Oasis take legal action to stop sale of unheard tapes

A set of unheard Oasis recordings valued at between £1.2m and £1.6m have been pulled from an auction after the band filed an injunction.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Littleton Auctions, in Evesham, were selling a set of recordings which included 63 live shows , as well as soundchecks and more than 100 hours of Noel and Liam Gallagher in the 1990s.

They were collected by Oasis sound engineer Huw Richards, who worked with the band from the release of their debut album Definitely, Maybe in 1994, until 2001.

However, the auction house said the sale of the recordings had been suspended after the band intervened.

Managing director Ben Homer said: "Littleton Auctions confirms that the Oasis recordings known as The Desk Tapes have been withdrawn from our October 3 auction in light of legal proceedings.

"We are very disappointed that we cannot offer this significant archive as planned."

The recordings were brought to sale by the sound engineer's son Owain Richards, who said: "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.

"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."

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