Noel Gallagher (Photo: Live4ever Media)
Noel Gallagher has been explaining his reasons for turning down an invitation to perform at last weekend’s London Olympics closing ceremony, saying the secretive nature of organisers during the early planning stages of the event put him off.
“I asked who else is playing and they said, ‘I can’t tell you, you’ve got to sign a confidentiality agreement’,” Gallagher explained during an interview with XFM ahead of his special charity acoustic gig at London’s Dingwalls venue earlier this week. “It’s like it’s the Iran nuclear program or something.”
“They wanted me to do it acoustically and wanted me to mime. I’m all for miming in TV shows, I love that, but if you’re in a stadium with 80,000 people and you’re pretending…I said I could play live and one of the organisers said, ‘It’s a big gig’ and I was like, ‘Really? I do this for a living’.”
“I’d only had a few days off and they wanted me to re-record the song. In the end I was like I’d rather watch in on the telly.”
According to reports, Gallagher was just one of several high profile British acts to decline the chance to appear at the closing ceremony, with The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Kate Bush also said to be amongst those who responded negatively to the producers’ request.
