You may have heard that the planned Oasis shows in Beijing and Shanghai next month have been canceled. Apparently 12 years isn’t enough time to separate a musician and his ties to a certain autonomous region’s freedom concert.
Though no “official” reason has been given for the cancellation, the concert’s promoters said it was due to the government discovery that Noel Gallagher played the Free [*tib*] benefit concert back in ’97.
Though the concert is a blow to expat fans hoping to see the “best British band of 2008” (according to NME at least), Chinese were reportedly heard across the vast country whispering to one another, “他们是è°ï¼Ÿ”
Foreigners, meanwhile, simply let out a communal, “Fucking Bjork!“
Check out this that’s Shanghai interview with the band done before news of the cancellation. Quite funny.
I think it was the pointy shoes comment that did them in with the gov’t censors. See too many of those around here.
There’s now an official reason: lack of dinero. Reuters, Shanghaiist, Pitchfork all ran it but I’ll link you here instead (near the end :))