The Price of History: Oasis’s Lost Tapes Go Up for Sale

The news that an archive of over 100 hours of Oasis recordings, including concerts and candid conversations between the Gallagher brothers, will be auctioned off for up to £1.6m has raised eyebrows in the music world. Despite the band’s objections, the collection is scheduled to go under the hammer on October 3rd, sparking questions about our values when it comes to preserving cultural heritage.

The archive was amassed by Oasis’s sound engineer Huw Richards over seven years and includes live performances, rehearsals, and behind-the-scenes moments. Notably, it contains the only known recording of the band’s 1996 concert on Loch Lomond, as well as informal conversations between Noel and Liam Gallagher that offer a rare glimpse into their famously fractious relationship.

Oasis themselves do not want this material to be sold. According to Owain Richards, Huw’s son and also a sound engineer, the band had sought some of these recordings in the past and were interested in having them returned rather than auctioned off. So why is it that we’re seeing this collection put up for sale now?

The changing nature of music consumption may provide an explanation. With streaming platforms making recorded music easier to access and monetize, live performances and behind-the-scenes recordings have become increasingly valuable. These tapes are not just nostalgic trinkets; they offer a window into the band’s creative process, their relationships with each other, and the cultural context in which they worked.

The auction comes at an interesting time for Oasis, whose reunion last year sparked renewed interest in their music. The brothers have been touring, playing sold-out dates around the world and premiering a documentary about their return to the stage. Despite this increased visibility, however, it seems that the band’s intellectual property rights are being used as leverage to sell off these recordings.

This raises questions about the ownership of cultural artifacts. Who should get to decide what happens to these recordings – Oasis themselves, or the sound engineer who preserved them? The sale also highlights the music industry’s complicated relationship with its own history. Many archives of live performances and behind-the-scenes recordings are scattered, incomplete, or lost altogether – often due to forces that drove Huw Richards to preserve Oasis’s tapes in the first place.

The value of these recordings lies not just in their historical significance but also in their potential to generate revenue. As we continue to grapple with music ownership and preservation, it’s worth asking: what does it mean for a band like Oasis, whose legacy is being exploited for financial gain even as they try to move forward with their careers?