The Opening/Closing Ceremony Thread

[Shelsey93]

First topic message reminder :

So, is everybody as excited as I am?

I literally can't wait for 9.00 tonight - just a shame that I'm going to be round with family who'll probably have it on but will probably talk.

I hope that they put on something spectacular rather than just following the way other Games have done it. Apparently HM The Queen's entrance is weather-affected (surely she can't be parachuting ), and then we have the question of how the flame will be lit. The more I think about it the more I think it won't be a famous sportman - more likely it'll be something to do with legacy (a young kid from the East End maybe, or a sport's coach), or it'll be lit by more than one person. If it is a famous sportsperson surely it has to be Sir Steve Redgrave - nobody can match him as a British olympian. If its Beckham I think it would be a travesty; luckily it almost certainly won't be.

[John Cregan]

Boris is a dude

What a strange individual Boris Johnson is.................i always thought he was "having us on" but i think he is actually being himself all the time..........an unfortunate man

[mystiroakey]

Sorry John - who was he having on? Why is he unfortunate?

[John Cregan]

Sorry John - who was he having on? Why is he unfortunate?

I thought he was always "pertending" to be an idiot......

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Boris is such a lad!!

[GSC]

Boris is absolutely not an idiot. A tad strange, but definitely not stupid.

[Thomond]

Bar one or two acts I enjoyed it, didn't see all of it was keeping up to date on Rory, but pretty good. Different to the Opening ceremony was a concert really.


Rio mightn't have as much an emphasis on history or anything like that, but it will be colourful and vibrant anyway. Hell yeah!

[mystiroakey]

I was watching both things religiously Thomond, Two TV's up!

Loved the ceromony. At the end of the day we have to put the pop in there because its a show for the world. As much as i would have loved more muse, the who, brian may and all that, its for everyone. My GF was happy with the 'lame' acts so all good!

Boris is just a lovable eccentric. Classic brit. Perfect as the Mayor

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Just to prove Boris is a complete god, watch this clip from last night. I can't stop laughing at it.

https://i.imgur.com/bKCUN.gif

[Smirnoffpriest]

I'm amazed that Boris 'buffoonery' and his eccentric idiocy disguses to everyone that he's just a posh right-wing Tory toff!

Am annoyed that they had forgettable acts like One Direction and Tiny Tempha, and also (as much as I like them) that they had Kaiser Chiefs playing Pinball Wizard when they had the Who waiting in the background. It would have been nice to have something on Darwin, Bell and other great intellects - but then I suppose that would have brought down the mood.

I thought it was good, and a lighthearted pop concert to give everyone a smile - though I wasn't sure what was going on with the white blocks...

PS like someone else commented I really wanted to see Christopher Walken dancing and flying around the stadium to Weapon of Choice when Fatboy Slim came on!

[Skydriver]

Even as a fan of most of his music, I'm not sure it was appropriate for George Michael to be effectively promoting his new single - suspect he insisted he was allowed this 2nd song for his participation. The crowd (athletes anyway) seemed pretty dead during this segment too - which is a bit of a pity seeing as how well Freedom '90 has gone down at George's gigs.

Otherwise, a good cross-section of British music I'd say (although not all of it to my taste - which is probably the case with most people I expect). Apart from the Stones, the other omission which occurred to me was that I thought Coldplay performing Viva La Vida with that lightshow equipment would have been an awesome uplifting party piece.

Also wonder whether picking the Python number and We Will Rock You were partly covert attempts at attracting visitors to the West End (not sure if Spamalot is still running, mind you).

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

Borris' buffonery exposes that he is a toff, only they can get away with it. its "loveably English" in the great tradition of Bertie Wooster and Hugh Laurie in Blackadder 3/4. Its rather disturbing that he isnt a fictional character and in a great position of responsibility though.

It was a nice pop rock concert. I just have a problem with what that says to the world about what a) we have to offer the world b) what we value and c) what we deem appropriate to mark a major global sporting event.
Some bits I cant help feeling would be utterly lost on the majority of the world ( Eric Idle buffoning infront of some Indian dancers who interupted a reprise of The Life Of Brian is just straight odd)

Oakey what makes you think that the majority of people in the world care about One Direction and co? I cant really see that reality TV show contestants are in there for a global audience

[ChequeredJersey]

Aren't Coldplay saved for the Paralympics ceremony?

[Smirnoffpriest]

I thought the same about One Direction PSW but was told by my missus that they are one of the biggest boy bands in the world now!

I'd forgotten, I thought we should have had someone like Shirley Bassey singing a bond song while John Cleese clowned around as Q (or Basil Fawlty or a Monty Python character).

But I agree with you PSW we did seem to over emphasis the pop culture of Britain, maybe a montage of great sporting moments while the music was playing would have been better - you could have had Wales rugby from the 70s, England rugby from the late 90s/early 00s, Busby babes and George Best for football, some Ashes matches, Ellen MacArthur, Damon Hill (and even Graham Hill) and Jackie Stewart or Nigel Mansell. That might have emphasised that we love sport and have other things to our culture that just pop music.

But I still thought it was quite good.

[ChequeredJersey]

We could have had some classical music, standup, movies, sport, theatre, musical theatre and assorted other things. I preferred the opener

[Smirnoffpriest]

Though thank god they didn't mention shakespeare...

[Crimey]

Oakey what makes you think that the majority of people in the world care about One Direction and co? I cant really see that reality TV show contestants are in there for a global audience

Unfortunately One Direction broke America recently so are actually pretty big these days.

[Jennifer1984]

The closing ceremony is a mixture, with the atmosphere of an end-of-term party, a chance for the athletes to let their hair down after two weeks of tough competition, mingled with formalities such as the handover of the Olympic City and the extinguishing of the flame.

I think it did pretty well, although quite why George Michael had two numbers, the second of which did its best to kill the atmosphere that "Freedom" had gotten going.

Loved Eric Idle. It's a good singalong that is probably better globally recognised because of Life of Brian than we think. The interruption by the Indian drummers was pure Monty Python and again, I think most people would have got the gag.

I enjoyed the party... the cheesy elements included and especially loved seeing the Spice Girls back together. The rest of the world decided a long time ago that what they really, really wanted was for Victoria Beckham to give up her singing career but I loved it. It made me feel 13 again.

Well done London. We did it, and we did it our way. It was a singalong, a rock concert, a nostalgia trip and many other things besides. It was alright on the night.


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[mystiroakey]

Jen I reakon you loved take that an all!

[Pal Joey]

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