Oasis tape auction pulled after band takes legal action

The planned sale of a vast Oasis tape archive has been called off after the band took legal action.

Littleton Auctions has withdrawn the collection from its October 3 sale, managing director Benjamin Homer confirmed. The tapes will not go under the hammer while legal proceedings brought by Oasis are unresolved, Rolling Stone reported.

The archive centres on recordings made by Huw Richards, the band's sound engineer from its 1994 debut through to 2001. His son, Owain Richards, brought the material to auction. Owain Richards said he and his father had agreed to postpone the sale to allow the dispute to be resolved.

Oasis filed an injunction in a London court to block the auction, according to The Independent. Littleton Auctions cited those proceedings as the reason for the withdrawal.

The collection was to be sold as a single lot. Littleton Auctions valued it at between £1.2 million and £1.6 million, or $1.59 million to $2.12 million.

The scale is large. The tapes hold recordings of 63 live shows and more than 100 hours of the band rehearsing in the 1990s. The archive also includes soundchecks and candid material recorded around concerts and rehearsals, Sky News reported. The recordings have been described as unheard.

At issue are master recordings, the original tapes from which copies are made. Ownership of masters decides who can release, license or block the use of a recording. The injunction covers concert masters within the archive.

For fans, this means a wait. The tapes are off the market for now, with no new sale date set. Any release or further auction will depend on how the legal dispute over ownership is settled.