"We Can Be Heroes"

Despite having his song “Heroes” used as an unofficial anthem for the London 2012 Olympic Games, David Bowie declined the offer to sing it at the opening ceremony. I’ve been a huge fan of Bowie since my childhood so his non-appearance disappointed me but t wasn’t really a surprise. Pageantry, nationalistic jingoism and royalty have never been important to Bowie (as proven by his two rejections of offers of a knighthood).

Kate Bush was invited to play too but she also refused. Presumably this was due to her well-documented stage fright and being an intensely private person. The Rolling Stones were apparently high on the wish-list of the producers of the closing ceremony as well but they didn’t want to do it. And the Sex Pistols turned down their request to play because… well, they’re the Sex Pistols. Conformity was never Mr Rotten’s strong point.

The Spice Girls, George Michael and The Who all turned up and played their party pieces though. It’s worth noting that everyone who did appear was paid just £1 (as contracts must have some monetary value) but the cynics among us would point out that these three have new product available to buy soon so would gain some promotional benefits from their appearance. Indeed George was for some reason allowed to push his new single at this global event. Hey, I guess business is business and they’re perfectly entitled to play their music whenever and wherever they want – or not – but it seems a little sad that many British superstars didn’t want to support this celebration. I know several musicians who would’ve given sold their proverbial grannies to appear at the closing ceremony. I guess when they first started out so would many of those who turned it down this time around. Now that they’ve achieved a huge level of success they apparently no longer feel those same creative urges, the same love for their work. It may not have lessoned but it certainly appears to be a different kind of artistic passion.

Is it the same for authors? If a writer has some success do they then feel pressured to keep regurgitating that same product? It’s well recorded that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle became sick to the teeth of his greatest creation, going on record as saying ““If in one hundred years I am only known as the man who invented Sherlock Holmes, then I will consider my life a failure”. I find his attitude towards his famous detective so sad, that a literary genius should feel so overshadowed by his once-loved character that he wrote to his mother: "I think of slaying Holmes... and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better things."  And he did, he threw Holmes over a waterfall to his death only to feel forced by the ensuing public outcry to resurrect him.

Sir Arthur felt that he was trapped by the popularity of his own creation.

So today’s closing questions are these: When an artist (of any kind) releases their work to the world, who owns it? If it becomes popular, does the artist have an obligation to the public to provide more of the same? Or are they entitled to say ‘It’s my pen (plectrum, brush, whatever), I can do what I want with it’?

These are problems that many artists can only dream of.

© Shaun Finnie 2012 ( follow Shaun on Twitter  @ShaunFinnie )