Speaking to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, Jimmy Page has spoken out about not being included in the upcoming London Olympics opening ceremony. Despite closing the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 with a show-stopping performance of “Whole Lotta Love” accompanied by soul singer Leona Lewis, Page has not been invited to either attend or perform at the London ceremony. Describing his disappointment, the veteran Led Zeppelin axe-man says, “Of course, I’m feeling rather hurt. We put so much into Beijing, but weren’t helped by the Chinese giving us next-to-no practice time”.

The London 2012 Olympics will be celebrated with two enormous musical concerts. The first has been put together to represent the UK with England being supported by Duran Duran, Wales by The Stereophonics, Paulo Nutini for Scotland and Snow Patrol for Ireland.

On August 12th, a gig to mark the end of the games will be headlined by Blur in Hyde Park, ably supported by New Order and the Specials.

The process for assembling the lineup for the London Olympics concerts has not been without controversy: in a bizarre move, the event organizers inquired about having Keith Moon play the event, despite the Who drummer having been dead for 38 years. Given Page’s involvement in the Beijing ceremony, which was itself a promotion for the London 2012 games, chalk this up as another strange move.

Leona Lewis & Jimmy Page. Live. by michael0845