According to NME.com, Oasis are reportedly “unhappy” with planned auction of unheard and rare recordings of them. A collection of 63 concert recordings, over 100 hours of rehearsals, soundchecks and “unfiltered dialogue” between Noel and Liam Gallagher is due to be auctioned on October 3, with guide price of between £1.2million and £1.6million. Among the archive, which is listed by Littleton Auctions and dubbed The Desk Tapes, is what is believed to be the only recording of the band’s iconic 1996 concert on the banks of Loch Lomond in Scotland.
The master recordings were gathered by Oasis’s former sound engineer Huw Richards, who worked with the band from the release of their 1994 debut, Definitely Maybe, up until 2001. He recorded the tapes directly from the sound desk. However, the Gallagher brothers are reportedly unhappy with the auction, with Richards’ son, Owain Richards, claiming the band want the trove “back in their possession”, in an interview with The Times.
Richards told the paper that he had been in talks with Oasis’s management a few years ago over some of the recordings but the conversation apparently “fizzled away”. “They don’t want these tapes to be sold through anyone else,” he said. “They want them back in their possession. Any buyer would be unable to commercialize the archive without the consent of the band, who retain the intellectual property rights.
Littleton Auctions have admitted that the band are opposed to the sale, but that it is legal, with managing director Ben Homer telling The Independent: “The Oasis camp is aware of the auction and has expressed concerns, which is entirely understandable given the scale and significance of the material. “We’re handling everything with full transparency and proper legal process. Our focus is simply on presenting these items responsibly, with verified provenance, and allowing collectors and institutions to engage with an important part of British music history.”
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