Bowie, Stones, Sex Pistols Snubbed London Olympics Offer

Britain's most revered musicians suddenly also look quite like they're among its wisest, too.

It seems that Rock and Roll Hall of Famers David Bowie, the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols, as well as revered singer-songwriter Kate Bush, wanted nothing to do with Sunday's NBC-butchered close to London's 2012 Summer Olympics, E! Online (via The Guardian) reports.

Well, almost nothing; for Bowie's part, someone must have given a thumbs-up to "Fashion" providing the soundtrack to British modeling mainstays Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell strutting their skinny-peacock stuff during one live choreographed sequence. Bowie's image was used, but no live rendition. The Guardian notes that Bowie's "Heroes" was an apropos, if unofficial Team Great Britain anthem throughout the games.

That's a shame, actually. Bowie hasn't even toured since 2006.

Of course, let's remember what we got instead that drew an average of some 23 million viewers over a three-hour extravaganza: a Brit-pop homage loaded with performances by Elbow, Take That and latter-day boy band One Direction. Alongside present and more-recent-past performers, George Michael performed performed his new single "White Light," Annie Lennox graced Crown and Country with a performance of her own, and Girl Power flooded London one more night with a Spice Girls reunion performance.

The Who actually turned down performance requests twice before finally agreeing to join the Closing Ceremony's final hour, but ended up controversially shoved aside in the States so that NBC could shove its previewed new sitcom "Animal Practice" down viewers' throats....to the joy of pretty much nobody.

For what it's worth, though Bush passed up the live-performance request, she did accede to the use of a remixed "Running Up That Hill" and publicly praised a "brilliant show" orchestrated by Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle.