Muse’s ‘Survival’ To Be Olympics Theme

Well, I suppose it was meant to happen. Muse’s latest single ‘Survival’ – from their upcoming new album The 2nd Law, to be released in September – has been chosen to be the official song of the Olympic Games in London. Here they are looking very happy carrying the ol’ Olympic Torch together:

It’s a bombastic affair, really, and despite bassist Chris Wolstenholme saying that it’ll be a big departure from their previous work, I’m not really convinced that it will be. It all sounds a bit like Queen to me, which perhaps suggests that because the Olympic Committee couldn’t get Queen to do the song that they picked the band who they thought could perhaps do the best impression of Queen. See what you think:

In any case, the song will be played as the athletes enter the arena, in the lead up to the medal ceremonies and on all international TV coverage of the games (here in the UK we get a new song by Elbow on the ol’ Beeb coverage). So, it’ll literally be everywhere – if you don’t have this song stuck in your head after watching the extensive coverage of the games then you must have turned the TV volume down. Still, at least Muse are in a long tradition of British rock bands, are one of the most well-respected and loved bands on the planet and will get the atmosphere going at the various events.

… And it’s definitely not embarrassing like having that famous Brit Michael Jackson on your playlist for the opening ceremony….

Takahashi Wins In Turin

The Ice Skating World Championships are currently taking place in Turin – last night saw the climax of the men’s competition, where Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi won the gold medal by a country mile, making him the counrty’s first winner of a gold medal.

However, while I am a fan of Daisuke and his style, you have to wonder how the competition would have panned out if Evgeni Pluschenko or Olympic Champion Evan Lysacek had been there – not that I’m taking anything away from his wonderful victory, but the competition to a certain point was a little sub-standard, only really picking up in the final couple of performances.

The silver medal went to Canada’s young star Patrick Chan while skating veteran Brian Joubert took home the bronze for France (no mean feat considering he completely bombed and ended up in 16th at the Winter Olympics). The night, however, was ruled by Takahashi who skated perfectly to the music of “La Strada” in the free program. Here he is skating to “Eye” by Coba in the short program: