I thought that it was great..It's just a pity they had to interupt the show by bringing the competitors on!..In all serious, the one tiny downside of the whole show was the performance of Paul McCartney who I'm sad to say has totally lost it these days..
Agree MrRAW why this guy is still working is beyond me. His singing isn't even karaoke standard. Have to say the arctic monkeys sounded very good and I've never been a fan of them.
All comments so far are bang on. Seems like we are doomed to have the eternal Beatle on our screens. But Monkeys did a good job. overall a much better Friday night at home for a long while.
It was all going so well, the coldrun was lit and what a work of art that was truly amazing, i thought ah well bed time.........then out comes Paul mccartney, predictable over long rendition of Hey Jude, kinda ruined the whole thing for me. It should have ended on the iconic flame lighting the coldren yet it chose to end of a burnt out former musician
The flame was awesome, very original and made it a shared honour. The whole ceremony had a great feel, a wonderful, fun vibe....lets hope the rest of the games have the same atmosphere.
I was, and I still am an avid Beatles fan, but McCartney was terrible, I cringed with embarrassment for him, surely he know's himself that he's well over the hill now. You could say that he doesn't care because he's rich beyond anyone's wildest dreams but there's no need to subject the world to that sort of performance every time we stage a world class event, give it away Paul and retire disigracefully like the rest of us.
Agree, I've never really liked The Arctic Monkeys but they were fantastic last night, as was the ceremony. I thought Rowan Atkinson stole the show, he's a genius that guy. 10 out of 10 I'd say, Danny Boyle - take a bow son.
It was amazing as all have said. The low points were listening to McCartney and seeing (for me) the worlds best ever sports icon looking the way he did, but Muhammad Ali will forever be a legend to me.
Agree with every thing that has been said. MacCartney is a talent less ****. Just a thought on Ali who is a legend and this shows his respect for the Olympics and our Nation. The guy has so much dignity and deserves our respect love and admiration.
A big thumbs up from me, the spectacle, tech stuff, lighting, fireworks, music all first class.Ali was a sad sight indeed bt all power to the man, in obvious poor health and struggling but still a fighter. The touches of class and there where many, The Queen being collected by 007 The people carrying the Olympic flag The idea of legends nominating the next generation to light the cauldron The cauldron itself The low bits The Queens obvious not joining in, she looked very old and out of it Macca, a true legend from his Beatle days and I could see why he was there, sadly he is god knows how many years past his best and he was never that good then, someone needs to tell him.
The Jubilee concert , and then Macca's performance last night are the reasons I think Mark Chapman shot the wrong Beatle. Sorry Paul , it's time to pack it in mate. Thanks for the memories.
Although it was a good spectacle and that What on dear earth did it have to do with the Olympics? I thought the entire point of an opening ceremony for the Olympics was to present about sport in the country and also things to do with sport that we have done in recent years? Not a history lesson of the UK?
I never thought this was the case?... I always thought the opening ceremoney was to do with celebrating the culture of the hoast country and letting them have the honor of the games on them.... China had the fireworks and martial arts and outher cultural things.... greece also had a "history lesson" the sport comes in a few weeks but this was about showing the world who we are and our history... and i thought it went well tbh
I thought the whole thing was fantastic. The start was all a bit odd, and slow, but as the show developed, you kinda got that it was all part of building up to the end. The use of video of some fantastic countryside & buildings was simple, yet superbly effective, the incesant drumming & use of some absolutely fantastic British music created a real atmosphere, and although I agree Macca was ****, I also understand why they would have wanted to use him in the presentation. The way the stage was changed from grass to digital effectively by the cast doing manual labor was again a very deliberate and superbly subtle nod to the fact the country was built on hard graft, and that brings me to the highlight of the show for me (and probably Vegas as well, as I know he's big on this stuff to). The stadium, a remarkably unimpressive piece of design, just came alive with the pixel units and lighting show, I was transfixed by the seats and not only the technology that went into it, but the brilliance of the use and harnessing of the technology. The colours, the clocks, a live EQ going through, numbers , words, it looked absolutely and utterly sensational at times, the backdrop of the drummers (who must all have arms like shot putters this morning) just made it seem even deeper, I was utterly astounded by the light show, really & truly astounded, highlight of the entire lighting experience for me being the stunning use of the house to show snippets of some of the phenomenal music our land has produced and of which we can all be proud. Fantastic fireworks again against the backdrop of the lights made for a stunning build up to an incredible climax with that torch, have that Barcelona '92 with your archer lighting an oversized pig trough! The music used during the parade seemed perfectly programmed despite the constant switching of genres, and I know that is no mean feat to achieve, and the rather obvious use of Bowies 'Heroes' for the Team GB entry could have been wrong, but it was actually close to perfect. The use of Bond, Atkinson, & Redgrave, even the Queen in the storyline was wonderful, and having the young kids have the honour of lighting the torch was a wonderful touch to finish off. The use of some of our wonderful forces men to lift the flags, and the legend that is Ali were lovely touches too. Britain allegedly lost it's greatness a while back, but for a couple of hours last night, we saw a bit of what it's all about, I thought it was sensational (if you hadn't already guessed...)
Not into this but thought it was good, however why was the commentary in French first and English second?
My feelings exactly; I couldn't put it any more eloquently. I don't mind admitting I had a tear in my eye. It was an awesome experience
