Noel Gallagher is banned from China for life for being "an enemy of the people"

15 June 2022, 15:01 | Updated: 15 June 2022, 15:02

By Jenny Mensah

The former Oasis rocker recalled how he found out he was not allowed into the country after taking part in a Tibetan freedom concert 25 years ago.

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Noel Gallagher has revealed that he's been banned from ever entering China.

The former Oasis rocker may have ruffled some feathers during his career, but it was a gig back in 1997 which left him being blacklisted from an entire country.

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."

He continued: "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."

Watch Noel at the 1997 gig below:

Noel Gallagher - 1997-06-07 - Tibetan Freedom Concert - Randall's Island - NY - [Pro/SBD/New-Old]

Noel added: "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.’

"They we’re like, 'No'.

“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 rest were invited with open arms.”

Gallagher recalled that the only reason he played the concert is because none of his former bandmates, including his brother Liam could be bothered at the time.

He recalled: "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.

"All my equipment was in Ohio somewhere and I wasn’t into playing acoustics then, we never used to do Wonderwall with an acoustic the we used to do it electric.“They said, ‘Can you just do it?’ So I did it."

Taking about the gig itself and how he immediately regretted it, he said: "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.’

"As I remember I only did about three or four songs but it felt like it was about four hours long. I was on in between Radiohead and U2, full bands."

25 years on and of course Noel Gallagher feels completely at home as a solo artist on stage and isn't afraid to interact with the crowd.

In fact, he invited a young fan up on stage during his headline set at Cannock Chase Forest as part of Forest Live 2022.

Noel may have showed his softer side with the good deed, but he did it in true Noel Gallagher style, telling young Luca "Don't milk it. Don't f***ing milk it, son.

Get a selfie and do one."After asking Lucas his name and where he's from, the Ballad of the Mighty I singer joked: "Stoke's a s***hole".

Watch the moment, which was captured by Josh Sandiford here: