Noel Gallagher declined Olympic closing ceremony gig

Noel Gallagher recently revealed that he turned down an invitation..

16:37 21 August 2012

Noel Gallagher recently revealed that he turned down an invitation to perform during the closing ceremony for the Olympics. He said that he chose not to play at the event after he was asked to mime. 

 

The singer said: “They wanted me to do it acoustically and then they wanted me to mime.”

 

“I’m all for miming in TV shows, but if you’re in a stadium with 80,000 people and you’re pretending? I can play live!”

 

“In the end, I was just like, ‘you know what? I’d rather watch it on the telly.”

 

The former star of Oasis told Danny Wallace of Xfm that he was also turned off by the secrecy that surrounded the preparations for the ceremony. “I was like… ‘who else is playing?’ and they were like, ‘we can’t tell you, you’ve got to sign a confidentiality agreement’. It’s like it’s the Iran nuclear programme or something.”

 

“I mean what do they think is going to happen? ITV are going to get hold of it and put on a gig the night before with the same bill?”

 

Gallagher used to be the front man for the band Oasis, but quit on 2009 after a row with his brother Liam. In 2011, Noel launched his solo career with The High Flying Birds with their debut album claiming the top spot. 

 

Liam took Noel’s place in the ceremony. He performed the Oasis hit Wonderwall with his own new band Beady Eye. The song, which was originally written by Noel, had to be re-recorded for Liam. Noel ultimately gave permission for the song to be used two days prior to the ceremony.