Paul McCartney admits he 'f***** up' cue for 'Hey Jude' in Olympics Opening Ceremony

Sir Paul McCartney has confessed that he missed the cue to start his song 'Hey Jude' in Olympics Ceremony, as he was distracted by the reverberations from the giant Olympic bell hanging over his head.

The 70-year-old musician performed at the finale of film-maker Danny Boyle's 27-million-pound 'Isles Of Wonder' spectacular, just moments after cyclist Bradley Wiggins had sounded the 23-ton bell to formally start the Games.

"I f***** up. I was supposed to wait for a cue. But I forgot. Why? Well there's this bloody great bell that we didn't know about. It was deafening," the Daily Mail quoted him as telling music magazine NME.

The former Beatle - who was singing live but accompanied by a pre-recorded backing track - spoke of his embarrassment over the gaffe.

McCartney had recorded his voice with the backing music before they went on.

The idea was that when they went live, he would sing over it, with the effect that his voice would then come across twice as strong and reach round the whole stadium.

But with the bell chiming, he missed his cue and began singing late, creating a two-bar delay between his voice and the backing track.

"We prerecorded a playback in case all hell broke loose, but I said, 'We wanna do it live," he said.

"We were live, everyone was there, the world was ready and this bloody great bell goes off. And I forget I've gotta wait for it, so I go 'Hey Jude .....', and someone presses the playback.

"So there's me on the backing track, and actual me; two of us singing," he added. (ANI)