Tony McCarroll, ex-drummer for the band, hired the lawyer
of ex-Beatle drummer Pete Best in a suit against his former bandmates for 20 percent of
the band's earnings. However,
Jens Hills, McCarroll's attorney, told ATN that the similarities between his
two clients stop at their coincidental roles as drummers.
Part of the reason Tony was
anxious to set the record straight was that he had got a little weary of the comparisons
that were being made between him and Pete Best, Hills said. Best, who was booted by the
Beatles in 1962, was represented by Hills in negotiations with the Fab Four when they
sought to use tracks with their former bandmate on the Beatles' Anthology series. Pete was
removed from the Beatles before they ever became successful, while Tony was removed from
Oasis just at the point when the band wagon was starting to roll, Hills said.
(What's the Story) Morning Glory as
well as from the much anticipated Be Here Now, due out in August, which he did not appear
on. London's Sunday Times reports that McCarroll's total take could have reached 18 million
pounds. Vanessa Cotton, an Oasis spokeswoman at Ignition management, acknowledged the
ongoing suit against the band, but would not comment on the matter. " It's an
ongoing thing, so there won't be [any statements] at this time", Cotton said. A
representative from the office of John Stathan, the band's lawyer, told ATN, "We
don't talk to press. McCarroll originally filed suit in December 1995. He was inaccurately
reported to have settled out of court in a story printed last year by the British tabloid
News of the World. Although the story was corrected three weeks later at the behest of
Oasis, most fans lingered under the assumption that the dispute was resolved until a story
about McCarroll's litigation ran in the Sunday Times.
|
