Oasis China Dates Canceled

Concert organizer and ticket agency Emma Ticketmaster has stopped selling tickets for Oasis’ two China shows in early April.

Chinese authorities revoked permission for the concerts after the country’s cultural ministry discovered that guitarist Noel Gallagher once played a Free Tibet benefit in New York in 1997.

A publicist said the band was “extremely disappointed” with the decision. Needless to say, Oasis has never performed in China, though it has visited Hong Kong twice.

The reason initially appeared to be a technical glitch with the ticketing system, but later the China Music Radar blog called Emma and was told that the shows had been “postponed.”

The China stops – one concert in Shanghai and another in Beijing – were part of a larger Asia tour for Oasis that includes seven shows in Tokyo, and one in Korea and Hong Kong.

The band has concerts scheduled for the next 12 months.