'Oasis legend Noel Gallagher banned me from his Edinburgh gig - but I don't look back in anger'

The year was 2011 and the motor-mouthed Mancunian was due in town to play a solo show at the Usher Hall. As the Evening News music critic, I requested review tickets for the show – only to be told I was banned. A week or so before.

I'd written a review of Noel's High Flying Birds album, describing it as a “letdown” and a “big disappointment”. In the article, I added that “any argument that Noel is Britain’s best songwriter died a long time ago”, noting that many other artists, including Thom Yorke, Morrissey and PJ Harvey, regularly “trump” the Mancunian in the songwriting stakes.

That didn't go down too well. Simon Blackmore, from the singer’s PR company Black Arts, emailed me saying that there were no tickets coming my way - and the review I'd written had not helped my cause. He went on to suggest tickets would have been available for any other reviewer on the paper.

Noel Gallagher will return to Edinburgh next year with Oasis. | Martin Rickett/PA Wire

Simon said: “Sorry Gary – not going to be able to spare any (it is ridiculously over subscribed and can’t fit everybody in). That piece you wrote about him last week didn’t exactly help your cause to be honest.”

Stories appeared in paper’s across the UK saying Noel had banned a journalist from the gig, it all got a bit ugly, with Noel himself rubbishing the claims and throwing in a few trademark hilarious insults for good measure.

In a blog posted on the Huffington Post website, Noel said: “There was also a story in one of the local newspapers that I’d had some hairdresser-turned-journalist BANNED from the gig for apparently sh***ing on my album? A ludicrous claim.”

He added: “As you might guess, I’m not an avid reader of the local Edinburgh News. Sounds like someone trying to make a name for himself, if you ask me.”

With the news that Oasis are getting back together and returning to Edinburgh next summer, it will be interesting to see if the ban still stands. Either way, I won't look back in anger. The band have some absolute classics and their gigs at Murrayfield are sure to be epic.

Tickets will go on sale on Saturday morning at 9am. Fans can bookmark the top ticket selling sites by clicking these links for the special Oasis Tour pages here on Ticketmaster and here on SeeTickets.