FA - but were they the top "popular" bits of music of their era? Who was the equivalent of The Who (ie well known but not top dogs in their era)?

You missed the best, and much older, piece of music - Greensleeves.

I should like to apologise. No sooner were the words "there'll be f'kin Morris Dancers next" out of my mouth, and lo and behold, the Gods of Extracting the Urine produced them!

With a screetching Jessie J murdering a classical Queen song....a true 60's legend struggling with Waterloo Sunset.....the Spice Girls looking like a plumper tribute band....yet another rendition of Our House.....and the bizarre rendition of the Who classic Pinball Wizard by the Kaiser Chiefs, when the genuine article were in the house....you just knew it was going to be a long evening, even before the appearance of the skating Nuns.

Thank God it was The Who, and not McCartney who closed the gig, although I have to be honest, Pete Townsend's attempts at pogoing lacked a certain bounce. Although that may have been due to some Health and Safety regulation pertaining to the health of 67 year olds.

I thought the Finale Fireworks were a tad lacking. Perhaps they had used up all the good ones in the opening ceremony, and simply run out.

Still, always look on the bright side of life, eh? £9 billion is not that much these days......

The main problem with the closing ceremony was that it was too safe, too mainstream - It wasn't quite the Queen's Jubilee concert, but it ran it close.

Compare with Danny Boyle's opening effort, which refused to be predictable and was at times deliberately baffling, last night's was just a glorified karaoke night, albeit with a bigger budget than down your local.

In defence, this was meant to be a party, and like most parties, the music is often questionable.....Overall, it was e, but a pleasant, forgivable type of e...

I find the attitude that people who didn't enjoy the closing ceremony must automatically be "miserable f*ckers" a little odd. Is that the criteria by which every theatrical production must be judged? Like it, or you're a "miserable f*cker"?

Its not a theatrical production, it wasnt supposed to be. You werent supposed to be critiquing a performance or story.

It was, pretty simply, a bit of party, showcasing british music and culture of all types.

If you could find nothing in it you liked, then yes, you probably are a miserable f*cker

To be fair to to the organisers a lot of the acts they probably wanted were unavailable. Adele is 7months pregnant, Noel Gallagher allegedly said he has enough fame and money and didn't want to, Coldplay are on tour in America, The Rolling Stones are only just getting back together for a tour and thought it'd be too soon...and that's before we get to the fact the half the Beatles are dead, Freddie Mercury is dead...and no doubt many more turned them down.

It does seems to be the case in your house, yes.

Of course it was a theatrical production (of sorts). If it was just 'a party', it wouldn't have been broadcast to a worldwide audience. And of course people will critique something (anything) of that nature. I'm not saying there wasn't a single thing I would have enjoyed, but the 45 minutes or so I sat through convinced me that it wasn't worth sticking with in case there was a three or four minute spell that was enjoyable.

If you enjoyed it, you must be a happy clappy tard with no taste. See, lazy stereotyping is dead easy.

Coldplay, radiohead, rolling stones, pj harvey, roxy music, rod stewart, ash. elvis costello, human league, dire straits, pulp, travis, snow patrol, keane, florence.

and that is off the top of my head. i just think that having videos of dead simngers or of singers who were not there just smacked a bit of desparation. There are loads of good singers out there who could have all done a turn and being there in the flesh. Should have shocased some other areas oif the country as well. Would have been nice to have even had the proclaimers or someone from N. Ireland or wales. Tom jones

I loved it

yes some of the music wasn't to my taste but as an event I thought the closing ceremony was great

No it wasnt, it was a party, it was advertised as a party, the director of the closing ceremony said they aimed to make it a party, it was a celebration of british music and culture of all types, there was some new, some old, some pop, a bit of rap and R&B, some dance music.

Maybe it didnt meet your high-standards with your esoteric and thoughtful high-brow musical palette but i saw my niece go crazy for one direction and jessie j, my mum loved Take That and I saw the Who, and rather than sit there wondering why it wasnt tailored to my taste and why i was sitting through Annie Lennox I thought shouldnt we be proud that this little island can cater for so many people at such a high level, we went from rock royalty to kids pop, from Shakespeare to Kate Moss from Gothic to Psychedelic, thats what the director was trying to achieve, not some critical acclaim for its artistic depth and in that respect it was a roaring success.

And yes, if that you cant actually see past your cynicism to see that, its probably because you are a miserable f*cker

At no point last night did I think, you know what this party is crying out for, Coldplay, radiohead, Snow Patrol and Keane, nobody knows how to get a party started like coldplay, radiohead, snow patrol and keane.

lol

Well yes, since that's what you asked for.


Surely, a candidate for silliest question of all time. And for a spell of course The Who [iwere[/i indisputably top dogs anyway.


I didn't miss anything, where did I claim I was providing a complete and exhaustive list? But, if you want to contradict your own argument for me, feel free to throw in a few more.

Have you tried any of my list on your offspring yet, and are you ready to concede the point?

No, Durham Giant is right, they should have made the closing ceremony run for about 16 weeks and played every fekkin song of any note since records began. The best way to do it was get everyone in the country to send in a list of 50 suggestions and then just work your way through all 3 billion, that way our Olympics wouldn't actually finish till the year 3844 but it would be quite a show, apart from the final audience bitterly complaining they hadn't played a single tune from the last 18 centuries.

The Who were the top UK band of their era? Really? I would imagine that there were several other contenders - including The Dave Clarks Five, The Troggs and The Small Faces who would argue with that, and that's without including The Beatles. The difference is that The Who are still around (after a fashion), and that is the important part.

Overall I thought the night was as good as you'd expect. They were never going to match the opening ceremony, and it would have been wrong to have tried. They got a pretty good cross section of UK musical taste from the last 50 years or so involved (although by now someone must realise that singers from the 60s need to retire) and there were one or two inspirational moments.


I'd like to apologise for the scooter riders though, they in no way reflect the mainstream of scooter culture, and were on the whole what is known as 'comedy mods'.

BTW the Olympics are always about the city. That's why these are known as the 'London Olympics', not the 'British Olympics' - in exactly the same way that everyone remembers Beijing, Athens, Sydney, Seoul etc, not China, Greece, Australia etc. It also explains why there will never be an Olympics in Birmingham, Manchester or any other regional British city.

you name a regional city in your list though, Sydney.

also what about other regional cities who have hosted the games like, Munich, Montreal, Los Angeles, Atlanta.

too many drug addicts and paedophiles in it for my tastes. "inspire a generation" to do what exactly?

Whatever it was 'advertised' as, it wasn't just a 'party'. The event was being broadcast to the world, and was designed to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. On those grounds, it was always going to be judged and critiqued as more than just a 'party'.



It was a mish-mash of middle of the road pap. Take That, The Spice Girls, One Direction, Pet Shop Boys, Elbow. Russell fooking Brand, FFS. If I was at a 'party' and they were playing that sort of sh*te, I'd go home.



As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed the games and have never watched either an opening or closing ceremony to anything before, so I had no pre-conceived ideas of what to expect. Hardly cynical, then. The ceremony wasn't to my tastes, so I [ipersonally[/i didn't enjoy it. It obviously appealed to some people, which is fair enough. What I object to is the inference that if you didn't enjoy it, you must automatically be a miserable f*cker, and it's not just that the event didn't cater to your tastes. And if you can't see that, you're obviously a thick c*nt.

I must've missed the Gary Glitter and Jonathan King duet

Quote ="Scooter Nik"The Who were the top UK band of their era? Really? I would imagine that there were several other contenders - including The Dave Clarks Five, The Troggs and The Small Faces who would argue with that, and that's without including The Beatles. The difference is that The Who are still around (after a fashion), and that is the important part. '" Exactly. The Beatles and Rolling Stones were stratospherically above them. For some other names that many would consider as good / alot better than The Who: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_rock

Quote ="Scooter Nik"The Who were the top UK band of their era? Really? I would imagine that there were several other contenders - including The Dave Clarks Five, The Troggs and The Small Faces who would argue with that, and that's without including The Beatles. The difference is that The Who are still around (after a fashion), and that is the important part. '" Exactly. The Beatles and Rolling Stones were stratospherically above them. For some other names that many would consider as good / alot better than The Who: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_rock

The Stones were asked to perform. Said no. So not sure what else the organisers could have done. See also Bowie, David.

so if Bowie says NO why have a 5 minute segment of his greatest hits.

There were many more bands or artists who could have used that slot which would have been better

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