Tennis; they maintain that the idea for Gorillaz came to them when they were watching MTV in their flat, circa 1998. However, the official GorillazĀ biography indirectly references the whole debacle in a brief segment: it describes Hewlett being sued by a band calledĀ āthe Dopplegangerzā, who apparently wanted 50% ownership over Gorillaz, contrary to Saundersā claims. The account of the events as described in the book is largely exaggerated for comic effect, but if Saunders is telling the truth, then that would surely make Gorillaz theĀ ādopplegangerzā. A strange thought indeed.
There are still many unanswered questions, such as why Hewlett would apparently rip off a project he was already on board with. We will likely only ever have Saundersā word on this.Ā
Will we ever know the truth? Does it even matter? Who can say?
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