Tony Hadley wanted One Direction for Olympic opening ceremony

Spandau Ballet frontman Tony Hadley is adamant One Direction should have closed the London Olympics opening ceremony instead of Sir Paul McCartney.

The Beatles legend joined in Danny Boyle's spectacular show to officially launch the 2012 games last week (27Jul12) by singing his classic Hey Jude during the finale.

However, Hadley insists a new generation of pop stars should have taken center stage at the ceremony.

He tells U.K. radio station Absolute Radio, "If I'm honest I would have liked a really young band to have closed it.

"If you've got (British Olympic gold medallist rower) Sir Steve Redgrave handing over the torch to the youngsters, it would have been nice to have had One Direction. They're our biggest export at the moment, pure pop.

"One Direction with the Royal Philharmonic, with about 100 singers in a choir, behind them. To me that would have been the new generation kind of thing."