Band took head of EMI to court (5)
I believe the answer is:
suede
'band' is the definition.
(British band)
'took head of emi to court' is the wordplay.
'took' becomes 'd' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'head of' indicates taking the first letters.
'to' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'court' becomes 'sue' (I've seen this in other clues).
The initial letter of 'emi' is 'e'.
'd'+'e'='de'
'de' put after 'sue' is 'SUEDE'.
(Other definitions for suede that I've seen before include "Soft leather with one side napped" , "leather material" , "Leather with velvety nap used in shoes and clothes" , "Soft goatskin" , "Soft, velvety leather" .)