One of the biggest disappointments of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, was the fact that Rush, the country’s greatest musical achievement, was not part of the opening or closing ceremonies. Yes, William Shatner and Neil Young were there, but c’mon, where the hell was Rush?! Bad move, Canada, [I love you, but] bad move.

The next Olympics will be the Summer games in London, England, in 2012. The options for musical choices is massive, but music fans are already voicing their opinions on which act should be part of the ceremonies. One in particular are Iron Maiden fans (and I happen to be one of them), who are joining the Facebook group IRON MAIDEN to open the 2012 London Olympic Games in hopes of getting the British heavy metal band to open the games. As of this writing, there’s already over 36,000 people who’ve joined the group. There’s also a FB download group requesting that fans download Iron Maiden’s “Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner,” with lyrics fitting for Summer Olympics, on July 19, 2010 in support of getting the band to open the games.

And check out the image that was created for the groups of the band’s mascot Eddie, taken from the classic “Trooper” art, holding the Olympic torch against the backdrop of an Olympic track. (That’s the image here at top.) Just think of having something like that on a T-shirt!!!

How awesome would that be if Iron Maiden played the Olympics and Eddie came out on stage with them (as he does at every show)! That would be so insanely awesome, in my opinion.

While I think this would be a wonderful move to have Iron Maiden be a part of the Olympics, I think there’s too much political entanglements that would prevent this from happening. Let’s not forget, the games and the TV network will try to entice younger viewers to watch, therefore, don’t be surprised if the musical selection consists of whatever teenybopper/boy band sensation is popular at the time (I can’t give any examples, because fuck if I know of any). Also, I’d expect appearances by some old-time rockers like Jimmy Page, who helped butcher his Led Zeppelin classic “Whole Lotta Love” during the 2008 Summer Olympics handover portion of the closing ceremonies in Beijing.

At time point, having Iron Maiden be part of the Olympics is wishful thinking, but not an impossibility. Just look at how a Facebook group helped get Betty White to host Saturday Night Live.

There’s still hope.

Up The Irons!!!

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