[Closed] One is proud, is one not?

without doubt we have a musical history to be proud of.. but showcasing a load of hackneyed old pop songs as our cultural contribution seems like the lamest cop-out ever..
and not only that but it's all that we could manage for the jubilee too..

is Britain to be known to the world as the nicotine stained jukebox in the corner..?

why couldn't we have commissioned any number of absolutely genius composers from any number of musical genres to make something new and amazing instead of trotting out another selection of tired old pop songs..

embarrassing and a sad end to what was otherwise an amazing olympics

why couldn't we have commissioned any number of absolutely genius composers from any number of musical genres

Any wedding DJ will tell you - its the hackneyed old pop songs that get people up to dance.

Last night just showed how Britain has become a confused culture-less society. We need a kind of reverse cultural revolution.

I didn't know what on earth was going on and switched over at fatboyslim; what did the octopus have to do with anything?

why couldn't we have commissioned any number of absolutely genius composers from any number of musical genres

Because you end up with this-

well...
I, for one, staged a dirty protest in my own front room..

that'll teach 'em

The reformed Spice Girls ffs! Is that the best we have to show to the world?

I thought it was utter gash. The inflatable squid was awesome though.

gaudy vacuous commercial rubbish.

Watching it now, fantastic. Get over yourselves.

[i]gaudy vacuous commercial rubbish.[/i]

And to appeal to multiple generations from all countries of the world, what would [i]you[/i] have picked?

Man, there's some pointless complaints about the musical content of the [b]Olympic Closing Ceremony[/b] on here.

My biggest complaint was from what I saw of it, the audio mix was bad with the vocals being way too loud. Doesn't help that some of the acts had weak voices which was highlighted more so by the bad mix. For a ceremony that's focused on music I think the mix is quite important..

It was entertaining enough I guess, but went on far too long and the Spice Girls were poor. Fatboy Slim pretending to DJ was pretty daft too. It all just seemed a bit 'Eurovision' but with actual hit songs.

Rave octopus FTW though. 🙂

And to appeal to multiple generations from all countries of the world, what would you have picked?

why did the entire thing have to be a retrospective though..?

serious question.. do other host countries just lazily trawl through their back catalogue of past musical successes, divide the results by the number of stars that are willing to be associated with it and then add fireworks..?

to be fair, I would have been a lot less disappointed if George Michael had just admitted during rehearsals that he didn't have the lungs to do 'Freedom' any more..
that was the first cringe inducing glaring balls-up of the entire fortnight's proceedings and I couldn't take the rest of the ceremony seriously after that..

I demand that ****ers 's head on a pike

Living in a commonwealth country a long way away all I had at work today was people saying how marvelous it was. Maybe a fantastic run through John Peels festive 50 compendium would have been better for the niche whoremonger single speed 29er thatxccoursewaspisseasyffs big hitters (TJ excepted)?

George using it to promote his shit new single was the biggest complaint I had. (Not that I watched it all)
And where were the Rolling Stones?

IT was never meant to please indy-loving muso's like what will be found on here

My taste in music is far from niche but that was pretty much all gash. The Who at the end being one of the few highlights. As per DezB wtf was George Michael allowed to sing something new for? If we're going to drag up someone from the 80s they should be singing 80's stuff. Too much miming as well and although I actually like some of Jessie J's stuff wtf is she singing on a Queen track for, totally murdered it.
Outside of the music I also had no idea what was going on, the opening ceremony was great, it had a story and a strong theme it stuck with. The closing ceremony was just all gash new-age crap thrown in as padding.

According to the organisers it was all sung live. Hmmmm.....

Why have Russell Brand doing music btw? Seemed a bit odd/pointless.

All told it certainly wasn't great, but it could have been a lot, lot worse.

There have been occasions in the past when these kind of events have launched, or indeed relaunched, careers. I may be wrong, but I cannot see that outcome from last night although for the majority they did themselves no harm. I agree that GM was not the high point but I am sure he thinks he was great.

In fairness, I don't think STW was probably envisioned as the target audience which I guess was a large group of 20-30 something year olds from 200 plus countries looking for something to sing along to as the kick off for a night of carousing in the olympic village. On that basis it was fine.

They should've had David Gilmour singing instead of that ginger kid thats for sure.

Who was the ginger kid? I must have missed when they announced it - was he a competitor or something?

Rachel

He is called Ed Sheeran. He has had a few singles in the pop charts, you know 😉

We have a rich pop culture so why wouldn't/shouldn't it have been showcased? Playing new stuff is all well and good, but people across the world will have recognised the majority of what was played last night, Eric Idle especially.

I thought the mix of old and new worked quite well, with the exception of Muse who are and were utter gash (my opinion only, I accept that other will vary!). Saw them at the Isle of Wight a few years ago and thought the same.

I thought the Spice Girls were easily one of the best acts. Boris clearly thought so too... I'd put them one place behind Eric Idle who was the star of the night. The rest was a bit meh and all very predictable. I'd have stuck The Who in as a quick filler, not the centre piece.

We have a rich pop culture so why wouldn't/shouldn't it have been showcased?

no no no..

fair enough, a nod to our rich pop culture would have been nice..
but the show was like going to a michelin star restaurant and being served egg and chips..

by your mates senile Nan, swimming in grease

and an underdone egg
with a bit of fag ash..

and a long grey pube on top

butcher - Member

I thought the Spice Girls were easily one of the best acts. Boris clearly thought so too..

Indeed:
[img] [/img]

For me it was the Freddie , Brian and Roger show that made the evening!

with a little help from that monty python guy 😉

Jeez, some of you need to lighten up, it was a party, a shindig, a good old knees up, a bit of fun to signify the end of a great event and the end of a long journey for the athletes in particular.

It was designed to let off the steam and IMO was a fitting finale to a wonderful two weeks.

Proud, me? Damn right I am.

What he said ^^^

I was dancing all over our tiny living room, t'was great fun. Didn't see the end though - too tired.

Most of my thoughts have been aired so far already, so I don't feel quite such a miserable git any more, but quite frankly compared to the opening ceremony that was very poor.

My music preferences aside, as lets face it it needed to be pretty mainstream as it's a mainstream audience, it was let down by several aspects.

Firstly, if you're going to play an iconic song by an iconic band, get the actual band on to play the damned thing, not some cobbled together group that have had a day to rehearse, or the former front man's new band. Kaiser Chief's murdered Pinball Wizard, Ed Sheeran showed he should stick to his own songs, Liam Gallagher probably made Noel cringe as that was the worst rendition of Wonderwall ever, and I heard Blur's Parklife at least twice in the 3hrs but not once did I see Damon Albarn or any of the other guys from Blur! Shocking!

And Taio Cruz and Tinie Tempah? REALLY?!?! Do we wanna show these complete talentless goons to the rest of the world? And Jessie J... When she first appeared a couple of years ago I thought she wasn't bad. Since then, she's turned into a complete wannabe diva, and she thinks she's god's gift to music. At the same time, her voice has got more warbly, and she does stupid improvisations constantly. She's not Beyonce, she can't get away with it, she was embarrassing!

Brian May's Guitar Solo a surprising Highlight.

The Who at the end almost saved the whole night. Great as ever, should have performed more!

Nice Cameo's from Freddie Mercury and Jon Lennon, but there were several stars that are still alive that didn't take part. Where were Jagger, Richards and Wood? Where were Plant and Page? And if you're going to play some more contemporary stuff (as you should) too, then roll out some decent contemporary artists such as Florence and the Machine, Adele, Dizzee Rascal etc.

Typical British lacklustre finish to the whole affair, after the incredible opening ceremony. Just as well we got 29 Gold medals in the whole affair to take away from the pony closing ceremony...

Ah shut your moaning, it was a great drunken sing-a-long to bring the olympics to a close.

I'd have axed George's self promo and asked Jeff Beck to do Hi Ho Silver Lining instead. Then it would have been perfect 🙂