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Noel Gallagher Tickets

Noel Gallagher claims he refused an invite to perform at the London 2012 closing ceremony because organisers demanded he mime at the Olympics gig.

The star revealed his refusal of the invite in an interview with XFM, which eventually led to brother Liam stepping in to perform with his band Beady Eye at the ceremony. The band performed classic Oasis hit 'Wonderwall' - and Noel later paid tribute to Beady Eye as 'Stratford's finest Oasis tribute band'.

"I asked who else is playing and they said, 'I can't tell you. You've got to sign a confidentiality agreement'. It's like it's the Iran nuclear program or something," said the High Flying Birds frontman in a radio interview.

"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..."

Noel also revealed that he was the one who gave permission for Beady Eye to perform 'Wonderwall', saying that he waited until the very last minute to approve the performance.

Below: photos from the London 2012 closing ceremony