I agreed with your first post somewhat. However alittle of an exaggeration was your comment "in danger of ruining the whole thing".

I'm guessing that would be impossible now.

What a fantastic 2 weeks, get some fireworks into the sky, and then let the memories live on.

What a great games.

The Closing Ceremony was a mixed bag but then so far as I can remember the same can be said of all the Olympic Closing Ceremonies I have seen. They are supposed to be a party for the athletes, a celebration of what's gone and not an introduction to the city holding the Games. Ours was done on half the budget of the Opening Ceremony and with no time to speak of to prepare. The genius was in investing in the pixels as they definitely saved the day on many occasions. What was left of the audience by the end seemed to be enjoying it and from the participation levels I'd say most of the audience was British, which wouldn't be surprising because there is nothing to keep any foreign visitor in the country once the sports are done.

It would have been good to see fewer old timers who have long since passed their best (assuming they ever had one) but as the idea was to showcase music from a 50 year period and given the lack of time to prepare mass dance arrangements or extravagant sets, it did ok. And I really did enjoy Always Look on the Bright Side of Life! Pity the ceremony couldn't have finished with that really. It would have captured us Brits perfectly.



The Opening Ceremony was a fantastic and original piece of theatre which set our expectation levels somewhat high. The Closing Ceremony was never going to reach those levels and it was an entirely different beast. In no way did it spoil my enjoyment of all that went before or undermine my sense that in spite of my own misgivings, London managed to pull off probably the best Olympic Games in a very long time. And who'd have thought they'd only have about two days in which rain was part of the weather experience after all that crappy stuff we had during May, June and July and are about to get again!

As Ray Davies is one of my many rock heroes, it was absolutely brilliant to have him singing THE iconic London song in the flesh. The crap about his performance suffering because he's pushing 70 is just that - crap. He certainly wasn't helped by the sound system, but as someone who's listened to and loved that song ever since it was released, I reckon i am qualified to judge and that it was a very decent rendition, live and at the mercy of the stadium PA.

It's interesting to hear what others have to say, here';s one US critic:
"I caught Ray Davies on a live stream early Sunday afternoon and it was a breathtaking bittersweet read on a defining work that was voted the "Greatest Song About London" in a British radio poll in 2004 (37 years after the single's release).
Two British pop icons -- the Jam's Paul Weller and Damon Albarn of Blur, Gorillaz, etc. -- have called "Waterloo Sunset" their favorite song of all time.
So have I and I'm not even British.
When the Kinks were inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, Pete Townshend said of "Waterloo Sunset," "It's just divine. It's a masterpiece."
He's right on both counts.
And Davies' performance did a brilliant job of capturing the essence of that masterpiece."

Indeed it did. If you want the record instead, don't listen to live music.

Compared to McCartney's mangling of Hey Jude at the Jubilee, it truly was magnificent

There's definitely a skill to playing a televised live gig. The singers that came off worst seemed to be those that tried to deliver a bouncy, singalong, performance which is probably great if you are actually there but on television just highlights any weaknesses in the singer's voice. Particularly if that voice has naturally weakened with age.

The Who tried to deliver that type of performance when they appeared on the Superbowl half time show a few years ago and were excruciatingly awful. On Sunday they were more restrained, concentrated on just delivering the song and were a vast improvement. But possibly not that exciting if in the actual stadium.

I got fed up of watching it live, so I watched it later on i-player and fast forwarded the bits I didnt want to listen to. Maybe we all should have been there.