Rolling Stones not ready for Olympics performance

The Rolling Stones turned down the opportunity to perform at the London Olympics this summer (12) because they were not "stage ready".

The rockers gathered at London's Marquee Club on Wednesday (11Jul12) to mark the 50th anniversary of their first gig, and Mick Jagger revealed he and his bandmates had been asked to perform at the opening ceremony of the Olympics later this month (Jul12), but they turned organisers down - because they hadn't had enough time to rehearse.

He tells ITN, "I didn't think, to be honest, we were quite stage ready. We haven't played in a long time... and it's a very big gig and it's very risk-taking. I didn't think the band themselves felt they were really ready to do it at this point."

But Jagger hopes to perform with his bandmates once again this year (12) and the group is discussing the logistics of possible concerts.

He adds, "We hope we're going to do some gigs this year. We haven't actually finalised them, but we hope we're going to do some gigs. We've done rehearsing, hanging out together and all that discussing so, you know, we've been seeing each other quite a lot."