Olympic Ceremony - what were your impressions ?

Well the opening ceremony was spectacular, but I'm not sure worthy of the £27 million allegedly spent on it.

Which parts do you think worked, and which parts (if any) left you disappointed ?

To recap, we had:

• A representation of the Industrial Revolution, with rising chimneys, Brunel and dancing industrialists in top hats;
  
  
• A reminder of those who fought in the world wars; parade of the Chelsea Pensioners;
  
  
• A simulation of Her Maj being collected from Buck House by James Bond and parachuting down from a helicopter; :o :o
  
  
• A representation of our NHS to the accompaniment of Mike Oldfield and a revamp of Tubular Bells;
  
  
• References to childrens literature (sometimes scary) culminating with the arrival of Mary Poppins (but no chimneysweeps' dance :'( - a missed opportunity there).
  
  
• Chariots of Fire sequence to accompaniment of the LSO with a hilarious performance by Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean;
  
  
• An acknowledgement of modern technology and telecommunications, again with emphasis on children;
  
  
• A musical montage arranged by the film director Danny Boyle (of Trainspotting fame) culminating in Dizzee Rascal (Bonkers!);
  
  
• Lots of views of the Olympic torch, ending with David Beckham driving a speedboat along the Thames to Tower Bridge to light the final beacon.
  
  
• The endless parade of nations, finishing with a joyous Team GB in rather expensive-looking white jackets trimmed in gold plate. :o
  
  
• Starting up again with The Arctic Monkeys, Sir Steve Redgrave running the torch into the Stadium, and the lighting of an impressive ring of torches will will now burn as the flame for the duration of the Games;
  
  
• Sir Paul McCartney singing beneath the giant bell commissioned to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry (but apparently sub-contracted to a firm in Holland !)
  
  

[barbelman]

I thought it was stunning, if a little self-indulgent ;)  
Highlights were Liz and James Bond, the lighting of the cauldron, the music.  Lowlights were the truly awful Macca (too many veggie sausages I reckon) and Mr bl**din' Bean...  
The parade of athletes went on far too long - they are athletes, can't they walk faster than that?? ;D
But a stunning, touching and amusing display spoilt only by the ineptitude of SOME of the BBC commentators (especially Trevor Nelson..)

Tony

[BigPhilMac]

I think it was interesting to say the least. The industrial revolution part being spectacular and truly did make me feel proud to be british. The music part was pretty intense and i discovered emeli sande has a cracking voice! I did feel alot of it was rather long winded. The best bit is no cock ups and countrys having 45 minute strik ???es! :o i must admit though , i hadnt heard of alot of these countries :s

I thought it was really boring. Abit disappointed, the thing that annoyed me the most was that it was in french then english. What was that all about?

[barbelman]

Jul 28, 2012 8:47:22 GMT lewisstrat26 said:

I thought it was really boring. Abit disappointed, the thing that annoyed me the most was that it was in french then english. What was that all about?

They invented the games Lewis ;D  It's the 'official' Olympic language apparently.

Tony

[Chris_Sav]

Opening ceremony was very good and a brilliant spectacle. I was not sure about the Rowan Atkinson Chariots of Fire scene with the cheating athlete insinuation.


Women's Beach Volleyball's good this morning!, very bouncy ;D :o :o ::)

Think I'll watch that for the next fortnight

Sav

[iang]

I'm talking from a biased point of view as my son was one of the volunteer cast of nearly 10,000  including 1,000 drummers my son was one of them.

We were very fortunate to be able to attend 1 of the dress rehearsals on Wednesday.
the opening scene which you saw parts of included many different scenes such as a cricket match taking place 4 maypoles a cart horse & several animals.this all then was cleared away to make way for the industrial revolution part.

The main theme from Danny Boyle was to be inclusive I was impressed how many children & young people were involved & the hours of rehearsals over the last few months to bring this to the amazing spectacle that happened last night.

The Glastonbury Tor had a massive tree which lifted up & had people coming out of the ground it was used as a stage & then the countries flags were positioned on it.

I thought it was well thought out but wondered how much other countries understood some of the latter parts

Well as you can see from the list I missed the start, which depicted the English countryside - which the way things are going will have all been concreted over in 80 years' time. Glastonbury Tor a great idea, but there's a tower on the top and the Glastonbury Thorn (shape copied for the tree) is in the grounds of the ruined abbey, way below.

Good to see a cast of thousands and apparently the drummers made a formidable wall of sound. Agree with the comment about the imagery, sometimes difficult to follow.

I agree with Lewis about the French/Belgian influence (a slap in the face for Her Maj) but we delivered a blow below the belt to the Germans by mentioning the War. ;D

The highlight was undoubtedly the amazing James Bond/Helicopter/Queen parachuting down stunt. Most impressive achievement was the forged rings going up into the stratosphere and being viewed from space with a backdrop of the Earth.

The lowlight was Macca's faulty sound check where he had to play catch up on Hey Jude. He then demonstrated that he can still hit the high note, though, unlike many of his contemporaries.

In between, the Industrial revolution scene was impressive, Mike Oldfield did his future record sales no harm at all, Mr Bean tickled his Far Eastern fans with a feather (a victory for comedy over satire) and a dapper looking David Beckham made up for his shocking exclusion from the Team GB football team.

Which leaves Danny Boyle's musical montage. Quite frankly I was a little disappointed. Too many non-descript acts included. Fair enough the Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Queen - but bl**dy Sex Pistols and Happy Mondays ? :o  Some clips were too short, and more could be made of David Bowie's Starman - could have gone on possibly to Space Oddity (Major Tom) and Life On Mars ?
No Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Tom Jones or Rod Stewart....No Shirley Bassey or Leona Lewis. :'(

And every time they showed Sue Barker in the commentary box I was longing for the Go Compare man to appear so that she could repeat her stunt with the bazooka as part of the cortege. ;D    

[NigelS]

Just got back from some womens volleyball today at Earls Court...

Well the opening ceremony ticked most of the boxes for me, great start showing a bit of a history lesson with the industrial age culminating in the spectacular building of the olympic rings. Thought it a bit odd to celebrate the NHS, but liked the way it put children to bed and showed some great childrens book characters in their dreams. Enjoyed the musical montage (you ain't gonna keep everyone happy Tommo with the choice of music, but it showed the world what diverse music we have contributed over the last 50 years).
Bean was funny and i like the parade of nations, it ain't going to be short with the ammount of countries we have nowadays!
I liked to cooper petals building the cauldron for the flame, and the flags all on the grass, would have preferred a more iconic figure to light the flame, none forgets Ali lighting in 96. Should have gone to Daley Thompson - one of our greatest Olympians!

And I am going to see the beach volleyball live on tuesday, Sav, I will be looking out fo rthe bounces.....

Jul 28, 2012 21:24:45 GMT NigelS said:

Enjoyed the musical montage (you ain't gonna keep everyone happy Tommo with the choice of music, but it showed the world what diverse music we have contributed over the last 50 years).

On reflection the choice wasn't too bad but more time could have been afforded to some and less of others. Apparently the closing ceremony has some treats in store, including a Spice Girls reunion. ;D

Closing ceremony so far.........yawn!

Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah  - who are One Direction ?

Elbow - would have liked to give them the elbow. :(

It's picked up in the second hour, with an evocative Imagine by John Lennon, and a bouncing comeback by George Michael singing Freedom.

Here come the mods with an invasion of scooters and Kaiser Chiefs singing Pinball Wizard! ;D

Now models on a catwalk to David Bowie'a 'Fashion'; a Viking longship with Annie Lennox as the bowsprit ! :D

Ed Sheerin fronting Pink Floyd on 'Wish You Were Here' 8-)

[Sir Chancelot]

Annie Lennox pushing the boat out ;D ;D ;D

Russell Brand perched on the top of a bus singing 'I Am The Walrus' ....where's Sue Barker with that bazooka ? ;D

Fat Boy Slim inside a giant inflatable octopus - never know where you might end up at the end of a Sunday night rave !

[Chris_Sav]

Went off it when a load of eyetalian scooters paraded around in the British fifty year music celebration, what's wrong with classic British motorcycles!! blooming mods!! where's me bike chain! must still be around here somewhere ;D ;D

Sav

Aug 12, 2012 21:42:12 GMT Chris_Sav said:

Went off it when a load of eyetalian scooters paraded around in the British fifty year music celebration, what's wrong with classic British motorcycles!! blooming mods!! where's me bike chain! must still be around here somewhere ;D ;D
Sav

You were spared the best decent punch-ups - Brighton yes, Sarfend, yes, us scooter boys never got as far as Dover ! ;D

Jessie J scantily dressed, but don't get too excited lads, she bats for the other side ! :'(

The Spice Girls arrive in London taxis - zig a zag ah ! But a fleeting performance, didn't see enough of 'em. :'(

What's this - an Oasis reunion ? No, just Liam upsetting his brother performing his songs as Beady Eye instead.

Eric Idle being fired from a cannon - it goes wrong - Always look on the bright side of life ! ;D

Indian dancers - wasn't Cameron trying to get their part cut from the ceremony ? :o

[Sir Chancelot]

Monty Python making an appearance.
Next up John Cleese in Fawlty Towers - German sketch :o

Muse - now you're talking !

Freddie Merc back from the dead !  And the badger-hating Brian May, dextrous on guitar. We will rock you !

Oh no ! The Brazilians have hi-jacked our ceremony.......needs Dizzee Rascal to leap on the stage now and sing "Bonkers" ;D

...but an old man appears in a jacket - he takes it off - and it turns out to be Pele ! 8-)

Nice touch at the end, the flame opening out, coming down, being extinguished with a phoenix rising up, to the appearance of Take That.

And a classy finish with Darcy Bussell and thee royal ballet.

Even classier - The Who singing Baba Reilly ! plus a selection from Tommy. Then 'My Generation' (first recorded 47 years ago !) ;D

[Chris_Sav]

Wow!!! Follow that Rio!!