It isn’t because they got fed up of hearing Wonderwall
In somewhat surprising news, Noel Gallagher is banned from China and has been declared an “enemy of the people” for some 25 years, apparently.
The 55-year-old has been blacklisted from the communist country since 1997 after he played a Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York – a gig he barely remembers, in fact, but one that resulted in him receiving a letter through the post saying he was no longer welcome in Chinese territory.
According to the Daily Star, Gallagher revealed, “I only found out I was banned when Oasis got invited to go to China a good 20 years ago. We’d agreed to go and all the paperwork came and you had to send through a list of your songs and the Chinese government sent you back a list of songs that weren’t appropriate and we’d agreed to do all that.”
As he went to explain: “About a month before we were about to leave I got a letter saying you lot can come but you can’t because of this thing you did for the Tibetan people. I’d forgot I’d even done it.” The remote Buddhist territory has been governed as an autonomous region of China since the 13th century.
What’s more, the eldest of the Gallagher musicians claims that he only performed at the benefit concert because no one else in the band could be bothered, confessing at the time: “Mate, I’m not even interested in Tibet, I’m not arsed just let me go.”
The legendary guitarist and High Flying Birds frontman revealed that the letter from the Minister of the Interior read “‘You are an enemy of the people,’ or something like that” and, ironically, since no of the other members were interested in going at the time, they were still welcome.
Snubbed from performing or not, he still got to perform to more than 50,000 people alongside the likes of U2, Radiohead, Foo Fighters and more – not to mention for a good cause, so we’re sure won’t look back in anger at this one too often.
Elsewhere, Noel is the only unlikely name you’ll find on no-fly lists further east, as it was recently revealed that Morgan Freeman and a number of other entertainment figures were named among nearly 1,000 US citizens banned from entering Russia after the actor reportedly recorded a message accusing the state of interfering with the 2016 presidential election.
You can see his full set at Downing Stadium in Randall’s Island, New York below:
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