[Shaun]

David Bowie, Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones and Kate Bush all turned down the chance to appear in yesterday's Olympic Games closing ceremony, according to reports.

According to The Guardian, all of the above artists were approached, but declined the invite to take part from the ceremony's producer Kim Gavin.

The piece also states that The Who – who did appear last night (August 12) – turned down Gavin twice before finally agreeing to play the event in Stratford, East London.

The three hour show – which featured The Spice Girls, Elbow, Kaiser Chiefs, Liam Gallagher, Jessie J, Queen, Annie Lennox, George Michael and Take That – received mixed reviews. The Guardian also reports that some of The Spice Girls were reluctant to appear.

Yesterday, Carl Barat revealed that The Libertines turned down the chance to perform at the Olympics closing ceremony too. The singer took to Twitter as the ceremony was taking place to say that he and his former bandmates had been asked to play, but "couldn't do it".

Kate Bush couldn't be convinced to appear, but praised the organisers of the closing ceremony, after a remix of 'Running Up That Hill' was used in the London 2012 finale.