IMMEDIATE BATTLE!

Recordings made during the 1960s by artists including THE SMALL FACES, ROD STEWART, SAM COOKE, ERIC CLAPTON, JIMMY PAGE and NICO are at the centre of a High Court battle started today (October 31) in LONDON by former ROLLING STONES manager ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM.

Loog Oldham, who became a teenage millionaire guiding the early career of The Stones, is claiming a US-based company he is involved with (Immediate Records Inc.) own the rights to tracks recorded by those artists for his Immediate Records label between 1965 and 1970. The label went into liquidation in 1970.

The action is being fought by a group known as Sanctuary - an umbrella group for Charly Acquisitions, Charly Trademarks Ltd and Castle Copyrights Ltd - who claim they own the recordings having been passed the copyrights when Immediate Records folded.

Loog Oldham argues that in 1972 he assigned to the copyrights to Thomas Cavalier, who in turn assigned them to Immediate Records Inc. in 1999. In February 2000, he announced he planned to re-release the recordings through a US-based website. Sanctuary immediately sought and gained a temporary injunction against Loog Oldham's new company until legal action was completed.

Loog Oldham is representing himself in the action. The hearing, in front of Mr Justice Pumfrey - who has already been given a set of CDs to listen to - is expected to last eight days.