There can’t have been many living, breathing people who saw the London Olympics opening ceremony and weren’t, even if only slightly, blown away. Likewise, there can’t have been many who saw the closing ceremony and didn’t go ‘er, can’t they have got Danny Boyle to do that one as well?’
As it turns out, there were several big name acts who turned down the chance to join the Spice Girls, Kaiser Chiefs and Annie Lennox in the not-quite-illustrious schedule. Among those was Noel Gallagher, who recently explained why he didn’t sign up.
Speaking to a UK radio station, he claimed that the organisers wanted him to mime the concert. “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!” he said.
He also claimed he was put off by the level of secrecy surrounding the concert. “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 program of something.”
