Do you think they showed it?
It would surprise me if it did. I bet a lot of countries didn’t show it live or if they did, they could do it on a time lapse, to slip in commercial breaks for stuff they perceived as being unsuitable for their viewers.
Huh. I had no idea. Well, thanks.
Like how NBC only showed the men “dressed” as Greek statues from the waist up during the 2004 opening ceremony.
Only just got around to posting in this thread… I’m British and watched the opening ceremony live from start to finish.
For the most part, I loved it, especially the bits that were bonkers silly. If it was supposed to be a sumnation of everything British, then there was a lot that was skipped over lightly, or missed altogether (for example, but not limited to: a lot of ‘village square’ stuff - folk music traditions, the Womens’ Institute, Morris), but I guess there just isn’t time to fit *everything *in.
The girl-loses-cellphone section left me somewhat cold (just the narrative - the musical bits were OK) - but maybe that means more to the youngsters.
I correctly guessed that the copper petals were going to be assembled into some sort of flower-like cauldron for the Olympic Flame, but the end result greatly surpassed any expectations I might have had. Really impressed with that.
I very seldom indulge in patriotic pride (for no particular reason than that I just don’t get the whole flag-waving thing), but this was a rare exception. I love that it was silly and irreverent (Mr Bean, HRH Parachuting in with James Bond) - and that it celebrated some surprising things (the NHS). It was a triumph.
Paul McCartney needs to call it a day though.
Paul could have thrown his former Beatles mates a bone by playing a Beatles medley e.g. “With A Little Help From My Friends”, “All You Need Is Love”, “Here Comes The Sun”. In fact, Ringo should have been performing with him.
Thank you for that list. It’s just as depressing as I knew it was going to be. Not that there wasn’t a lot of good music, but out of all those pieces, only 6 were female vocalists. I know that doesn’t mean anything or matter to anyone else, but it means something and matters to me.
Otherwise, lot of great stuff there!
If it helps, a very well known female percussionist plays a huge part in the ceremony.
What did you expect him to do instead? Pretend that the top music over the last half century had a load of female vocalists? Cause it didn’t. I don’t know whether this is something intrinsic to women singers or just happensance from sexism or whatever (although I must be honest and say I **think **it is the former, even though there are marvellous exceptions like Sarah Brightman) but he had to work from the catalogue of reality, not what might have been.
I thought that something by Kate Bush might have made an appearance on the soundtrack. That list published up the thread isn’t complete though. There’s at least one Fuck Buttons track missing, but perhaps the Telegraph (the source of that list, pre-show) didn’t want to mention them.
Anyway, there’s still the closing ceremony to come.
Since The Big Breakup, it does seem that over the decades, Ringo has been more consistently involved in making music and touring and performing than Sir Paul.
I get that Paul’s a national treasure. So is Stonehenge.
Ringo Starr’s a musician. Dude shoulda been on the drums.
Then again, perhaps he was invited and (wisely) declined…
We’ve been watching a bit of it each night with our 3-year-old daughter. Last night the bit about nightmares was seriously terrifying for her, but not necessarily in a bad way; we had a conversation about how sometimes people tell stories about scary things to help them understand the scary things, and then talked about children and bad dreams and adults.
This opening ceremony is fifteen different kinds of awesome. I really don’t get the people who dislike it. What is there to dislike?
I’m not sure that’s true. Well, Wings for a start: the band The Beatles could have been.
I note the reference Baron and can’t help wondering if the same person would’ve been appalled by the sequence with union jack parachutes. Surely that is “getting Bond wrong” is it not?
But imagine for a second having Mr. Alan Partridge narrating the whole thing! If Coogan and Iannucci have some time to spare then they should write an alternative voice-over for the DVD release.
So when NBC switched to an interview it missd the whole of Emile Sande singing Abide With Me along to Akram Khan’s dancers? If so, I’d look for that on youtube or somewhere because it was truely beautiful - it really was touching.
Threadjack - Mr. Bean kicks ass!
For those of you who don’t watch Blackadder or haven’t seen any of his shorts, he is the voice of Zazu in the Lion King movie.
Why didn’t he sing Imagine? I know it’s not his song, but it would have shown some class.
Because Imagine is the most overplayed, overwrought piece of dreck to become popular in the last 40 years?
Yes - that would have been classy and generous. mmm…