London Olympics 2012 NOT opening ceromony

[Fezzul]

He's gone from being a Beatles parody to being a Beatles parody parody.

[aeric90]

Annie Lennox was my highlight. She sounded great without a assist track and the whole presentation was visually stunning and unique. It helps that 'Little Bird' is one of my favorite songs period (best song about a miscarriage ever). She even looked great too. I remember when she did 'Into the West' at the Oscars a while back she looked like a skeleton with skin.

Muse was great too despite the song's cheese level. I knew it would sound better live than it does recorded. Incidentally I want Chris' new bass. That thing is bad-ass and sounds awesome.

Missing for me was anything by Peter Gabriel or Genesis, with the exception of Mike Rutherford's appearance during 'Wish You Were Here'.

[Geoff_B]

It was Noel not Liam. Still, I bet Danny was pleased that he wasn't outdone.

Liam's the one with Beady Eye. Noel has his own band - High Flying Birds.

[Fezzul]

Sorry, you're right. I was confused.

[Metcarfre]

This is great.

[Geoff_B]

Ooookaaaaay...

[Matt]

This is great.

Anyone with their ear to the ground during the Vancouver Olympics should find the events detailed in that artic,le to be no surprise at all.

-m

[empath]

[MrParivir]

It turns out that iron maiden were on tour at the time,
Hard Rock Pavilion Albuquerque, NM, USA.
So I guess I'll forgive them slightly but could they not have used a prerecord?

[empath]

Yeah, I was pretty certain that they couldn't be present in person because a friend took his son to see them a bit back, but yeah - not even a mention or allusion in EITHER ceremony?

[aeric90]

The Rolling Stones were notably absent. I can understand the members themselves but I don't recall hearing anything by them at the closing.

[empath]

How did I not notice that...was there any samples of their work in the opening?

(remember, I'm old and my memory sucks ;^) )

[CSt]

Nope, noticed it then myself and thought they might push them back to the closing.

[aeric90]

There was a sample of Satisfaction in the pop-culture medley but that's about it.

[Metcarfre]

My sister just got back from a months-long trip to Europe and brought us all back Team GB gear. Pretty sweet, got a nice hoodie with a big-ass lion on it.

Also, I'm giving them lots of leeway since the were willing to play Sex Pistols in the opening ceremony.

[PlasmaCow]

Had all-day centre court tickets for the tennis at wimbledon. Great day out, saw Andy Murray win his quarter-final, along with 3 other matches and a 5th on court 8 to finish the day.
My sister and her husband had tickets for a couple days of the athletics and thoroughly enjoyed it and my aunt and uncle had seats in practically the very back row for the closing ceremony.

I missed a huge chuck of the TV coverage though due to taking my Scout group camping in France for 8 days in the middle of it all. Caught up on everything thanks to BBC iPlayer and the daily late night roundup programme.
Overall I'd say it was a wonderful Games with a cracking showing by the host nation =P

[Keab42]

I apparently caught Olympic fever and now have 2 tickets for Wheelchair Fencing

[empath]

Yeah, so y'all probably are FAR too aware of how Canada ended up denied a bronze medal in the men's relay by a single errant step. (fwiw, I think it really sucks, but yeah, it's legit *shrug*)

Well someone else felt a lot of sympathy for our four plucky young lads who had their ecstatic hopes dashed so cruelly:




Dear Justyn, Gavin, Jarred {sic}, and Oluseyi,

I’m Elijah Porter. I’m ten and I live in Newfoundland, Canada. When I heard what happened on Aug. 11, I knew it was wrong. The rules were not right. But, at last, I realized how good you were. We’re Canadians. We persevere. We create better lives for each other. The cold didn’t stop us from living in the north. We didn’t lose the War of 1812. We adapt and survive. We have earned our freedom. Someday, if I become a biologist, if I get rich, and, if I remember, I will donate money to the summer and winter Canadian Olympians. I hope you like the medal!

Elijah Porter

[LogicSword]

Turns put my friend's brother is in the Canadian wheelchair basketball team, so looks like I'll be watching that.

[Gap Filler]

Benefit of hindsight, and maybe desensitised after one too many Last Night of the Proms', but I didn't mind the closing ceremony that much. Course it was a bit naff but at a certain level that was to be expected. At least Rio's bit was decent.

Segueing into how watching Rio led to a (brief) dive into the vaults. Here's our bit from Beijing four years ago. Here's China's bit from Athens. Sorry for the ropey quality on that one but it was honestly the only one I could find; a quaintly frightening reminder of that grey area of post dotcom pre youtube internet culture if nothing else. Here and here are Greece's bit from Sydney (all those years ago).

If I could add a conjecture here, on the back of Athens, Beijing and Rio it would appear most host cities favour a presentation with a certain amount of bigness (classical Greek tradition, martial arts and craft, samba). What did we have? A red bus, Jimmy Page jamming to Whole Lotta Love and Becks kicking a football (oh, and Boris waving and mugging for everyone while Guo Jinlong looked on). There's something refreshingly British about the smallness of our presentation.

Speaking of vault dives, the hunt for those videos inspired a rummage through the Loading Ready forums. Interest in Beijing 2008 apparently amounted to these two threads about Michael Phelps. Paltry but still more than this lonely looking thread which represents the sum interest in Athens 2004 (and the linked article's gone). There're probably other threads buried in there which my (admittedly lazy) search didn't uncover but I'd like to think this and the other thread represent a healthier interest in the Olympics around here. In other news, did you know LRR is old enough to have witnessed three Olympic Games?