The planned auction of a treasure trove of Oasis live recordings this weekend has been definitely (not maybe) suspended. The BBC describes the lot as containing 63 live shows recorded and more than 100 hours of the Gallaghers & friends rehearsing in the Nineties. Littleton Auctions in England valued the collection at between £1.2 million and £1.6 million ($1.59 million to $2.12 million). But the band filed a legal motion to stop the sale, according to the BBC.
Sound engineer Huw Richards, whom the band employed from the release of their 1994 debut until 2001, recorded the show. Richards’ son, Owain, had brought the recordings to auction.
“It is true that Oasis have sued me and my father to try to prevent the auction of the tapes made by my father many years ago,” Owain told the BBC. “We have agreed to postpone the auction [of the tapes] to enable the legal dispute to be resolved either by litigation or otherwise in an orderly way.” (Reps for Oasis did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.)
“Littleton Auctions has always sought to conduct its sales professionally, transparently and responsibly,” Benjamin Homer, the auction house’s managing director, tells Rolling Stone. “Following legal proceedings relating to one lot, the Oasis tapes have been withdrawn from the auction. … As the matter remains the subject of ongoing legal proceedings, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further.”
Although the tapes won’t be part of the planned auction, Littleton is going forward with selling previously unpublished photos of the band, studio material, set lists, a tour parka, instruments the band owned, and other items.
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Regarding the tapes, now legally in limbo, Owain Richards previously told the BBC about how meticulously his father kept the recordings for the past 25 years. “Dad labelled everything, recorded everything and backed it all up to cassette, over and over,” he said. “I grew up listening to these recordings. Oasis were part of the family as much as they were part of the culture.”
So what are Oasis hiding by stopping the tapes’ sale? What could be so embarrassing that the Gallaghers don’t want people to hear it? Probably recordings of them complimenting one another and wishing each other a happy birthday and offering brotherly advice. The rest of what went on between them in the Nineties is already well documented and their reconciliation is the subject of a new documentary. And of course, they want the good vibes to continue when they hit the road again next year, so maybe it’s definitely best if the recordings go unheard.
