Underworld named MusicalDirectors of 2012 OlympicsOpening Ceremony

Fri 9th Dec, 2011 in International News

UK dance icons Underworld will take a starring role at the 2012 London Olympics as ‘Musical Directors’ of the Opening Ceremony.

Instead of playing stadium-sized trance, though, the duo’s Opening Ceremony duties are somewhat more involved. According to an official press release published overnight, Rick Smith and Karl Hyde will be responsible for all the music in the three-hour event on 27 July 2012.

They’ll be working alongside the Opening Ceremony’s Artistic Director Danny Boyle, who knows how to harness the best from Underworld. It was his cult classic Trainspotting that propelled Born Slippy into the collective consciousness, and the working relationship continued on Boyle’s later films A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach and Sunshine.

“We want to leave people with a musical memory of the show rather than a purely visual one,” says Hyde. “It’s a great honour to be asked to do this and one we’re taking very seriously – it’s certainly not something we’ll get the chance to do again.”