diff --git a/pybootchartgui/parsing.py b/pybootchartgui/parsing.py
index b9c4020..936dd52 100644
--- a/pybootchartgui/parsing.py
+++ b/pybootchartgui/parsing.py
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ from functools import reduce
 from .samples import *
 from .process_tree import ProcessTree
 
+VALID_CHARS = ''.join(map(unichr, range(0,127)))
+INVALID_CHARS_RE = re.compile('[^%s]' % re.escape(VALID_CHARS))
+
 # Parsing produces as its end result a 'Trace'
 
 class Trace:
@@ -221,6 +224,7 @@ class ParseError(Exception):
 def _parse_headers(file):
     """Parses the headers of the bootchart."""
     def parse(acc, line):
+        line = INVALID_CHARS_RE.sub('', line)
         (headers, last) = acc
         if '=' in line:
             last, value = map (lambda x: x.strip(), line.split('=', 1))