Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis have launched legal action against the band’s former sound engineer.
The move comes after Huw Richards allegedly put hundreds of hours of recordings of the brothers up for auction for up to $2 million (£1.6 million), the Daily Mail reports.
The Gallaghers filed legal papers with the High Court on Tuesday, citing the former staffer, his son Owain and a Worcestershire-based auction house as defendants, to stop them from selling the tapes.
The outlet reports that Richards is “disappointed and bewildered” by the rock duo’s move as he claims he had approached them to see if they wanted them back.
The collection is made up of 209 DAT tapes, 73 analogue cassettes and three MiniDiscs.
It is understood the tapes feature recordings of Oasis soundchecks, rehearsals and “unfiltered dialogue and banter” between the brothers at the height of their fame between 1994 and 2001.
It reportedly also includes the only recording of the band’s 1996 concert in Loch Lomond, Scotland, staged at the peak of Oasis Mania.
Richards is understood to have initially had private negotiations with the Gallagher brothers to buy the recordings, but the talks collapsed.
He argued that as he made the recordings and has them in his possession, he is the legal owner, but Oasis countered that they retain the intellectual property and copyright.
In previous news reports, Littleton’s auction house managing director Ben Homer assured reporters that they were following proper legal processes.
