(TibetanReview.net, Jun15’22) – He had done it far back in 1997 because he had nothing better to do at that moment and forgotten about it through all those years. And he has not even been interested in Tibet. But the Chinese government neither forgives nor forgets and has just banned him for life from the country ahead of his band’s tour.
In 1997, songwriter and guitarist Noel Gallagher and his Oasis band-mates were asked to perform at a Tibetan Freedom Concert, a charity event, in New York during the time that the Britpop band were in their pomp. However, he was the only one who took to the stage.
Foo Fighters and Beastie Boys were the headline acts at the two-day charity event held at Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island in Jun 1997, with other artists such as U2, Radiohead, Bjork, Alanis Morissette and Blur also making appearances. Noel was the only member of his band who took to the stage, noted headtopics.com Jun 15.
Noel now has a letter from the Chinese government which states he is banned because he is an enemy of the Chinese people. However, brother Liam (and other members of the band) can go anytime he wants because he snubbed the invitation to appear at the gig.
“I’ve got a letter somewhere from the Minister of the Interior saying, ‘You are an enemy of the people,’ or something like that,” the dailystar.co.uk Jun 14 quoted Noel as saying.
“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.
“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 reason that they didn’t want you there was in case you started spouting off some pro-Tibetan s**t. I was like, ‘Mate, I’m not even interested in Tibet, I’m not arsed, just let me go,’” Noel has said bitterly.
Speaking about the Jun 1997 event, Noel has said, “Oasis were on tour at the time and it was a day off and Oasis got asked to do it and no one else would do it so it was like I’ll do it.”
“I walked out on stage in front of 50,000 people and as I walked out I thought, ‘Why have I agreed to do this? I’m not even the f***ing singer. I’ve got a Marshall stack and I’m going to do Wonderwall and Cast No Shadow.’
He has further said, “As I remember I only did about three or four songs but it felt like it was about four hours long. I was in between Radiohead and U2, full bands.”