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Opening Ceremony
myke pocock - 27/7/12 at 11:53 PM

Spectacular and inspiring, but for GEEZ SAKE lets pension Paul McCartney off once and for all.


Just my opinion though!!!!


Jon Ison - 28/7/12 at 12:03 AM

Agree, Mac sounded a bit off, Mr Bean was my highlight.


unijacko67 - 28/7/12 at 12:09 AM

agree with above cause paul was abit off! they passed the torch to the young ones, why didn't they pass the mic to the young ones? jessie j for example! looks good and sounds even better!


owelly - 28/7/12 at 12:19 AM

It made me cringe! The opening ceremony wasn't for us, it was our chance to showcase the UK to the World and I'll bet my bacon butty that most of Great Britian wouldn't have understood WTF was going on if we didn't have commentry!
The mechanics of it all was excellent and I'll forgive the dodgy content (ie. highlighting our NHS even though it's on it's arse and closing wards every day hence the reference to having two kids per bed?) for the excellent Cauldron.
Now can we forget about the Olympics and get back to normal please....


unijacko67 - 28/7/12 at 12:35 AM

Ok, at least it all went without any major problems, I think they got away with a good result. (appart from PM, bless him).


Canada EH! - 28/7/12 at 12:50 AM

You people need to stop taking things so seriously, I thought it was great, but then I'm just a bloody colonial!


morcus - 28/7/12 at 05:48 AM

I saw some of it at work and it made absolutly no sense to me, and that replica of glastonbury tor looked nothing like it.


Coopz - 28/7/12 at 06:00 AM

A reported cost of 27 million surely could of been better spent!!


t11 - 28/7/12 at 06:24 AM

Hi all.....missed it all riding back from bury st edmonds on my son's honda after his brakes failed, so good old dad rides up from Deal fixed his brakes in the car park and then rides it back all in 1 evening, what else are dads for ?....so did I miss anything ?


austin man - 28/7/12 at 06:57 AM

Never saw it so cant comment from me hospital bed


BigGeoff - 28/7/12 at 07:59 AM

If all the money spent on it had been spent on the less fortunate in this country we would have very few homeless right now. The Olympics are a great event - just think that the cost is way to much for a few people to run around a track or go for a swim. Take the money spent on allowing all our athletes to train full time and the money spent on the games as a whole and you could do a lot of good. Yes I know the building of the stadia created a lot of jobs for 7 years but the money could have been used to create sustainable jobs.

Like a lot of folk - without the commentary - WTF and to end with someone who can no longer hold a note was truly awful.


ReMan - 28/7/12 at 08:02 AM

quote:
Originally posted by austin man
Never saw it so cant comment from me hospital bed


Oh! Hope your OK/on the mend

I though the ceremony was great and a real credit to us.
Nothings ever good enough for some is it


AndyW - 28/7/12 at 08:02 AM

I thought it ws very good. I watched and expected it to be a farce, but I was actually impressed. As for the commentry, well thats just parts of it, all other oplypics have had commetry and without there you would have no idea whats going on.

I think its about time we stopped knocking this event and started to see the positives in this country.

I knew this morning that there would be a post about it. Maybe we should start another post for those who want to slag it off and this one for those who actually enjoyed it.

We are Great Britian remember???


liam.mccaffrey - 28/7/12 at 08:09 AM

i watched it from start to finish. I thought it was very interesting and have to say I really enjoyed most of it.
The olympic cauldron was spectacularly stunning, as was the industrial revolution casting the olympic rings!

I thought instead of having an hour of recorded music in the middle, a few more live acts would have been good.

Skit with Bond and the Queen was really funny, but she really let herself down, she was clearly pissed off at being there. The camera cut to her when the GB team came in and she just sitting there scratching her hand not even watching!

Mr Bean was a highlight too really funny.

Big let down of the night was Paul Mc, i think Macca banging out Hey Jude is one of the worst British cliches and it makes my toes curl every time.


twybrow - 28/7/12 at 08:09 AM

quote:
Originally posted by AndyW
I thought it ws very good. I watched and expected it to be a farce, but I was actually impressed. As for the commentry, well thats just parts of it, all other oplypics have had commetry and without there you would have no idea whats going on.

I think its about time we stopped knocking this event and started to see the positives in this country.

I knew this morning that there would be a post about it. Maybe we should start another post for those who want to slag it off and this one for those who actually enjoyed it.

We are Great Britian remember???


Here here!


tomgregory2000 - 28/7/12 at 08:15 AM

Anywhere to watch it online?


scootz - 28/7/12 at 08:22 AM

The only bits I didn't like were the NHS / GOSH sections... by all means celebrate them both, but it was all a bit messy.

And Paul Mac! Really pains me to say it as he's a national treasure, but he's no longer capable of performing at these kinds of events as his voice is shot.


matt_gsxr - 28/7/12 at 08:35 AM

I really liked it. A bit wacky, but that's a good thing.
I'd be interested to hear what the rest of the world thought.


Davegtst - 28/7/12 at 08:39 AM

One was not amused.



Nick DV - 28/7/12 at 08:54 AM

Really very good, and money well spent. Remember, China cost £70m+!!

Lots of plus points, forget Paul Mac and a pity that the Queen didn't look as happy as she did at the Jubilee celebrations a few weeks ago!

Good luck to the boys and girls of Team GB

Cheers, Nick


woodster - 28/7/12 at 08:56 AM

We watched it here in France and loved every minute , I'm British with all that means the good bits and the bits I like to moan about and boy do I like to moan but ultimately I'm very very proud to be British and last night had everything I'm proud about

British engineering
The NHS
British music
The queen and royal family
Our sence of humour
Our sports men and women
Our armed forces

And as illustrated on here our right to an opinion and the right of free speech to express it

BRITISH AND PROUD


Hellfire - 28/7/12 at 09:22 AM

The saddest moment for me was when the olympic flag stopped by Muhammad Ali. Poor guy didn't even know what was going on. You could see his wife Lonnie telling him to wave but Ali could barely move a muscle. So, so sad.....

Phil


mark chandler - 28/7/12 at 09:38 AM

We enjoyed it, some parts were a bit odd but then we are British

We may moan about the national health, however it is the very very good despite it’s shortcomings.

Queen looked thoroughly miserable through, turned off when McCartney started up.... They should have pulled Dizzy Rascal back to get the crowd moving.


vanepico - 28/7/12 at 09:51 AM

Anyone else expecting it to burst into a Pink Floyd song? It had all the features of one of their videos, the 60 foot inflatable puppets for a start! And thelast song they played was Eclipse from the DSOTM!

I did think it was a waste of money before but when i saw it i thought it was good, I wish they could have had more than just a flyby, maybe a roll at the very least, maybe get a spitfire to fly over or something!

Pete


scootz - 28/7/12 at 10:22 AM

Macca doesn't have the voice anymore for stadium type performances. I think they should have rounded it off with The Stones playing 'Satisfaction' or The Who playing 'My Generation'. Rock royalty who can still put in a turn!

As for Her Maj... good sport, but the poor woman looked exhausted. Time to step aside ma'am???


ashg - 28/7/12 at 10:58 AM

i watched it in 3d and thought it was pretty good. really liked the Olympic flame i think we really pushed the boat out there on being different, it really did look the muts in 3d as you got a feel for how big it is, the fireworks were also impressive.

overall i think we put on a pretty good show and should all be pretty proud of it. was it as good as china? its difficult to say being so different but we certainly held our own out on the world stage.


woodster - 28/7/12 at 11:19 AM

quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Macca doesn't have the voice anymore for stadium type performances. I think they should have rounded it off with The Stones playing 'Satisfaction' or The Who playing 'My Generation'. Rock royalty who can still put in a turn!

As for Her Maj... good sport, but the poor woman looked exhausted. Time to step aside ma'am???


It be fair to her maj she had just thrown herself out a helicopter


Minicooper - 28/7/12 at 11:48 AM

I saw a fair bit of it, had to switch over when Mr Bean came on and also Macca, but generally thought it was very good but what I didn't get was why were they speaking French? I truly don't know did I miss something?

Although it cost £27 million to stage, 80,000 people paying loads of money to watch it and the television rights around the world for the billion or so people watching it on the television it can't of cost much when the income is taken into account

Cheers
David


t11 - 28/7/12 at 11:52 AM

I agree...poor old boy has lots the plot, for me I think Emmerson lake and Palmer belting out "welcome back my friends to the show that never ends" would have been a lot better........


jimmyjoebob - 28/7/12 at 12:32 PM

The historical side was clever, although was very left wing biased! Remember, it lasted for almost an hour and a half. It was very well done and certainly captivated my attention for the whole time!

The cauldron design was awesome. Unusual and impressive designwork at its best.

As for Paul McCartney's part, it might have started questionably but it improved as it went on as did his voice. As someone else said there aren't many people that can encourage 80k people to join in the way he did.


scootz - 28/7/12 at 12:51 PM

I disagree Jimmy... I thought the crowd didn't respond well to Macca at all. Hey Jude is a stadium standard and the Na-Na-Na-Na's get belted out far more loudly in two-bit football stadiums up and down the land every other weekend!

Liked the cauldron, the forging of the rings, the fireworks, Her Maj for being a good sport, the doves and most of the music. The rest was just a constant stream of WTF!


jimmyjoebob - 28/7/12 at 01:08 PM

I think anything televised will have a distorted impression of sound - different mikes for different areas etc. When PM was seated the crowd sounded faint and uninvolved but as he stood up they went to stadium mikes and the crowd sounded far more involved. The switch overs were very poor, especially his microphone at the start of his set.

I don't disagree entirely though! I just like live music even if it isn't perfect.


myke pocock - 28/7/12 at 03:50 PM

Paul Mc has had two chances to impress, the Jubilee and the Olympic Ceremony and come up woefully short both times. We have plenty of deserving old popsters if thats what is required. I realy do hope they havent got him for the closing ceremony as well (BOGOF!!!)


coozer - 28/7/12 at 04:23 PM

Questions from last nights opening ceremony.

Are they absoutely sure Narnia not a real country? At least half of them sounded made up.

Why didn't The Congo team come out in single file?

Why wasn't Kerry Katona carrying the Iceland flag?


mark chandler - 28/7/12 at 05:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by coozer

Why didn't The Congo team come out in single file?





liam.mccaffrey - 28/7/12 at 05:18 PM

quote:
Originally posted by coozer
Questions from last nights opening ceremony.

Why didn't The Congo team come out in single file?


Also Hazel didn't mention the interesting fact that the Congo are the worlds biggest consumers of the tropical drink um bongo.


Hellfire - 28/7/12 at 05:31 PM

I've never heard of a country called Independent Olympic Athletes either............

Phil