Re: Closing ceremony. : Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:52 pm  

Rock God X wrote:

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 fucktard with no taste. See, lazy stereotyping is dead easy.

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

Re: Closing ceremony. : Mon Aug 13, 2012 10:00 pm  

Durham Giant wrote:

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

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.

Re: Closing ceremony. : Mon Aug 13, 2012 10:57 pm  

SmokeyTA wrote:

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

Re: Closing ceremony. : Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:15 am  

Dally wrote:

FA - but were they the top "popular" bits of music of their era?

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

Dally wrote:

Who was the equivalent of The Who (ie well known but not top dogs in their era)?

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

Dally wrote:

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

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?

Re: Closing ceremony. : Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:22 am  

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.

Re: Closing ceremony. : Tue Aug 14, 2012 1:20 am  

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'.

Re: Closing ceremony. : Tue Aug 14, 2012 1:21 am  

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.

[Sadfish]

Re: Closing ceremony. : Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:38 am  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

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.

Re: Closing ceremony. : Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:56 am  

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

Re: Closing ceremony. : Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:02 am  

SmokeyTA wrote:

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.

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'.

SmokeyTA wrote:

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.

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.

SmokeyTA wrote:

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

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 personally 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.