Oasis frontmen Noel and Liam Gallagher have initiated legal action against the band’s former sound engineer.
The move follows claims that Huw Richards placed hundreds of hours of the brothers’ recordings up for auction with potential value reaching up to $2 million (£1.6 million), according to the Daily Mail.
On Tuesday, the Gallaghers submitted court documents to the High Court naming the former employee, his son Owain, and a Worcestershire-based auction house as defendants in an effort to halt the sale of the tapes.
The publication notes that Richards is “disappointed and perplexed” by the brothers’ action, arguing that he had approached them to return the materials.
The collection comprises 209 DAT tapes, 73 analogue cassettes, and three MiniDiscs.
It is understood the tapes contain Oasis soundchecks, rehearsals, and “unfiltered dialogue and banter” between the two brothers during their peak years of fame between 1994 and 2001.
It is also said to include the sole recording of the band’s 1996 Loch Lomond concert in Scotland, captured during the height of Oasis Mania.
Richards is believed to have initially held private negotiations with the Gallagher brothers to purchase the recordings, but those talks later collapsed.
He contends that as the creator and possessor of the recordings, he is the legal owner, though Oasis has argued that they retain intellectual property rights and copyright.
In earlier news coverage, Ben Homer, managing director of Littleton’s auction house, assured reporters that the matter was proceeding within proper legal channels.
