(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Music strikes a chord

Forget about the awful weather, great music may be what people most expect from London.

When Beatles' legend Paul McCartney asks the 60,000 spectators to sing Hey Jude along with him, the Games will really get under way.

But McCartney's performance, which will conclude the opening ceremony on Friday, will not be the only cultural highlight that London will showcase to its 5.3 million visitors this summer.

The three-hour opening ceremony, "Isles of Wonder", directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle of Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting fame, will showcase the "green and pleasant land" to celebrate Britain's rolling fields and rural heritage. The ceremony will also include a "History Parade" focusing on, among other things, the National Health Service, immigration and protest movements.

The green set will be transformed into a bleak industrial landscape as the performers recreate the Jarrow March of October 1936, when 200 men from the northeast of England walked to London to protest about the poverty and unemployment in the country's former industrial heartland.

The best of British music will be showcased by a program called "Rock the Games", which will include five songs written especially for the event, led by Survival by the British rock trio Muse.

The song, almost five and a half minutes long, opens with a lengthy instrumental sequence, followed by crunching guitar riffs, booming drums and a wailing crescendo.

"It's a race/And I'm gonna win," intones Muse frontman Matt Bellamy as the song reaches its climax, before pledging to "reveal my strength to the whole human race".

Bellamy said the song was written with the Olympics in mind and "expresses a sense of conviction and determination to win".

The four other official songs are by Elton John vs Pnau, Delphic, the Chemical Brothers and London rapper Dizzee Rascal.

Elsewhere, Scissor Sisters and Rizzle Kicks are just two of the outfits set to play surprise gigs at Olympic venues. Although the public knows which bands will perform, they won't know which band will be at which venue - hence, the "surprise" element. In addition, there will be performances from military marching bands and dance troupes, including the English National Ballet, plus sports demonstrations.

Moreover, a music library of 2,012 songs built around five themes - energy, primetime, extreme, heritage and world stage - will be used as background music during the Games.

The closing ceremony on August 12, will involve the country's "most globally successful musicians", including The Who, Take That and George Michael, as well as rising stars, according to artistic director Kim Gavin.

"We want to celebrate where we are and who we are - and one of our strongest exports is music. We want to showcase British creativity and imagination," said Gavin.