Will Everyone Please Start Asking Geoff Barrow Before They Sample Portishead?

Geoff, frantically checking the linear credits of every record ever

Geoff Barrow loves a good moan. Which is fair enough, so do the best of us. But the main problem with following a musician you admire on Twitter is that you too have to endure their frustrated and conflicted internal dialogue. To date, Barrow has moaned about fellow artists, spoken ill of the dead, said that Coldplay ruin festivals (which is unfair because they ruin much more than that) and has even had a Twitter spat with the Mayor Of Bristol.

One of Geoff's favourite things to go on about, though, is other acts stealing Portishead's songs. Sure, this is understandable, as plagiarism and unlicensed sampling can lead to a massive loss of income in an industry that's increasingly difficult to survive in financially. Just last year saw Barrow rather annoyed when The Weeknd disobeyed his wishes and sampled Portishead without permission. It's not that he's against sampling (Portishead are well known for their own sample usage), but he'd prefer the resulting homage to bear some sort of artistic intent (that is, to not just steal outright without added thought) or to at least have been asked for permission first (as was not the case with Phantogram, Geoff's recent tweets suggest).

So we've put together a definitive guide to acts that have sampled Barrow and co, just in case he wants to send any more cease and desist letters. Most of them Barrow tells us are "cleared or collabs and sorted", but what confuses us the most is why he'd let Tom Jones cover him but not The Weeknd…

Follow Luke on Twitter: @lkmrgnbrttn