... By strange conveyance ...

lots of stuff about That Opening Ceremony

compiler: Mark Snow

Edition 1.99-and-eleven-summers-on

compilation, pictures & linking text © 2012/23, Mark Snow

ISBN 978-1-904367-35-2   PastPresented

Republishing the whole, or any substantial part, of this compilation as, or within, a publication for which payment is expected or requested from the user, shall be deemed by the compiler to be a breach of copyright. The whole, or any substantial part, of the compiler's original text & pictures for this compilation may be republished as, or within, a publication for which no payment is expected or requested from the user, provided that such publication includes, for attribution purposes, all text from the start of the work to the end of the sentence you are now reading; however, it is not within the power of the compiler to grant any rights with respect to the work of others quoted within this compilation.

Table of Contents

Copyright details

Contents

Further conditions and readme bits

Introduction

First Principles

Second Principles

Negative views

#nbcfail

TV commentary around the world

"For one thing she did"

THE GREAT BIG TIMELINE:

early preparations (2010)

the embryo develops (2010-11)

making it happen (2011-12)

Show day!

welcome to the Olympic Stadium

the last hour of waiting ...

ISLES OF WONDER

GREEN AND PLEASANT

PANDEMONIUM

HAPPY AND GLORIOUS

STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING

CHARIOTS DE FEU

FRANKIE AND JUNE (at home)

F & J continued (going Underground)

F & J continued (dancefloor decades)

F & J continued (love and thanks Tim)

THE TORCH RELAY

MEMENTO MORI

THE PARADE OF NATIONS

BIKE A.M.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

THERE IS A LIGHT

AFTER THE GREAT BIG TIMELINE

PLAGIARISM! (not)

LOTR

AFTERLIFE (on YouTube)

AFTERTHOUGHTS

Sochi and

Glasgow 2014

in conclusion

Detailed Contents List

Further conditions and readme bits:

The compiler may be contacted by email via jmarksnow@pastpresented.info (but please discuss issues among yourselves first, wherever practical).

If you are the author or copyright-holder of any text quoted here, and you are not happy with the way I have used your work, please let me know and I will amend or remove it (unless it is quoted specifically for the purpose of criticising it, in which case I will only amend attributions). Be warned that any other emails to the above address may be published online, with any response I deem appropriate (and in some cases, the response may include or consist of edits to the original message which might or might not alter its sense).

Also, while I'm doing warnings- please note that crude language is occasionally featured in the text which follows.

Please note too that, although I try always to indicate the author of a quoted article for reference purposes, in many cases my quotation is from the comment thread, rather than the article itself; watch for the label [comment:], followed by the date and the comment contributor's name. With one or two notable exceptions, I have avoided quoting from Wikipedia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_End_of_London was particularly irresistible] but I have used it for convenience when recording the years and chart positions of songs.

The London organisers have made a huge amount of information available online, including the Media Guides for the Openings and Closings. A handy place to start looking for the Olympic Opening (which, incidentally, I frequently refer to simply as the "London Opening"- the "London Closing" being for me the Paralympic Closing) is:

http://olympicopeningceremony.tumblr.com

A note about product placement. Details of numerous commercially-available products and services are given in the following text. I have not been in contact with any of the firms involved, and I am not expecting any rewards for these references; I am merely fulfilling the original intention of the product placement for my own quite independent purpose (and look on the bright side; I haven't explained the colours of Dizzee Rascal's jacket).

On the topic of colours- if you are reading on a colour-capable device, you'll see that this text is colour-coded. The coding was mostly for my own convenience, but it does have the advantage of enabling readers to skip the annoying parts written by me (in blue) and concentrate on the enlightening and amusing quotations from others (in assorted colours).

Observations on the moment-by-moment progress of the London Opening are based on:

a) The BBC iplayer version, reproducing their original presentation (options with or without commentary);

b) The YouTube official "Olympic" version- same footage, except before the official start, but different commentary;

c) The "Director's Cut" version which appears on the first two discs of the BBC 5-disc DVD or Blu-Ray set "London 2012 Olympic Games" (which has a third audio option, of commentary by Danny Boyle and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, plus various "extras") hereinafter mostly referred to as "the DVD"; [there is also an official 2 DVD set of the ceremony from Chinese broadcaster CCTV, but apparently it does not use the best of the broadcaster's alternative commentaries]

d) Online footage from people who attended either the opening or one of the last rehearsals

e) Online footage from TV broadcasts, mainly used to gain access to NBC's version of events.

Because the "full" versions all start at different points, I have ruthlessly decided that for my purposes "zero" shall be the end of the first (60-second) countdown- or to look at it another way, the start of the "Thames journey" film introduction to "Isles of Wonder" (add 1 minute to match the DVD timings, 9 minutes 37 seconds to match the YouTube Olympic channel version). Subsequent timings are not necessarily accurate, to be honest, but they helped me to navigate, so I have left them in.

Introduction

At the beginning of the 20th century, an attempt was made to import into Britain a process developed in Germany for making a nutritious foodstuff from brewer's yeast that was no longer fit for making beer. The attempt failed, because traditional British ale uses a very different recipe from German lager. Undaunted, the British manufacturers worked to adapt the process, and eventually they solved the problems to cook up a unique product. They wanted a name which reflected the impact of the new food, like "dynamite" or "gelignite"- so some wit reminded them of the French word for a cooking pot, and Marmite was born.

I can assure you personally, that Marmite is the foulest, most disgusting manufactured food ever to be given space on shop shelves. Unfortunately, others will assure you that Marmite is the tangiest, most exciting manufactured food ever .... which is why, after well over a century, it still sells in huge quantities to almost exactly half the potential customers. The other half, of course, share my opinion.

Thus I introduce my exploration of the London 2012 Olympic Opening; a story of British ingenuity and wildly divided opinions. Haters of the 2012 presentation can probably never now become lovers, because a significant part of its impact was the growing realisation that at every moment we had to expect the unexpected. Trying to analyse the show as it happened meant the risk of running aground and losing the flow. Having unexpectedly found myself, within a few days of the opening, having to make long journeys every week, I took my netbook with me, and, using the awesome power of mobile broadband and the World Wide Web, began the analysis I had happily avoided attempting on 27 July. Now (mid December) the main purpose of the journeys has been fulfilled, so what follows is an attempt to organise my thoughts and findings so far.

The "thoughts" are essentially my own ideas and ramblings- don't take anything as "the truth" unless I provide a reference and you are satisfied by what you find there. The "findings" category is extremely large- I have tried to avoid making more than two short quotations from any given source, and I hope you'll use the web addresses to visit the originals.

After I made version 0.3 of this text publicly available at Christmas 2012, I joined in discussions on www.gamesbids.com, which is a website relating to all sorts of major international sporting events. These discussions brought out a number of interesting points which I had not originally considered, so I continued to produce revised drafts of the text. Finally, in July 2013, I created a more user-friendly version, with aids to navigation (I am aware, however, that the thrown-together nature of the source file has made the ebook rather challenging for some e-readers, although it works on my Kindle and Kobo, and on my phone's Moon+ app).

... Well, almost finally. While I was preparing that "friendly" version of the text, I didn't notice that a new plagiarism scandal was brewing. So now it's the first weekend in August, and I'm having to create a slightly updated edition.

... And shortly after I published that "finished" version, I was gently reminded that, if I wanted to get an idea of how children reacted to the London Opening, mumsnet.com would have been a good place to start.

D'oh.

Material from various parenting-related sites now added, September 2013.

Further random updates, 1 January 2014, 24 July 2014, 3-5 August 2014, 20 August 2014.

21 September 2014, another d'oh moment, as I realised there were sources (particularly videos) which I had mentioned in online discussions, but forgotten to add to this text. I've also taken the opportunity to tidy up here and there.

20-21 October 2014- my fingers are evidently a lot fatter than they look; also I've had to update the firework finale videos.

25 December 2014- second anniversary edition, with minor tweaks and added speculation about the Orbit.

July 2015- minor updates, including Sochi spectator video links.

September 2015: more minor updates, including Maria Dundas' 2016 connection

December 2015: another Christmas-ish update, including more pictures and some half-forgotten kisses

January 2016: added an odd discovery made in sad circumstances

July 2016: ridiculous amounts of extra detail added to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the Ceremony (but note that the edition numbering is only up to 1.6; no attempt has been made to create a "second edition" with systematic revision of the original text and checking for problems like dead links)

August 2016: small update about the fulfilment of my hopes for an imaginative eco-friendly Olympic Cauldron strategy at Rio 2016

December 2016: still getting bigger, but still not edition 2.0

July 2017: even bigger, as more and more video evidence emerges from the depths of YouTube's devious indexing system

December 2017: a few random additions and corrections (but still not edition 2.0)

August 2018: in the year when the wedding of Meghan Markle put a #BlackExcellence focus on the spirit of 2012, I have added improvements to the sections on preparation for the ceremony, including several more gems from Frank Cottrell Boyce; on the final hours before the event (with particular thanks to Flickr contributors and Chinese television); and- effectively a new section- on the demolition of the Isles of Wonder from 28-31 July. Also (the reason for the delay to August) another new section on YouTube viewing statistics for videos from the 2012 and 2016 opening ceremonies.

Unless some really startling surprises turn up*, this will be the last update until July 2020. [*Like me forgetting to update my own email address. Oops, 28 August]

December 2018: A moderately startling surprise- YouTube didn't delete my video of the ceremony pre-show (see my channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfQEwdwbYlVkIUFV9qnSMtg ) so I've taken the opportunity to add a couple of minor updates. Unless some really startling surprises turn up, THIS will be the last update until July 2020.

August 2019: The new Danny Boyle film "Yesterday" is surprisingly relevant, and also presents an opportunity to publish a few more random updates.

September 2019: Removing a few awkward Unicode characters, and other tidying

September 2019 again: Drat! Missed an entire paragraph full of Unicode French accents and a few umlauts (but at least it gave me the excuse to mention another video)

July 2020: The intended Version 2.0 has been delayed due to the absolute insanity which has stemmed from the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, and the consequent postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. I have added some notes on UK TV ratings for the ceremony, and one or two random internet finds. However I have not updated the YouTube view counts because the main reason for this year's remarkable increases is utterly bizarre, as discussed in the "ritual" section of the Afterthoughts chapter.

July 2021: The pandemic continues, with a new super-strength Delta Variant. One odd result has been that lots of live event workers have had time on their hands, and have been looking back at the olden days, via online videos and blog entries. I have thus been enabled to make many improvements to this text, including a clarification of the timeline of preparations for the opening ceremony, as revealed in the diary of lighting director Patrick Woodroffe.

... and having forgotten to put in the link to Patrick's video diaries, I took the opportunity to add a few more random bits on 27 July 2021.

July 2022: As the 10th anniversary approaches, a few more additions gathered randomly since last year.

Christmas 2022: Just a few tiny corrections, a couple of podcast gleanings, and a couple of updated YouTube stats.

July 2023: As the 11th anniversary approaches, a few more additions gathered randomly since last year.

Here's a jolly ending to the Introduction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O75aVdYDy0

YouTube: Richard Herring channel

Frank Cottrell-Boyce - RHLSTP #260

Interview by Richard Herring at the Liverpool Playhouse, 23 Oct 2019

21 Feb 2020

...

RH: ... it was such a hopeful, I mean an- an amazing thing to be involved in obviously

FCB: Yeah, obviously a pack o' lies [BOTH LAUGH]

RH: Yeah. Well it stood out to me ...

FCB [interrupting]: ... In retrospect, yeah

RH: I mean, if you did it- if you did it now ...

FCB [interrupting]: 'Cos that's like, as wrong as anyone's ever been [LAUGHS] about anything

RH: I just wonder whether, like, all the evil people in Britain saw it and went "Nah, we're not havin' that ..."

FCB: Yeah ... I think that might be true

When this was mentioned on Twitter in 2020, Frank clarified that he was joking and that "I still believe".

First Principles

If you cite any of the following as a reason for disliking any given Olympic opening ceremony, you haven't been paying attention:

1) "It's supposed to be a celebration of sport" and, directly linked

2) "It's supposed to be an international event, not all about the host nation"

The actual policy of the International Olympic Committee says otherwise, I'm afraid. The big clue is in the words of the opening declaration by the host country's head of state: "the Games of the XXX Olympiad". An "Olympiad" is a period of four years in which the host nation, in collaboration with as many other nations as possible, presents not just the Games, but a richly varied programme of cultural events (which must run through the Olympic Games period, but can also extend as far through the four-year period as the host nation chooses- from 1912 to 1948 there were even cultural medals). Indeed, even "host nation" misses the point that the Games are awarded to individual cities- a fact made more of in the summer Opening Ceremonies of the 1990s, held in dynamic regional cities, than in the iconic national centres of 2000-2008. The opening ceremony is where the culture meets the sport, with a specific brief to "capture the flavour and culture of the host nation" and "highlight the people and traditions of a city, region and nation" [IOC Technical Manual on Ceremonies, 5th update (2011), p35], in tandem with the parade which welcomes the athletes, and the carefully specified ceremonial elements. Which leads us to

3) "The parade of athletes is too long"

There are a lot of athletes taking part, and this ceremony is supposed to welcome all of them (except those who choose not to parade, of course). There has recently been a compromise restricting the number of non-athletes (team organisers, trainers etc.) in the parade, but to have several thousand people from over 200 nations walk a full lap of an Olympic stadium, with a minimum of 18 seconds permitted between the entrance of each team, just does take a significant amount of time. It would be possible to have the athletes entering from two or more points and tracing a slightly spiral path as they walked their lap, so that big teams which took much more than 18 seconds to enter would still only get 18 seconds of attention on TV. But those tend to be the teams of the nations which put the most cash into the event, so the idea could backfire badly. Speaking of cash ...

4) "It's a waste of money"

True in a sense, but the budget for a billion TV viewers almost simultaneously watching all or part of 2 hours of ceremony and 2 hours of parade from your nation would (Beijing apart) pay for just a fraction of a typical Hollywood action movie. It doesn't actually matter if most of the billion viewers keep watching purely in the hope that the flame lighting will make up for all the dross that has gone before- hundreds of millions of them are going to stick with it, one way or another, and in a few months time, only the "magic moments" will matter. The escalation of budgets for the whole Olympics is a significant worry, however, and some degree of ingenuity may be advisable to avoid the worst excesses of snout-in-troughery.

Additional points:

a) The Olympic Games originated thousands of years ago at Olympia in Greece. In honour of this founding role, athletes from Greece always take first place in the Parade of Nations. Also, the official Olympic Hymn was written by a Greek composer and poet, Spyridon Samaras and Kostis Palamas- host nations may choose to have the lyrics sung in the original Greek if they wish.

b) The modern international Olympics were established by a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. In honour of his founding role, public announcements in the stadium at the opening ceremony are made first in French. In honour of practicality, they are then repeated in English, and in the appropriate local language where necessary.

Second Principles

There were, in effect, five different audiences for the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. Ranking equal first were: the stadium audience (whose ticket purchases made the show financially profitable, a feat Beijing had chosen not to attempt in 2008), the UK TV audience and the Chinese TV audience (except for a couple of minutes near the end, when the London boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest were clear winners, with an experience bigger than any television screen, even bigger than any stadium). Second came most of the rest of the world. Finally, trailing a long way behind in fifth place, anybody on the receiving end of #nbcfail, several hours later.

Of the three first-placed audiences, the one which needs most explanation is the last to be listed, the nation which produced the brilliant 2008 Olympic Games.

http://oregonexpat.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/london-opening-ceremony-wow/

Oregon Expat (blog by an American expatriate living in Portugal)

London opening ceremony = wow

28 July 2012

Beijing's ceremony set the bar so high that nobody could ever dream of topping it. How do you compete with an extravaganza produced by a totalitarian state with unlimited funds and unlimited manpower?

As London and director Danny Boyle demonstrated, you don't compete. You completely change the game. This was the Kobayashi Maru of Olympic opening ceremonies- and like Kirk, Boyle cheated.

[Yes, that is a Star Trek reference. It's quite famous, so I'm going to leave you to look it up if you don't already know it.]

http://flowtv.org/2012/08/how-london-responded/

FlowTV ("a critical forum on television and media culture published by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin.")

How London Responded to Beijing in the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

Fan Yang / University of Maryland, Baltimore County

August 14th, 2012

The shadow of Beijing looms large in Danny Boyle's 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony, whether one admits it or not. The spectacle on July 27 has done everything to out-perform the 2008 Beijing extravaganza by following a rather simple strategy: whatever China did, we do the opposite.

Everybody knew it would be madness to try and beat the Chinese at their own game- but what the 2012 creative team understood was that there's more than one game in China. London's opening ceremony applied the ancient Chinese philosophical concepts of yin and yang, to produce a spectacle which inverted or mirrored the elements of Beijing 2008.

The key theme in Beijing had been the scale and longevity of Chinese civilisation, symbolised by the Four Great Inventions which eventually spread from China to the world in what Europeans (and their descendants overseas) think of as the medieval period. London's presentation therefore ignored early British heritage almost completely, except for a few lines of quotation from Shakespeare, emphasis on a single word invented by Milton (but given its relevant context centuries later by documentary maker Humphrey Jennings), and a background hill named "Glastonbury Tor" after a famous historic site which it roughly resembled. No reference to the extraordinary 5,000 year old structures of Skara Brae and Maes Howe; no Stonehenge or Uffington White Horse; no representation of exquisite art and metalwork such as the Lindisfarne Gospels or the wittily instructive Fuller Brooch; no legends of King Arthur or Robin Hood; no Magna Carta or Bill of Rights; no music by Tallis or Purcell; no King Henry VIII (either as monarch or musician) or Queen Elizabeth I; no Venerable Bede or King James Bible; Oxford and Cambridge merely as boat-race rivals; no Newton or Locke (but therein lay a delightful twist, revealed a few weeks later). Instead, this story started just as China's astonishing civilisation was reaching the depths of isolationist self-pastiche, at the beginning of the 18th century of the western era, when England and Wales were formally united with Scotland, and in odd provincial corners a long succession of inventions that would shake the world began to be made. On a more specific level, Beijing had celebrated the 21st century without really touching the awkward 20th- so guess which century was shown in greatest detail by London ...

The key presentational device in Beijing had been the framed picture: a series of artistic activities on the vast LED display in the centre of the stadium being framed or highlighted by the synchronised actions of hundreds or thousands of surrounding performers. Although western presenters made frantic efforts to explain the cultural wonders being represented in the display area (which meant that another cultural wonder, the sophisticated music, was often inaudible), western audiences paid more attention to the frames. In London, the great O of the stadium itself was the only frame, with deliberately varied action ebbing and flowing to the ceiling at times, thanks to the "pixel paddles" among the spectators; and instead of genteel activities there were emotive dramas. Also, studying audience videos of the London presentation, it's astonishing just how much was actually happening at any given moment in the live performances. Which brings us to ...

The key theme in Beijing had been harmonious order. The key theme in London was creative disorder. Although the number of performers in London was not orders of magnitude smaller than in Beijing, there was hardly ever an opportunity to count the number of rows and the number of columns and multiply to arrive at a total of 2,008 or whatever. Performers just turned up everywhere- often in the middle of the audience. Where dancers formed specific shapes, these were smaller than in Beijing, and yet in some ways more complex. This creative disorder went too far in the "Frankie and June" sequence, where the richness of British popular culture over the past half-century was simply too much for a quarter-hour summary (and sadly, the attempt to present a similar concept in more leisurely fashion for the closing ceremony ran into problems with iconic performers who were either (a) dead, (b) a lot less hot than most people remembered them, or (c) not happy with the prospect of falling into category (b), and therefore absent).

In general, too, Beijing used repetition and elegant patterns to promote "cognitive ease," the phenomenon of enhanced subconscious acceptance described in works such as Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2011, chapter 5). London's barrage of different inputs veered more in the direction of "cognitive strain"- forcing viewers to think more actively about what they were seeing and hearing, or take a big hint given in the opening "Thames journey" film.

http://www.cmbellerive.com/2012/08/03/slightly-insane/

Strange Quarks

"Slightly Insane"

by C. M. Bellerive Posted on 3 August 2012

So many commentators have contrasted the "militaristic" spirit of the Chinese ceremony with the "quirky," "fanciful," or "independent-minded" British one, as if it were a contest of national spirits. Really, though, this was a contest of two filmmakers - in an arena where Zhang Yimou had only to play to his strengths.

For me, the catch with that last statement, and with the 2008 Beijing opening, is precisely that Zhang Yimou did not play effectively to all his strengths. He is an intensely emotional film-maker, yet the very formalised nature of the Olympic opening seemed to drain every feeling but pride. Again, part of the London yin/yang approach was to evoke as many different emotions as possible (more on that in a moment).

Zhang's "big pictures" approach also appears to have been problematic for the stadium spectators:

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/sports_globetrotting/2008/09/by-philip-hersh.html

Globetrotting: A Worldly View of Sports

Seeing the Beijing opening ceremony clearly

by Philip Hersh [who had covered the event live from the stadium]

4 Sep 2008

I realized about 20 minutes into watching the ceremony in the recorded version that even if I hadn't been hot and I hadn't been working, I still would have seen and understood much less than what every TV viewer could.

I have been to 14 Olympics (and 13 opening ceremonies). Never has one been so skillfully directed and choreographed as a TV production than the Beijing ceremony.

The live stadium audience of 91,000 was irrelevant, except to add background noise (claps, cheers, oohs and aahs) to the TV sound track.

[Beijing co-director Wang Chaoge explicitly confirmed these priorities in a July 2012 interview for "Event" magazine. Here's a typical video from a stadium spectator:]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtqQJS81obc

YouTube

Beijing Olympic Games Opening 8

Diana N

19 Jan 2009

... and the same issue reportedly affected the opening ceremony of Athens 2004 (an event which, I'll confess, makes me quite angry because the TV camerawork and the extreme brevity of the cultural presentation, just half the length of Sydney's, disguised a snail-like pace and a tiny scale of performance more suited to a theatre than a stadium):

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1067177&page=8

Skyscraper City discussion forums

Did you watch the opening of The Vancouver Winter Olympic Games?

contribution by mr.x

18 Feb 2010

... as for the Athens 2004 Opening Ceremony...I thought it was a stunning ceremonies but mainly only on tv, I have heard many negative comments from spectators in the stadium that it was just too slow if you were watching it in the stadium.

The London approach was an experiment to try and combine the advantages of the TV production (multiple viewpoints, including above the action, and right inside the action next to the performers) with the advantages of the stadium spectator (who has the event occupying the whole field of vision instead of a restricted rectangle, and the ability to direct attention towards any part of the action at will). Nobody got perfection, but everybody got the best view of some things.

http://olympics.time.com/2012/06/13/london-olympics-opening-ceremony-to-star-cows-sheep/

Time

Opening Ceremony Spoiler: Details Leaked Ahead of Olympics

by William Lee Adams

13 Jun 2012

Suttirat Larlarb, the sought-after costume designer who worked with Boyle on 'Slumdog Millionaire', has teamed up with him again for the event. Speaking with TIME in early June, she emphasized that Boyle has kept the 80,000 stadium spectators in mind - not merely the billions watching on television. "We don't want to rob the stadium audience of anything because we're only thinking about the television audience," she says. "What happened in Beijing was a completely massive, spectacular, overwhelmingly beautiful television experience. And yet some people will say that when they were in the stadium they didn't feel connected to it at all because it was devised for the television."

I'll briefly mention a few smaller ways the contrasting approach worked: Beijing's beautiful (and hi-tech) matching drums against London's assortment of upturned buckets (not to mention drumsticks with tennis balls on the end); Beijing's rows of tall and elegant pillars against London's random collection of truly huge factory chimneys [US: smokestacks]; Beijing's ethnic homogeneity against the East End's crazy diversity; Beijing's similar homogeneity of fit, good-looking young performers against London's allsorts, whose main shared characteristic was their enthusiasm (but within that was the specific notion, embodied in a deaf percussion genius, wheelchair dancers etc., that inclusiveness can be a surprisingly effective strategy). It also reflected the paradoxical idea that British culture cannot be exotic, because all around the world it is embedded in everyday modern life.

[As a northerner, I think I need to interrupt myself here to comment on a remarkable sleight-of-hand whereby the ceremony contrived, much more than its recent predecessors, to be "about the host nation" while at the same time being unabashedly "about the host city". Most of the Olympic Park area was still green pasture a century after Manchester's industrial revolution began, but that revealed "Pandemonium" map showed east London; conversely, nearly all British cities other than London, lacking its soft clay foundation, opted for tramways rather than underground railways. And other children's hospitals are also available ...]

The key differences between the political cultures of Britain and China were directly highlighted in the presentation of 20th century groups and movements (from the Suffragettes to the young adults of 1967-68), and writ very large indeed as the letters N H S. Americans thought the NHS sequence referred to their struggles with Obamacare (and they were probably not entirely wrong); many Brits thought the attack of the giant villains was a reference to the Westminster government's ideologically-blinkered reforms (and they were probably partly correct) but I think the message to China was "this is the proper function of government, to promote the well-being of the people, not to organise them".

Back to the emotion. Where Beijing mostly showed elegant, magnificent tableaux on the theme of historical development, London was a roller-coaster, with sudden changes of mood and pace: menace, frightening chaotic frenzy, comic interludes, romance, celebratory chaotic frenzy, quiet remembrance, a rather cheeky version of triumphalism (the Queen's "entry" and David Beckham in his shining boat, setting off fireworks wherever he goes- powerful yet warmly intimate symbols), and so on. As for pride- the best representation of that in London was probably the honour guard of 500 Olympic construction workers for Sir Steve Redgrave's entry to the stadium with the Torch (I'm still not sure what feeling was seen on the faces of the Industrial Revolution performers at the joining of the Rings, but I suspect that, as advertised in the title, Wonder was at least a part of it- the final version looked significantly better than the rehearsal footage).

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-10-29/secrets-of-the-olympic-opening-ceremony-revealed

Radio Times

Secrets of the Olympic Opening Ceremony revealed

James Gill interviews Frank Cottrell Boyce

29 Oct 2012

Were you worried no one would get it?

There's a great quote from the classical playwright Terence, who said, "I'm a human being. Nothing that's human is alien to me." I always thought that if we tried to second-guess people, and what should be in there, we'd end up with something that nobody really likes. But if you're just honest about what you really love, you very quickly discover that lots of people feel the same as you.

The camerawork in Beijing had concentrated on the big picture (and the even bigger frame), using close-ups of smaller groups to disguise the fact that hundreds of people were just doing the same thing. There certainly were some closer shots of individuals, particularly those who were performing within the "picture" area, but even those were more about composition than intimacy. London attempted, within its theme of creative disorder, to convey the scale of the event by rapid cutting between wide shots and many different close-ups. This, ironically, seems to have been the most upsetting aspect of the London presentation for American viewers, who of all people on the planet should be best able to cope with a fast-cutting style. Faced with, in effect, a combination of two completely different shows (fast-cutting drama with its propulsive soundtrack obscured by NBC commentary more suitable for the leisurely pace of Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade) many missed the emotion entirely and found the dynamic event "boring". Of course there's also the problem that fast intercutting is normally between different viewpoints on the same action, whereas the London Opening cut between shots which were often only conceptually related (by the way, the variety of elements visible at any given moment in London resulted in wonderfully rich coverage by press photographers; particularly valuable when online news outlets can easily host galleries of dozens of images).

http://www.wnyc.org/npr_articles/2012/jul/28/londons-opening-ceremony-gets-rave-reviews-nbc-not-so-much/

wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

London's Opening Ceremony Gets Rave Reviews; NBC, Not So Much

Saturday, July 28, 2012

[comment:]

NYCmom from New York City, Jul. 28 2012 08:42 PM

... Pathetic, intrusive and way too much commentary. I also hated the camerawork. Why are they afraid to just pull back and let us watch it unfold instead of unrelenting, disjointed close up filming? There sure were a ton of commercial breaks, too, that killed the flow. ...

Note there how the commenter implicitly blames NBC for the fast-cutting style! Now to round off this section with a few comparisons:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lorraine-justice-phd/london-olympics-opening-ceremony_b_1719428.html

Huffington Post

London Olympic Opening vs. Beijing Olympic Opening: Controlled Chaos vs. Controlled Order

Posted: 07/30/2012 11:25 am

Lorraine Justice, PhD

... it is not so important what we westerners thought about the London Opening Ceremony, but what the East thought of the London ceremony. When the West watched the Beijing Opening Ceremony, we were amazed and somewhat aghast at the sheer size of the disciplined, organized and beautiful event. So Brazil's Olympic Opening Ceremony will be next. Will it be colorful and beautiful with steaks and chocolate for everyone? I hope so.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/07/olympic-opening-ceremonies-danny-boyle-britain

Vanity Fair

The Olympic Opening Ceremonies: Danny Boyle Explains Britain to the World, and to Itself

(from blog by Henry Porter)

[selected comment:]

cuppalentilsoop 7:12 PM on 7/29/2012

It was wonderful. The brilliant lunacy and lush, unapologetic sentiment was such a relief after the hideously hyper-synced OCD slave labor vibes I got from China's creepily gorgeous affair. Amazing spectacle that was, but impossible not to think of that ball bounce scene in Wrinkle in Time.

[ It must be over 40 years since I read "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeleine L'Engle, but I recalled instantly what cuppalentilsoup was referring to- it's a very apt and unnerving observation indeed.]

http://michaelheppell.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/137/

Michael Heppell~ The Blog

Opening Ceremony

01 Wednesday Aug 2012

The opening of Beijing was a spectacular show. Like Cirque du Soleil x six million. I remember the thrill of seeing 2008 drummers at the start and I remember the... hang on no I don't remember much else.

It was brilliant but it was expected.

London on the other hand did the unexpected - for the whole show.

Actually, there are at least two other very well-remembered aspects of the Beijing Opening- the vast illuminated lantern / globe, and the lone athlete running horizontally right round the top of the stadium to light the Cauldron. But who remembers the scenes which unfurled on the scroll screen behind him during his three minutes in the air? And what of Beijing's lovely firework-spark Rings; was their impact increased or reduced by the later repetitions of the "big images floating up into the sky" motif?

http://rullsenbergrules.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/bonkers-what-apt-word-for-london.html

Rullsenberg Rules

Bonkers - what an apt word for the London Olympics Opening Ceremony

Saturday, July 28, 2012

[comment:]

JoeinVegas

I walked through once in a while as the TV played - it looked very dull and boring to me. That Mr. Bean on the piano part - oh. And the house party thing? All we could wonder is that if it was so boring to us how was it for all the people in the stadium? It might have looked good on TV to some people, but confusing as heck to some Americans.

At least the Chinese opening had great masses of people in costumes to make interesting patterns.

OK, let's get the negatives out of the way (a small sample of a very large number, mostly but by no means exclusively from the United States)

http://www.faniq.com/blog/2012-Olympics-Opening-Ceremony-Spoilers-and-Review-Blog-52836

FANIQ

Olympics Opening Ceremony Spoilers and Review: River Dance and Glee had a baby that pukes British celebrities

by JoeKukura

27 Jul 2012

[comment:]

27 Jul 2012, ryanmbecker

... Sure you can't match the grandeur and majesty of Beijing, but there is no excuse for this. You can go "pop" and not look like an improvised mess, i.e. the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/07/27/please-resist-the-urge-to-mock-londons-opening-ceremony/

National Post [Canada]

Please resist the urge to mock London's Olympic Opening Ceremony

by Bruce Arthur

27 Jul 2012

[comment by Miss H]

What a BIG FAT joke!!! The worst opening ceremony I've ever seen & no I'm not Canadian, I'm Australian & absolutely LOVE London. What the F... does the NHS have to do with the Olympics??? Where was the colour, the fun, the floats, choreography... Really sad :(

http://screenrant.com/2012-opening-ceremony-london-olympics/

ScreenRant: TV & Movie News Without The Sugar Coating

2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony -How Did NBC Do?

by Anthony Ocasio

c28 Jul 2012

[comments]

DasV

No single party is to blame here. The ceremony was outright boring and strange to begin with and then NBC robbed it of any shred of artistic value it may have had. So much fail on both sides of the pond.

biffula

Boring! Everyone I talked to gave out about the same time I did, during the kids hospital bit that went on and on and on. Snooze fest. Just play a few freakin' songs, march the athletes in, have some fireworks and get on with it!!

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/olympics-opening-ceremony/

The Slog: A diary of deception and distortion

OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY: Britain stays within a tradition begun by Adolf Hitler and cemented by the Beijing fascists.

by John Ward

27-28 Jul 2012

[comment:]

28 Jul 2012, Jwoo:

I get fireworks, they are attractive and can be very challenging to get right. I get enormous fountain displays, they are technically demanding and again can be good to look at especially set to music. An 'opening ceremony' which consisted of the two combined for about half an hour set to dramatic music I could probably actually enjoy. But play acting, dressed up as a theatrical display of history and culture wouldn't ever be watchable ...

http://dadandburied.com/2012/07/30/an-olympic-sized-commitment/

Dad and Buried

An Olympic-Sized Commitment

by Mike Julianelle (a North Carolina dad)

30 Jul 2012

... Hey Olympics: NO MORE PAGEANTS. Just give me the spectacle without the storytelling. See: China

...

http://mefoley.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/opening-ceremony-2012/

M E Foley's Anglo-American Experience Blog

Opening Ceremony 2012

[comments]

Betsy, August 5, 2012 at 1:35 AM

OK, I really LOVE the Brits, but there was so much goings on in the opening ceremonies that I just plain got bored. Too fussy. & I was ignorant of many references-but really didn't want to have them explained. And kids are only cute for so long as far as I'm concerned. Bah humbug. Give me those Chinese drummers any time, but don't you dare take my Digestives away.

MFC, August 5, 2012 at 3:18 AM

Yes! "Fussy" is exactly the word! Thank you, Betsy. There were many wonderful parts of the ceremony. But, overall, it did appear fussy to me, too.

Random comments:

"I switched off at the James Bond point, can't stand daniel craig and no time for the royal family."

"We turned it off, and so did everyone we know."

The most intellectual negative analysis came from France (or rather, perhaps, America via Paris; he's Managing Editor of Harper's)::

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/07/31/hacks-britannica-reviving-an-olympic-tradition-of-crapness/

Paris Review

Hacks Britannica: Reviving an Olympic Tradition of Crapness

by Rafil Kroll-Zaidi

31 Jul 2012

I recommend reading this article, but it does have at least as many flaws as the London Opening itself. Most painfully, Mr Kroll-Zaidi shoots himself in both feet with bullets of the same calibre, viz. omission of inconvenient truths. In suggesting that post-1945 British history is presented as "nothing but children's books and pop music (and to a lesser extent movies and television)" he fails to address the National Health Service sequence except in relation to the children's books connection (we can perhaps forgive missing the subtle hints provided by the frequent sight of mobile devices using ARM chip architecture, and the singing of "Bubbles"). In reporting Danny Boyle's career, he fails to acknowledge that Slumdog Millionaire "a lively, mediocre film that ... achieved a terrifying popularity" was also a multiple award-winner (it's probably worth mentioning here that Rafil, born in New Delhi, is something of an expert on Indian cinema). His article, which does contain some valuable critical insights gives an overall impression of pretentious bitchiness (perhaps most spectacularly in the sentence which begins, quite reasonably, with "At stadium scale, even on television, many of his scenes quickly became atomized," but continues and concludes with "lost to a mise-en-scènique provinciality" ).

Here, for comparison, is another reviewer making similar points without showing off:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18971766

BBC News Magazine

Opening Ceremony review: Palace coup provides Danny Boyle's master stroke

by Jasper Rees

28 Jul 2012

As ever with such ceremonies (when not choreographed by the big-spending Chinese), there was an unresolved tussle between the large scale and the intimate, between entertaining those in the stadium and everyone else parked on the sofa.

Many of the close-ups lacked narrative clarity, while a vast spectacle made up of too many component parts was short of epic heft.

Whenever an idea was good, it was because it was simple.

Also very flawed in its attempts to satirise the show, but again making some effective points, and much more entertaining than Kroll-Zaidi's piece, is:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/07/olympic-opening-ceremonies-recap

Vanity Fair

The 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies Recap: 5 Hours Of Feel-Weird Fun

By Michelle Collins

28 Jul 2012

... Did someone slip an Ambien into my Chobani? Why are THE BEATLES there? Next to the Titanic? Do they think we're just gonna lap up this British reference stew like a hungry toothless orphan? Why are these floating fire rings so beautiful? Why am I crying?? These questions and more ... after the break. ...

#nbcfail

Yes, Michelle was watching the NBC version of the event. Here's a small sample (about 77 seconds) from NBC's presentation of the Industrial Era ( based on screen-shot footage posted on Youtube by AllAccess181, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDORgtOSiFY&feature=related )

[SHOW: aerial shot showing a large part of the arena, with the floor like a map of east London, including the great meander of the Thames at Greenwich]

No commentary

[SHOW: A platoon of elderly men in red military uniforms (introduced in commentary at a different point) march past the camera]

Vieira: "All of the energies unleashed by the Industrial Revolution are now trained on the centre of the stage"

[SHOW: High-angle view of centre of the stage, where molten metal appears to be flowing}

Vieira: "And the forging, of a massive ring"

[SHOW: Molten metal appears to flow into a ring-shaped mould; this process, incidentally, should probably be called casting, not forging]

Lauer: "Here's one of the magic moments especially for the people"

[SHOW: Performers work on the mould for the new ring with large hammers]

Lauer continues: "actually uniquely for the people in the stadium tonight because not only are you watching"

[SHOW: More performers appear to drag the last of the molten metal along the channel into the mould with large paddles]

Lauer continues: "this ring being forged by these workers, but here in the stadium you can smell it."

[SHOW: Smoke billowing from the huge chimneys]

Lauer: "They have found a way to pump that smoke that sulfur smell that factory smell out to the 65,000-plus people in attendance.

[SHOW: Close-up on "Brunel" surveying the work with satisfaction.]

Lauer: "They're getting an eyeful an earful, and now a noseful.

Vieira: (Small laugh, pause) "The one time you want smellovision"

[SHOW: Back to workers at the mould, now in close-up; quickly followed by a tracking shot showing various machines at work, and lots of drummers (this was substituted by NBC- the original shot of workers in close-up had been longer. The same cuttting to wide shots happens during various long close-ups throughout the show, and is one of a few decent things NBC did with their transmission delay) ]

No commentary

[SHOW: Men, women and children in clothes decorated with thousands of pearly buttons are shown parading.]

Lauer: Looking down there now and you can see the floor of the stadium what was once grass and maypoles is now,"

[SHOW: High angle shot, showing much of the arena floor, but somewhat obscured by smoke]

Lauer: "a rendition of, a map, of the city of London"

[SHOW: Another close-up of workers with hammers]

Lauer: "complete with the River Thames running through the middle of it"

Basically, when viewers needed context (explanations of appearances such as the Pearly Kings and Queens of London's East End) they got a rudimentary form of Audio Description of the main scene, repeatedly breaking the flow of the music. Hang on though- it was worse than that. Because of the delayed broadcast, the commentary team had time to make notes on the individual shots, so again and again you hear them describing what will be seen in the NEXT shot.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/28/1114493/-NBC-Didn-t-Show-Us-the-Whole-Olympic-Ceremony

Daily Kos

topic: NBC Didn't Show Us the Whole Olympic Ceremony - Updated with NBC response

[comments]

28 Jul 2012, 01:00:05 PM PDT, vacantlook

That's what bothered me most about NBC's broadcast: most of the commentary was nothing but statements of the most obvious. "And now the smokestacks are rising." Really? Is that why they're going upward? I would have never known if they hadn't told me! And during the girl-loses-phone-and-finds-boy segment, Viera couldn't shut up about what music she herself listens to. And then there was the what-do-we-do-now setup to Mary Poppins arrival that for me just totally ruined the moment.

Not to mention ....

28 Jul 2012, 07:30:27 AM PDT, Giles Goat Boy

Worst comment of the night...

The delegation from Uganda enters the stadium, one NBC commentator reads from his notes that Winston Churchill called Uganda "The Pearl of Africa." Bob Costas then blurts out "Churchill never met Idi Amin...." Ba-dum-bum!

Freaking hilarious, Bob. I'm sure that's the image that Uganda wanted to present to the world considering Amin was exiled from Uganda in 1979 and has been dead for 9 years.

I hope the Ugandan commentators said something like "... and here comes the United States. Remember they had legalized slavery until the 1860s, legalized racial segregation until the 1960s, and they still imprison a disproportionately large percentage of African-Americans! Good luck to them!"

The astonishing thing is that this sort of thing has been going on for years, and has always attracted criticism (as in 2004, for example, when Athens went to the trouble of asking internationally renowned singer Bjork to write and perform a song for them, and NBC's commentators talked over it)- it seems to be the commentary equivalent of dogs marking their territory. From 2004, here's a neat satire:

http://www.tonymedley.com/Articles/Katie_Couric_and_Bob_Costas_Cover_Gettysburg.htm

No, hang on, it was even worse than that! The first, and most fundamental aspect of #nbcfail was the delayed broadcast, which simply failed to acknowledge that the USA is part of the world. As a result, the land of the free was locked within itself for several hours while people partied together via television and social media in Singapore and Sydney, Toronto and Tokyo, Reykjavik and Rio, Lisbon, Leipzig, Lille and especially London. Woe betide any American who tried using a smartphone or computer during those hours- unless of course they were sneakily tapping into live TV feeds from Canada or the BBC. There's a major difference between knowing vaguely that James Bond will be featured somewhere, and knowing in detail, with Instagrams to prove it, that he and the Queen are seen parachuting from a helicopter over the stadium. This led to some interesting direction of blame:

http://expatmum.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/nbc-massacres-olympics-opening-ceremony.html

Expat Mum: Observations from the U.S. of A. (blog)

NBC massacres the Olympics Opening Ceremony

29 Jul 2012

... Piers Morgan (in London) took to Twitter and, despite his Translaticness knowing that American Tweeps couldn't yet watch the proceedings, tweeted the big surprise about who would be lighting the torch! If there was a twit and a wazzock of the 2012 Olympics, it wasn't Mitt Romney as the newspapers claimed, it was feckin' stupid Piers Morgan. Unbelievable.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/viewers+over+delayed+coverage/7006706/story.html

Montreal Gazette

NBC upsets Olympics fans by running opening ceremony on tape delay

by David Bauder (Associated Press)

28 Jul 2012

... NBC Sports spokesman Christopher McCloskey said the ceremonies "are complex entertainment spectacles that do not translate well online because they require context, which our award-winning production team will provide for the large prime-time audiences that gather together to watch them."

...

CNN's Piers Morgan, who was tweeting details about the ceremony in the late afternoon, tweeted shortly before 7:30 p.m. ET: "Laughable that America is yet to start watching the Olympic ceremony on TV. Seriously."...

Piers was just expressing in philosophical terms what every network news broadcast, including NBC's own, and every news liveblog or Twitter feed, again including NBC's own, was making very apparent. A live event is a live event, and you can't just pretend that it's not happening. Hence Americans knew almost as soon as everybody else, for example, what the spark-showering Olympic Rings looked like, because stills or short clips were shown in news bulletins- but not until hours later did they see the quarter-hour drama which created those Rings, a quarter-hour which they spent waiting for the shot they had already seen.

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2012/07/23/london-olympics-nbc-opening-ceremonies-still-quite-delayed/

Wall Street Journal

The Daily Fix- Opening Ceremonies: Still Quite Delayed

by Shira Ovide

23 Jul 2012

...

"We are live streaming every sporting event, all 32 sports and 302 medals," said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. "It was never our intent to live stream the Opening Ceremony or Closing Ceremony."

Mr. Zenkel also said the opening ceremony is not a sporting event with a score or a winner that is difficult to keep secret, but rather an entertainment spectacle that should be seen by family and friends gathered around the TV in prime-time hours.

...

NBC's Mr. Zenkel has said he knows people are going to turn to services such as Twitter for an unvarnished look at the Games, and the Comcast Corp. unit plans to seed links to stoke excitement for TV viewing.

"They are complex entertainment spectacles that do not translate well online because they require context," said Mr. Zenkel. "We will be providing clips and highlights of each ceremony online so viewers know what to look forward to in prime time on NBC."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_94mrUGLp9E

NBC Nightly News

27 Jul 2012

[Includes shots of the Guardian and Daily Telegraph front pages for the next morning's editions, with the Olympic Rings image. Newscaster describes it as "part of the pyrotechnic show inside the stadium tonight" and brief footage of the moment, with cascading fire, is shown as the newscaster confirms there will also be "an unusual James Bond moment, and a first for the Queen of England"- video of Bond's discreet cough in the presence of the Queen is shown.]

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/27/nbc-olympic-opening-ceremony/

TechCrunch

NBCOlympics' Opening Ceremony Tape Delay: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

by Ryan Lawlor

27 Jul 2012

Now, tape delays are nothing new, but they do seem archaic at a time when online video and social media bring an air of immediacy to live events. The existence of the NBC Olympics Twitter account is evidence of this, but the account seems totally misused in this case: NBC live tweeted the whole ceremony, with no apparent sense of irony around the fact that its target audience couldn't actually watch the events it was describing. Instead of building excitement around the ceremony, and engaging with its viewers, all NBC ended up doing was frustrating its audience ...

[Comments:]

[27 Jul 2012]: Juan Carlos

In México we saw it live. It's amazing yhat the dinosaurs that run NBC have made such an idiotic decision

[28 Jul 2012]: Prasannaa Ravi

... Its not 1980. Its 2012 ... In my country, they showed the event at 1.00 in the morning. I still watched it. And they are going to show the edited/highlighted version that evening.

[29 Jul 2012]: Tony Grossman, Senior Integrated Producer at Leo Burnett PR

... there is something to be said for the shared experience, and that's all fine and good for those that want to share it in prime time in the US. BUT if we wanted to watch it live (which is actually kind of exciting, and also a SHARED worldwide experience), we COULDN'T because NBC had exclusive US rights. There was no official live stream, just a ridiculous NBC twitter feed. So US residents were forced to either find a pirated live stream, or wait for NBC's packaged event coverage that featured the insanely clueless team of Matt and Meredith. It is 2012, but its NBC that still thinks its 1980. ...

Hang on yet again- it was even worserer than that! NBC broadcast most of the show in "pretend real time", so that some inconvenient moments (and quite a few parading nations) could disappear into the commercial breaks. Among these were the Arctic Monkeys rocker "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor", the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" and, at the opposite end of the apple-pie scale:

http://www.wnyc.org/npr_articles/2012/jul/28/londons-opening-ceremony-gets-rave-reviews-nbc-not-so-much/

wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

London's Opening Ceremony Gets Rave Reviews; NBC, Not So Much

Saturday, July 28, 2012

[comment:]

28 Jul 2012, 04:19 PM, Brian from Olympia, WA

Most of all, they cut out the taking of the oath by all Olympian participants. This is something that should have been shown so that all athletes of the future can learn from the best that good sportsmanship is also part of the game.

http://expatmum.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/nbc-massacres-olympics-opening-ceremony.html

Expat Mum: Observations from the U.S. of A. (blog)

NBC massacres the Olympics Opening Ceremony

29 Jul 2012

Bearing in mind that the entire thing was pre-recorded, our commentators kept saying "While you were away..." then telling us what we'd missed; as if, a) we had gone to make a cup of tea when really, we'd been sitting still, waiting patiently for the ceremony to return, and b) it was not a pre-recorded event and they couldn't have shown us anything they wanted to.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/wtf/outrage_at_nbc_for_cutting_olympic_music.html

UltimateGuitar

Outrage At NBC For Cutting Olympic Music

07/31/2012

... 24 ad breaks were shown during the broadcast. The twitter hashtag #NBCsucks became a trending topic when US viewers realised they would not be able to see the full event, according to NME. ...

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2012/07/27/zombie-blog-nbcs-opening-ceremonies/

Wall Street Journal

Zombie Blog: NBC's Opening Ceremony

Jeremy Gordon offers commentary from Chicago, Christina Binkley from Los Angeles, and Geoff Foster and Sara Germano from New York.

28 Jul 2012

2:33 am [during the Parade of Nations], by Jeremy Gordon

Lauer says "We'll be right back after this" as we cut away and go to commercial -- so, wait, is he narrating to a tape delay? There are so many wormholes of spatial possibilities.

[Bear in mind also that NBC insisted on showing the ceremony in primetime on the west coast too- three hours later still:]

2:36 am, by Christina Binkley, in Olympics-less LA

My friend Maggie in Shanghai just posted to her Facebook that she's watching the Opening Ceremony. So that just makes just me and the entire MIDWEST AND WEST COAST that has to wait another hour. NBC, I have a beef with you.

http://screenrant.com/2012-opening-ceremony-london-olympics/

ScreenRant: TV & Movie News Without The Sugar Coating

2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony -How Did NBC Do?

by Anthony Ocasio

c28 Jul 2012

Continuously cutting to commercials throughout, the subtle, nuanced program that Danny Boyle planned out was all but eviscerated, as a need to recoup some of the money spent on the Olympic rights took its toll on a ceremony that the world was raving about just hours before.

It may be significant that, while NBC traditionally won multiple Emmy awards for its Olympic opening ceremony coverage, and the local producers of the events tended to be ignored for non-American Olympics, that was reversed in both London (where Danny Boyle and his team won the show's only Emmy) and Sochi.

Adam Smith, the first great philosopher of capitalism, was not at all keen on monopolies, except as a way to get new ventures off the ground (e.g. the granting of limited-term patents on inventions). In his day the big bugbear was the East India Company, but the principle behind the Olympic deal with broadcasters is the same: to aid long-term planning, quality control comes second to financial guarantees. So, congratulations to London for putting on a Games that continued the trend of rising Olympic ratings for NBC

( http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/SB-Blogs/Olympics/London-Olympics.aspx ).

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh-game/gold-medal-canadian-broadcasters-london-2012-opening-ceremony-202457457.html

Yahoo Canada: Eh Game

Gold medal for Canadian broadcasters: London 2012 opening ceremony sets record with 16.6 million viewers

by Don Landry

29 Jul 2012

"Not so fast, though.

If there was the notion that showing the ceremony live, much earlier than prime time, would harm the Canadian broadcast consortium that showed the event in this country, that notion is dead.

An average audience of 6.4 million watched the show and, overall, 16.6 million tuned in at some point, according to a media release from the broadcast consortium. The latter number, of course, is about half of everybody in Canada. Those are records for summer Olympic viewing in Canada, besting the opening ceremony for the 1996 games of Atlanta."

And there's a further twist. Although NBC's policy of promoting its fall (autumn) treats during the Olympics paid handsomely, there just weren't enough watchable shows in the network's portfolio to keep the momentum going:

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/nbc-sweeps-ratings-lastloses-to-univision/

Deadline Hollywood

NBC To Finish 5th In Sweeps For First Time; Network Falls Behind Univision

Dominic Patten

21 Feb 2013

For the first time in sweeps history, the network is projected to finish fifth in the key adults 18-49 demographic. That's a crushing blow for NBC, which went from flying high in November with a sweep win & Steve Burke breaking his usual silence last fall to brag to the New York Times about the network's performance to its shows cratering and ratings plunging. ... it is the first time the Spanish-language network has beaten NBC ...

TV commentary around the world

NBC could scarcely have done a better job of spoiling the ceremony presentation if the US had been considering a declaration of war against the Brits- but in fairness, they weren't the only ones. Although the main BBC commentary team was much praised by those outside the UK, a mild form of "talk addiction" was still present (if anything, increasing as time passed, particularly once they'd had some fun in the Parade of Nations), despite the anger directed at presentation of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations a few weeks earlier.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/rogermosey/2012/07/no_rows_just_planning_for_open.html

BBC Sport: Roger Mosey's Blog

No rows, just planning for Opening Ceremony

by Roger Mosey

25 Jul 2012

[comment by ricardwsn 28 Jul 2012:]

At first it wasn't too bad, there were just a few brief nuggetts of pertinant information from Hew Edwards which I felt sounded like they had been carefully scripted and some thought had gone into the timing of their delivery which should have been straightforward to do following the rehearsals. It was a little more than I would have liked but had some value and didn't justify looking for the commentary free version. Then Hazel Irvine started to chip in with significantly longer remarks which imparted less useful information and were distinctly annoying. I couldn't believe it when a third one started. It was like sitting in a theatre trying to watch a show with some idiots striking up a conversation behind you.

- which, when analysed in detail, becomes a very interesting statement in conjunction with the following information:

Shakespeare on the Global Stage: Performance and Festivity in the Olympic Year

edited by Paul Prescott, Erin Sullivan

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015

ISBN 9781472520340

Interview with Frank Cottrell Boyce, 6 Nov 2013:

Interviewer: "You also scripted Huw Edwards's commentary, which was spoken during the UK television broadcast. Can you tell us about that? Why was it important to you to do it?"

Frank: "It wasn't important to me, it was important to Danny! ... Danny wanted it not to be corporate and for it to be written by someone who had been part of the creative team, and who understood what it was all for. If you leave it to someone who's just been hired to do the job, they'll blow surprises and things like that. ..."

One member of the Wall Street Journal's liveblogging team, who had been watching the BBC broadcast throughout, to pick up tips like the 7/7 connection for the Wall of Memories, gave up part-way through the parade of nations, because for that section at least, Eurosport's commentary seemed much more appropriate for an Olympic opening. That is, Eurosport's 2D coverage commentary ...

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/blog/2012/jul/29/bbc-coverage-london-2012

The Guardian

Beeb's monumentous coverage makes sense of this London 2012 madness

by Martin Kelner

29 Jul 2012

... the commentator on Eurosport's 3D coverage of the opening ceremony, who dribbled on, Partridge-style, during the National Health Service sequence, with some pointless, punchline-free, anecdote about his grandad not thinking much of the NHS.

It's even conceivable that commentary killed 3D TV, because the BBC's was no better (ratings for their 3D broadcast of the ceremony ended up at a mere 114,000, which was lower than for several ordinary shows that week on the same HD channel, and less than half of 1% of the overall BBC audience for the event):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2012/07/3d_schedule_olympics.html

BBC Internet Blog

Full BBC 3DTV Schedule For Olympics

by Kim Shillinglaw

24 Jul 2012

[comments:]

Neil, 28 Jul 2012

3D coverage of the Olympic Opening Ceremony was fantastic. It was, however, spoiled by the inane witterings of the "commentators" who talked over what was going on in the ceremony.....

blackcat100, 29 Jul 2012

Forgetting about the truly appalling commentary, I thought that the BBC HD 3D Opening Ceremony 3D broadcast was stunning

Paul B, 30 Jul 2012

Visually the Olympic opening ceremony was stunning, the best 3D broadcast I've seen so far. However ... the commentary was awful and not worthy of the event Colin Jackson felt the need to talk over almost everything we were seeing clearly in 3D. At one point he was talking over a band (The Arctic Monkeys?) ... so that you couldn't hear his comments or the music being played. My wife and I spent much of the 3+ hours shouting 'PLEASE SHUT UP!!' at the TV!

crashcris, 5 Aug 2012

I watched the opening ceremony in 2D and then again later in 3D and the 3D absolutely blew me away! Having the depth truly gave much more sense to the images. It made the story that Danny Boyle created totally come to life, but the BBC manged to muck this up completely by having constant inane commentaries blasting out a a high volume whilst lowering the volume of the show! It was a SHOW! The music and staging told the story. It was akin to going to see 'The Phantom Of The Opera' and having two blokes behind you shouting in your ears "this is the bit when the Phantom comes in", "this is the bit with the chandelier", "oh I think this bit's going to be good because he threatens to kill everybody!".

The 3D photography was indeed well done, but I can see that in the long term there was going to be a big problem. The 2D coverage achieved a sense of depth by keeping the cameras moving, but for 3D the cameras mostly occupied carefully chosen fixed positions (usually quite low down), leaving the performers to do the moving at various distances (the relatively small but complex formations of dancers in "Thanks Tim" suited this approach very well). Using two sets of cameras with different strategies requires insane amounts of planning and rehearsal, and is not a viable option for most live events.

Meanwhile, Italy's RAI team may take the prize for most verbose and least competent commentary:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=766199&page=2

British Expats forum

topic: Olympic Games 2012

[comments from some Brits in Italy:]

Anderson Council, Jul 28th 2012, 9:01 am

I can't think of any other country that would have such a vast wealth of popular culture to draw on. Except America, but they wouldn't do it with the humour.

The commentators on RAI were such a pain though. "Kevin Branagh", "JK Rowlings", "Freddie Mercury and the Queens", not to mention the many they didn't even recognise. When they played Pretty Vacant the commentator said "I think this is Kiss"!!! Where (and why) do they find these idiots?

PAT M, Jul 28th 2012, 9:13 am

Sorry but I could not bear to watch such brilliance ruined by "listen to ME" irritating commentary on Rai et al, thank God for free FilmOn on IPad and British ExpatNet for a few pounds a month on my pc. Truly proud to be a Londoner, only the Brits could put on such a spectacular ceremony.

I have also seen screen video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e-YaRcuwgI&feature=related, published on 3 Aug 2012 by comprum2) of the "Pandemonium" section as broadcast on the Spanish sport channel Vivo Deportes, where the commentators adopt the interesting tactic of only talking at the most significant moments (during the war memorial minute of quiet, and the uniting of the five rings). The commentators for the general-audience Spanish channel TVE gave the impression that they had not attended any rehearsals, and were desperately trying to translate the Media Guide into Spanish and match it with the action as the event progressed (for example, introducing Sir Tim Berners-Lee, as the "creator of the internet," when they should really have been introducing Dizzee Rascal). Russia's Channel 1 commentators could scarcely stop talking for a second; ditto the Chinese CCTV commentators (whose work was featured on multiple channels, regardless of the very different images being shown in the 3D version). The French broadcast, from TF1, had a pretty good approach to the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK01skMYetM&feature=related is a clip of this moment, actually recorded from the relay to Madasport, a Madagascar broadcaster ). The presenters chat quite a bit (in French) as the seven young torch-bearers approach the centre of the stadium, but then as they bend to the petals, the talk pauses, with the final word, "Regardez", after which there are just three short explanatory comments up to the end of the fireworks. To put it all into perspective, here are some more observations from various corners of the globe:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/07/27/london-olympics-the-most-embarrasing-opening-ceremony/

Forbes

London Olympics: The Most Embarrassing Opening Ceremony?

Anthony Wing Kosner ("I explore the art and science of producing and consuming content")

27 Jul 2012

[This very negative article generated a huge number of comments illustrating the "Marmite" problem, with American viewers very much tending to the "hate" side]

[comment] Maythinee Washington c1 Aug 2012

Wow. I wonder if there's a difference in terms of NBC vs. BBC coverage and I wonder too about the influence of whatever commentary was done. Because I'm a finicky American, and I watched it here in London (on the BBC) with an international audience that included many other Americans. And I unabashedly LOVED IT as did the people round me- including the other Americans. I thought it was beautiful, thoughtful, and heartwarming. I loved that it celebrated so many of the contributions to a global popular culture in music, literature, etc. And I tend to deem myself a tough critic. I just felt I needed to comment because I'm very curious about that issue of coverage and of audience environment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/27/olympic-opening-ceremony

The Guardian

Danny Boyle's Olympic opening ceremony: madcap, surreal and moving

Owen Gibson, Olympics editor

Friday 27 July 2012 22.00 BST

[comments:]

oswoodroof, 27 July 2012 10:54PM

Watching it on Japanese television. The commentators enjoyed it, spoke positively throughout and commented quite knowledgeably on plenty of even the more subtle references.

benM, 27 July 2012 11:27PM

watching it in Brazil, and the commentators certainly got and explained many of the references, they loved Mr Bean

fromhereon, 28 July 2012 10:47AM

We (Czech & German) loved it, the German commentators loved it. Well with the possible exception of both Mc Cartneys' contributions. The music apart from that was great!

meanderingtripe, 28 July 2012 1:51PM

Response to PacoFleyas, 27 July 2012 10:44PM

BBC commentary was awful. I assume there wasn't a briefing sheet handed out for the theatrical/music section of the ceremony due to the probability of leaks ...

[a bit harsh there, although it's true that the ceremony's Media Guide did offer only the barest bones of information on the background to the various scenes]

colonialcommoner, 29 July 2012 4:47AM

Response to meanderingtripe, 28 July 2012 1:51PM

If it helps (and it should unless you're running the BBC), the BBC commentary wasn't even the worst out there. In fact I'm pretty sure it was the best. I watched the Beeb's coverage in preference to the local (Australian) coverage which was really, really, really baaadddddd.

VanessaMega86, 29 July 2012 10:23AM

Response to colonialcommoner, 29 July 2012 4:47AM

... New Zealand's broadcasts were terrible Mr cononialcommoner, could not have been worse than yours lol

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2012/7/27/201853/903

TalkLeft: the Politics of Crime

The Games Begin: 2012 Olympics

by Jeralyn

27 Jul 2012

[comment]

robert72, watching in Canada, Sat Jul 28, 2012

on CTV was very good - very little commentary - perhaps a few sentences at the beginning of each section and then just the music as it unfolded. ...

Briefly back to the German commentary, led by Wolf-Dieter Poschmann, which, though well-researched, suffered from a similar problem to the aforementioned Spanish version:

http://m.focus.de/kultur/kino_tv/olympia-2012-in-london-das-zdf-versemmelt-die-eroeffnungsfeier-spektakulaer_aid_789142.html

FOCUS-Online

Das ZDF versemmelt die Eröffnungsfeier spektakulär

by Peter Seiffert

28 Jul 2012

Poschmann ging aber jedes Gespür für Kultur, für Bedeutung, für die Größe des Augenblicks verloren. Er schwieg öfter, als man es von ihm gewohnt ist, aber er schwieg nicht an den richtigen Stellen (eine Schweigeminute heißt übrigens Schweigeminute, weil geschwiegen wird). Kein Wunder, dass die Reaktionen auf Facebook vernichtend ausfielen.

Finally, an interesting comment which would probably make Danny Boyle tear his hair out:

http://www.gamesbids.com/forums/topic/14443-opening-ceremony/page-185

Gamesbids forums

Myles A. Garcia (American, author of "Secrets of the Olympic Ceremonies" [latest edition 2018] aka baron-pierreIV)

21 Jan 2013

"I feel Ceremonies are primarily visual and the audio/music portion over which the TV commentators talk over anyway, are just entirely auxiliary."

"For one thing she did"-

a brief digression to consider Shakespeare's writing style as an inspiration for the Opening

A few days before the London Opening, Danny Boyle had a meeting with Huw Edwards, the BBC's chief commentator, in which he very strongly recommended that the performances should be televised with an absolute minimum of commentary.

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/danny-boyle-in-private-talks-with-huw-edwards-on-olympic-opening-ceremony-7966269.html

The Independent

Danny Boyle in private talks with Huw Edwards on Olympic Opening Ceremony

Ian Burrell

24 Jul 2012

The BBC presenter Huw Edwards has held private talks with director Danny Boyle in an attempt to defuse a potential row about the corporation's coverage of the Opening Ceremony, The Independent can reveal. Boyle has stressed the critical importance of the musical soundtrack to his £27m opening extravaganza, which will be released as a digital download "Isles of Wonder" almost immediately after the ceremony. But Edwards and the BBC's head of Olympic coverage, Roger Mosey, met with the Slumdog Millionaire director last week to explain the need to layer pieces of commentary over the music to give "context" to less obvious elements of the spectacular, which is inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Given the wealth of references presented, Boyle's stance seems like madness- but as viewers around the world discovered on the night, less is sometimes more. Although, as I noted earlier, ceremony scriptwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce provided Huw with a recommended commentary, attempts were made to add banter on the night, with regrettable effect. Fortunately, the BBC was able to provide alternative broadcasts, including a "Red Button" version with no commentary at all.

http://igmansfield.co.uk/an-inspiring-olympic-extravaganza/

I. G. Mansfield: Writing, games and miscellany. ["I am a civil servant, physics graduate and writer, currently living in London."]

An inspiring Olympic extravaganza

30 Jul 2012

Whilst those in other countries will not have got every reference, the beauty of Boyle's creation is that they didn't need to. There were plenty of instantly recognisable icons, such as Bond or cricket, and whilst not everyone will have known that 'Brunel's' lines were from the Tempest or who Tim Berners-Lee was, if there was commentary they would certainly have heard of Shakespeare and the World Wide Web [NB: TBL's claim to fame was actually explained by the stadium announcers in French and English]. Furthermore, the opening story, of transformation from agricultural nation to industrial giant, will be one that is likely to have resonated strongly with the emerging powers such as China, in the midst as they are of a similar transformation themselves.

The Opening presentation was meant to work like an opera or ballet- immersing the audience in a flow of images and sound (where, unlike either the Beijing-style "big pattern in the centre of the arena" or the Athens-style "big object in the centre of the arena" approaches, the music was essential to give unity and momentum to visuals of extraordinary complexity). Actually understanding it all in detail could wait until later, when, the producers hoped, they chose to watch it again. At this basic level were ultimately simple scenes- stripping the countryside bare to create a hive of busy industry; a repeated motif of reality vs dreams; a lively British Saturday night crammed into a quarter of an hour. But here's where my five words from Shakespeare come in. "The Tempest" is three linked stories (plus one curious "play within a play") taking place in different parts of a remote island. On the basic level, it's pretty self-explanatory. What nobody can quite work out is, just how many other levels it has.

In our tiny example, Shakespeare tells us that the mother of the character Caliban was an aged witch who "for one thing she did" had the sentence of execution for her wicked magic commuted to banishment from her home in Algiers, and that Ariel, who caused the tempest of the play's title, was her magical servant spirit. It has plausibly been suggested that the "one thing she did" was becoming pregnant, a common device for avoiding the death penalty in real life. However, even if Shakespeare did intend that interpretation, multiple levels may be in effect:

http://bvpb.mcu.es/en/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.cmd?interno=S&posicion=437&path=11003569&forma=&presentacion=pagina

Libro tercero y segundo volumen de la Pr[imera] parte de la descripcion general de Affrica ...

Luis del Mármol Carvajal

1573-5

f218r [reporting the siege of Algiers ("Argel") by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1541]:

"Publicauase en Argel una supersticion y hechizeria diabolica, que como si fuera muy cierta tenian los Moros puesta en ella toda su confiança, diziendo que una vieja encantadora auia pronosticado la rota de Diego de Vera, y el naufragio de don Ugo de Moncada, y que tambien les auia señalado el tiempo enque un gran rey delos Christianos auia de rescebir mucho daño sobre aquella ciudad: y los Turcos y renegados por animar la gente encarescian este pronostico tanto que no so lo ponian animo a los ciudadanos, mas atemorizauan los animos delos Christianos que se veyan a boca de inuierno surtos con sus nauios en aquella costa y playa braua."

There, then, you have an aged witch ("vieja encantadora") encouraging the defenders of Algiers by prophesying rout and shipwreck for the invaders. A few days later, "una terrible tempestad" (f 219r) accomplished all that she had predicted. No mention there, in a text published decades before Shakespeare's play, of any magical servants; indeed the only claim was that she made a prophecy. However, when researching Shakespeare's words 250 years later, the writer Charles Lamb found a slightly different version:

http://www.unz.org/Pub/LambCharles-1884v05-00070

Works of Charles Lamb, vol V (1884) pp70-73:

On a Passage in "The Tempest"

(first published in the London Magazine, 1823)

[quotes John Ogilby "Accurate Description of Africa" (1670) p230- which is, in essence, a translation of a Dutch work from 1668, "Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten ..." by Olfert Dapper (see p304 of http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=x9RIAAAAcAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s )]

"... in that great extemity the defendants lost their courage, and resolved to surrender.

But as they were thus intending, there was a witch of the town, whom the history doth not name, which went to seek out Assam Aga, that commanded within, and pray'd him to make it good yet nine days longer, with assurance, that within that time he should infallibly see Algier delivered from that siege, and the whole army of the enemy dispersed, so that Christians should be as cheap as Birds. In a word, the thing did happen in the manner as foretold; for upon the twenty-first day of October in the same year, there fell a continual rain upon the land, and so furious a storm at sea, that one might have seen ships hoisted into the clouds ...

In the mean time that witch being acknowledged the deliverer of Algier, was richly remunerated, and the credit of her charms authorized. So that ever since witchcraft hath been very freely tolerated. ..."

Note that here the prophecy is starting to sound somewhat more like a promise. Indeed, it seems that in some versions the witch's magic was explicitly presented as the direct cause of the storm, for the Dapper / Ogilby text adds:

"....those of Algier, to palliate the shame and the reproaches that are thrown upon them for making use of a witch in the danger of this siege, do say that the loss of the forces of Charles V, was caused by a prayer of one of their Marabou's, named Cidy Utica, which was at that time in great credit, not under the notion of a magician, but for a person of a holy life."

["Utica" as "Utika" in Dapper. An elaboration of this version of the story also appears in an article in The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine, 1830: "A General Description of Algiers" by W.H. Smyth, where the spelling is "Sidi Utica"]

Neither of these texts mentions any magical servant, but there is evidence in the Qur'an itself for beings not unlike Ariel. These invisible spirits of pure energy are now familiar in English through the medium of panto (or if you're not British, through the vocal stylings of the late, great Robin Williams). The powerful-but-imprisonable "genie" in the story of Aladdin should more strictly be called a "jinni". So, to cut a long story short, it seems William Shakespeare somehow got to know an exaggerated version of an event which happened 70 years before the writing of "The Tempest", probably from a Muslim ultimate source.

And somehow, we're making all that deduction from the addition of five short and otherwise rather unnecessary words to a simple descriptive sentence. If we'd been in the audience back in 1610-11, we might perhaps have heard the story Shakespeare was referring to, and had a little chuckle to ourselves as we heard those lines. However, if we didn't know the story, or anything about Islamic energy spirits, we would still grasp the basic notion, that Ariel had once been the magical servant of a wicked witch who was banished to the remote island where the play is set, and now served the philosopher Prospero.

COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED 2016 BONUS:

Sycorax is described by Shakespeare as "blue ey'd" which appears to connect with a line in John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" (written shortly after "The Tempest") implying blue eyelids as a sign of pregnancy. However, online searching reveals that there is a witch in Arabian folklore named Zarqa al Yamama, whose first name alludes to her blue eyes. Her sight was so keen that she was able to detect invaders creeping towards her community carrying trees to disguise themselves, but her warnings were ignored, and she was killed along with the rest of her tribe. Shakespeare's source for the Birnam Wood story in "Macbeth" was not Arabian, but it's interesting to speculate that maybe a Muslim at one of the early performances of the play had a chat with him about the coincidence, and about stories of witches and magical spirits.

Now imagine that the creators of the 2012 Olympic Opening have a great respect for Shakespeare, and a great deal of British culture to cram into a couple of hours. Why not have a bit of fun making the show work on multiple levels? It's just a pity that some TV commentators couldn't keep quiet and give viewers more chance to spot things for themselves and share with their friends afterwards, like the original audience for "The Tempest".

THE GREAT BIG TIMELINE

early preparations (2010)

minus over two years: developing the ideas

Because ceremonies are a vital part of every Olympic Games, the London 2012 management team had had a Director of Ceremonies, Education and Live Sites, Bill Morris, and a Head of Ceremonies, Martin Green, for several years. Rather than simply hand over management of all ceremonies to one of the several big firms around the world which normally handle such matters, London chose to set up its own temporary business, London 2012 Ceremonies Ltd. (registered company number 07279005). Although its Managing Director, Scott Givens, was founder and president of Californian company FiveCurrents, one of the major ceremony specialists, London 2012 would be able to go its own way, guided but not ruled by the established experts.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jul/26/danny-boyle-olympic-ceremony-director

The Guardian

Danny Boyle: artist, entertainer and all-round good bloke

Steve Rose

26 Jul 2012

A junkie diving into "the worst toilet in Scotland" to recover his drug suppositories; a double-decker bus lying on its side in the deserted, zombie-infested London streets; privileged Edinburgh students dismembering corpses; a poet living with a stray dog in a squalid flat; a policeman telling residents they should expect to be burgled - probably not the "best of Britain" image the Olympic organisers had in mind for the opening ceremony.

But despite being the purveyor of these memorably grim moments (via Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Shallow Grave, TV movie Strumpet, and Millions, respectively), Danny Boyle was chosen to direct the show. ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PQQ1SQ1hXM

ITN (via YouTube ODN channel)

Danny Boyle on his London 2012 role

interview at Three Mills Studios

17 Jun 2010

"It's not a dream come true because obviously when you're a kid you don't dream about doing the opening ceremony of the Olympics- you'd be a pretty weird kid if that was what you were dreaming about. You dream about scoring a goal, about- you know kids now will dream about being Wayne Rooney and all that kind of stuff and- but it is really, in a way, because I'm never- I love sport. I mean I consume sport like- avariciously, I mean I'm like- crazy about sport. But I've never been very good at it myself ..."

https://intentionalworkplace.com/2012/08/02/team-danny-boyle-5-lessons-in-leadership/

The Intentional Workplace ["Transforming Work One Conversation at a Time"]

Team Danny Boyle: 5 Lessons in Leadership

by Louise Altman, Partner, Intentional Communication

2 Aug 2012

... the jaw dropping pyrotechnics, intricate choreography and mosaic storylines weren't the only things that generated a buzz. Watching it, I wondered - How did Danny Boyle pull this off? How big was his team and more important, what was their communication process?" Browsing online the next day, I could see that I wasn't the only one wondering - how did he do it?

What are the leadership lessons here? Turns out there are quite a few.

Lesson 1 - Assemble the People You Believe In & Maximize their Freedom ...

The New Elizabethan Age: Culture, Society and National Identity after World War II

edited by Irene Morra

I.B.Tauris, 2016

ISBN 9780857728678

Excerpts from a Q&A session organized by Scott Anthony "as part of the Public and Popular History programme at the University of Cambridge on 5 February 2014."

Frank Cottrell Boyce: "... everyone told me that it was going to be terrible, rubbish. My agent Greg did something that made me realize that some of the things in the Bible are literal. There's a phrase that comes up in the Bible a lot that says 'she rended her garb' and I thought people didn't really do that, I thought it was just an exaggeration, but he literally tore his shirt and begged me not to do this. He said it would be awful, a terrible thing, a nightmare, a poison chalice that would take loads of work and everyone knew that it would just be rubbish. And I remember going back to Danny and saying, 'Everyone's telling me not to do this Danny' and he said 'Yeah, everyone's telling me not to do it, what I have got to say to you Frank is think about who will do it if it's not us.' So I said, 'Okay, I'll do it.' "

"It was actually all quite ad hoc because we were all still working; we didn't get paid for doing this. We would come into a room in Wardour Street when we could and it was very like primary school: there would be a lot of cutting out. I would make these sort of topic books; you know when we were in Year Six I used to make these books like 'The Eye' or 'Footptrints of Wildlife', and I would just do this, little presentations about Humphrey Jennings, or Tim Berners-Lee, or whoever. They would go on the wall and gradually there would be a winnowing process but it wasn't systematic."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvPRnMS88ns

YouTube

Danny Boyle and Frank Cottrell Boyce - Words of Wonder

by liverpoolhopeuni1 [Liverpool Hope University]

8 Mar 2013

Introduction by Jane Davis, pioneer of the Shared Reading movement (see www.thereader.org.uk ), referring to primary education:

"... Frank attended St. Bartholomew's, I believe. It was in Rainhill, and those who were here last year will have heard Frank talking about Sister Paul, at St. Bartholomew's, and her profound effect on him, as a reader, and these days we'd have to add, as an imaginative and creative being. ..."

[A FEW MINUTES LATER]

DANNY BOYLE: "Basically what we did, is we had a room, where we'd meet every day, and this is for like nine months we met. We had the most amazing job, and we just said, we asked ourselves three questions, it's

Where do we come from?

What are we? and

Where do we hope to be, or what do we hope to be?

And we asked ourselves those three questions and we just sat round and talked about that. And we did it through ..."

FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE: "Well, through, I mean, it's great that Jane mentioned Sister Paul, because what she used to do, on a Friday afternoon, was that, if we were good, she would read to us; and that was a fantastic thing, and we would sit on the floor, and just sort-of reconfiguring the room like that felt amazing, it just turned what was a workaday classroom into this sort-of Treat Place, and it was fantastic. And those first nine months, when we- before we started having to make decisions, or work out how we were gonna do things do things, felt very much like that ..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2013/feb/12/olympic-opening-ceremony-frank-cottrell-boyce

The Guardian: Media Monkey

Olympic opening show's string theory

Frank Cottrell Boyce [quoted from the print edition of the Radio Times]

12 Feb 2013

"Even the biggest stories can be broken down into little tasks. The Olympic Ceremony was hours long and included thousands of people, but the key was to break it into little sections. We hung up a washing line in our office, and we attached different bits of paper with what we wanted to include."

Shakespeare on the Global Stage: Performance and Festivity in the Olympic Year

edited by Paul Prescott, Erin Sullivan

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015

ISBN 9781472520340

Interview with Frank Cottrell Boyce, 6 Nov 2013:

[Boyce describes the early days of the process, in a rented room in London, bouncing ideas around with Danny, Mark Tildesley and Suttirat Larlarb]: "We had a wall that we put ideas on. We also had a washing line, because there was a timeline to the Opening Ceremony, so we had these marks to hit and gaps to fill. And then six, seven months down the line we moved to Three Mills, which is a film studio right next to the stadium, and the team just kind of grew around that core. Rick Smith, who is from the band Underworld, joined at that point, I think."

...

"... when we started on this cultural adventure by chosing which British paintings we like, which British poems we love, which British songs we love, Danny kept coming back to it every now and then and he would say, 'I want all of this in there but I don't want people to know it's in there until they've gone home. I want them to be thrilled and have a great time and only afterwards think, oh wow, that was William Blake, or that was Milton' ..."

...

"One of the things that Danny loved was if you go to the Kop, if you go to Anfield to watch football, you have these huge, huge flags that come down over the crowd, I mean massive when they come down. Danny really loved them. He had the idea of doing them in blue, which came from wanting to get Hockney in there, and so suddenly we had the possibility of covering the audience in blue and turning that pastoral opening into an island, the shipping forecast. So all these island images just came together and crystallised around The Tempest. ..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/feb/10/stephen-daldry-mirren-audience-interview?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

The Observer

Stephen Daldry: 'Hollywood? I've never even been there...'

interview by Tim Lewis

10 Feb 2013

Initial presentations were taken up with stuffed-shirt politicians attempting to skew the content of the ceremonies. After one particularly tedious gathering, a minister - whom Daldry declines to name - said, "That's fine, but where's the Battle of Trafalgar?" ... [Daldry and Boyle] agreed on a single rule: just because a secretary of state is saying what he thinks, it has no more validity than a bus driver or a person you sit next to on the Tube.

http://ccea.org.uk/sites/default/files/video/microsites/mia/danny_boyle/boyle5_olympics.pdf

CCEA | Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment [Northern Ireland]

Foyle Film Festival "In Conversation" Danny Boyle and Frank Cottrell Boyce [at St Columb's Hall, Derry~Londonderry]

23 Nov 2013

[Frank's agreements edited out]

DANNY BOYLE: "... you have to believe, on some level, that your own work, and the people that you work with, is the best work there is. Believe in what you do and in the people that you work with. You absolutely believe it. The thing I've found in doing this that was really weird, is that nobody believed in anything. Even the politicians didn't really believe in what they were saying. If the Daily Mail changed its mind, they would change theirs. So they didn't believe. And I thought... We believed in an idea of how we wanted to represent the country."

minus 2 years: toys !

Once it was known that Danny Boyle had begun developing the ceremony, enterprising businesses began contacting the London 2012 organisers to offer interesting ideas. One of the earliest was a company offering an audience pixel display system. A demonstration was arranged, and the system, which involved wireless battery powered units, failed to work as intended. However, the concept was considered interesting enough for invitations to be sent to potential suppliers of more robust wired-in systems. From three initial responses, Tait Technologies' system was ultimately chosen. This process took quite a while, and work on the practicalities of installing the system did not begin until early 2012 (the long timescale of the bureaucratically fair and transparent London 2012 procurement process is a recurring theme in accounts from Olympic suppliers).

the embryo develops

minus 20 months and counting: turning ideas into a show

During the enforced abandonment of live events which began in March 2020, some showbiz professionals turned their thoughts back to happier times. Among them was lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, who released a series of YouTube videos in which he looked back at his diary entries relating to the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony (and the closing ceremony, about which he provides much very intriguing information).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HUjj2nihIs&list=PL7mbpUYoQJzPU9BIUDQPTEqKVrme2pmtj

Woodroffe Bassett Design (YouTube channel)

Olympic Diaries (7 episodes)

Patrick Woodroffe

20-26 Apr 2020

For the summer 2021 update of this ebook, I have used his reminiscences to clarify the timeline of preparations for the opening, in purple italics and headed PWoodroffe, thus:

PWoodroffe Dec 2010: Friends ask Patrick if he'll be doing the lighting for the OC. At that time, he has not been approached, and responds that he's worried it will be a poison chalice.

Mar 2011: After a series of meetings, Patrick is told by executive producer Mark Fisher, with whom he had worked on the Millennium Dome (a project that left neither of them happy, due to excessive bureaucracy and politicking) that they want him as lighting director for ceremonies

http://www.lighting.co.uk/news/the-master-of-ceremonies/8635361.article

Lighting magazine

The master of ceremonies

by Jill Entwistle

5 Sep 2012

Patrick Woodroffe worried about politics, money and meetings when he took on the lighting for the opening and closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics. ...

He says: "I was very wary. I'd done the Millennium Dome and knew it takes a lot of time and meetings. And at that point no one was sure what the Olympic vibe would be. I didn't know how much money was available, what the politics were going to be, who was going to direct it -the sort of questions you want to know the answer to before you take on any project."

It was a remark from the executive producer Mark Fisher that clinched it. "He said: 'All of that will be true, but all you have to decide is whether on July 27 you want to be in the booth or watching it on television'

The vision for the ceremony was sold to LOCOG and the Government from April 2011 via a "pre-vis" video, stitched together from rough animation and archive footage.

http://www.tickledesigns.co.uk/wordpress/?page_id=227

tickle designs

Previs: "Isles Of Wonder" Opening Ceremony - London 2012 Olympic Games

by George Humphris

I was employed by Crystal CG and supervised by Union VFX's Adam Gascoyne. During the four months of winter 2010-11 (the one with loads of snow), in a secure studio (no phones, no Ipods and no internet!) I co-created a 25-minute pre-visualization CG film of the opening ceremony.

Unfortunately due to the secrecy of the event only one copy was ever made

Much more archive footage would be required for the real thing- and that created challenges for the experts who were brought in to acquire it all:

http://s2s.focalint.tv/Publications/AZ_articles/az2012autumn_iss83_london_2012.pdf

Archive Zone (Issue 83)

London 2012 - Olympic Games: The Opening Ceremony

by Martha Wailes

Autumn 2012

We'd met the very personable editor, but were also aware that many of the clips in the pre-vis were straight from YouTube, and although we had said at an early stage, "Please don't assume you can use anything you can find", they did, and had, and were placing them thick and fast in the edit.

Also seriously nervous about the pre-vis was the Executive Producer for TV coverage of all ceremonies:

BBC TV

One Night In 2012: An Imagine Special

Interview segment with Hamish Hamilton

2016

The pre-vis? I mean, I watched it and I was like, oh man, I'm in trouble; I'm in biiig trouble here. Here you have a Hollywood Oscar winning movie director creating this pre-vis and a lot of the shots just weren't possible. It inspired me. It scared me. And it also said to me, right, we have to approach the television filming of this in a completely different way to Any Previous Olympic Ceremony.

The challenges were not merely technical:

["One Night ..." interview segment with Stephen Daldry, another of the Executive Producers for all ceremonies]

"The biggest political battle we had of the whole Games, was to film it ourselves."

[Danny Boyle then explains about the normal role of Olympic Broadcasting Services in less-than-flattering terms]

https://www.behance.net/gallery/16850025/Olympic-Opening-Ceremony-Design-Studio-Coordinator

Behance

Portfolio gallery: Olympic Opening Ceremony - Design Studio Coordinator

by Emma Child

26 Nov 2014

[Includes Emma's models of used and unused concepts]

On a related topic... about this time, Thomas Heatherwick was briefed on design requirements for an Olympic Cauldron. Within a fortnight he had produced an animation demonstrating his requirement-defying concept.

minus ... meanwhile in an extraordinary parallel universe

To sharpen their skills, and to stop themselves from becoming totally obsessed with the Olympic Opening, Danny Boyle and most of the core team took time out for two other major productions. The first of these was Frankenstein at the National Theatre (for which Danny had actually signed up before being offered the Olympic job) in which, with hindsight, many aspects of the Olympic presentation can be seen in embryo.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jan/21/danny-boyle-national-theatre

The Guardian

Oscar-winner Danny Boyle to return to theatre

by Charlotte Higgins

21 Jan 2010

According to the National's artistic director, Sir Nicholas Hytner [born about five months and 17km away from Danny], Boyle was one of the first artists he approached when he started at the theatre eight years ago. It was then that Boyle - over cake at a cafe - outlined his ideas about a Frankenstein production. ...

But it was only after Slumdog's Oscar success that Boyle told Hytner he was ready.

https://www.vogue.com/article/danny-boyle-olympic-opening-ceremony

Vogue

Danny Boyle: Olympic Opening Ceremony Artistic Director

by Hadley Freeman

27 Jul 2012

... It is an extraordinarily visceral imagining of Mary Shelley's classic work, described by Ben Brantley in The New York Times as "electrifying" and "directed with rough magic" by Boyle, starring Jonny Lee Miller and the rising British star Benedict Cumberbatch, alternately playing the doctor and the monster. (They jointly won an Olivier Award for their performances.) "Danny wants the audience not to just sit back in their seats and watch but to feel the play," says Cumberbatch. "He has a very sensory take on things and talks about the sound, color, and taste of each scene."

...

"Danny's attitude to work in general comes a lot, I think, from his background," says Cumberbatch. "He has an incredibly strong work ethic and is completely uninterested in glory." Indeed, when asked what winning the Oscar meant for him personally, Boyle promptly replies, "It meant I could make a film I would never have been able to make before, about a man who cuts his arm off."

https://store.underworldlive.com/products/and-i-will-kiss-calibans-dream-12-heavy-weight-vinyl

Underworld

And I Will Kiss / Caliban's Dream 12'' Heavy-Weight Vinyl

In 2011 we were working with Danny Boyle at the National Theatre in London.

One day in Springtime… we had a meeting with him. In his ‘office’ there was a huge model of the new stadium where the 2012 Olympics were going to be staged, and where Danny was going to direct the Opening Ceremony.

He asked us (Underworld) if we would “Take responsibility for all aspects of music and sound for the show". We said yes.

https://underworldlive.com/news/2011/12/07/underworld-announced-as-music-directors-for-the-opening-ceremony-of-the-2012-london-olympic-games/

Underworld

Underworld announced as Music Directors for the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games

07 Dec 11

Rick Smith said: ‘The ‘Frankenstein’ project at the National Theatre was our opportunity to test ourselves as writers and music directors in a completely new environment – Danny asked us to take responsibility for every aspect of the sound and music and encouraged us to draw on a wide musical palette. It was a challenging piece of work with its roots in classic literature, that turned out to be the most fun I’ve ever had.’

minus 16 months (March 2011): preparing for sport

Olympic ceremonies and Olympic sporting turf do not really mix well, but the sporting facilities have to be tested well in advance, so various systems have evolved to enable good-quality turf to be laid and bedded in very quickly, then removed even more quickly.

https://www.hortweek.com/turf-companies-reveal-12-hour-re-turfing-olympic-stadium-opening-ceremony/turf/article/1192989

Horticulture Week

Turf companies reveal 12-hour re-turfing of Olympic stadium after opening ceremony

by Sarah Cosgrove

26 Jul 2013

"In total Lincolnshire company County Turf grew more than 100,000m of custom-grown turf for the Games after being engaged by Leicester firm Hewitt's Sportsturf in July 2009.

...

In March 2011 both companies completed the initial turfing of the stadium, a job which required meticulous planning.

http://sturf.lib.msu.edu/article/2012jun20a.pdf

Sports Turf

Designing and building the pitch of Olympic Stadium

interview/feature with John Hewitt of Hewitt Sportsturf

June 2012

[description of long-term structure under turf:]

"gravity-based lower, lateral pipe slot drainage, a 125-150 millimetres gravel carpet underneath 200 millimetres of lower rootzone and 100 millimetres of upper rootzone incorporating fibres/loose fibre reinforcement. Pop-up irrigation is also a feature, as are gas vents for the lower foundations."

[and beneath that, incidentally:]

"broadcast media utility chambers ... With the chambers measuring 1,800 mm by 1,800 mm, a network of them populate the inner bowl like a spider's web"

PWoodroffe Apr 2011: Patrick & business partner Adam Bassett visit the stadium to begin work on a lighting specification for the four ceremonies. They are surprised by how intimate it seems. They are "very aware that we don't have anything like the budget of Beijing or even Athens, so the knowledge that 1,000 lights, rather than the 3,000 that we think were used in China, is very comforting." (Aside: "A lot more than 3,000 in China we discovered later"). They brought in Tim Routledge as principal programmer about this time.

minus a year or more: expanding the core team

http://www.thebritishblacklist.com/tbb-exclusive-acclaimed-theatre-director-paulette-randall-talks-tv-directing-debut-holby-city-and-circus/

The British Blacklist

TBB Exclusive! Acclaimed Theatre Director Paulette Randall, MBE ...

interviewed by DescantDeb

2016

DD: You said that you trained as an actress but your eyes were opened to directing by watching Danny Boyle work at The Royal Court ...

PR: Yes, I was a competition-winner that year for the Young Writer's Festival, and the prize was a professional production of an extract of your play. It was in rehearsals, watching Danny. It's ironic because I had been directed by people before. But because I was wearing a writer's hat, the whole relationship felt very different, and I was just intrigued by what he was doing. I thought, I want to have a go at THAT!

...

DD: When you came together as associate director to Boyle for the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, was that the first time you'd been back in close proximity to him to work since?

PR: Yes, I know! All of us knew that he was gonna be directing this opening ceremony and, in fact, they'd already started work on it. I get a phone call from him, saying ... I think I'm gonna need some help.

...

That was a whole year of my life. You don't call me for 20 years, and then you nearly kill me! But it was fantastic! What an amazing experience!

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0709661/

IMDB

Paulette Randall

...

Porkpie (TV Series) (producer) 1995

Desmond's (TV Series) (producer - 25 episodes, 1993 - 1994 (associate producer - 13 episodes, 1992)

The Real McCoy (TV Series) (producer) 1991

PWoodroffe Aug 2011: First meeting with Danny Boyle, at Three Mills Studios, where he shows them the pre-vis on a big screen. When Danny says he wants the show to feel like a movie, Patrick advises him that it will be almost impossible to follow filming practice of keeping lights out of shot, so better to make them a feature. Danny gets the point instantly, and agrees.

Sep 2011: Visit to the stadium with technical manager Nick Jones, to start working out the exact positions for the lights

minus about 11 months, back in the parallel universe

The second escape from obsession was the film Trance, which was filmed in late-summer 2011, between the end of the planning phase and the beginning of volunteer recruitment, but, in keeping with Boyle's standard policy, put aside for a while (in this case, until shortly after 27 July 2012) so that he could return to the footage with a fresh eye to create the final product. Danny provided information about both "Trance" and "Frankenstein" for an updated edition of Amy Raphael's interview-biography, published early in 2013:

Danny Boyle: Creating Wonder

in conversation with Amy Raphael

Faber & Faber

Apr 2013

ISBN 978–0–571–30187–4 [Kindle edition- other editions also available]

making it happen

minus about 11 months (second week of August 2011): casting call !

http://www.london2012.com/games/ceremonies/get-involved/casting-information.php

London 2012 seeks volunteer performers for the greatest show on earth.

London 2012 Ceremonies is now recruiting volunteer performers to participate in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Performing in front of a packed stadium and a broadcast audience of more than one billion people, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of one of the largest events ever staged in the UK.

Artistic Directors Danny Boyle and Kim Gavin are searching for 10,000 volunteer performers to fill roles as dancers, actors, percussionists and general all-round performers in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies respectively.

...

[This advert for adult volunteers emphasised the commitment & enthusiasm which would be required, and the lack of financial support for those travelling from beyond the London Transport area. Deadline for applications: 31 August.]

minus about 9 months (late autumn 2011): first auditions

The most detailed account of an Opening Ceremony volunteer's career, from application to aftermath, was published much later than all the others, at the beginning of 2014:

Making Pandemonium

by Nadeem Masood

Matador Books

ISBN 9781783067572

Nadeem, an Industrial Revolution worker (and, by way of extreme luck-pushing, also a Games Maker), describes almost every aspect of his experience, down to the meals, and the problems for a Muslim of an Olympic Games which happens to coincide with Ramadan. More than any other commentator, he conveys the way the Opening Ceremony developed in accordance with the successes and problems noted at each rehearsal, and I strongly recommend anybody intending to organise or participate in a mass performance spectacle to read the book.

There are plenty of other participants' accounts out there though:

http://blog.business.westminster.ac.uk/mba/2012/08/westminster-mba-student-as-a-london-2012-olympic-opening-ceremonies-volunteer-performer-benedict-carandang/

University of Westminster Business School Blog

Westminster MBA student as a London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies Volunteer Performer

by Benedict Carandang

16 Aug 2012

... After two days, I got recalled for a second and final audition. What surprised me is that the people who I expected to be there who were much more physically fit and talented in my mind were not there anymore. The people who were there were the ones who I didn't expect to be there as they were ordinary just like me. ...

https://www.freemasonrytoday.com/more-news/lodges-chapters-a-individuals/colin-plays-a-part-in-the-london-2012-olympics

Freemasonry Today

Colin plays a part in the London 2012 Olympics

22 Sep 2012

[About Colin Shannon of Bootle Pilgrim Lodge No. 1473, who was a WMW, describing his experiences from application to afterglow]

Quite a lot of journalists applied to be Opening Ceremony volunteers, with varying degrees of success; some are featured in appropriate places, but meanwhile, here's a random sample of articles and blog entries:

http://thequietus.com/articles/09480-olympic-opening-ceremony-dancer

The Quietus

I Dreamed Of Being An Olympic Dancer - The Quietus Auditions

by Kevin E.G. Perry

26 Jul 2012

http://www.standard.co.uk/olympics/olympics-sport/the-confessions-of-an-olympic-opening-ceremony-performer-7444819.html

London Evening Standard

The confessions of an Olympic opening ceremony performer

by Natalie Blenford

20 Feb 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/the-day-i-danced-for-a-place-in-danny-boyles-olympics-spectacular-6988809.html

The Independent

The day I danced for a place in Danny Boyle's Olympics spectacular

by Tom Peck

17 Feb 2012

http://exoticmaypole.com/2012/07/27/performing-olympics-opening-ceremony-voluntee/

Exotic Maypole (blog)

I can't think of a funny title for a blog about being in the Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Kat Brown

27 Jul 2012

minus 7-8 months (December 2011): early stadium preparations, and technical recruitment

The stadium had been designed in anticipation of the installation of cables from which objects could be suspended, as had become standard practice in 21st century Olympic ceremonies. By December 2011, the requirements had been worked out in detail, and the anchor structures round the stadium roof were used for a complex system of fourteen cables radiating from a central hub, plus others running along and across the whole arena.

While they were mucking around with big cranes etc., the opportunity was also taken to test how well the proposed 30-metre-high inflatable chimneys would work in the stadium (from very simple beginnings, they ended up with refinements like brake-pads round the bottom, and slipper-clutches at the top, to maintain the tension which allowed them to appear completely solid as they expanded from beneath the floor). Those refinements weren't being provided for free, and the overall ceremonies budget (significantly less than what was expected to be raised from ticket sales, which would disappear into the general income for the Games) was starting to look miserly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/8935767/London-2012-Olympics-budget-for-ceremonies-doubled-to-over-80m.html

5 Dec 2011

London 2012 Olympics: budget for ceremonies doubled to over £80m

The Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson revealed that the Government will contribute an extra £41m to stage the Games ceremonies, taking the total ceremony costs to over £80m. ...

"This is a great national moment and it is about seizing this great ceremonial and economic moment to benefit the economy and the public and tourism in the long run," Robertson said.

LOCOG

London 2012 Ceremonies on track to showcase the UK to the world

press release

4 Dec 2011

A leading advertising industry figure ... Sir Martin Sorrell said: 'The London 2012 Opening and Closing Ceremonies will be four of the biggest moments in TV history, broadcast in over 200 countries to an audience of 4 billion people. The equivalent advertising value that will deliver for the UK could be up to £5billion, however with regards to perception of London and the UK and a tourism legacy you could say that they will be priceless.'

Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media & Sport, said: 'I am incredibly excited about Danny Boyle's amazing plans for London's Opening Ceremony.'

...

London 2012 Ceremonies are now recruiting across all areas of the organisation as the team upscales to deliver four of the biggest shows the UK will ever produce. Opportunities at all levels in casting, technical, wardrobe and production are all advertised on the ceremonies jobs section of the London 2012 website ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16068946

BBC News

London 2012: Olympic ceremony role for Underworld duo

7 Dec 2011

Dance act duo Underworld have been appointed music directors for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, organisers have announced.

Rick Smith and Karl Hyde will work with artistic director Danny Boyle and will be responsible for overseeing the music in the three-hour ceremony on 27 July. ...

PWoodroffe 5 Jan 2012: Danny B gives a presentation for opening ceremony contractors (but doesn't mention OO7/Queen or Mr Bean). They're impressed, but Patrick knows that some of the concepts present seemingly insoluble technical challenges, and is very worried. Later that day, he and Hamish Hamilton (who has finally been given the IOC go-ahead to take over from OBS for the artistic segments, adding perhaps £2-3 million to the budget) discuss the filming, and the attention to detail the "live movie" approach will require from them.

18 Jan 2012: Lighting tests in the afternoon / early evening. Security has stepped up several gears, and the entry process involves helmets, hi-vis jackets, safety boots, gloves & protective spectacles, 4 passes & 2 hours (including a health & safety induction process). The lighting, "the largest and most sophisticated lighting system ... ever put together in this country," looks impressive.

minus about 6 months (early 2012): extra auditions

http://www.mikedolbear.com/story.asp?storyID=3252

Mike Dolbear

interview with Mike (a drum co-ordinator for the Ceremony) and two others involved with Olympic drumming

by Gemma Hill

Back in November we saw about 1500 people over the period of three days. ...

By the second day of auditions I'd had enough. I felt that the standard wasn't high enough and some people didn't have the correct concept about the drummers. My condition always was that I would only get involved if it was right; a few comments were made to me within the organisation; they thought anyone could play the drums. When we did the third set of auditions the percentage of people getting through wasn't very high. That's when things started to change for the better - the artistic team took over a bit more, to the extent that Rick Smith, the composer, got a lot more involved. I suggested we did some more auditions and put the audition details in the drum magazines and drum websites ...

On the second set of auditions at the beginning of the year the standard was much higher ...

Mike also gives a lot of detail about the creation and utilisation of the drums and drumsticks, but here's the quick version:

http://www.drumwithus.com/Blog/

Drum With Us

Reflections on Drumming and Olympic Opening Ceremony Rehearsals + London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

by Ray [Qualified Level 2 Drum Circle Facilitator]

17 & 25 Aug 2012 [earlier entry below later]

... "The drums were then unveiled, a builders black plastic bucket played with traditional drum sticks, a larger plastic bin with a rubber top glued to it, a deeper plastic base bin akin to a small composter also with a rubber top. These two were played with two sticks to the top of which had been attached a tennis ball. Finally a metal bucket which had vertical rows of screws drilled into it and was played by brushes. The brushes were made up of thin wooden green gardening rods jammed into a plastic handle." ...

Here's a short documentary about the history of the drummers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxj9tD2yV_E

YouTube: Chameleon AudioProduction channel

Pandemonium 2012 - The Story Of The Olympic Drummers

19 Mar 2015

and here's the sequel:

https://www.creative-lives.org/story-pandemonium-drummers [+ detailed study at:]

https://www.creative-lives.org/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=353ef32f-8c75-41c0-b0db-36f4f235631e

Creative Lives

Pandemonium Drummers: Epic Award Englandwinners, 2014

Jul 2020

[History of the Drummers, around 100 of whom who were still active by 2020 (some even giving virtual performances during lockdown) featuring interview quotes from ten members.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ3dWK-QwpY

Youtube: Mystery Date With a Book

My Olympic Games Experience || London 2012 Opening Ceremony

by Fernanda (from Brazil, but living in Northern Ireland)

3 Oct 2019

[Auditions, Jan 2012 (possibly "the very last day of auditions"), with her mother: basically miming, not really dancing; "getting up in the morning" etc. followed by a "just make something up" sequence. "It was fun; everyone was so full of energy- veryone was so hyped, just so happy to be there; it was contagious, everyone was smiling the whole day long." Email the next day that she had been accepted as an understudy in the NHS segment; mum was accepted as a Pandemonium performer but turned it down because she had opted to be Gamesmaker at Wembley Arena instead. ... As a former cheerleader, her dancing skills were more than adequate, and her understudy status was questioned. It was discovered on investigation that she had been confused with another Brazilian volunteer with the same name, who was 7 months pregnant when she auditioned, so she was "bumped up" to the highest level. She found the LOCOG staff "so encouraging, so supportive, that it made my day".]

https://metro.co.uk/2017/07/27/i-was-part-of-the-london-olympics-opening-ceremony-five-years-ago-today-6809728/

Metro newspaper

I was part of the London Olympics opening ceremony five years ago

by Ashitha Nagesh

27 Jul 2017

... The second audition was a bit more specialist. For my group, we were put into pairs and taught a relatively simple, yet still a bit terrifying, Lindy routine that we then had to perform back to judges.

Then, those of us who got accepted started rehearsals – which was when we found out that we’d be dressed up as nurses from the 1940s, as a tribute to the NHS (which was founded in 1948).

... Our group was made up partly of professional dancers, partly of real-life NHS workers, and partly of people like me – who seemed to have ended up there a bit randomly.

...

We also had to learn how to do our own 40s-style hair and make up, which was a lot harder than it looked.

You may also remember that each bed had a small child on it. They weren’t just props for the day – we rehearsed with them most of the time. The girl my dance partner and I were grouped with, Naima, was incredibly cheeky and really, really funny.

Then we had to periodically try and hide from press helicopters (not an easy thing to do) that were unsubtly taking pictures of the rehearsals before ceremony.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/natalie-r-harris/a-life-less-ordinary-how-_b_1716444.html

HuffPost: The Blog

A Life Less Ordinary: How I Came to Perform in the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

Natalie Harris-Spencer [a digital publishing specialist]

30 Jul 2012

With our five-hour rehearsal underway, I discover we've been put into first-name order (consequently my good friends would all start with L,M and N) and I would soon become accustomed to seemingly ungettable choreography, dancing in lines and sweating tears. For a month Group 49B danced like this, drawn together from all circumstances, some of us dancers, some of us not. My preconceptions about showbiz brats were instantly banished when I got talking to people, some who'd travelled from afar (one girl was commuting from Glasgow), some who were Chinese and Canadian, some who were scientists and chocolate-makers and actors, but most who couldn't quite believe their luck that they were here.

Things I knew for a fact: the '60s choreography was hard; the 'now' choreography where all fourteen-hundred of us battle each other was impossible. It still makes me want to cry thinking about it now. It was fast; so fast that even our dance captain Bradley admitted that it was going to be challenging to get everyone up to speed. He kept referring to 'muscle memory', when your body automatically knows what's coming next. My muscle memory couldn't come soon enough.

Also about this time, the process of building the large scenic elements began.

http://www.artem.com/an-olympian-task

Artem: Creative Effects and Innovative Solutions

An Olympian Task

Artem's first Olympic project, following the tendering process, started with the task of building a giant scenic prop for the Industrial Revolution scene; a huge capstan and gear train driven by 6 horses!

Ultimately this fully-functioning mechanical was cut due to the amount of activity on stage, and lack of time available for the scene change. However the design and build allowed us to prove our abilities which helped us win subsequent work.

The team in Ceremonies was a particularly friendly and cooperative group of individuals. It is not possible to mention everyone but some deserve much praise. To start with, Danny Boyle and his Production Designer, Mark Tildsley, were great. It is a credit to them that their team worked so well together. The ideas were original, but they were very open to suggestions and it was a pleasure to come up with solutions to difficult problems. Ted Irwin was Head of Props, a huge task that he carried out with good humour at all times, never seeming to get flustered; I don't know how he managed it. Piers Shepperd's cool head as Technical Director, with Dan Shipton and Chris Vaughan feeding through information on details which made things practical, while Dave Williams held the logistics and scheduling together regarding staging and, by the end of the process, must have been an exhausted husk, but he was always on top of things. Lastly, Luke Mills, in charge of Special Effects, was a friendly, organised, sensible human being with some of the more dangerous items to tackle.

PWoodroffe 1 Mar 2012: Meeting in Bath (near to Patrick's home) with the lighting team, including new assistant Terry Cook, who will be responsible for recruiting and training (and calling live in the show) 36 follow spot operators. Going through the four ceremony scripts takes all day.

minus 19 weeks: work starts on the recorded visual content for the Opening

http://vimeo.com/64217371

OR http://vimeo.com/56567095

Vimeo

59 Productions and the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

by Rapid Visual Media

Shows how the video for the ceremony was developed and tested on a physical scale model of the stadium.

http://www.nicolscott.co.uk/olympics-2012.html

Nicol Scott

March - August 2012 For most of 2012, I had the privilege of being a senior animator for the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, working with Crystal CG (Official Digital Imaging Service Supplier for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games) and 59 Productions (Art directors for the Olympic Opening Ceremony).

Part of a great production, design and animation team, we created the animated content for four massive LED screens mounted on the stadium roof, and the "audience pixels" - a 360 degree, stadium-wide electronic canvas, created by mounting LED panels on every seat in the stadium.

All video content for the "audience pixels" for the Olympic Opening Ceremony was art directed by 59 Productions and produced by Crystal CG.

[Crystal CG, a Chinese firm with a London branch, was an official sponsor of the Olympics, providing digital imagery on a VIK (Value In Kind) basis. This ceremony features in the portfolios of quite a few digital animators, as the hugely ambitious and utterly time-sensitive project ended up recruiting a great variety of local talent.]

minus about 4 months: work starts on creating lots of flowery turf

https://web.archive.org/web/20130824005939/http://plinthetal.com:80/2013/07/28/london-2012-a-gardening-experience/

Plinth et al.

London 2012, a gardening experience

by James McGrath (head horticulturalist for the ceremony)

28 Jul 2013

Story of the gardening behind the "Green & Pleasant" set, with good photos, a look back from July 2013.

http://avantgartdener.blogspot.com/2012/09/one-horticulturalist-needed.html

Gartdener blog

One Horticulturalist Needed......

by James McGrath

28 Sep 2012

Blog version of the above story, with different text and photos.

minus about 12 weeks (early May 2012): Rehearsals begin

- initially at Three Mills Studios, just south of the Games park, before moving to Dagenham, on the outskirts of London

http://www.insidethegames.biz/bigread/17926-louisa-gummer-the-secret-diary-of-a-london-2012-opening-ceremony-volunteer

Inside the Games

The Secret Diary of a London 2012 Opening Ceremony volunteer

by Louisa Gummer

28 Jul 2012

... London 2012 have a huge set-up at Dagenham, on the old Ford factory site, with two outside areas marked out to the same scale as the stadium so they can have two sections rehearsing at the same time. In-between are a couple of scaffolding tower structures where Danny Boyle and the production team sit with a high view of what we are up to and also a large circus style Big Top tent full of chairs, where we sit for briefings and during our breaks. They bus us to and from the tube station in a fleet of bendy buses ...

http://www.sean.co.uk/a/london2012-opening-ceremony.shtm

www.sean.co.uk

Among those dark satanic mills

Sean McManus (freelance journalist / author)

2012

... The field of play was divided into counties, which corresponded with where the fences and hedges carved it up. My county was Gloucestershire (County G), the smallest with a team of just 20 people (others had as many as 190). Being small had its advantages: we could be more flexible in performing our tasks, and we could all get to know each other and become good friends. ...

After a few sessions in the stadium, county pride started to kick in. Hampshire wore baggy t-shirts with a giant neon H on them. Lancashire wore red hats with an L plate in the brim. In Gloucestershire, we bought official Team GB wristbands with the Olympic rings and lion mascot on, and picked out the stitching so they just said 'Team G'. Subtle, but classy, we thought. ...

According to embryonic Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Stronach/Pandemonium the counties were:

Ayrshire, Berkshire, Cornwall, Devon, Essex, Fife, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Jersey, Kent, Lancashire

Stronach provides quite a lot of other useful information, including links to volunteers' own online narratives.

http://www.whatsonstage.com/features/theatre/london/E8831343667038/Guest+Blog%3A+I+performed+in+the+Olympics+Opening+Ceremony.html

Guest Blog: I performed in the Olympics Opening Ceremony

Mel West (Head of Drama and a teacher of English at a secondary school in Hampshire)

30 Jul 2012

... I nearly quit a million times - I sacrificed time, money, my social life, my family and my ability to function at work on Mondays - but there were two main reasons why I didn't. One was that I couldn't have left the friends I'd made. We were in it together, and we were in it to the end. The other was that my friends and family simply wouldn't let me. "I've told everyone I know that you're in the Opening Ceremony!" vague work acquaintances would call down the corridor. "We were discussing you over Sunday lunch!" another would cry. I had become a poster-girl for people who bother to try, and defeat would not be tolerated.

http://www.istd.org/news/news-archive/dancing-into-the-olympics/

Imperial Society for Teachers of Dancing

Dancing into the Olympics

contribution by Gilbert Wu [dance student]

2 Oct 2012

... "We spent a total of five weekends or 48 hours in Dagenham." ... "People started to complain that we were just glorified props shifters and regretfully a small number of cast members started to drop out. I guess it would be every dancer's dream to perform their favourite dance in front of the world. However, I was quite thrilled to become a good props shifter!

Rescue could not come sooner in the third weekend in form of 250 men referred to as 'Warriors' by the producers. Their role was to help with shifting heavy items." ...

The "Warriors" were actually costumed as miners, and emerged from within the Tor. More details in:

Days of Wonders: Inside the 2012 Opening Ceremony

by Russell Moon

Oak House Partnership

2012

ISBN 978-0957473102 (paperback- also available as an e-book)

[A very interesting book chronicling the career of an Opening Ceremony volunteer, including numerous pictures]

minus 11 weeks: taking over the stadium

On 10 May 2012, with just 11 weeks to show day, control of the stadium interior was handed over to Danny Boyle's team. They didn't have absolute carte blanche; beneath the stadium turf was a sophisticated bed of layered materials and pipework, designed to keep the grass in the best possible condition. Hence, although the grass itself, which would die without sunlight, had to be removed, the ground beneath had to be protected- unlike in Athens and Beijing, where a much more expensive system of portable grass trays (deemed inappropriate for a playing surface which was, at that time, intended mainly for amateur use once the Games were over) had been used, allowing huge holes to be dug for ceremony purposes. The first few days were therefore spent removing the turf and laying down a tough protective covering for both the central field and the running track.

minus 10 weeks: building the stage

As soon as the centre of the field was protected, construction of the large circular lift platform for the Cauldron began, followed by the huge raised stage around it which would become the Green and Pleasant Land. Not easily seen on timelapse videos, in the auditorium the colossal task of installing and wiring Pixel Paddles on the backs of 70,000 seats also began as soon as possible, as did ....

https://www.stageandscreeninsider.co.uk/news/award-winning-olympics-lighting-designer-tim-routledge-talks-to-sasi

Stage and Screen Insider

Award-winning Olympics lighting designer Tim Routledge talks to SASI

by Emma Hudson

6 Mar 2013

... the biggest temporary lighting system installed in the UK. We used over two and a half thousand moving lights, a whole different range of lights. We used these new lights called Sharpies, which are perfect for staging light; they're intense beams of light. We had huge searchlights and a whole heap of lights for architectural purposes on the roof of the stadium.

Basically, you have to put in a core system that stays for all the shows. That was installed from the start of May; they had about two months to install the system. And then we had show-specific extras. We had a floor package of lights that we would redistribute and reuse for the different shows, depending on the layout of the set. For instance, we lit one of the main players' tunnels leading onto the pitch, which for the opening was where the torch came through.

Tim's estimate of the number of lights contradicts other published evidence, including that of his boss Patrick Woodroffe, which puts the number closer to 1,000, but most of the difference seems to be accounted for by the many clusters of lights which ringed the very top of the stadium wall, behind the hanging flags of the competing nations, to light the underside of the stadium roof. The exterior "architectural" lighting was part of the overall Olympic Park lighting scheme, separately controlled by Durham Marenghi.

https://www.ambersphere.co.uk/news/london-calling

Ambersphere Solutions Entertainment Lighting Equipment

London calling

... Andy Voller, Pryderi Baskerville and Alex Passmore joined Tim on the lighting programming team for which Tim chose to programme his elements of the show on two grandMA2 full-size consoles. These were run as main and backup. ...

Tim’s grandMA2 had control of 52 DMX Universes, incorporating over 300 x Clay Paky Sharpies, 224 x GLP Impressions,120 Zooms, 40 x Syncrolite 7K searchlights, 36 x Elation moving Beam Lights, 66 x PRG Bad Boys and 44 x Best Boys as the main core rig. ...

The shows were each triggered by a combination of manual cues and SMPTE timecode, with 24 timecode scripts running for the Olympics Opening Ceremony alone. ...

Meanwhile, a short distance from the Stadium:

https://www4.ntu.ac.uk/apps/news/127621-41/NTU's_master_puppeteer_work_experience_at_the_Olympics_Opening_Ceremony.aspx

Nottingham Trent University

NTU's master puppeteer work experience at the Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Sean Myatt, "Theatre Design Senior Lecturer and a life-long professional puppeteer"

31 August 2012

Day 1: Friday 18 May 2012, Bow 3 Mill Studios, Bromley

The first day of work! I have a mix of feelings; trepidation and excitement. All I know is that they want me to be a Puppet Captain!

Once through security I saw a familiar face, Mark Down, a well-known puppet director. We were led into one of the very large studios, I found out that my team will be operating Cruella Deville. The puppet is meant to go from a pop up character into a believable being with the animation of air and manipulation rods. After three hours we managed to put a rough run through before Danny Boyle, Director, walked in. For us it was a massive task, but it's just a microcosm of the whole event ...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nottinghamtrentuni/albums/72157630773556314

[Pics of Cruella near the bottom of the page]

minus 70 days (19 May 2012): the Olympic Flame arrives in Britain by helicopter, at Land's End in Cornwall. From it, the first of 8,000 torches is lit.

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/designing-london-2012-the-olympic-torch

It's Nice That ("Championing creativity across the art and design world")

Designing London 2012: A look at BarberOsgerby's Olympic Torch

by Rob Alderson

Friday 27 July 2012

... The young Hackney-based partnership fitted the profile that London 2012 wanted to show the world with a design portfolio packed with projects that combine flair, style and effortless functionality. ...

The triangular form was chosen because of the recurring significance of the number three -the number of Olympic values, the number of words in the motto, the number of times London has hosted the event. Then it was all about the 8's -it's 800mm heigh, weighs 800grammes and features 8,000 perforated circles representing the 8,000 torchbearers who would carry it on its journey. ...

Made of an aluminium alloy developed for use in planes and cars, its lightweight nature and heat resistant properties were crucial ...

From that moment until the Opening Ceremony, the torch was on the move every day, travelling the length and breadth of the British Isles in an intricate pattern. Although the commercialism of its attendant convoy was fairly blatant, ultimately, the torch-bearers really were the main attraction in the many communities where the vehicles stopped and the flame emerged to travel at jogging pace, or walking pace, or wheelchair-pace (or occasionally rescue-boat pace, or zipwire pace). The "kiss" with which the flame was transferred from one torch to another was simple and happy- no big deal, but no small deal either. Most significantly, seeing the torch relay live and local, as many millions did, made it inescapably clear that the Olympic Games were soon going to be happening in Britain- and hinted strongly that Britain could be a wonderful place to hold the Games.

http://www.citizenrelay.net/guest-post-reflections-from-a-torch-bearer-on-their-olympic-experience-in-luss/

Guest Post: Reflections from a Torch Bearer on their Olympic experience in Luss

by Jennifer Jones

10 Jun 2012

I got changed in the shiny new toilet block at Luss car park (built for the occasion?) but only after changing my 2 year old who had been sick in the car on the way up. Apparently a 6am start, much confusion and excitement and weetabix don't go well. Luckily she was sick before I put on the natty white tracksuit. Immediately I stepped out again people started staring at me, asking if I had run yet and requesting photos. I hadn't even met an official Relay person or got anywhere near a torch yet.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/06/18/the-olympic-torch-relay-one-of-those-twice-in-a-lifetime-experiences/

The Olympic Torch Relay: One of those twice in a lifetime experiences

by Mark Beaumont [distance cycling World Record holder]

18 Jun 2012

At 4am I pulled on the white tracksuit, brilliantly designed to be of no use for anything but being a torchbearer. Alike to an early '90 shell suit, although hopefully less flammable.

By 5.30am I was in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland and the entourage began to arrive. In all, 330 men and women keep the torch on track around the UK -a brilliantly complicated operation that makes cycling around the world look somewhat elementary. ...

The run was brilliant, impossible to describe, a confusion of shouts, claps and camera flashes and then, all too quickly, it was over and I passed the flame to 13 year old Joe Forrester. ...

Packing everything away I accidentally dropped 'my Torch' out of the car door. A small dent now proves that it is definitely mine and makes sure that I would never give into temptation to make my millions on eBay!

minus 9 weeks: main stage structure completed

PWoodroffe 29 May 2012: Pyro / FX tests (in the car-park at Three Mills) including the cascade from an Olympic Ring, suspended from a crane- "poetic and beautiful". Lead cameraman Barrie Dodd stands under the ring in protective gear to get straight-up shots.

30 May 2012: Struggles with the security bureaucracy, as passes are prepared for the live participants in an office under the steps up to Westfield next to Stratford Station.

1 Jun 2012: Armed with a new laminated pass, Patrick is able to stroll into the Olympic Park, to the huge production office beneath the south stands of the stadium. More induction courses, on where stadium facilities are, etc.

minus 8 weeks: the Tor

While sloping banks were added round the edge of the new stage, a metal skeleton was built over the lower tier of seating at the north end of the arena, which was covered with moulded sections to create the shape of the hill "Glastonbury Tor" (paradoxically, the upper part was made before the lower). Work also began on laying down the London map which would cover the entire stage surface. With most of the main structural sections now in place, a platform was installed over the southern entrance, on which was placed the great Olympic Bell in its massive metal frame.

minus 7 weeks: more Tor

The lower part of the Tor was completed, and the Oak Tree was raised into position at its summit; then a layer of growing medium was fixed in place over the entire surface of the hill. The London map flooring was having huge problems with the rain, and progress stalled at about 40% coverage.

The upper speakers for the insanely powerful sound system (plus some lights) were hung from their tension-ring cable round the inner edge of the roof.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/print/case_study_ceremonies_audio_system_at_the_london_2012_olympic_games

ProSoundWeb

Case Study: The Ceremonies Audio System Design At The London 2012 Olympic Games

by Scott Willsallen

6 Nov 2012

[from the introduction:]

Most large-capacity touring gigs do not usually require more than 100 large format line source cabinets, but the Olympic Stadium hosted over double that figure.

Scott Willsallen, audio systems designer at London 2012 Ceremonies Limited ... who was responsible for the design and implementation of the technology at the Olympic Stadium, says that, "I've never put that much power in the air with a sound system before. "As far as L-Acoustics is aware, no one has ever assembled together so many amplifiers to one network before either.

[also: http://www.l-acoustics.com/admin/product_files/upload/OlympicGamesLondon_CaseStudy_2012.pdf ]

http://www.fast-and-wide.com/faw-news/3607-olympics-open-and-close-with-optocore

fastandwide

Olympics stand on ceremony

The complexity of the event required the Pyramix system to be expanded and upgraded for the 2012 event, in order to allow 128 channels of audio to be played back. The job of specifying what was needed fell to Auditoria's Scott Willsallen, who had responsibility for the total audio installation in the stadium.

The output from the Pyramix was fed via two Madi streams into the DiGiCo SD7 console, and timecode was fed to the lighting, video playback, broadcast and pyrotechnics, as well as being used by the stage managers and directors to cue talent and live events.

The man with his finger on the trigger was Trevor Beck, who has been in a similar position several times before ...

-audience videos confirm that the sound was loud and clear! Incidentally, although the sound system was digital, it incorporated an old-fashioned analogue signal path which would kick in automatically if the digital signal failed; every possible back-up was built into this project. See also:

www.auditoria.systems/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/London-2012-AT.pdf

PWoodroffe 5 Jun 2012: Script meeting for opening ceremony at Three Mills Studios, with all key production personnel. Going through cue-by-cue, many useful points are raised. Although many solutions to problems are presented, Patrick and Hamish Hamilton remain worried that the production has (like many before it) bitten off more than it can chew.

6 Jun 2012: Presentations of audience-pixel content at 59ers studio in Soho. Patrick and producer Catherine Ugwu are worried about whether it will be truly impactful.

minus 6 weeks: the Cauldron sneaks in

The Cauldron was lifted into the stadium by a massive crane at dead of night (11-12 or possibly 10-11 June), and swiftly hidden in a "garage" beneath the stage.

PWoodroffe 12 Jun 2012: Patrick's first look inside the stadium for a while; he finds it filled with hundreds of busy workers "the sense of purpose is palpable". Among many other activities, parts of the Cauldron are being shunted into their garage. That night, they see the pixel content on the system as installed so far (about 25% complete); "it looks spectacular ... so much stronger at this scale". Patrick and Adam Bassett realise that the pixels can be a valuable asset to them when not in use for animation, and after the video crews have left, they persuade the pixel programmers to try matching some of their lighting cues. The combination works brilliantly; "a very telling moment"- the pixels giving a variable background to camera shots in any direction.

During this week, flower-rich turf was laid (and securely fixed) all over the growing medium on the Tor, and was subsequently maintained to ensure that it would be in peak condition by show day. Also about this time, the video designers moved almost their whole operation (scale model and all) to an office in the stadium basement. Another scale model made a very public appearance, as Danny Boyle and Stephen Daldry held a press conference to reveal the design for the Green and Pleasant Land (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQm5gtksQds )- possibly to keep the media from asking too many questions about the dead-of-night activities. The London map flooring reached about 75% coverage, and the factory chimneys were in place.

... and the music setlist for the ceremony sneaks out

After a brief and unsuccessful attempt to obtain official confirmation of its genuineness, the leaked list was made available by multiple newspapers and web outlets (which also, of course, added Spotify playlists) on 18-19 June.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/18/london-olympics-opening-ceremony-playlist_n_1605015.html

With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that it was indeed genuine, evidently a list to be submitted for copyright clearances.

minus 5 weeks: Greener and Pleasanter

Testing of the factory chimneys proved satisfactory. While the "Thanks Tim" levitating house was constructed on the outer track, the London Map finally reached completion. Even before the map was done, the work of creating the Green and Pleasant landscape on top of it had begun, with the arrival of large sheets of artificial grass and other props. The lower band stage was now installed below the Olympic Bell, blocking the south entrance to all except small vehicles.

By this time too, a vast number of smaller props had been created, and needed maintaining until 27 July:

http://app.imcreator.com/static/68924BAC0F7B47DA9A24B69DE30BB7E4/london-2012-olympic-opening-ceremony

[Gallery by Just Past One Design, specialists in stage prop creation and maintenance.]

Crisis? Which crisis?

If you watch through the full YouTube video of the opening ceremony, you'll find that the main floodlights at the apex of the 14 triangular lighting towers are never used. They are based on a different technology from theatrical lighting, and they do not "switch on" instantly. Also I suspect that the "white" light they emit would appear, to the TV camera sensors, very different from the "white" light emitted by the theatrical lighting. Olympic rules say that the parade of nations has to be lit from beginning to end with consistent, bright, white light ...

PWoodroffe 22 Jun 2012: Programming lights while the main stadium sodium lighting is on, the team are encouraged to see that their own lighting is powerful enough for their effects to be visible. During a meeting after the evening's session they witness the effect when the stadium lighting is turned off. Almost everybody including Danny is impressed, but Patrick freaks out, because his lighting is on full, in white, as it will be throughout the Parade, and it looks almost gloomy.

23 Jun 2012: Crisis meeting of the lighting team, who try to calm PW down a bit, while working on ways to add more lights without causing too many new problems. They decide 150 extra lights need to be hired for the duration of the Games (about 3 months) "each costing over £300 a week to rent"- but the project is already over budget and "the money well is empty".

25 Jun 2012: Patrick tells technical producer Piers Shepperd that they need £150,000 for extra lighting. Piers explains that other departments are also having problems, so even if more money can be found, it will have to be allocated on a priority basis. Slashing their requirement to a bare-bones £80,000, Patrick calls old friend Mickey Curbishley of PRG (Production Resource Group) who are supplying lighting, and asks if they will waive half the extra cost. Though now in Los Angeles, Mickey is a Brit, and replies "ready to go over the top for the national good".

26 Jun 2012: Only £40k to find. Meanwhile, television lighting supremo Al Gurdon visits the stadium for the first time, to check how well the lighting will work for TV. He reports that the existing full lighting is "only just" OK for broadcast. Later Catherine Ugwu comes to Patrick and tells him she's found the £40k, but he mustn't tell anybody else about it. As Al is getting happier the more he sees of the lighting, everybody is upbeat again; "such a roller-coaster".

27 Jun 2012: Miserable night of programming, with stadium lighting still on: it's very hard to judge effects, or evenness of coverage. The arena is still full of junk, trucks etc. which makes judging the effects of lighting on, for example, the M25, even harder. Patrick feels the lighting is "unfocussed and a big mess", but Danny Boyle and others like it.

the last month

minus 4 weeks: welcoming the cast

Over the 23-24 June weekend, the volunteer cast began the transfer from the Dagenham rehearsal space to the reality of the stadium.

http://www.domeheid.com/2013/08/my-2012-10q-answers.html

domeheid: A personal blog and commonplace book

My 2012 10Q answers

by Christopher Whalen [a drummer / marshall]

29 Aug 2013

In rehearsals I had some major highs. One was Wet Thursday, so called because we were on the field of play in the stadium, rehearsing for the athletes' parade in the pouring rain. I came prepared with a good rain coat, waterproof trousers and beanie hat. I was warm and dry. And very happy. Some people were missing. Others left after the tea break. But for those of us who stayed, we were rewarded with an amazing lifting of mood. Instead of getting more tired and dreary after the tea break, they started to play the music and it gave everyone this amazing energy and pep. I didn't care about the rain. I was comfortable, happy, excited, having an insider's experience of the world's biggest creative, cultural secret. It was blissful.

Gloriously, the spirit of the volunteers provided still more inspirations for the organisers:

BBC Radio 3

Proms Lecture

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

16 July 2016

I remember coming out of Three Mills studios one night, walking up to Bromley by Bow tube, past the 24 Hour Tesco feeling weary, dejected and anxious. I was overtaken by a crowd of people. At first I couldn't figure out who they were - all shapes and sizes, all different backgrounds and ethnicities, all headed the same way, each carrying a bottle of water, all of them aglow. Then I realised, these were the volunteers. I caught the train with them and as they piled off at each station I was reminded of Larkin's great poem, The Whitsun Weddings ... [quotation given] This was my epiphany. That it was really about the participants. ...

[lecture text at https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/15/frank-cottrell-boyce-proms-lecture-what-point-culture-in-brexit-britain ]

In the post-lecture discussion, he added a thought about the cultural miracle behind the event:

I'm very interested in that idea that, as carers, as friends, as teachers, we can give things to people, and- and they will stay with you, and you may not even know that they're important until they come back- literally, I did Philip Larkin for O-level [banter follows about how this indicates his age] and I'd literally never thought about him really since- and then on that train that day it just came bouncing back at me ...

Then again, some aspects of the production process were far from inspiring:

http://exploredreamdiscoverblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Explore. Dream. Discover.

My Olympic Experience

by Sophie Dewing (lives in London, works in TV)

The meal packs consisted of a bread-heavy, filling-light sandwich (AKA brick), plus some Pringles, a Nature Valley cereal bar and an apple. For every meal. At every rehearsal. For three weeks.

A photo of one of the meal packs can be seen on the blog "I Dreamed a Dream" by Bradford student volunteer Mohammed Shafi ( http://teamstammer.blogspot.co.uk/2012_08_01_archive.html ) which, incidentally, naughtily recycles text from other blogs, including Sophie's, to bulk out its narrative.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1781019&page=500

The Student Room

[forum topic:] Did anyone else get an audition for the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony?

(First of two immense volunteer discussion threads about rehearsals etc., continued on

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2037599 )

I do hope somebody's attempting to analyse the formal and informal information available from the performance volunteers. It's clear that there was a tendency at certain levels of management to assume that volunteers who could survive hours in the rain would tolerate almost any budget-trimming wheeze that was thrown at them (changing rooms 2km from the performance site and nearly as far from the railway station?). However, there were other managers at work too, and there was a clear ethos from the top:

http://forums.theia.org.uk/blog/tag/windrush/

feconnect

Let the games begin!

by Steve Hewitt (Strategic Funding, Enrolments and Examinations Manager at Morley College, London)

3 Aug 2012

Everyone had a story, of course, and there was a massive sense of camaraderie, facebook groups set up, pints in the pub after rehearsals etc etc. I know everyone else has mentioned it but the director of the ceremony, Danny Boyle, really was at every rehearsal, talking to everyone, always thanking us for our time and patience. The way he managed us was astonishing, all 10,000 of us would have walked through walls for him and all of the other creative staff by Friday night; it was inspiring to see.

http://ellieatwhl.wordpress.com/

My Olympic Story: The journey of a volunteer performer at the Olympic Ceremonies

a blog in 8 instalments [first at bottom]

by Eleanor

Aug 2011 to May 2012

https://www.flickr.com/photos/clarewood/albums/72157645491732804/page11

529 - Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Clare Wood

[Page from a performer's album, showing the planning of the Big House projections, Thanks Tim costumes etc.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5h6hHnTxw8

Olympics Opening Ceremony - From A Drummer's Perspective

by Steve O'Gallagher

30 Jul 2012

[A short but nicely-edited compilation of clips shot by one of the drummers, from early rehearsals to the after-show party, with a good section on the pre-Ceremony pep-talk]

With no more access to heavy vehicles, the outer track could begin its transformation into the "M25" with an inner grassy verge round the Green and Pleasant Land. Installation of the Pixel Paddles was completed. There were also night-time rehearsals for the lights, and dead-of-night rehearsals for the Cauldron deployment. Round the almost-completed M25 on some timelapse shots can be seen the numerous ramps and half-pipes created for the intended "BMX Ballet".

https://www.signature-systems.com/london-2012-olympics

Signature Systems

London 2012 Olympics: Athletics Track and Turf Protection ...

The bad weather still wasn't letting up:

https://www.stageandscreeninsider.co.uk/news/award-winning-olympics-lighting-designer-tim-routledge-talks-to-sasi

Stage and Screen Insider

Award-winning Olympics lighting designer Tim Routledge talks to SASI

by Emma Hudson

6 Mar 2013

We were dealing with a venue that was obviously open air and we had the worst weather you could possibly conceive. During rehearsals in the stadium, the weather was just horizontal for days. Every night, 10,000 cast would walk into the stadium and get drenched. The set was getting drenched, everything was getting trashed - all our equipment was getting soaked. The weather was just extraordinary, right up to the actual show. It was a really tricky situation to be in.

We could really only work as a lighting team when it got dark, and in the summer it gets dark quite late. So the time you have to do actual lighting rehearsals is between about quarter to ten and four in the morning, during summer. So in very little time, we were working on the biggest lighting rig in the UK. It was phenomenal at the time, thousands of moving lights.

...

A lot of the time we were lighting without anyone there. Rehearsals finished at ten because they had to get these 10,000 volunteers onto the public transport system and get them home before public transport closed down. There really was a lot of time staring at an empty stadium, saying, "Well, we think the torch will be here, and they'll be jogging at this speed." We had loads of students who were there and we'd say to them, "Right, jog round the track." ...

https://www4.ntu.ac.uk/apps/news/127621-41/NTU's_master_puppeteer_work_experience_at_the_Olympics_Opening_Ceremony.aspx

Nottingham Trent University

NTU's master puppeteer work experience at the Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Sean Myatt, "Theatre Design Senior Lecturer and a life-long professional puppeteer"

31 August 2012

Sunday 24 June 2012

Terrible weather causes havoc. Both Cruella and Queen of Hearts are out of action, awaiting repair after water damage. We watch the clear up of the industrial revolution scene, which looks amazing. Apparently the scene change for this section will be in the Guinness Book of Records, as the biggest ever!

[I won't quote any more of Sean's blog, but it's well worth studying for his account of the many frustrations experienced by this particular team, which echo hints in other accounts from professionals about the rather improvisational development of the show].

PWoodroffe 29 Jun 2012: Conversation with Steven Daldry, "one of those people into whose orbit you happily allow yourself to be drawn", who reckons the show is "messy"- but accepts that "messy" is a part of Danny Boyle's style. "Steven's job is really to deal with the politics, to run interference as the Americans would say, and to keep the heat off Danny so he can get on with just conceiving and directing the show." Programming that night goes ahead with all the stadium house lights off, and although only small changes are made, it's starting to look spectacular, so Patrick is much more optimistic when he leaves at midnight.

30 Jun 2012: Another big production meeting. Flying technical manager James Lee was the depressed one this time, as the flying systems were not working well.

1 Jul 2012: "On page 3 of the Sunday Times was a complete rundown of the show including staging details, music, description of effects and performers Noooo! How could they? The press were just- shameless really"

minus 26 days (1 Jul 2012): the BBC trails its Olympic coverage during the half-time break of football's Euro 2012 Final

The BBC titles and promotional spots for the Olympics followed up an idea used in earlier Olympic promotion by the bank group Lloyds TSB, which adapted its familiar animated ads to show the Olympic Torch in a variety of British landscapes. The BBC promos (commissioned from the same agency as the Lloyds ads), in a more "realistic" animation style, turned British landscapes into sporting venues for athletic superheroes. The BBC Olympic theme introduced in these promos, "First Steps" by Elbow (in which the five-note clusters are intended to suggest the five Olympic rings- and the piece also graciously includes a "loser's theme") is inspired not so much by sporting triumph as by what the title indicates- the first steps of the baby daughter of band member Pete Turner.

Elbow, who can, in mere seconds, make 50,000 people shivering in a muddy field feel as if they are having the time of their lives, come from the town of Bury, not far from Danny Boyle's childhood home, and they share with Boyle and Boyce a northern English sense of illogical positivism, a feeling that "We are on the brink of a new era, if only ..." Although they were not directly involved with the London Opening, their composition (not a song as such, although there were choral parts) ended up featuring some of the same ideas and ideals.

Profits from the piece (the full version of which became available to download on 27 July) were donated to the BBC's "Children in Need" and "Sport Relief" charity campaigns.

http://blog.oup.com/2012/08/music-olympic-nbc-bbc-london-2012/

OUP Blog (by Oxford University Press)

Music and the Olympics: A Tale of Two Networks

by Ron Rodman

August 4th, 2012

... Williams'confident and strident music for NBC conveys the American confidence (or even expectations) of striving for perfection and winning. The BBC music seems to convey the joy of participation and competition as the essence of the games. Elbow's piece caters more to the majority of the athletes and countries who are likely to win few or no medals.

minus 3 weeks: learning experiences

Rehearsals continued, with adaptations as the cast adjusted to the new environment. The ramps into the Green and Pleasant Land gained their covering of artificial grass, but the M25 inner verge was still bare.

http://www.insidethegames.biz/bigread/17926-louisa-gummer-the-secret-diary-of-a-london-2012-opening-ceremony-volunteer

Inside the Games

The Secret Diary of a London 2012 Opening Ceremony volunteer

by Louisa Gummer

28 Jul 2012

... Everything is all change again now we are in the Stadium, we have been rehearsing on a flat surface, but of course the real FOP [Field Of Play] is raised in the middle, and has steep stairs down making it more difficult than we had fooled ourselves into thinking at Dagenham. This makes wheeling the hedges in particular a total chore, as it now takes two people to lift one of the very heavy real hedges up and carry it down the stairs. The counties with real turf are finding it so very much heavier than they expected too, especially when it rains which it does a lot. The first week we find it all very demoralising, it takes us so much longer to strike and we feel we have gone dramatically backwards. ...

Scenery shifting wasn't the only problem created by the decision to build an elevated temporary "field of play" stage- the front rows of the audience were below stage level, which is one reason why every major section of the Opening Ceremony included performances on the outer track as well as the raised central stage.

And of course, following another recent tradition, there were technically-challenging things happening up in the air as well:

http://www.missradida.com/2012/08/london-2012-olympic-opening-ceremony/

Miss Radida

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

by Miss Radida, aka Rada (aerialist / circus artiste- one of the Poppinses)

7 Aug 2012

... several of the girls got stuck in mid-air, which is exactly what had been happening to the riggers during the weeks we had waited to be allowed to fly. They had thought that the problem was fixed, but as it turned out, it wasn't, and they cancelled the rest of our week of rehearsals to re-think the whole system. With the show only 2 1/2 weeks away by this stage, they came up with a different system that was easier to implement. ... it really was a magical moment when we finally got to try it out. Danny Boyle was at the rehearsal when we tried out the new system, and he was ecstatic! ...

Also in the air, the end of June and beginning of July saw the installation of the four huge video screens on the roof, assembled at ground level and winched up to be tested and calibrated as they passed the seating upper tier, before finally being attached to the struts of lighting towers:

Proceedings of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures Symposium 2013

London 2012 Olympic Ceremonies - Video Screens

by Piers Shepperd, Rastislav (Rasti) Bartek, Stefano Cammelli, Jeremy Lloyd

Sep 2013

ABSTRACT

... The four LED screens represented a design challenge due to their weight (10 tonnes each) but also because of their large surface area exposed to wind (19.2m x 7.68m). Supporting such large objects from the stadium lighting towers was not anticipated in the original analysis and design of the roof and therefore the Ceremonies team faced a big challenge. The creative team (led by Artistic Director Danny Boyle) wanted to ensure the Stadium screens were the largest possible to enhance the stadium spectator experience but keep within the engineering design constraints. These constraints included: (i) not exceeding the maximum load allowance for the roof on both the local and global scale - the total weight of all ceremonies objects supported from the stadium roof was approximately 600tonnes, (ii) preventing significant reduction of prestress in the cable system stabilizing the lighting towers and (iii) not exceeding the global buckling capacity of the lighting tower legs. The "porous" Spider 30 LED screen product was used in an attempt to reduce the wind loading. Following on the initial desk study based on the wind tunnel study was commissioned and performed in BMT boundary layer wind tunnel in Teddington.

PWoodroffe 5 Jul 2012: Volunteers, technicians etc. approach PW to congratulate him on the lighting; he tries not to let it go to his head. However, viewing the effects from podium level for the first time, he has to admit that it's getting better. At the end-of-evening meeting, Danny is also impressed, and asks PW to pass on thanks to the whole lighting team (and Terry passes the message on to the follow-spot operators, stuck up on the roof, most of whom are students on theatrical courses around London).

6 Jul 2012: Very rainy, as it has been most days of the past 2 months.

minus 2 weeks: bad news

The rehearsal schedule stepped up a gear, now with mandatory midweek attendance in the pouring rain (the recorded versions of the mighty shouts at the beginning of "Pandemonium" were recorded late at night after just such an occasion, on Tuesday 10 July). The laying of turf round the M25 inner verge finally got going.

PWoodroffe 7 Jul 2012: Performance run-through in twilight with lighting; Patrick feels it's underwhelming, and there's a bit of an argument with Tim Routledge about the importance of getting it right for TV versus right for the stadium audience. A lighting rerun in full darkness looks great.

9 Jul 2012: There have been rumours that a "mole" has been filming rehearsals and releasing the video on YouTube. When Patrick tries finding them, the search leads to videos from Beijing 2008, and he wishes he hadn't been reminded of how amazing that ceremony had been; "it feels like ours doesn't come close to theirs in terms of spectacle and scale ..."

10 Jul 2012: Rehearsals of the helicopter stunt, in daylight and later in darkness. All communication has to go through an aircraft liaison officer, an RAF Squadron Leader named Dawn, not direct from Julia Whittle the show caller. Cheering from the volunteers in the stadium at the night rehearsal, which goes perfectly. The lighting team have been testing a very powerful spotlight to illuminate the helicopter, and Patrick discusses lighting with the stunt team after the rehearsal. He will be informed of wind direction when the helicopter takes off, and will instruct Terry's follow-spot team not to light the jumpers from the downwind direction, which they will be facing.

And then, on Friday the Thirteenth, ten days before the first public dress-rehearsal, the ceremony production team had a meeting with their bosses, who (rightly as it turned out) suspected that the estimated overall duration of the ceremony was a bit optimistic, and it would still be in progress at 1am on 28 July, when London's public transport staff wanted to go home and have a sleep. Tense negotiations led to some fairly harsh solutions: the cutting of a couple of minutes from every major performance in the show (which would have significant consequences for the final presentation, such as leaving insufficient time to show some highlights of "Pandemonium" on TV, and losing the Britpop era from "Thanks Tim"), plus the almost complete loss of the "BMX Ballet" apart from the parade of obligatory Olympic "doves".

minus 1 week: rehearsals and adjustments

The volunteers were informed of the cuts at the rehearsals on 14 July, and the changes were incorporated into the performance over the following few days.

https://www.focus.de/sport/olympia-2012/olympia-2012-olympia-macher-streichen-eroeffnungsfeier-zusammen_aid_783928.html

Focus Online

Olympia-Macher streichen Eröffnungsfeier zusammen

18 Jul 2012

Die Organisatoren der Olympischen Spiele in London haben aus Angst vor einem Chaos im öffentlichen Nahverkehr Teile der Eröffnungsfeier ersatzlos gestrichen.

...

Den Veranstaltern zu Folge muss die Show, die um 21.00 Uhr Ortszeit (22.00 MESZ) beginnt, zwischen 00.00 Uhr und 00.30 Uhr enden. ...

https://metro.co.uk/2017/07/27/i-was-part-of-the-london-olympics-opening-ceremony-five-years-ago-today-6809728/

Metro newspaper

I was part of the London Olympics opening ceremony five years ago

by Ashitha Nagesh

27 Jul 2017

Perhaps the only day I remember feeling really dejected was when Danny said he needed to ‘have a chat’ with all of us at one of our later rehearsals in July. He told us that they’d need to cut our NHS segment short – taking out a major part of the intro, and about a minute and a half off the end.

He seemed really angry at the time, too, and told us the decision had been made after a meeting with the Cabinet Office.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/natalie-r-harris/a-life-less-ordinary-how-_b_1716444.html

HuffPost: The Blog

A Life Less Ordinary: How I Came to Perform in the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

Natalie Harris-Spencer [a digital publishing specialist]

30 Jul 2012

One week to go, and the entire cast of 10,000 were moved to a holding area in Eton Manor, an arena on the far-side of the Olympic Park, where vast marquees were strewn with costumes, cast and make-up stations. Look it up on an Olympic Park map: it's 2 miles from Stratford station and 1.6 from the stadium. For three days in a row I was walking about 6 miles on blister-encrusted feet and spending eight hours in hair and make-up, before performing in costume and stumbling home past midnight, utterly broken.

https://www.starlingarts.com/blog/2012/8/2/gold-medal-performance-from-team-db-danny-boyle.html

Starling Arts

Gold Medal performance from Team DB (Danny Boyle)!

by Nona Ahamat ['a person with a relatively serious desk job']

2 Aug 2012

In seemingly no time at all, there were full dress runs with audiences of friends, family and Gamesmakers. These took place at the proper time, so we were doing our thing at dusk - a totally different and electric atmosphere. Especially as we got to practice the full build up beforehand – arriving at 2pm and getting ready/waiting around in the cast holding area past the hockey pitches, a 25 minute walk from the Stadium itself. Audiences were sworn to secrecy too but the non-specific acclaim on Twitter afterwards seemed to confirm what we all suspected – that we were part of something very special that people would enjoy watching as much as we would enjoy performing.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/1000-olympics-opening-ceremony-tickets-have-restricted-view-7979434.html

The Independent [London]

1,000 Olympics opening ceremony tickets have 'restricted view'

Alison Kershaw

Thursday 26 July 2012

...

A message on the London 2012 tickets website says that seats bought after Tuesday, July 17, for £995 and £150 will have a restricted view.

"Tickets in price category B (£995) and C (£150) purchased from 17 July 2012 onwards will have a restricted view of parts of the ceremony," the website says.

...

Earlier today, Locog said that there were still tickets available for the event, with a few left in category AA, priced at £2,012 and others in category A, at £1,600 each.

PWoodroffe 14 Jul 2012: A lighting team "bonding" meal in Westfield, to encourage them for the final push. A successful run-through in the evening.

15 Jul 2012: After rehearsals, a chance to see Betty the Cauldron in action, and discuss with Thomas Heatherwick the best ways to illuminate it. The way the Cauldron was intended to work made Patrick very nervous.

16 Jul: A Thanks Tim run-through is "terrible"; so serious discussions between PW, Adam Bassett and Al Gurdon follow. After a little experimentation, suddenly it starts working- illuminating the crowd well, yet still leaving capacity for highlighting. General agreement that the whole lighting setup can be brighter without losing atmosphere, so they embark on a long programming session to adjust lighting for the entire scene.

17 Jul 2012: Meeting with Leo Warner of 59 Productions to check that the lighting and pixel content work well together, followed by a session with the follow-spot operators- the first time that, as a team, they have met with Patrick rather than Terry. Run-through of the Swing Out Sisters/NHS scene, which is too dark, and suffers from reflections off the floor. Another adjustment process ensues, followed by a "long and intricate" programming session. Patrick rides his scooter home at 2am (an early night; he often had to leave earlier than his team because he would have morning meetings).

18 Jul 2012: "The food is so bad at the venue, almost inedible, that I eat little when I'm there, at work, except for bars of chocolate and the odd stodgy sandwich." First full-costume rehearsal of Pandemonium (but in daylight). Danny has cut the Nimrod music from Brunel's speech, ostensibly as part of "the cuts" but musical director Rick Smith (with many others, including Patrick himself) thinks it's a mistake. NHS runthrough in the evening; the lighting now looks good, but with only one scene rehearsed in the correct conditions each day, it's impossible to check how well the whole show fits together. At the meeting afterwards, Danny is upbeat, his colleagues less so. As that ends, word gets round that part of the shortening process involves cutting out Hey Jude. Patrick thinks "That's unforgiveable, it'll have enormous repercussions" (and he's supposed to be meeting Paul McCartney for a rehearsal the next day). On reflection, it occurs to him that Danny is making certain cuts "to shake up the producers" and make it clear that he must have final say on what is cut, not them. The furore would be equally huge if he cut out any of the main sections after the months of hard work by volunteers. By this time, the development of the show is also running up against deadlines, and it is not possible to have extra runs of parts which are not going to plan. In some cases, special effects which are not working will have to be cut, or tested separately and run in the show without knowing if they will work in context (a very big no-no for live performances). The lighting team works through to dawn.

19 Jul 2012: Patrick wakes after 4 hours sleep to attend Macca's rehearsal at LH2 (a concert rehearsal space in Acton). At this point, the intention is that "The End" should be the last performance of the worldwide broadcast, with "Hey Jude" as an encore for the stadium spectators.

minus 6 days (21 July 2012): the torch relay begins a journey to every one of London's 33 boroughs

After being carried to the Council offices in Guildford on Friday evening by Austin Playfoot (of whom we shall hear more, somewhat later), the Olympic flame was transferred to a miner's lamp for a helicopter flight to the Tower of London, where Royal Marine Martyn Williams abseiled to the ground at 20:12 hours and lit a torch carried by Dame Kelly Holmes. The next morning, it began its progress round the capital.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-21/news/32776168_1_fauja-singh-olympic-torch-waltham-forest

The Times of India

Fauja Singh, 101, dazzles in Olympic Torch relay

PTI (agency)

21 Jul 2012

Punjab-born centenarian Fauja Singh, who defies age to run marathons, drew the loudest cheers on Saturday, as the Olympic Torch was carried by him, Olympic medal winners, and leading individuals through London, amidst a welcome, clear sky and sunshine. ...

Mr. Singh was born in 1911, and began running at 86 to keep himself occupied.

minus several days (21-25 July): final rehearsals

PWoodroffe 21 Jul 2012: First full dress rehearsal; Patrick is not optimistic beforehand, but seeing Pandemonium performed he reckons it's "a triumph: exciting, dramatic and beautiful. Swing Out Sisters looks pretty good too. Mr Bean, simple and beautiful, and Thanks Tim ... while it's still a little bit busy and a bit messy, still has some wonderful shots of the dancers. Then the Athletes' Parade is rehearsed with volunteers taking the part of the athletes, and looks pretty good and well-lit; if not quite Beijing-like, at least as elegant, and nicely seen". General feeling of optimism afterwards. The helicopter sequence, rehearsed after most people have left, is mistimed, but still looks impressive. Patrick leaves the stadium by 3am (another early night).

22 Jul 2012: Chat with Hamish Hamilton & Seb Coe. Seb reports that not only was he impressed by last night's rehearsal, so were his Special Branch guards. Patrick is now most nervous about the protocol sections, which have not really been run through yet, and are the ones which matter most to the IOC.

23 Jul 2012: 2nd dress rehearsal, with audience of LOCOG volunteers, the first test of the surprises. Sunny weather; the stadium properly tidied and cleaned. Huge cheer when Danny asks audience to Save the Surprise- a contrast with the continuing meanness of the press (and Patrick notes that it worked). Patrick becomes acutely aware of the mistakes made during the performance, particularly in the protocol sections, confirmed after the rehearsal in a stern email from the IOC.

The words from Danny on 23 July which made the audience cheer:

"If you could not post, and not Tweet your splendid pictures, we'd really really really appreciate it, it would make you part of our show- I know you've already contributed to it [drowned out by rising applause] ..."

http://www.tonypenultimate.co.uk/blog/a_story_for_christmas/

Tony Penultimate

A Story for Christmas: Can You Feel the Love?

by James Brooke Turner [aka Tony's brother; aka Dove 24]

5 Dec 2015

[Describing the experiences of a volunteer performer from application to post-ceremony daze; in the final technical and dress rehearsals, as a Dove Cyclist, James had to follow the Athletes' Parade]

How long does it take to get all athletes from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe into the stadium, and how do you practice that in advance?

The secret is to have a handful of people and some string. The person at the front carries the flag and one end of the string and the person behind carries the other end. The length of sting represents the number of athletes likely to be in the team. Some have a yard, and some have a couple of hundred yards. Quite quickly the parade of athletes and string tells you all you need to know about the Olympic timetable.

http://www.sean.co.uk/a/london2012-opening-ceremony.shtm

www.sean.co.uk

Among those dark satanic mills

Sean McManus (freelance journalist / author)

2012

... Our waterwheel was looked after by specialist stage technicians. The vision was for it to start out small and quadruple in size during the industrial revolution, but it took too long to build and strike, so it became a permanent feature, like the grassy tor at the end of the stadium where the national flags were planted after the athlete's parade. ...

We were working through the wettest summer on record, and one stadium rehearsal in particular I remember being difficult. The astroturf felt twice as heavy holding so much rainwater, and the stage was slippery. But the mass movement team studied our performance and listened to our feedback. The following week, extra staircases were added to shorten our exit routes and avoid congestion, an extra-grip surface was applied to the ramps, and hedge chutes were invented so the hedges didn't have to be lifted down the stairs. The show continuously evolved, rather than being preordained. ...

http://dulwichonview.org.uk/2012/09/14/my-time-as-a-light-up-dress-in-the-olympics-opening-ceremony/

Dulwich OnView

My time as a Light Up Dress in the Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Madeline Adeane

14 Sep 2012

... The dresses looked incredible when they were lit up and they also had a rotating inner layer which looked amazing when we spun around. ...

... the Saturday before the performance was the first time where the 23 of us Light Up Dresses got to do a proper run through of the whole routine in full costume. Unfortunately we had been called too early to the stadium so had to wear the dresses for much longer than necessary and whilst waiting in the backstage tunnels (or vomitoriums) everyone was rather conscious of hindered mobility and achy shoulders. ...

... the ceremony creative team were amazing at swiftly rectifying issues so by the next rehearsal, i.e. the first Tech Rehearsal, they had fashioned a hoop skirt of sorts for each of us to catch the bottom of the dresses and keep the weight on our hips rather than our shoulders. Keeping the dresses a bit higher off the shoulders also meant we could move our arms easier and actually do the routines more effectively. ...

The 23 July dress rehearsal led to quite a number of small improvements, not all technical in nature. For example, High Contrast was asked to provide a replacement soundtrack for the remix of "Bhindi Bhagee" by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros ("Welcome stranger, to the humble neighbourhoods ...") which had been used in the opening 60-second countdown. Luckily this was fairly easily available from his various experiments with 120 bpm versions of older tunes.

http://thefizzbackblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/savethesurprise-london-2012-opening.html

NICE Fizzback Blog

#savethesurprise - London 2012 Opening Ceremony

Tom Lynam [Tom is a marketing expert]

Friday, 17 August 2012

I was lucky enough to attend the dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony, a couple of days before the main event. Despite some omissions (the lighting of the flame and the Queen's cameo to name but two), the nearly 50,000 strong audience were entertained with the staggering set pieces and dazzling show that was viewed by so many on Friday 27th July.

The organisers though had a problem; while they obviously felt a full dress rehearsal with a nearly full stadium was necessary, how were they to keep those 50,000 people from sharing their pictures and tales of the event. As you may have already guessed, the solution was wrapped up in the hashtag "savethesurprise" The message was played across all the screens in the stadium, and when combined with a personal plea from Danny Boyle (the director of the show) to literally save the surprise, the effect was that information on the performance was kept at a premium. ...

I too kept quiet, merely telling friends and family to make sure they tuned in to watch the show. Looking back now I can say the main reason I did this, was the sense of empowerment that the organisers had placed upon my (and the other 50,000 guests) shoulders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyi8NOEhG1U

YouTube

Danny Boyle olympic pep talk to 80,000 people

waited99

27 Jul 2012 [filmed at dress rehearsal, 25 Jul]

Part the theme of our show, is that This Is For Everyone, which I hope you'll understand by the time you get to the end of the sections that you see tonight.

Erm.... In fact, tonight isn't for everyone, it's just for you actually, absolutely just for you, and if you would not- if you would mind- all the wonderful pictures you take, and I hope you get some wonderful pictures, please don't Tweet them or post them until Friday after the show. If we can ask you to do that it'd be great and we want to- we don't wanna get heavy about it but that's why we have this hashtag up saying SAVETHESURPRISE. OK, thank-you very much.

http://storify.com/networknewsdesk/savethesurprise-london-olympic-rehearsals

#SavetheSurprise: London Opening Ceremony rehearsal

Final countdown to #London2012: the Opening Ceremony rehearsal as it happened on social media

Curated by @SimonCrerar for News Limited Australia

c24-25 Jul 2012

paul_d_stevens

Oh no. I've seen a two-inch picture of the Olympics opening ceremony. The surprise is totally ruined for me now #savethesurprise

Paul Stevens

LOcurrency

Wow what a joy to perform in the rehearsal for the #openingceremony in front of 40,000 who #savethesurprise

Mario Van Poppel

jackellacott

An amazing evening at the Opening Ceremony Rehersal. I'd tell you all but I have to #savethesurprise pic.twitter.com/HH9cYURU

Jack Ellacott

emma_gorton

If I was excited before I think I'm now bordering on unbearable #London2012 #Olympics #savethesurprise yfrog.com/oclgygcj

Emma Gorton

http://www.itv.com/news/2012-07-23/olympic-opening-ceremony-revealed-on-twitter/

ITV News

Olympic opening ceremony revealed on Twitter

- last updated Tue 24 Jul 2012

Tom Barton

'Save the surprise' was emblazoned on the giant screens inside the Olympic stadium. Boyle said that with social media and camera phones, it wouldn't be able to be kept out of the public eye. "Part of the modern world means you can't really do that," he said, embracing the prospect of people posting pictures.

Those who did post images that were deemed to be revealing too much of the show were quickly and broadly "flamed'' by tweeters.

Unbelievable the number of people who can't #savethesurprise and are happy to tweet a photo. THE CLUE IS IN THE HASHTAG!

From @chrisnotton on Twitter: ( 8:35 pm, Mon 23 Jul 2012)

Ricky Gervais and Rowan Atkinson are having a dance-off! #savethesurprise

From @standardbrit on Twitter: ( 8:55 pm, Mon 23 Jul 2012)

OMG it's magical, Danny Boyle is singing Danny Boy! SO BEAUTIFUL #savethesurprise

From @JonathanEx on Twitter: ( 9:12 pm, Mon 23 Jul 2012)

Not sure Angela Merkel will be impressed with Dad's Army theme tune and WW2 soldiers chasing nazis #savethesurprise

From @lowles_nick on Twitter: ( 8:10 pm, Mon 23 Jul 2012)

Danny Boyle: Creating Wonder

in conversation with Amy Raphael

Faber & Faber

Apr 2013

ISBN 978–0–571–30187–4 [Kindle edition- other editions also available]

Seb Coe, who is a good judge, very cleverly suggested we use the word 'surprise' rather than 'secret'. The notion of a secret unsettles people and gives them too much responsibility. Whereas the notion of a surprise is much more positive.

http://www.futerra.co.uk/blog/love-the-olympics

Futerra

Love the Olympics

by ed in blog

24 Jul 2012

... I'm not going to talk about content or post images (although I've got some corkers!). Instead I thought I'd blog about how the ceremony made me FEEL.

Firstly. Proud. ...

Secondly. Politicised. ...

Finally. Part of Something. The whinging and the hand-wringing over 'GFS-tation' insidious Corporate tax evasion, daft 'sustainability partners'- all valid criticisms in my view - should continue until everyone's coughing up, living up to their PR claims or simply doing the job they've been paid to do. But let's also enjoy this bloody expensive frivolity too. I'm not sure 'Bah Humbug' cuts the mustard at this stage. ...

[Ed's blog piece, which of course contains much more than I have copied above, attracted a large number of responses, mostly from performers at the rehearsal, which are well worth a read. Samples:]

Declan Cooke July 24, 2012 01:16

I perform (along with another 1,000) straight after the pastoral scene and your words have really warmed my heart. Danny Boyle has been there through the rehearsals, propping us up, encouraging us and trying to share his vision of what he wants the ceremony to be about. Quite a few of us have shed a tear in rehearsals and it's so good to know that the humanity of the piece is coming across. Thank you so much for posting this.

Dave Nattriss July 24, 2012 04:09

I'm another performer. It is/was a pleasure to have an audience that clearly felt the emotion in what we did and have achieved so far.

molly July 24, 2012 06:36

what a fine array of customers you work for - vivisectors like L'oreal, the soon-to-be badger cullers at DEFRA and Natural England, not to mention of course the Olympic sponsors Coca Cola and Eon. Given these last two, you were hardly the least biased observer there, were you. Who were you a guest of? Coke? Or Eon?

response from ed July 24, 2012 07:44

Thanks Molly. Yes, let's tar everyone who has ever been in any contact with a wholly less than 100% pure business or organisation with the same dirty pariah brush shall we? That makes us pretty much all pariahs doesn't it?! We all (unfortunately) sup with the Devil...some of us just prefer to use an extremely long spoon!

I watched the ceremony with an open-mind and heart as it's also one of the sadly few elements of the Games where there's (mercifully) not a dodgy corporate sponsor to be seen. As the other comments here hopefully demonstrate, there's a LOT of people who have given generously of their time, blood, sweat and tears to make the night amazing. It is them I'm saluting.

And actually I was a guest of LOCOG (not that that matters). Suggest you switch off your TV on Friday and miss the greatest show on earth!

Rosey July 24, 2012 07:59

I watched the show as a would-be volunteer who didnt get a job and thought it was phenomenal. The best thing I've ever seen. Danny Boyle has brought us something incredible so thanks to him and all the volunteers.

Rosamunde July 24, 2012 09:24

Well most of the people who have commented are cast members and I am too (someone posted us your blog because they thought it was so great!). It means so much that someone enjoyed to the extent that you did! All the press is negative and the general public animosity was starting to wear thin with those of us who have spent months rehearsing. But you have cheered me right up! Its good to know that once the show is seen people seem to be liking it. Now lets just hope the rest of the world does too!

Margaret July 24, 2012 19:54

THANK YOU! As a (Paralympic) GamesMaker, I felt so privileged to have a ticket to last night's wonderful, emotion filled show and had a wonderful time. THANK YOU TO ALL THE PERFORMERS AND TECHNICIANS for quite possibly the best experience of my life so far (at least until I start my Gamesmaker shifts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PE_5IXLaoY

Olympics Opening Ceremony Part 3/4

by Peter Walsh & partner

29 Jul 2012

[Filmed at one of the dress rehearsals, but typical of audience footage of the opening, frantically darting around the stadium as unexpected events happen everywhere]

The whole show was rehearsed, but the audience was sent home before the athletes' parade, which did not feature the actual athletes ...

https://dawndenton.wordpress.com/category/london-olympics-paralympics-2012/page/3/

Dawn: Personal Inspiration

My Time in the Olympic Stadium

by Dawn Denton (a Games Maker NOC Assistant)

27 Jul 2012

we have a highly co-ordinated plan to march the athletes from different parts of the Olympic Village, at carefully worked out times, in 3 waves. ...

Each country has a young lady with a sign board attached to her with the country name. The lady who came out with the Bulgarian sign board was in tears, "I am so sorry! I am just so emotional!". Everyone was feeling overwhelmed about being here.

And that is when it began....I can NOT tell you, there are no words, how emotional I was to walk out into the stadium.....

We walked in, and even though there were no spectators, the energy was breathtaking! The drummers were incredible, the sound was wonderful and it was surreal!

We did a full loop of the stadium, just taking in the experience and trying to get an idea of what it would be like for the athletes, when this stadium is full!

We were held in the area where the athletes will be held and then made our way out. The co-ordinating staff were unreal....super efficient, firm and fun. This is going to be the most incredible experience for the Olympians and for London...and the world will be sharing this with us from all corners of the globe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mb6wI0rFCE  [video by UkuphumaDoon]

http://ccea.org.uk/sites/default/files/video/microsites/mia/danny_boyle/boyle5_olympics.pdf

CCEA | Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment [Northern Ireland]

Foyle Film Festival "In Conversation" Danny Boyle and Frank Cottrell Boyce [at St Columb's Hall, Derry~Londonderry]

23 Nov 2013

DANNY BOYLE: ... at the dress rehearsals were the Queen's secret policemen, who turn up, of course, to check that nobody's interfered with the toilets she's going to use. Stuff like that. They do all the checks and stuff like that. And they kind of, like... (CHUCKLES) So we did this dress rehearsal and it stopped. And one of these secret policeman stopped me as I walked back up the aisle. You know, to go into the control room. And he went, "Eh, that was all right, that." Like that. (LAUGHTER) And you could see the relief in his expression, as well, you know? That kind of sense of relief because of what you were saying about everybody expecting it was gonna-- We were gonna-- We were gonna be embarrassing. But he said, "Hey, that was all right, that."

[Frank topped that story by revealing the reaction of a high-ranking Government official who attended the first dress rehearsal.]

minus 4 days: best time to bag a bargain?

https://olympicsgeek.wordpress.com

olympicsgeek [blog]

My race to the Opening Ceremony

29 Jul 2012

I had worked out, in the past few weeks, that good tickets were being made available every day at around 11am and then again around 5pm. I had finished work the previous Friday and so made a point of being ready for a final ticket trawl the following Monday.

...

I selected one, and hit request. I sat and watched the whirling stripes of doom as I took my place in the queue and then, after a minute or so there one was in my online basket. I quickly checked: Block, Row, Seat, Price. Wait! Price? £2012. I want to go but not that much.

Swearing I removed that ticket from my list (they don't make it easy these people) and started the process again

... panic due to misreading credit card expiry date then followed but finally, ticket was mine.

PWoodroffe 24 Jul 2012: In the afternoon, Paul McCartney visits the stadium for his first soundcheck. The technicians etc. dance around as he plays "Hey Jude". More programming revisions in the evening, finishing at 5am only for Patrick to discover that his helmet has been stolen from his scooter lock-box. Half-hour walk to get a taxi.

25 Jul 2012: Patrick arrives early at the stadium and spends "a delightful hour" with the "very nervous" Mike Oldfield. Dress rehearsal goes really well, although there are still one or two problems with the protocol sections, such as odd reflections on the lectern. Another late night, but "float home on a high".

minus 1 day: TV news teasers, including an official release of dress-rehearsal video snippets

http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/26/12953391-mastermind-danny-boyle-shares-details-for-london-2012-opening-ceremony?lite

NBC RockCenter

Mastermind Danny Boyle shares details for London 2012 opening ceremony

26 Jul 2012

[Report shows official rehearsal footage of dove bikes, kids bouncing on beds, and 1970s dancers. Also shown is NBC footage of performers on their way to rehearsal, including Working Men and Women, doctors, dementors and dalmatians. States that Paul McCartney will play 'Hey Jude', and refers to rumour of duel between Voldemort and Mary Poppins. After Meredith Vieira interviews Danny Boyle, Vieira and Bob Costas talk about what they have seen in rehearsals: Vieira describes it as "a live Danny Boyle film", and confirms there will be a "wow moment" to rival Beijing's drummers, but gives no details.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ILBTKfq90M

YouTube

The Olympic Park 24 Hours Before the Opening Ceremony!

Cassidy Quinn

26 Jul 2012

[Includes shots of the real turf & the standing wheat almost ready to go into the GPL, plus sound of the Oldfield band rehearsal]

China's main Olympic broadcaster, CCTV, however had a problem: 9pm on 27 July in London was 4am on 28 July in Beijing. To build an audience for this night-time event, sports channel CCTV5 therefore started its Olympic broadcast at breakfast time on 27 July (which in London was around midnight on 26 July...). The whole of that day was taken up with general introductions to the Olympics.

26 Jul 2012: Final Macca rehearsal that evening; informed by Patrick that three of the volunteer follow-spot operators are students from Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, the college he founded, and that they are missing their graduation ceremony to attend the rehearsals, he gives them a special shout-out at the end of his performance. Then: "We rush to finish everything in time, making lots of additions at the last minute that we won't see in real-time or with the cast on stage until the show ... Really dangerous to do this, and again ... we just hope that it works on the night."

"Down in the control room with Danny to look at a couple of thing before we finish for the night. It's past midnight now [i.e. it's already 27 July 2012] and all his team have left so there's no-one else around. For the first time since the project started he looks absolutely shattered, and exhausted. It's- it's as if he had somehow timed this to the very last minute, eking out his energy and his spirit to get him to the finishing line. Now, with just twelve hours to go, he's empty, and it's touching to witness the moment first-hand, just the two of us alone, looking out of the window at the majestic space, this cauldron of creativity, our- our home for the last year, knowing that we've done all that we can possibly do."

(show day!)

minus 16 hours 15 minutes: We don't want to alarm you, but ....

At 4:45 in the morning, Government Communications HQ, the UK's electronic monitoring centre, phoned Oliver Hoare, Head of Cyber Security for London 2012, and advised him that there had been a credible threat of a cyber-attack which could disrupt power supplies to the Olympic Stadium during the Opening Ceremony. There were so many failsafes built into the system that the Stadium should have been unaffected even if the whole of East London was plunged into darkness, and there had been five rehearsals for the tiny possibility that an attack succeeded, but the Olympic Cyber Co-ordination Team at MI5 asked for preparations based on a worst-case scenario. Extra technicians were put in place to implement manual overrides for any systems compromised by hackers.

[see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23195283

http://www.itproportal.com/2013/07/09/london-olympics-opening-ceremony-was-targeted-by-cyber-attack/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23195286 (i-player link may be temporary or restricted)]

minus 12 hours 48 minutes: All The Bells

8:12 pm is 20:12 on a 24-hour clock- an auspicious moment to begin the ceremony in the year 2012. To start the proceedings at 8:12 am (08:12 in the 24 hour clock) is just a bit silly. So that's what the British did

http://www.allthebells.com/home/

All The Bells

At 08:12 on 27th July 2012, thousands of people across the UK will be joining together to ring in the first day of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Everyone across the country is invited to take part.

Work No. 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes by Turner Prize-winning artist and musician Martin Creed is a London 2012 Festival commission and will be performed by you. ...

Anyone can take part by ringing any bell whatsoever.

http://coxsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/not-tinkle-here.html

London Art News

by Coxsoft Art ("Essex-born, living in what is now Greater London.")

Friday, 27 July 2012

... I'm glad to say that where I live in Redbridge there hasn't even been a bicycle bell tinkling. ...

http://www.milton.org.uk/lists/milton-chat/4589

Milton Village

Milton Chat

topic: All the bells on Friday

Paul Oldham, 2012-07-27 11:43:48

On 23/07/12 14:15, Sally Milligan wrote: Is anyone interested in taking part in All the Bells on friday in Milton?

Well, that went off splendidly. I count about forty people in the photo we took afterwards, plus there was Paul and me taking photos of everyone and at least one other person so that makes 43 of us. Photos and video here

home.the-hug.net/photos/all_the_bells/ --

Paul

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/london-2012-olympics-blog/2012/jul/27/london-2012-olympics-live-blog

The Guardian

London 2012 Olympics: opening ceremony build-up - as it happened

by Paul Owen

27 Jul 2012

My colleague Charlotte Higgins has just been to the leafy streets of Kentish Town to ring in the Olympics - or, rather, participate in Martin Creed's Work No. 1197, All The Bells In A Country Rung As Quickly And Loudly As Possible For Three Minutes.

"At five to eight, it looked like it was going to be just me, a Games Maker volunteer from Devon and Chinese state TV (the journalist was called Tingting Ai) but then a motley and quite respectably large crowd of children, grown-ups, folk on bikes, some blokes who looked like they were decorators and several dogs turned up, with sleigh bells, ships' bells, the local primary school bell, temple bells, bike bells, and, in the case of the local organiser, Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, what he referred to as "the spare cat bell".

The result was deafening - my ears are still ringing - and extremely good-natured, aside from the woman staring furiously from an upper window who I suspect had received rather a rude awakening."

[recording at: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/audio/2012/jul/27/bell-ringers-olympic-opening ]

http://www.shetlandarts.org/shetland-most-northerly-participants-in-all-the-bells/

Shetland arts

Shetland most northerly participants in 'All the Bells'

Lisa Ward

July 27th, 2012

Shetland Arts is proud to announce that this morning (Friday 27 July) it took part in All the Bells, a UK-wide project celebrating the first day of the London 2012 Olympic Games, as the UK's most northerly participant.

This morning at 8:12am, the aptly named Belle Spence, alongside 40 others of all ages, rang a bell for three minutes as quickly and as loudly as possible on Skaw beach in Unst, Shetland's most northerly Isle, heralding the beginning of the Olympic Games across the UK. This was broadcast live on BBC Radio Scotland via live satellite uplink and was also recorded by BBC Radio Shetland.

My sister, who leads the bellringers in her local church, in northern England, confirms that they took part, despite earlier controversy in campanological circles:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15635252

BBC News

London 2012: Bell-ringers pull out of 2012 celebration

9 Nov 2011

The UK's bell-ringing body has pulled its support for a work by Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed that forms part of London 2012 celebrations.

The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers says plans to ring bells ahead of the Games' opening are misconceived.

...

Bells also had a major role in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations a few weeks earlier, with a full new set of eight (made by the Whitechapel Foundry for the occasion and for permanent installation in the church of St. James Garlickhythe in the heart of London) leading the vast boat procession down the Thames, being rung on a temporary belfry installed on a barge. The team ringing of sets of bells (usually six or eight, sometimes more) weighing from dozens to hundreds of kilograms is a peculiarly British (indeed mostly English) pursuit, though not unknown elsewhere:

http://www.nagcr.org/pamphlet.html

North American Guild of Change Ringers

Change Ringing? What's That?

Change Ringing is a team sport, a highly coordinated musical performance, an antique art, and a demanding exercise that involves a group of people ringing rhythmically a set of tuned bells through a series of changing sequences that are determined by mathematical principles and executed according to learned patterns.

For practical reasons connected with the physics of large masses in motion, ringing traditionally starts with the smallest bell, known as the Treble:

http://miamibells.wordpress.com/ringing/glossary/

miamibells: Miami Guild of Change Ringers

Glossary

Look to - treble's going - she's gone". The treble starts the band off by saying this.

"Look to" Other ringers' eyes to the treble, as they take up tension and bring their bells just a bit off the set. If this takes too long, the treble can say "Look to" again with a bit of an edge. Once all eyes are on the treble ...

...the treble says "Treble's going" as he/she begins to pull. The 2 brings his/her bell off the stay toward the balance in preparation.

When the treble feels the bell pass the balance point, he/she says "She's gone" and the band is off.

The most basic ringing pattern, repeating the sequence from Treble down to Tenor (the largest, and hence the lowest note), is known as a Round. If you listen to the two main pieces of music composed by music director Rick Smith and his Underworld partner Karl Hyde for the London Opening ("And I Will Kiss" and "Caliban's Dream") you will sometimes hear repeated descending sequences which are meant to suggest the ringing of Rounds.

PWoodroffe 27 Jul 2012: As Patrick and Lucy Woodroffe breakfast on board their Dutch-style barge Alora, the Gloriana cruises past, carrying the Olympic flame: "... makes me feel very proud to be part of the great Olympic adventure." Patrick travels to Stratford by Tube on this occasion, and as he approaches the Stadium through the Olympic Park, he receives a message of thanks and encouragement from Piers Shepperd to the technical crew. He finds himself in floods of tears. In the stadium it's his turn to give thanks and encouragement to his own team (including all the follow-spot operators, before they head up to the roof). In the afternoon there's a final rehearsal for the cauldron lighters.

minus several hours: gathering guests

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/other-sports/london-olympics-world-is-wowed-as-inspirational-1187438

Daily Record

London Olympics: World is wowed as inspirational opening ceremony celebrates best of British

by Gary Ralston

27 Jul 2012

Spectators began arriving at the Olympic Stadium early in the afternoon and the scenes outside were of joyous expectation as Britons mingled with visitors and guests from all corners of the planet. National dress was to the fore - a Japanese samurai queued for entry beside Queen Bodicea as families swept excitedly from Stratford International station and into Olympic Park. They thronged around concessions stands and tucked into British favourites - fish and chips and Indian dishes - washed down by pint after pint of beer warmed, fittingly, by the humidity of a muggy London evening.

minus 280 minutes: last tickets sold, in the nick of time

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/london-2012-olympics-blog/2012/jul/27/london-2012-olympics-live-blog

The Guardian

London 2012 Olympics: opening ceremony build-up - as it happened

by Simon Burnton

27 Jul 2012

The Guardian's Owen Gibson has tweeted the news organisers were so desperate to tell - it's a sell-out.

"Owen Gibson @owen_g

Locog confirms that all of the tickets for the opening ceremony are now sold out - even the eye wateringly expensive ones at £2,012.

4:33 PM - Jul 27, 2012"

welcome to the Olympic Stadium

minus 4 hours: the stadium gates are opened!

http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/london-2012-olympics/news/a395811/olympics-london-2012-opening-ceremony-live-blog/

Digital Spy

Olympics London 2012 Opening Ceremony - Live Blog

by Alex Fletcher

27 Jul 2012

17:18   Colin Jackson is currently struggling to control his enthusiasm on BBC News. He looks like he may bear hug Sophie Raworth at any moment. He's bursting out of his suit with glee.

17:25   There is a man who appears to be wearing a Union Jack bin on his head on BBC News. He is currently winning the contest for most ridiculous patriotic outfit. A strong start.

https://indigodream.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/odds-blog-the-2012-opening-ceremony-richards-view/

Indigo Dreaming: The journeys of the Narrowboat Indigo Dream.

Odds Blog: The 2012 Opening Ceremony - Richard's view

by Richard

30 Jul 2012

[experiences of an Event Services volunteer, with a nice selection of photos taken before and during the Opening Ceremony]

Ticket prices ranged from £20.12 (only about 4,000 available; remarkably these were cheaper than the R$200 lowest price tickets at the Rio Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2016) up to £2012 (apparently about the same number available; most of these seats, the most expensive Olympic tickets ever, seem to have been on the lower tiers in the south-east quadrant, with views of the band stage, or the upper tiers near the north end, looking down on the front of the Tor).

However, built into the northern and southern ends of the Green and Pleasant Land itself were some free standing-only areas christened the "mosh pit" and the "posh pit", which were full of young people chosen by London's Olympic Boroughs:

http://www.hackney.ac.uk/news-events/news/224/student-and-staff-performers-and-our-resident-olympian-at-the-2012-olympic-opening-ceremony/

Hackney Community College (now New City College, Hackney)

Student and staff performers AND our resident Olympian at the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony!

28 Jul 2012

Nine students and two staff performed in the show; Head of Department Paul Lazarus had the role of head chaperone, and made sure everyone was in the right pace at the right time ... The students, all aged 16-18, were performing arts and circus skills students at the college in Shoreditch, East London. Adele Smith, performing arts lecturer and administrator Ndenko Asong accompanied the students through this momentous journey.

...

The performance was also watched at close quarters by 28 Hackney Community College students who were awarded places in the standing area of the field - described as the 'mosh pit'.

The Cabinet of Tower Hamlets Council reported in a meeting on 5 December 2012 that their Children, Schools and Families Directorate had distributed 223 Opening Ceremony tickets as part of the Mosh Pit programme. The Council had also been responsible for allocating 1,000 of the technical rehearsal tickets.

minus 3½ hours: already a couple of hundred people in the auditorium

Up on the big roof screens, a simulated Olympic Flag is waving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VVVcnxxaY

London 2012 Olympics - Opening Ceremony transition time lapse

by Wonder Works

31 Jul 2013

Views of the arena from a fixed camera at roof level in the south-west quadrant of the stadium, taken approximately every 10 minutes from 5:30pm on 27 July to the early hours of 31 July.

minus 3 hours 3 minutes (CCTV5 viewers): first teasing look round the stadium

At the bottom of the press area in the south-west quadrant of the auditorium is an area of wide, unfurnished terraces, where "our reporter on the spot" can stand with the Green and Pleasant Land in the background. For this teaser, however, CCTV's cameras are pointed at the sparsely-populated auditorium (where Olympic helpers can be seen by entrances and at the foot of stairs) and the roof (where technicians are working on one of the huge Olympic Rings).

CCTV5's coverage helpfully includes a second-by-second countdown at top right of the screen (both this and the later BBC countdown are about 4 seconds different from the actual time in the stadium, due to digital TV signal coding delays). Incidentally, the main CCTV5 presentation is coming from a conventional studio, but they have live reporters all over the place ...

I should mention at this point that it was common for spectators, on arriving in the stadium, to take a few photos or shoot a few seconds of video, so sites like Flickr and YouTube are sources of surprising amounts of information from about 6pm onward. For example, at almost exactly the time CCTV were looking up at the auditorium, audience member Hernan Ferreira, high up in the south-east quadrant, was looking down on the Green and Pleasant Land, and the first of his many photos ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/hrfj/albums/72157631507503413 ) shows the whole arena, beginning to be brought to life by the gently smoking chimneys of the cottage and the arrival of the first couple of dozen guests in the Posh Pit (where again, Olympic helpers including a few "Mechanicals" are in attendance at the entrances).

minus 2 hours 21 minutes: the stadium is about 6% full

There are also signs of activity in the press area; where the CCTV reporter had been almost alone there are now perhaps a couple of dozen reporters and camera operators on the wide terraces, and the adjacent computer desks are beginning to be occupied- but there's still not a lot happening in the upper tier where the main TV reporting positions are based.

This information comes mostly by courtesy of another enthusiastic photographer who has just arrived, and posts on Flickr under the name Gorgeoux ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/gorgeoux/albums/72157630843894178 ).

minus 2 hours 19 minutes: don't look now ...

Up on the roof, the front flaps of various control and observation tents start to be opened.

minus 2 hours (BBC viewers): short introductory film, starring London lad (and joint star of Danny Boyle's theatre production of "Frankenstein") Benedict Cumberbatch

http://briannahuber.tumblr.com/post/28228196229/benedict-cumberbatch-opening-the-bbc-coverage-of-the

blog by Brianna Huber (journalism student at the University of Oregon)

"Untitled at Press Time"

[includes a complete transcript of the words spoken in the Cumberbatch piece, with notes on the music etc.]

( http://vimeo.com/46533150 ) includes an Italian translation of Benedict's words from the video, which is rather lovely in its own right [but sadly, by late 2015, it appears to have been deleted].

http://www.hypable.com/2012/07/27/sherlock-video-benedict-cumberbatch-opens-olympics/

hypable (for fans, by fans)

'Sherlock's' Benedict Cumberbatch opens Olympics with history of London

by Harri Sargeant  @harrisargeant

27 Jul 2012

[comments]

Andy; 3 months ago

As far as I saw it wasn't a part of the opening ceremony, at least not the one broadcasted in Sweden. Perhapd it was a BBC Britain only thing, shown before the actual ceremony. Or maybe I wasn't paying attention...

Kato; 3 months ago

I didn't see it either here in Canada!

Katie; 3 months ago

didn't see it in the USA either! unfortunate!

Megan Conway; 3 months ago

It was during the pre-show in Canada

To summarise:

It begins with a beating heart sound, which the camera eventually tracks down to a living heart within the Discobolus statue at the British Museum- as featured on the posters for the 1948 Olympics (heart monitor beeps continue the theme as part of the music). Benedict Cumberbatch- as himself rather than Sherlock Holmes or Jonny Lee Miller- presents a quick summary of London, "the beating heart of the nation" (with brief extract from Wiley's "Living In London" ft. Messy & Tinchy Stryder), its beginnings and its tribulations (including the Great Fire of 1666, the Plague of 1665- with the "Ring Around the Roses" song which may or may not refer to plague symptoms- the Blitz of the Second World War, the 7/7 bombings.

As Cumberbatch gets in a black cab, we see the statue of Sir Winston Churchill near the Houses of Parliament. As he speaks in the moving cab, on the way to Stratford, we get glimpses of London present and past, and of athletes (also an extract from Anthony Newley's recording of the old song "Pop Goes the Weasel" with its reference to the Eagle pub just off the City Road in the East End). As we focus more and more on the sport, a voiceover quotes "This city now doth like a garment wear" (from William Wordsworth's lines "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge" describing the curious tranquility of an early morning in the city) ... Clips from here on concentrate mostly on athletes past & present, as Cumberbatch reflects on movement, and the Olympic motto "faster, higher, stronger"- but then he goes on to speak of love, of romance, and of the heart (with a music extract from Vera Lynn's recording of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" ) as we see the emotions of athletes in competition. Then cut to aerial view of the City and Tower Bridge, as he announces "London is ready, so take a deep breath," further sporting clips, with voices over including sports commentary, and more of the Wordsworth, finishing with "all that mighty heart is lying still". Cumberbatch, looking towards Canary Wharf from the "Up at the O2" viewing platform atop the former Millennium Dome, answers that, saying "But not for long, for London is about to cry out with heart and soul:" (he turns back towards us) "Let the Games commence!"

[Cumberbatch also recited the first eight lines of the Wordsworth poem, over a montage of aerial shots of London and the Olympic Park, for the closing ceremony two weeks later (with "Rain Forever" by New Zealand composer Graeme Revell, as background music).]

Trivia:

Ring a ring of roses: This singing and playing rhyme is nowadays associated, as in the video, with the great plague of the 1660s, which killed large numbers of people in London. However, this is more of a meme than an accepted scholarly theory (apart from anything else, there is the usual problem with traditional pieces, that the date of original composition is an unknown time before the first date of print publication).

http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/1851/judy-campbell-a-nightingale-sang-in-berkeley-square

Time Out London

The 100 best London songs

No. 21: 'A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square'- Judy Campbell (1940)

'It was the beginning of the air raids, but we went out, because we wanted to go out. ...

Well, Judy Campbell came on in a satin evening frock, looking glamorous -and when she got to the point where she sang, "a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square" she held up her hand and sang, "Hark!" you know, for the nightingale. And then "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!" the air raid siren wailed! So instead of the nightingale, we got the siren! And the theatre just fell about they laughed so much, and Judy Campbell just died laughing on stage."

Sylvia Harris

NB: in the above countdown, Underworld's "Born Slippy", inspired by a night out in Soho, was number 16; "London Calling" by The Clash was number 2- and number 1 was "Waterloo Sunset" sounding rather better on record than at the Olympic closing ceremony.

"A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" was written in 1939 by Manning Sherwin, an American composer who moved to Britain in 1938, and London-born Jack Strachey, with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz OBE, born in England of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, who had previously been editor of the "Radio Times" magazine, and, in the early 1930s, head of the BBC's variety (i.e. light entertainment) department, in addition to being a successful writer in several genres (see http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38408 + http://www.answers.com/topic/eric-maschwitz + http://www.musical-theatre.net/html/composers/ericmaschwitz.html ). Strachey and Maschwitz had in 1936, with a little help from another American composer, Harry Link, created the song "These Foolish Things", which was made famous in Britain by the celebrated West Indian, bisexual cabaret star "Hutch"- Leslie Hutchinson.

Anthony Newley, born in Hackney, had a very successful career as an actor and singer, one of his earliest triumphs being the role of the Artful Dodger in the classic 1948 film "Oliver Twist". He was also half of a songwriting team, with Leslie Bricusse, producing successes such as the Broadway show "Stop the World - I Want to Get Off" and the songs for the original and best Willy Wonka film.

(see http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C225 )

Also at the minus-2-hour mark another timelapse video starts up, with a frequency of about one image per minute, showing more of the south end of the stadium than the earlier Wonder Works one (but sadly low resolution); the auditorium is more than 10% full:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ4OE-kOMF0

Youtube

Olimpiadi 2012 - Cerimonia di apertura

by quigenovawebtv / Ivano

1 Aug 2012

PS: This may seem crazy, even by the standards of this eccentric work, but the following 6-image-per-minute timelapse video from a viewpoint outside the stadium, which starts at about 6 minutes past 7, is also surprisingly useful for working out what was happening before the live worldwide TV broadcast began:

https://vimeo.com/46520344

Vimeo

London 2012: Opening Ceremony Timelapse Static

by Duncan Mclean

28 Jul 2012

minus 116 minutes (BBC viewers): Gary Lineker and Sue Barker welcome us to the stadium

Their viewpoint is of course splendid: near the bottom of the upper tier in the south-west quadrant, a nice height for panoramas of the Green and Pleasant Land.

A minute later, CCTV5 (which has spent much of the last hour showing us the Athletes' Village, the International Broadcast Centre / Press Centre, Chinese athletes in training, the delights of pin collecting, and the entrance to platform 9¾ at King's Cross / St. Pancras Station) returns us to the stadium terraces for a look at the Green and Pleasant Land (a bit gloomy in wide shots, as they have not adjusted that camera enough to allow for traditional English cloudy skies).

Spectator photos indicate that by this time, Mechanicals are roving the auditorium, handing out free programme sheets (A4, with a simplified running order on one side and Danny Boyle's personal introduction on the other) and 3-D specs.

http://seattletimes.com/html/sports/2018790863_apolyopeningceremonyperformers.html

Seattle Times

1 of 10,000: On stage at Olympic opening ceremony

Sheila Norman-Culp

27 Jul 2012

Penelope Summers is not a singer, dancer, juggler, clown, stunt biker or roller skater. She's a 34-year-old sales project manager. ...

Summer and her friend Jasvin Sanghera, a 30-year-old business analyst, were accepted into the `Mechanicals' group, which focused on crowd interaction. ...

Both women called the opening ceremony costumes "amazing" - except, sadly for their own, which consisted of white overalls, a black t-shirt, and a bag for the air gun that shoots bubbles into the stadium crowd.

"Someone said we look like the Mario brothers in these big white ugly overalls. I think they may be right!" Jasvin laughed. ...

Meanwhile on BBC TV:

http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/london-2012-olympics/news/a395811/olympics-london-2012-opening-ceremony-live-blog/

Digital Spy

Olympics London 2012 Opening Ceremony - Live Blog

by Alex Fletcher

27 Jul 2012

19:07   Huw Edwards is daring to say that London's 2012 launch will be "fantastic". The usually dour Huw is prowling around the Olympic arena with the enthusiasm of a young puppy. He points to the giant bell in the stadium and claims the identity of the bell-ringer remains mystery. Who will ring Huw's bell?!

19:15   Ooh dear. Huw Edwards says that there's a "touch of rain in the air". Well, it wouldn't be a Great British Opening Ceremony without a sprinkling of drizzle.

19:15   Huw Edwards just introduced "the rapper Dizzee Rascal". It was hilarious.

It's perhaps worth noting that unlike foreign broadcasters, the BBC was allowed to send its roving correspondents onto the encircling track of the arena, with the beautiful wildflowers on the embankment of the central stage prominent behind them. Meanwhile, in the gap between Huw's 19:07 and 19:15 appearances, Gary and Sue were joined in the BBC's booth by Sir Steve Redgrave and the actual Michael Johnson, who since his great athletic days has become one of the BBC's best sporting pundits.

minus about 110 minutes: squib dampened

In the 2016 BBC documentary about the Opening Ceremony, Seb Coe recalled that drizzly rain had hit the stadium about 7:10pm- "the only time I've genuinely seen Danny flustered". Water got into the circuitry for the flying Olympic Rings, causing the LED lighting to fail, so technicians rushed to dry them out and ensure that they would work when needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVaUyodGQGY

YouTube

00017

by OlympicFlame2028

7 Feb 2015

An early arriver zooms in on a Ring, showing it subtly changing colour as the LEDs are checked.

A random observation: by this time, it is becoming apparent that the upper tier of the auditorium is filling quite a bit faster than the lower (which is usually where the rich folks sit in these events).

minus 103 minutes: the beginning begins

This is the real start of the Opening Ceremony as envisaged by Danny Boyle and his team. From this time on, there will be a sort of "background performance" which will continue until shortly after the event goes live to the world (Beijing, although it began its pre-show entertainment around the same time in 2008, had a different approach, enlivening its plain grey arena surface with over an hour of performances from the Arts Academy of Guizhou University and the Haicheng Stilt Yangge dance troupe, before a very short session of concentrated participation practice). Think of it as a live equivalent of the "slow TV" phenomenon which was becoming popular in northwest Europe in 2011-12, stuff just happening as if a timeless version of everyday life was going on in the middle of the Olympic Stadium. This was mostly invisible to television viewers, except when it could be seen in the background as presenters warmed-up their viewers for the main event, so for the Fourth Anniversary edition of this ebook, I'm going to attempt to describe it in detail, treating the "background" events as fully as the "foreground".

It begins with the emergence of four little fluffy clouds, floated out into the arena on long strings by groups of "Mechanicals" in the standard dungaree-based costumes and paraded round the peripheral track.

About the same time, up in the seating (now nearly half-full) a Mexican Wave begins, which will end up travelling some four times round the stadium (despite a serious shortage of participants in the press area). Overhead, a blimp gets into position, ready to provide aerial shots of the stadium.

The precise way the clouds are initially deployed gives a clue to the insane attention to detail by the ceremony organisers. The first cloud, having been gently raised skyward after emerging from the north-west vom tunnel, starts processing anticlockwise at minus 101 minutes; followed by the second a couple of minutes later- but then the third, at minus 97 minutes, sets out clockwise, so that people in the north-east of the auditorium won't have to wait too long for their first cloud close-ups. The fourth and final cloud resumes the anticlockwise pattern, and at minus 94 minutes, just before it bumps into the first cloud at the east side of the arena, the third cloud reverses direction so all are now going anticlockwise.

Meanwhile, CCTV5 introduces studio guest Michael O'Sullivan (who lost his O', and in keeping with Chinese naming conventions, was referred to simply as sha-li-wen), formerly the British Council's Director in China, who in 2012 was back in England as Director of the Cambridge Commonwealth and Overseas Trusts, which give help to foreign students wishing to study at the University of Cambridge. Michael provides British-based banter in fluent Mandarin for the remainder of the warm-up show ("Lodger Bannister" as favourite to light the Cauldron ...). He is immediately followed by the two men who will be commentating on the ceremony itself, perched in an open booth in the stadium and equipped with very well soundproofed headphones. Then come some close-ups of features in the Green and Pleasant Land, and of course the new clouds.

minus 90 minutes: farewell to the flag

The Olympic Flag disappears from the big screens and they start showing "housekeeping" announcements, with transitions between them based on the London 2012 graphic theme of straight lines at random angles:

SMOKING IS NOT PERMITTED IN THE OLYMPIC STADIUM EXCEPT IN DESIGNATED AREAS

PLEASE BE AWARE THERE IS NO RE-ADMISSION ONCE YOU LEAVE THE OLYMPIC STADIUM [this led to concern among some people who hadn't noticed that "the stadium" was defined as including the walled area surrounding the actual building, where facilities such as food and drink kiosks, and numerous toilets, were located]

THERE WILL BE SECTIONS OF TONIGHT'S SHOW WITH STROBE LIGHTING, PYROTECHNICS AND LASERS

and

PLEASE DO YOUR BIT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. TAKE YOUR RUBBISH HOME OR USE OUR RECYCLING BINS

PS: For the dress rehearsals, there had also been a message outlining the concept of Save The Surprise.

minus 85 minutes: big-screen video

A half-minute long Olympic video of athletes in training. Then back to the cycle of housekeeping announcements.

minus 83 minutes: our sponsors

For 20 seconds or so, logos of the top Olympic sponsors are displayed on the big screens.

Around this time, high-ranking dignitaries from several dozen nations arrive at the stadium:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/protocol-olympic-games-andrea-milicciaProtocol at the Olympic Games

Protocol at the Olympic Games

Andrea Miliccia

16 May 2016

As protocol manager for the London 2012 opening ceremony, I was responsible for supervising and coordinating the arrival and departure operations, the seating, and the hospitality services dedicated to the 10,000 Olympic Family members at the Olympic stadium. My focus, however, was on the 1,100 key dignitaries and members ...

The planning was accurate, took into consideration all variables and, most importantly, was the result of a genuine consensus. However the people on the ground turned a very good plan into a great one, and made it work extremely well. ...

As an interesting fact, you may be surprised to know that the seventy heads of state and governments attending the opening ceremony were bussed to the Olympic stadium from Buckingham Palace, where they took part in the reception given beforehand by the Queen. ...

minus 80 minutes: Inspire A Generation

Another video, two-and-a-half minutes long, about the "International Inspiration" scheme, teaching sport skills (from football to water survival) to children around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_koXU7N-vDw

YouTube

London 2012 Olympic Games Pre-opening Ceremony Film

by International Inspiration

22 Jul 2013

The Daily Mirror's liveblogger notes: "Massive cheer in the Olympic Stadium as David Beckham's face appears on the big screen."

minus 75 minutes:

Big screens bright for 20 seconds or so, possibly showing the sponsor logos again.

minus 72 minutes (CCTV5 viewers): hello volunteers!

Shortly before 3am Beijing time, an introduction for Chinese viewers to the ceremony volunteers, filmed as they walk to the Stadium for one of the dress-rehearsals; first the Mechanicals, then the performers (including a group of Dementors who attack the reporter from behind and drag her off-screen).

minus 70 minutes: The Best of Us

Another 30-second Olympic film on the big screens, conveying the message "Here's to everyone who gives their best".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia8WSlosHtk

YouTube

The Best of Us

by IOC Media

11 Jun 2012

minus 69 minutes: live livestock!

With the stadium over 80% full except for the VIP area in the middle of the west side, birdsong is heard over the mighty sound system, and two cows, each with a handler, parade north along the west side of the M25 from the south-west vom, followed by two goats with their handlers. From this point on, my video "London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony warmup: a study aid" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyX90VnWAzw ) compiled from dozens of TV, spectator and performer videos, attempts to recreate the entire timeline of the event up to the start of the televised show.

minus 67 minutes:

The cattle and goats are led up the north-west ramp into the fields of the "green and pleasant land" to take up residence in two adjoining grassy enclosures (in the original plan shown back in June at Danny Boyle's press conference, there would also have been two horses in the field next to the cattle).

CCTV5 viewers are treated to a look at the real Green and Pleasant Land, via a filmed report of a trip to Tadcaster in Yorkshire, showing a farm park, real arable and livestock farming, and a country pub.

Also at this time, another major broadcaster, France's TF1, begins coverage. Although they have roving reporters by Stratford Bus Station, in Hyde Park, and by Tower Bridge, their core team of three, which will handle both warm-up and commentary, is in an open stadium booth (on the same privileged row as the BBC, slightly further south), so the ambient noise of the arena is audible on their broadcast most of the time.

minus 66 minutes: sheep alley

An ingenious pathway across the "M25" from the south-west vom to a gate at the edge of the Green and Pleasant Land, by the not-yet-turning waterwheel, is formed by lines of performers holding lengths of cloth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/london-2012-olympics-blog/2012/jul/27/london-2012-olympics-opening-ceremony-live

The Guardian

London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony - as it happened

27th July 2012

7.56pm: Owen Gibson mails from inside the stadium:

Stadium is now four fifths full and atmosphere building nicely. Danny Boyle has been spotted downstairs speaking to some of the "famous Olympians" who will make up the sequence that BOA chief executive Andy Hunt let slip the other day. The so-called "mechanicals" (the stewards in Mario Bros style painter's outfits) are handing out 3D glasses among the crowd, who are also looking with curiosity at the paddles attached to the seats behind them. Others are leading cotton wool clouds around the so-called "M25" - the track around the edge of Boyle's green and pleasant land.

"M25" is a reference to the supposedly high-speed road which encircles London.

minus 65 minutes: enter the sheep

A flock of sheep is guided by shepherdesses into the stadium from the south-west entrance, through the temporary alley, up the fenced portion of the south-west ramp, to a grassy field at the south end of the farm- with the help of a sheepdog. A welcoming audience cheer is heard in the background of the French broadcast.

As the sheep make their way up the ramp, on the big screens begins a two-minute trailer for a short film called "Boy", made for British Airways from a competition-winning script by Prasanna Puwanarajah, and starring Timothy Spall as a man with a very personal reason to make one perfect piece of wooden flooring for the cycle track at the new London Velodrome.

https://vimeo.com/channels/323666/57210361

Vimeo: Fill's Favourites channel

Boy

Directed by Justin Chadwick from a script by Prasanna Puwanarajah

2012

The full 10-minute film

minus 64 minutes: alley-geese

The sheep are swiftly followed by a gaggle of geese, which, with their handlers, take up residence in a small field north of the stream. Once the gate has been closed behind them, the performers fold up the cloth alley across the M25 and depart.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/meet-the-real-stars-of-the-olympic-opening-ceremony-a-cow-called-gabriella-whos-a-bit-of-a-diva-and-7999169.html

The Independent

Meet the real stars of the Olympic opening ceremony, a cow called Gabriella (who's a bit of a diva) and a goose called Gordon...

by Charlie Cooper

1 Aug 2012

Forget James Bond, Kenneth Branagh and the Queen - the real stars of Danny Boyle's Olympic Opening Ceremony were a cow called Gabriella and a goose called Gordon, not to mention 40 sheep, two billy goats and a sheepdog.

...

"Gabriella," a one-year-old Bedford cow with a lovely temperament but a weakness for the camera, "is a bit of a diva," said trainer Jill Clark. "She's been in Le Mis."

Jill and her team at 1st Choice Animals, one of the industry's leading providers of animals for film and TV performances, spent a year preparing the animals for the ceremony and were with them every step of the way - right up until the big night itself, when they dressed up as 18th century farmers and took to the Olympic arena to supervise the animals. After the show, they had to muck out the stables in the Olympic Park, while the animals themselves were whisked away to their homes before the ceremony had even finished.

Some of the animal actors were veterans of the screen who took the demands of fussy directors in their stride. Gordon the goose, for instance, has been directed by Steven Spielberg in War Horse ...

For some, including the sheep, who appeared at the Olympic Stadium under the watchful eye of their sheepdog Jess and farmer Chris Tucker, it was a debut performance.

As with all actors, egos came into the equation. An early plan to include pigs in the ceremony was scrapped when their trainers revealed that, for mysterious reasons, pigs and horses - which would also feature prominently in the show - simply do not get on.

...

Trainers have given assurances that none of the animals will now go to slaughter.

"These animals are very well looked after," said farmer Chris. "Now that it is all over they will all live out their natural lives." ...

The RSPCA supervised the entire training and rehearsal programme, springing surprise inspections ...

7-year-old working sheepdog Jess outperformed her kennel-mate Kim to be the only sheepdog to feature in the opening ceremony. Now the ceremony is over she will return to the day job herding sheep.

...

Bill and Ben the goats

Drafted in late to replace the pigs after their segment of the ceremony was scrapped, consummate professionals Bill and Ben have performing in their blood. Ben's mother had a role in War Horse.

minus 63 minutes:

A shire horse (with handlers) enters the arena from the south-west vom, and plods anticlockwise round the M25, while other "villagers" carry wicker boxes clockwise.

minus 62 minutes: neigh

The "Boy" trailer ends, and housekeeping messages return to the screens. The shire horse is led up the south-east ramp towards a bare-looking enclosure where a cart is waiting.

minus 61 minutes: cluck and quack

The basket-carriers reach the farmyard, and the contents are revealed to be ducks (which are left to forage on the flower-rich grass just south of the farm shed) and hens (which are placed in the chicken-coops by the cottage). The horse is introduced to the cart, and shows some slight reluctance to be harnessed.

The announcements finally disappear from the video screens, to be replaced by close-ups of the livestock.

http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/live-blog-london-2012/live-olympics-opening-ceremony-20120723-22jqy.html

Sydney Morning Herald

Live: Olympics opening ceremony

Phil Lutton

27-8 Jul 2012

8.05pm You can tell we are getting close when farm animals are being moved into position. Each one is getting a hearty round of applause as it trots out into the middle of the arena to nibble on a bit of grass before this little party gets rolling in just under an hour. Thoughts on the flame lighter? Steve Redgrave? Roger Bannister? Freddy Flintoff?

http://action.peta.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=5&ea.campaign.id=15476

PeTA

Urgent: Keep Animals Out of the Olympics

... There won't be any "sporting chances" for the 12 horses, three cows, two goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, nine geese, 70 sheep and three sheepdogs who will find themselves at the centre of a 62,000-seat stadium, surrounded by noise, bright lights and fireworks, without any means of escape. ...

(If this worries you, see the "minus 6 minutes" entry below)

The BBC had stayed away from the stadium for almost a quarter of an hour, showing an interview with Danny Boyle, then a short filmed feature on the great heptathlete Denise Lewis, followed by another on the development of women's participation in the Olympics, presented by uber-commentator Clare Balding. Just before the 1-hour mark, however, Clare conducted a live interview in the south-west entrance to the arena with Helen & Laura Pankhurst (more on them later), wearing their Suffragette costumes ready for the ceremony.

the last hour of waiting ...

minus 1 hour: building anticipation

The screens briefly show an "Isles of Wonder: One hour to go" message, then return to geese, shepherds etc.

minus 58 minutes: ready for take-off

Up on the roof, four great Olympic Rings are hoisted several metres into the air from their maintenance/drying out positions, ready for their starring role. Also about this time, another good Flickr contributor gets going:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lavelle_family/albums/72157630835971044

by bagpussandemily

minus 56 minutes: meanwhile, back in China

CCTV5, after a few minutes of chat with Michael O'Sullivan from 3am Beijing time, spends several minutes adoring the animals.

Close inspection of the footage reveals that the population of the Green and Pleasant Land is, quietly and subtly, growing. More rural dwellers are wandering into the arena from random entrances at random times.

- which seems like a good excuse for a random note just before the action moves to the next level:

The souvenir programme for the Opening Ceremony was a chunky, large-format full-colour volume on heavyweight matt-glazed paper (price £15), with gatefold covers. The front opening revealed a panorama of a section of Anthony Gormley's huge sculptural work "Field for the British Isles", made at St. Helens, Frank Cottrell Boyce's home town, with the help of local children. The rear opening showed mugshot photos of thousands of volunteers, and also featured the evening's main slogan. The text, in English and French, indicated the concepts and historical background to each section of the ceremony. It included lyrics from the key songs & hymns (including "God Save the Queen", in which the word "happy" was carefully translated as "rayonnante" rather than "heureuse") plus a variety of quotations from relevant poetry and prose. The list of crew and cast at the end made a genuine effort to be complete, and it was decorated with more mugshots, plus costume design drawings.

minus 51 minutes: stealth sheep

The flock of sheep quietly sneaks out of its field into the next field east, adjoining the muddy patch where the cart-horse is plodding.

minus 50 minutes (20:10 British Summer Time): pixel time!

The time (to the nearest second) is displayed on the audience pixels. Announcer Layla is heard: "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the prologue for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games ..." She introduces "our host, Curtis Walker", with a brief snatch of music. Curtis' first job is to tell the crowd where on earth he is in the huge stadium: "over here, by the Bell". The big screens show that he is accompanied by a signing interpreter.

By the way- the stadium is now around 95% full (even the VIP area is filling nicely).

Some videos from outside and inside the stadium:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RW4_IZAoss

Ginie's Olym-epic Adventures - Part 2 : The Opening Ceremony

by Giniexxcee

Video from the big screen site at Victoria Park, Hackney, concentrating on the build-up to the show, but also featuring the end fireworks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdpo_ZoYZk0

27 07 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony Preshow

by copticstu

Video from early part of "Green and Pleasant", including entry of villagers, Red Arrows etc., and Danny Boyle speech

http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/athletics/olympics/live-commentary/live-commentary-london-2012-olympics-opening-ceremony_36415.html

SportsMOLE

Live Commentary: London 2012 Olympics - Opening Ceremony

By Neil Wilkes, Editor

Filed: Friday, July 27, 2012 at 18:46 UK; Last Updated: Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 00:58 UK

8.11pm A bright "countdown clock", which is actually just the 24-hour clock, is projected across large parts of the audience, who are presumably now blind.

The beauty of it is, of course, that they aren't blind, because it wasn't projected on them. That's what the paddles next to the seats were for- shining bright LED light forward into the arena (and up into the sky, for spectacular aerial views)- a similar but smaller system had been used at the 2011 Arab Games in Doha, Qatar.

http://livedesignonline.com/news/tait_olympics_moving_images_20120730/

LiveDesign

Tait Technologies: Moving Images at Olympic Stadium

by Kerryanne Nelson

30 Jul 2012

"The assembly of dispersed LED pixels to form very large video images has been with us for some time," explained Frederic Opsomer, CEO of Tait Technologies, who drove the development of this stunning new device. "But never before has it been done on such a scale, and with such organic animation." Opsomer is referring to the fact that the LED Pixel Tablets were placed firmly in the hands of the opening ceremony audience; all 70,500 of them. ...

The cabling infrastructure for the Olympic stadium was some 370km, and was installed by a local crew of ten within five weeks.

minus 49 minutes (20:11 BST): warm-up

Curtis (a veteran of 1990s TV sketch show "The Real McCoy") rapidly warms up the audience with a bit of cheering practice, just in time for:

minus 48 minutes (20:12 BST): The beginning of the end of the beginning

The arrival of the Red Arrows air display team, nine aircraft in tight Vic formation, trailing red, white and blue vapour (much to the delight of French TV commentators), first seen on the big screens just after the cheering practice, approaching from the south-east, then passing directly over the stadium at almost exactly 20:12 (they have to be as early as possible, because they also need to fly over the Hyde Park live site at 20:12, about 11 km away after they have overflown the Victoria Park and Haggerston Park live sites and banked gracefully south-west, still in perfect formation, over the East End of London). At the same time, the waterwheel starts turning, and the audience pixels go wild with colour, before displaying the words "LONDON 2012". [In keeping with the general policy, broadcasters, even the BBC, did not provide a good view of the flypast as seen from within the stadium, but there are numerous personal videos online]

http://www.scribblelive.com/Event/London_Olympics_opening_ceremony?Page=0

Scribble Live

London Olympics opening ceremony

Live tweets from the London 2012 opening ceremony.

8:13 PM, Nick_Ryan_34, via twitter

A spectacular way to start - the Red Arrows fly over the #London2012 Olympic Stadium #OpeningCeremony

8:13 PM, nickmashiter, via twitter

Boom. Red Arrows buzz the stadium. Wow. It's time to get excited.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/london-2012-olympics/wp/2012/07/27/opening-ceremonies/

Washington Post

Olympic opening liveblog

[excerpts]

[tweet, 7.15 UTC = 8.15 BST] Sally Jenkins @sallyjenx

splendid jet flyover streaking Unionjack colors as prelim to #Olympics opening ceremonies

[tweet, 7.17 UTC = 8.17 BST] Sally Jenkins @sallyjenx

Jets were RAF "Red Arrows"

[Red Arrows member (and later leader) Martin Pert describes the Olympic fly-past:]

The Red Arrows: The Story of Britain's Iconic Display Team

by David Montenegro

2022

They were fortunate on the day to have great weather as they approached London, and Martin describes it as being 'an almost eerie evening, with a gorgeous sunset and a very high cloud, which set this golden light acoss London that evening ...

... there were no "bumps" as it was such a beautiful still evening, which is one of the things you pray for when you're flying over London.' The team reached the Olympic Stadium and crossed over it in a second, accompanied by the ...

'Seconds later,' recalls Martin Pert, 'we were over Hyde Park, where Duran Duran were playing and, as we went into a lefthand bend, I could see a large TV screen and we were on that screen, trailing the red, white and blue.

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/thousands-turn-out-to-catch-olympic-opening-ceremony-at-the-big-screen-at-haggerston-park-1-1464854

Hackney Gazette

Thousands turn out to catch Olympic Opening Ceremony at the Big Screen at Haggerston Park

30 Jul 2012

Thousands of people flocked to Haggerston Park to catch the 2012 Opening Ceremony on a giant screen which will be there for the duration of the Olympic Games.

A capacity crowd of 4,800 turned up for the screen's debut and the audience cheered as the Red Arrows flew overhead at 20:12, again when the Queen made her acting debut with James Bond, and when Mr Bean delivered a virtuoso one-fingered performance on the keyboard.

They also joined in the singing and dancing as the event celebrated the best of Britain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-1ZtS6MBIk

YouTube

Cockpit Footage of The Red Arrows Flying Over London for the Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Ministry of Defence

27 Jul 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPltc6_fZf8

YouTube

London Olympics 2012 Opening Red Arrows

by VenzKenobi

28 Jul 2012

minus 47 minutes: taskmaster

After about 20 seconds of gags, Curtis announces "Ladies and gentlemen- we- are gonna work as a team" and warns that "Sue Barker and Gary Lineker are watching" before introducing the spectators to the Mechanicals, who will help them with the evening's "fun tasks".

minus 46 minutes: taskmistress

Curtis introduces the chief Mechanical: "will you please welcome to the stage- Tash!"

- aka Natasha Khamjani, formally titled Mass Co-ordinator:

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/natasha-khamjani-59611b35

LinkedIn

Natasha Khamjani

Co Artistic Director of Folk Dance Remixed

... She was delighted to be head hunted in 2011 by the Olympics and worked on all four ceremonies as a Mass Movement Coordinator and Choreographer. Working with the Mass team to train 10,000 volunteers. Her experience on large-scale, site specific projects and ability to work with anyone and everyone in a truly positive light helped her to gain this amazing role. The four Maypoles in Danny Boyle's Green and Pleasant Land were a result of her handy work as well as all the moves that the Marshalls performed in the Athletes Parade as Natasha cued both of these groups live from the control tower on the big night. She was also picked to warm up and teach the 80,000 strong audience their moments of participation.

Without further ado, Tash begins explaining the gestures the mechanicals will use to co-ordinate spectators in live activities, from "Standby" to "Stop"

Meanwhile, a group of picnickers arrive by the west maypole, near the waterwheel, and a man in cricket gear practices batting and catching in the large field east of the farmyard.

I'll try to summarise the main action within the Green and Pleasant Land minute-by-minute, but I recommend watching some of the many spectator videos (both from this night and the dress rehearsals) which show the inhabitants performing all sorts of little routines.

minus 45 minutes: first task

First participation activity, to be demonstrated by seating section 141, is the "sea silks"- a version of a trick often used in sport stadiums, covering spectators with a huge piece of fabric.

minus 44 minutes: other spectators

- and meanwhile again, more cricketers begin to assemble on the pitch and prepare for a match, soon joined by spectators (i.e. performers acting as spectators!). Also, a fisherman, with rod, arrives in the goose field and sits himself down on the north bank of the pond.

minus 43 minutes: sea silk practice

Curtis encourages Section 141 to have fun under the blue "sea silk"

minus 42 minutes: other other spectators

Most of the cricket spectators have been in rural dress like the farm workers, typically in earthy colours; now from the south-east approaches a large party in more elegant pastel-shaded garb.

minus 41 minutes: bounce ...

The silk demonstration complete, Curtis draws attention to "some- massive- beach-ball type- things ..." (basically unoccupied Zorb balls) with smiley faces on them, and cameras in the noses.A short interlude of craziness follows as the audience tries to stop the balls from escaping onto the M25. Curtis encourages them to let the nose-cameras see them, "unless you're sitting next to somebody you shouldn't be with ..."

minus 40 minutes: what about the workers?

As well as cricket spectators, more people are arriving in the adjacent farmyard.

minus 39 minutes: bees

The mosh pit has not had a ball to play with; Curtis now reveals that they will get one when the moment comes- with a person inside it.

More people are arriving in the green and pleasant land, this time up the north-west ramp. The picnickers in the west maypole field are suddenly buzzed by a bee, and flail around trying to avoid it.

minus 38 minutes: Frank Turner (part 1)

Curtis directs spectators' attention to "that lovely tree" (on the Tor) where they will see "... the legend, Frank Turner ...". Frank, all alone on the Tor with an acoustic guitar, sings the song "Sailor's Boots", opening with the very appropriate line "If I had been born 200 years ago". Spectators in the mosh pit at the foot of the Tor (and the Posh Pit at the other end of the arena) wave festival-style banners which have been designed for the occasion by children participating in the schools' Get Set activity programme (a selection of the designs appear on pages 34-35 of the ceremony programme).

http://www.rocksound.tv/blog/read/the-event-that-shall-not-be-named-an-olympic-story-by-frank-turner

Rock Sound

The Best Of 2012: An Olympic story by Frank Turner!

by Frank Turner

27 Dec 2012

... I was aware that there would be a certain degree of backlash, as there has been. At the end of the day people are entitled to their opinion; mine is that it was a good call, and it's my decision to make. As far as people saying "sell out" or whatever goes, I'd just point out that I didn't get paid, I didn't have any interaction with any corporate sponsors, and I'm still doing what I do the same way I always have ...

http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/live-blog-london-2012/live-olympics-opening-ceremony-20120723-22jqy.html

Sydney Morning Herald

Live: Olympics opening ceremony

Phil Lutton

27-8 Jul 2012

8.16pm Crowd participation is a major element for the ceremony. Everyone is currently being briefed, although I get the odd feeling not everyone is paying close attention. We'll work it out. Ok, I get it. Giant silk flags are being unfurled through the crowd and there's enormous beach balls with cameras in them. None of this would fly at The Gabba.

8.22pm Frank Turner is currently out there singing a little folk tune as the villagers go about their business. They fellas are padding up ready for a game of cricket on the village green. Now, at this point, it would have been customary to unleash a heap of gags about how bad England are at cricket. Unfortunately, they're miles better than us. Maybe our coaching panel could duck out and ask for a few pointers on how to play the swinging ball on English decks.

NB: Back in the stadium, another half-dozen or so people are making their way up the south-west ramp and heading for the south maypole field.

minus 37 minutes: 200 years ago

While Frank sings, the cricket match commences, and the picnickers in the west maypole field pack up, heading north round the rim of the Green and Pleasant Land- but the new entrants in the south have settled down for a picnic by the south maypole!

Unusually, the Chinese commentators on CCTV5 shut up for 30 seconds or so and let their viewers hear and see Frank playing.

The "extras" in the BBC DVD/Blu-Ray set include all three songs by Frank Turner, during which snippets of the action in the Green and Pleasant Land, such as the cricket match, harvesting, picnicking etc. are shown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rcx6AfP2fI

Youtube: natportraitgallery

Road to 2012: Changing Pace - Suttirat Larlarb and Mark Tildesley

11 Aug 2011

[Interview with the ceremony's two lead designers, for a series on the 2012 Olympic preparations, produced by the UK's National Portrait Gallery; good on the philosophy behind the production]

Mark: "Speaking from a perspective as a British- sporting supporter, whatever you call yoursel/myself, it's just tough because, although we invented: football, rugby, cricket; table tennis, er, tennis, golf;"

Suttirat: "Basketball" [with a short first "a" sound as in "can"]

Mark: "Basketball" [with a long first "a" sound as in "car"; incidentally, it seems that basketball was actually invented in Suttirat's home country, the USA, by a Canadian, Dr James Naismith, and the similar British-created sport of netball was devised a little later, as a basketball variant for women]

"errr; I can't remember them all, but there's a few more. We invented the rules; [laughs] but we are not the greatest at participating in them in other words. So we do touch on- not in like a sort of prescriptive list way- but gelled into our story, we touch on- the sports that are important to us as a nation."

Here's an interesting background article on Suttirat Anne Larlarb, written too early to have much reference to the Olympics, but showing the sort of qualities Danny Boyle was looking for in his team:

http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=28444

Stanford Magazine

Worlds of Her Making

interview/article by Sonia Van Gilder Cooke

Mar/Apr 2011

Larlarb tells me that several journalists have mentioned they couldn't believe the canyon in 127 Hours was a set. "It's a great compliment," she says with a laugh. "But it stings just a little because of all the hard work that went into it."

https://www.angelsbehindtheseams.com/podcast/episode0030/

Angels Costumes: Behind the Seams podcasts

Ep. 30: Suttirat Anne Larlarb

1 Sep 2020

[after working on '127 Hours' Suttirat resolved to make sure she had a good rest break following each production, but then she was asked what might make her change her mind:] "I jokingly said 'Yeah, there's not a lot that er, would, you know, cause me to break this new rule I'm setting for myself, which is I need a proper amount of time off to recover and, just re-energise and, get myself re-inspired and everything'- and I remember thinking 'But, you know, if somebody asked me to design the Olympics, I wouldn't say no.' I- I said it as a joke, and, literally two weeks later Danny called and posed this question to me, and I thought- I thought it was a joke, and then I realised it wasn't, and I- so I said 'Yes' immediately even though I was dead tired from my previous couple of years. So I- I took, er, took it on right in the moment, and- you know, it's the kind of thing where it almost- you- in order to take on something of that magnitude, and to do it with the care and the diligence that everybody who took it on did, I think you kind-of almost have to be unaware of how big the task at hand is."

minus 36 minutes: signing applause

After thanking Frank, Curtis explains another activity, for the end of the National Anthem, which, he reveals, is to be performed by the Kaos singing and signing choir. The spectators are taught the sign for applause (hands held high and waggled), and asked to use that as well as the conventional noise-making.

Down in the timeless Land, the cricketers are taking a break.

minus 35 minutes: domestic life

The west picnickers leave the Land by the north-west ramp. Two women are working in the yard south of the cottage; other people are walking towards the cricket pitch along the east side of the cottage.

minus 34 minutes: introducing pixel play

Cricket activity resumes.

It may be about this time that Tash explains why there will, early in the performance, be a pause when all the performers stand still (coincidentally, the fielding cricketers all stand still at this moment, as the batsman appears to sky the ball and the fielders await its return, with upstretched hands, for a preposterously long time). I have not found video of the full explanation, but presumably it refers to the "Poppy Pause" during "Pandemonium", which will involve audience participation.

As we approach the minute, Curtis begins introducing the pixel paddles, and invites spectators to take the paddle in front of their seat from its holster.

minus 33 minutes: raindrops keep falling

The pixel paddles shine in rainbow colours as the spectators play with them. Probably not part of the official programme, a bracing rain shower pours down on the stadium.

The rural activities continue regardless, and a scarecrow is placed in the middle of the cornfield west of the cottage (BBC coverage shows its arms being adjusted once it is planted in place).

http://london2012.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/live-blogging-the-opening-ceremony/

New York Times

Live Blogging the Opening Ceremony

July 27, 2012

Tweet by Campbell Robertson

And the Rain Begins

Your host Curtis Walker: "It wouldn't be the London Olympics without a little rain. We don't want people confusing us with the Caribbean."

Umbrellas up all throughout the lower seats.

minus 32 minutes: introducing head-banging

Tash explains about head-banging and "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Another bunch of people wander up the north-west ramp.

minus 31 minutes: meanwhile, back in the Land ...

The new north-west arrivals walk south round the edge of the Land, and up the south side of the west cornfield.

minus 30 minutes: introducing karaoke

A rehearsal of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" with the lyrics on the big screens, karaoke style, and waving of arms above heads.

The sheep have quietly migrated back to their original western field, and the picnickers by the south maypole are packing up.

minus 29 minutes: pixel routines

Tash and Curtis begin the instructions for using the pixel paddles, with movements ranging from the "diagonal slam" and "forward slam" ("Mind the person in front of you!") to the "shimmer".

The former south maypole picnickers leave the Land via the south-west ramp- but you won't be surprised to learn that the party which recently arrived is just entering the east maypole field ...

minus 28 minutes: pixel practice

Tash leads a recapitulation of the pixel paddle moves.

Down on the farm, people are working in the yard by the cottage, and outside the cottage doorway a woman is making bread dough. The scarecrow's carefully positioned arms have slumped down by its side.

Returning from a commercial break, CCTV5 happily shows lots of traditional English umbrellas raised in the stadium.

minus 27 minutes: drying out (a bit)

The rain dies away. More people enter the Land via the waterwheel steps. On the edge of the cornfield, a man can be seen with a big red apple from the orchard. Although the apples hanging on the trees are all fake, this one is real.

minus 26 minutes: Green and Pleasant badminton

Pixel paddle practice concludes, and Curtis confidentially reveals that, in case it didn't rain for real, there is water in the fake clouds, which are still slowly circumnavigating the arena.

The party by the east maypole settles down for its picnic with a flourish of napkins- and at the inner side of the same field, a couple begin a gentle badminton match. Also about this time, yet another picnic party has settled by the north maypole.

With the umbrellas being put away, CCTV5 diverts its cameras towards the press area, where the transparent plastic sheets attached to each desk remain very much in use, protecting the journalists and their computers.

minus 25 minutes: ... and more badminton

Another couple enter the Land, up the waterwheel steps, and start a second badminton match at the outer edge of the goose field.

Tash and Curtis teach a curious double-push left-and-right arms-over-head movement, before bringing the rehearsals to a conclusion.

One sizeable section of the auditorium seating was still completely empty: the lowest rows of the upper tier behind the Glastonbury Tor Oak Tree. However, until about this point in the pre-show, the seating above, behind the Tree's foliage, was full ...

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ros-satar/restricted-view-from-the-_b_1713636.html?guccounter=1

Huffington Post UK

THE BLOG: Restricted View From the Cheap(er) Seats - the London 2012 Opening Ceremony

by Ros Satar: Gadget-girl and Journalist

28 Jul 2012 "Updated 27/09/2012"

At the very last minute, a friend from the US in the media secured a package bundle of unwanted tickets including two restricted view tickets to the Opening Ceremony - so I jumped at the chance to join him.

...

Restricted View? No Kidding!

A TREE!!!! Seriously who puts a socking great tree in the middle of a stadium?!

With about half an hour to go, suddenly everyone around us started to make a move for the unsold seats below.

Initially the stewards were just struck immobile as they watched a wave of people in the seats above just flood down to the next seats.

One of them tried to tell us that the view was restricted here, and was shown a "before and after" photo, to which he had no answer.

To be fair to them, they let it go. No-one took the seats we vacated, so they went with it.

minus 24 minutes: Danny Boyle speaks (briefly)

Curtis: "Ladies & gentlemen, it is our honour to introduce a fantastic man ... the legend that is- Danny Boyle!". Much cheering ensues.

Danny: "Hello everyone ..."

Even this eminent arrival has no effect on the inhabitants of the Green and Pleasant Land, where cricket, badminton, picnics, fishing, livestock management, and farmyard work are all continuing. Also, some people are just entering the west cornfield from the farmyard, and a couple of men with axes are chatting in the goose field.

minus 23 minutes: rabble-rousing

Danny reminds everyone that it's really all about introducing the athletes- but until that moment the most important people are the volunteers. More cheers.

The new arrivals in the cornfield have begun reaping, with sickles. Bizarrely, young people in modern formal dress, but wearing even more modern casual footwear, are wandering into the Land from both west and east, carrying musical instruments.

http://london2012.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/live-blogging-the-opening-ceremony/

New York Times

Live Blogging the Opening Ceremony

by Victor Mather & others

July 27, 2012

The rain seems to have stopped, in that quintessential English raining-not-raining sort of way. Danny Boyle, who put this whole show together, comes out now and the crowd bursts into cheers. He pays tribute to the athletes and the volunteers who have worked on the ceremony for going on two years now -a short speech and he gets out of the way. The orchestra is now coming onto the village green (shire?), in black suits and sneakers.

minus 22 minutes: back to abnormal

Danny: "Bye bye"

The arriving musicians are, it seems, as timeless in their own way as the Land's inhabitants, chatting with them, joining the cricket spectators and generally taking in the atmosphere. Now more reapers with sickles are strolling from the farm through the east maypole field into the south-eastern cornfield.

minus 21 minutes: more from Frank Turner, with the Sleeping Souls+

[see http://www.emilybarker.com/olympics-opening-ceremony-with-frank-turner/ for more details of the +;

there's also a Facebook picture album https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151082434592847.460406.35477782846&type=3 ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf2mVNgfm3Y

YouTube

2012 Olympic opening ceremony London 1

by Eric Grange

4 Jun 2016

[Compilation of moments, from arrival in the Park to the Arctics, including:]

Curtis: "Ladies and gentlemen, if you cast your eye, to the lovely tree, and the Tor, we have, once again for our pleasure, Mr [laughs as the rumbling of a helicopter overhead becomes very obvious, then pauses a few seconds] Yes ladies and gentlemen, yes, ladies and gentlemen- how're you feeling? You OK? [Whoops from audience, so evidently they can hear the stadium sound over the receding helicopter noise] Alright, ladies and gentlemen, by the Tor, by the tree, cast your attention over there, as we, are entertained, by Mr: FRANK: TURNER !"

Frank, now accompanied by a band and a half, launches straight into "Wessex Boy". As he counts in, a group of picnickers arrive at the foot of the Tor and lay down their groundsheet with a flourish. Elsewhere, a woman fills her watering can from the farmyard well.

http://www.scribblelive.com/Event/London_Olympics_opening_ceremony?Page=0

Scribble Live

London Olympics opening ceremony

Live tweets from the London 2012 opening ceremony.

Wessex Boy is blaring out from @fthc Never thought I'd see the day. #mainstream

by nickmashiter via twitter 7/27/2012 7:40:38 PM July 27 at 8:40 PM

Frank has finished. Inspired choice. #bringfrankback

by nickmashiter via twitter 7/27/2012 7:47:38 PM July 27 at 8:47 PM

minus 20 minutes: Green and Pleasant madness

Harvest is proceeding in both the western and south-eastern cornfields. The badminton players by the waterwheel climb the field stile and run off cheerfully across the Land; the picnickers on the Tor flap crumbs off their napkins in unison. Also in unison, three farm-workers slap their arms as if bees have landed on them. Orchestra players continue wandering through the farmyard, unconcerned.

minus 19 minutes: enter the footballers

Football players start to enter the arena, and as they cross the bridge in the middle of the Land, Frank Turner briefly stops singing, to introduce the singalong ending of "Wessex Boy".

minus 18 minutes: singalong

Footballers start doing warm-up exercises, and the east maypole picnickers pack up, as Frank, and band, and spectators, take "Wessex Boy" toward its happy conclusion

minus 17 minutes: doubles badminton

More people arrive via the north-west ramp, presumably hoping to see a good football match. The two badminton couples are now together by the east maypole, playing a doubles match, with a couple of orchestra players looking on. The shire horse and cart are back in action too, and some beekeepers are arriving at the hives by the cottage.

minus 16 minutes: "I Still Believe"

Frank and band start the song "I Still Believe". At the other end of the green and pleasant land, the football match begins. Also, about a minute into the song, the scarecrow turns itself round to face the other side of the stadium, much to the bemusement of a nearby reaper.

minus 15 minutes: Beekeepers Assemble

Another group of probable footy fans arrives up the north-east ramp. The Tor picnickers start to pack up, and the orchestra members begin an unhurried drift towards the chairs which await them on the M25 verge at the west side of the Land. In the farmyard, the beekeepers, in full protective gear, are getting ready to sort out the bees. Women arrive at the maypoles and start checking the ribbons.

minus 14 minutes: Beekeepers, Infinity War

As "I Still Believe" nears its end, the last couple of Tor picnickers depart once the man has picked a flower from the hillside for his love (but the picnic by the north maypole continues). On the farm, sheaves of harvested corn are being carried to the shire-horse cart, and the beekeepers are puffing smoke into the hives to calm the bees.

minus 13 minutes: enter the parasol ladies

The song ends, and so, temporarily, does the football match- the theatricality of the various activities in the green and pleasant land is emphasised by having the action in a given area suddenly freeze from time to time. A group of Jane Austen-esque ladies with parasols, who had appeared round the flank of the Tor as Frank reached the climax of "I Still Believe", progress elegantly across the M25 and into the countryside (which is now almost completely empty of musicians, who are mostly seated and ready). The sheep, meanwhile, sneak back into the field by the carthorse enclosure.

Once the applause dies away, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the stadium and the world from the big screens.

minus 12 minutes: the Secretary General of the United Nations

As Ban Ki-moon calls for an Olympic truce and notes that "every day we hope, to make peace, a reality ...", the gentler battles of football and cricket continue (the badminton players are chatting with some locals) and the parasol ladies bend to admire some of the farm livestock. Up on the roof, the Rings are tested to see how well their lighting circuits are coping with the latest showers.

http://www.aroundtherings.com/articles/view.aspx?id=40728

Around the Rings

27 July 2012

"UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon appeared in a video with 10 minutes to go until the start of the ceremony. "I call on warring parties everywhere to lay down their weapons during the Games," he said."

minus 11 minutes: goodbye from Curtis

Curtis returns: "Ladies- and gentlemen ... We are- just over- ten minutes away ....". After a final "Thank-you" he departs and the birdsong soundtrack resumes.

The cricketers, meanwhile, are all tying their shoelaces; some straggling musicians are chatting with the parasol ladies by the cattle field; and some people have entered the central orchard with its protective circular bank. The badminton players move down to the M25 verge below the east maypole.

Not all TV broadcasters around the world have been as enthusiastic as the Chinese, or even the French. TVE's coverage for Spain only began a quarter-hour before the official ceremony start (albeit with a rather impressive set of opening titles showing aerial views of the Olympic venues), and viewers got their first glimpse inside the stadium, from the wide terraces used earlier by CCTV5's reporter, just as Curtis was saying goodbye.

minus 10 minutes: building anticipation even more

"Isles of Wonder" animated caption on the screens, as at the 1-hour mark. The parasol ladies are on the move again, passing the farm, and the straggling musicians are on their way down to the orchestra seats. Groups of children enter the arena and start walking round the M25 towards the four maypoles. The presumably genuine rain also returns, briefly.

minus 9 minutes: interlude with birdsong

The sheep move back into the field they first occupied an hour ago, and are replaced by a group of farm labourers. The parasol ladies are heading west along the edge of the west cornfield- and more and more people can be seen making their way into the Land.

minus 8 minutes: rugby!

The parasol ladies are admiring the geese. As the maypole children go through warm-up exercises, holding their ribbons, the footballers unexpectedly change the rules of their game into something a lot like rugby football; now holding and throwing the ball are parts of normal play, and they run off the pitch onto the M25, pursued by some of the spectators.

minus 7 minutes: the livestock begins its exit

The footballers run anticlockwise round the M25 to the southeast vom (and briefly right out of the arena).

Once they are well out of the way, the "sheep alley" is re-established between the Land and the southwest vom, and the sheep are herded from their field to the fenced ramp out of the Land. In the farmyard, the ducks and chickens are gathered into their baskets.

http://scsacrossthepond.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/reporting-from-opening-ceremonies/

Across the Pond: Santa Cruz Sentinel power couple covers the London Olympics

Reporting from opening ceremonies

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Julie Jag

8:53 p.m. All is quiet in the "countryside" as we wait for the athletes. The sheep, however, are getting applause as they leave through a small chute.

minus 6 minutes: replacing the livestock

The parasol ladies walk eastward through the former sheep field (almost bumping into the recently arrived farm labourers, who are heading north from the other sheep field) and along the edge of the south-eastern cornfield, while, as the geese leave, another picnic party arrives to settle in their field, next to the waterwheel. A footballer on the M25 drop-kicks the ball into the posh pit, while the cricket match continues in more dignified fashion, and people are working or sightseeing all over the farm (with yet more casually strolling in from time to time). Comfortably distant from the action, the sheep (followed by the dog, followed by the geese) leave the stadium via the M25 alley and the southwest vom, much as they entered. The cattle and goats then leave their fields and head down the north-west ramp to the M25, followed by the bird-handlers with their baskets, leaving just the shire-horse patiently pulling its cart on the farm.

So, contrary to the impression given earlier by PeTA, most of the animals left before the fireworks, loud music and dramatic lighting effects got started (a few working horses, accustomed to busy roads, were seen later, but even they were withdrawn before the real action began).

Also in this minute, the Spanish TVE broadcast starts using the official Olympic Broadcasting Services live feed (though still with their own commentary): initially the view of London from a helicopter flying down the Thames towards Canary Wharf, then turning north along the Lea valley towards the stadium. China's CCTV also switched to the OBS feed around this time. Japan's NHK, by contrast, returned from a news bulletin and weather forecast to admire the Green and Pleasant Land via zoom lenses. The enthusiastic stadium presenters (a young man and a young woman) were particularly delighted by the picnickers, and the cart-horse. NHK continued to use their own cameras, showing both the sea-silks and the Land, until about half-way through "Nimrod" then somehow faded to the official international Olympic live-feed of the 60-second countdown, suggesting that their own "live" introduction had been subject to a delay of about 2 minutes!

minus 5 minutes: get ready with those sea silks!

The rolls of blue fabric are given to the top row of the audience in each section of the huge arena, and held above their heads ready for action. The parasol ladies reach the cart field, where they stop for a while to admire the patient horse at work. The footballers re-enter the Green and Pleasant Land from the south-east and run across it back to the pitch. The cattle and goats form a dignified procession round the M25 past the orchestra, with the bird-handlers and their baskets about 20 metres behind. Just as the latter reach the orchestra, almost exactly on the minus-5-minute mark, announcer Marc says: "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the London Symphony Orchestra's On Track project ...".

Our stadium announcers for the evening are:

http://www.red24management.com/presenter/layla-anna-lee

Red24 Management

Layla Anna Lee

... With a British father and Brazilian mother, Layla was born and raised in West Hampstead, London. Enrolling at Sylvia Young Theatre School at a young age saw Layla win her first job aged just 6. Layla has presented various shows but it's in her chosen sports field where her talent has really shone.

Layla voiced the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony live for the London Olympic Committee to an audience of over 1 billion after being chosen by Danny Boyle . She also hosted the Olympic Beach Volleyball finals live for the Olympic Committee. ...

http://www.talent4media.com/talent/marc-edwards.php

jo carlton /Talent4 media

Marc Edwards

... A self-confessed "child of globalisation" Marc was born in Paris to a Welsh father and a Malaysian-Chinese mother. Born bilingual he continued his quest to match his multilingual parents by studying languages in Italy, Mexico and China. After graduating from Durham University, where he hosted his own drive-time radio show on Purple FM, he took the fast track route to a successful television career -as a management consultant in the City! And the rest, as they say, is history...

For markets which could not afford customised coverage, Olympic Broadcasting Services (the organisation tasked with providing unbiased broadcast coverage for all Olympic Games) provided the standard footage with a straightforward commentary in English, led by Barry Davies. This is the version in the various videos presented by "Olympic" on YouTube.

http://www.metro.co.uk/olympics/906711-colin-murray-raise-a-glass-to-national-treasure-barry-davies-at-london-2012

Metro [London]

Raise a glass to national treasure Barry Davies at London 2012

Colin Murray

30 Jul 2012

Actions may speak louder than words but, sometimes, the right line at the right time can last just as long in memory as the Olympic moment itself.

At London 2012, Barry Davies becomes the nation's longest-working Olympic commentator, with his service to British sport stretching back to the 1968 Games in Mexico City.

Analysing Davies' commentary for parts of the Opening presentation, I was struck by how much effort he seemed to have put into complying with Danny Boyle's request for respect to the music (most of the time- although he made the eminently sensible decision to shut up entirely during the "Thanks Tim" music medley, his long association with the Olympics rather overwhelmed him during the Torch Relay segment). He appears to have approached the task like a DJ, using the rehearsals to identify and time passages of music where comments could be inserted, then tailoring his contributions (which at times have a haiku-like poetry) so that they finished just a beat before the measured space ended.

The French TF1 TV broadcast returns from a commercial break with all the presenters facing away from the camera (before a cut to a second camera at the north end of their booth). After an hour with the Green and Pleasant Land as a backdrop, they are now ready to begin commenting on the stadium action as it happens.

minus 4 minutes 55 seconds (broadcast by the BBC, and also featured as an extra on the BBC DVDs): Nimrod" from Sir Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations"

As the orchestra begins playing Elgar's "Nimrod", scenes of the sea are seen on the big screens. The maypole dancers shake their ribbons, and pause expectantly, while the last football spectators return to the pitch. The cattle are nearing the waterwheel, still closely followed by the goats, but the bird baskets are only just passing the orchestra.

http://lso.co.uk/london-2012-olympic-and-paralympic-ceremonies?startFrom=1366498800

London Symphony Orchestra

London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Ceremonies

Kathryn McDowell [Managing Director of the LSO]

Jul 2012

The LSO set up LSO On Track in 2008 as a response in music to what the Olympics were aiming to do in sport: to enable young people of talent to fulfil their potential and reach the top, whatever their background. Working with thousands of young people from the surrounding boroughs of the London Olympics, we're thrilled that 80 of them performed alongside LSO musicians and François-Xavier Roth.

A curious thing about the TV coverage of this section: the international Olympic Broadcasting Services feed, as reproduced on the YouTube Olympic channel, gives us its first interior views of the stadium at this point- but it only shows the audience with their blue cloths, not the activity in the Green and Pleasant Land.

The BBC on the other hand, after a few seconds showing captions over the Olympic Broadcasting helicopter footage, switch to their own stadium cameras after Marc's announcement, for exclusive coverage of the next few minutes (available on their DVD/Blu-Ray set).

minus 4 minutes 40 seconds: sea silk action

The spectators (many of whom are in rain gear, some holding up umbrellas) begin to cover themselves with blue silk. Down in the Land, we finally get the punchline of all that aimless wandering by the parasol ladies, who now make the foolish decision to walk across the enclosure churned to mud by the cart-horse over the past hour. "Walk" rapidly turns into "squelch"... Meanwhile, the farm labourers are more-or-less tracing the parasol ladies' course in reverse, and are now between the east cornfield and the farmyard.

Although its most obvious ancestor is Bjork's oceanic dress covering the athletes in the Athens 2004 opening ceremony (which in turn was derived from Sydney 2000's use of a giant sheet over spectators to project film of sporting moments in its "Heroes Live Forever" segment), here's another possible inspiration for this scene:

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/04/entertainment/la-et-tempest-20110704

Los Angeles Times

Theater review: 'The Tempest'

by Reed Johnson

4 Jul 2011

... In his dreamy, elegant production of Shakespeare's storm-tossed romance at the Old Globe, director Adrian Noble pulls a number of clever ideas out of his hat: introducing Japanese-style bunraku puppets; refashioning several of the play's verse-chants as songs that vaguely evoke British New Wave electronic pop. ...

In realizing the play's lush, poetic imagery and its roaring bestiary of ideas, this production honors sensuality as well as clarity. It bathes the performers in soft light and mist. Mediterranean sky blues and crisp naval-officer whites dominate Ralph Funicello's scenic design and Deirdre Clancy's costumes. A giant aquatic fabric unfurls across the Globe's outdoor stage, imitating violent ocean swells or gentle, lapping waves, as this masterwork of metamorphosis casts its Ovidian spell ...

minus 4 minutes 30 seconds: dairy departure

The cattle exit the stadium via the south-west vom, a few seconds ahead of the goats. The west cornfield reapers have also finished for the day, and are heading for the west rim of the Land, leaving the scarecrow to its own devices. In some areas, the descent of the blue sea silks can now be seen very clearly. After a final shake-out of their ribbons, the four groups of maypole children begin to dance.

minus 4 minutes: chickens out

The poultry baskets are carried out of the south-west vom. The west field reapers head along the rim of the Land towards the north-west ramp.

minus 3 minutes 45 seconds: less mud

The parasol ladies reach the outer side of the mudbath, and wipe their footwear on the untrampled grass before heading north round the rim of the Land.

minus 3 minutes 30 seconds: more weather

Very quietly, over the music, we start to hear the BBC radio Shipping Forecast.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-02-18/secrets-of-the-shipping-forecast

Radio Times

Secrets of the Shipping Forecast

Peter Jefferson

18 Feb 2012

... it still has two audiences. It supplies vital maritime weather information to all those at sea round our shores and beyond. Even though most modern vessels, large and small, have on-board technology to gather most of the information themselves, they use the forecast to verify their own data.

The second audience is found among those restless souls on dry land who, listening to Radio 4 just before 1am, haven't yet switched off either physically or metaphorically. ...

minus 3 minutes 15 seconds: return of the Pixels

With the spectators now mostly covered by blue cloth, the pixel paddles are used for a vast display of crashing waves. The parasol ladies, meanwhile, are standing on the rim of the Land at the north end of the cart enclosure, watching the continuing badminton match down on the M25 verge.

http://www.arrse.co.uk/london-olympics-2012/185403-olympic-opening-ceremony-feedback-thread-3.html

Army Rumour Service

Olympic Opening Ceremony Feedback Thread

Legs, 27-07-2012, 20:57 #22

WTF? Why are the audience all covered in big blue bedsheets?

fairmaidofperth, 27-07-2012, 20:59 #23

Quote Originally Posted by Legs: "WTF? Why are the audience all covered in big blue bedsheets?"

It was the sea part .... did you not spot the waves on the big screen?

Listy, 27-07-2012, 20:59 #25

Somethingto do with the ocean I think.

I'll give him the trick with the lights on the backs of the seats, that effect worked.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37PjX2lDyxM&feature=related Published on 27 Jul 2012 by waited99 ):

Audience video from rehearsal, showing the view from beneath the blue cloths, and glimpses of the lighting effects.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHpqYlLSMU8 Published on 29 Jul 2012 by AlexBDA )

Opening Ceremony audience footage highlights, including interesting (if slightly hyperactive) coverage of the pre-show period, and pretty much all of "Frankie and June".

minus 2 minutes 45 seconds: bye-bye blue

The top rows of spectators are starting to let go of the blue cloths, which are gradually being gathered in by the bottom rows, with the pixels still displaying waves underneath.

minus 2 minutes 30 seconds: behind the farm shed

The farm labourers have not been easy to see for a while; it turns out they have gathered behind the farm shed, perhaps for a Tolpuddle-style secret meeting.

minus 2 minutes: moving waves

With the sea silks almost completely gathered in, the pixels and upper screens still show scenes of the wild ocean. The Green and Pleasant Land is now mostly a place of leisure, with maypole dancing, cricket, football and badminton still progressing, all with spectators.

minus 1 minute 40 seconds: it's getting very near the beginning

The music ends, and the applause begins.

minus 1 minute 20 seconds: the countdown kids

As activities in the Green and Pleasant Land continue, groups of children holding big white balloons with numbers on file into the arena from the southwest and southeast voms.

minus 1 minute 5 seconds: a very important announcement

Announcer Layla informs the stadium spectators that "We have one minute till we go live to the world."

minus 1 minute: countdown (film sequence- also included at start of BBC DVD)

As the preceding stadium announcement indicated, this short film was intended for the UK, and not shown on the international feed supplied by Olympic Broadcasting Services, though broadcasters in some countries appear to have chosen to use it.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sports/london-olympics-2012/2012/07/27/olympics-opening-ceremony-hailed-a-spectacular-triumph-91466-31491157/

Wales Online

Stunning opening ceremony kicks off London 2012 Olympics

[comment:]

Valleygirl2

11:03 AM on 29/7/2012

There was a huge Welsh connection in this amazing spectacle. Lincoln Barrett aka High Contrast - drum+bass DJ music producer from Penarth - was brought in by Danny Boyle and Underworld to produce the music for the athletes parade. His album track 'The Road Goes on Forever' was used for the first 60 second countdown of the opening ceremony and he composed and produced 6 tracks and did lots of remixes of other songs for the ceremony - he's named 14 times on the CD Isles of Wonder which is now on itunes. Another of his album tracks, Emotional Vampire, which is not on the CD, was used when Venezuala and Vietnam teams were parading. It was all a huge achievement for everyone concerned.

For anybody who thought they were hearing a completely different track and artist during this 60-second countdown, "The Road Goes On Forever" is essentially "Baba O'Reilly" by The Who, treated like musical Plasticine [readers in other countries, insert your own favourite colourful, non-toxic, non-staining, claylike material here].

http://blog.osirra.com/2012/08/03/the-olympics-opening-ceremony-my-review/

Tangential Ramblings

Dan from London

The Olympics opening ceremony: my review

August 3, 2012

It's now four full days since the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games, sufficient time to give an objective review.

It started at 2059 BST, with a 60 second countdown. Each number gave an insight into London or the UK. The 43 bus to London Bridge; the 30mph speed limit sign; £22-worth of mini-orchids (ouch!); the 12 in the top-left quadrant of the dartboard; eleven and a half Fournier Street (an art gallery in the east end); Number 10 (natch); ending with street signs for EC2 and N1. ...

On close inspection it becomes apparent that even within each second, there are often many numbers; still, here are some of the more notable ones:

60: stopwatch

59: floor by row of stadium seats

58: looking along the next row of seats

57: view of some of the lit "audience pixels" panning down to row number on floor

49: price label £49 for a hydrangea plant

47: Bridge 47 over the Regent's Canal, carrying Haggerston Road (not far west of the Olympic Park)

46: shop front for Donovan Bros., 46 Crispin Street, Spitalfields, "The noted house for PAPER BAGS"

45: label on rack of 45rpm records

43: no 43 London bus to London Bridge

40: balloons for 40th birthday / anniversary

39: row label in stadium

38: direction sign in stadium to rows 38-7x

37: multiple images, including London 2012 Ceremonies numbered label

36: direction sign, 36m (metres) to first aid point

30: multiple images including calendar for Monday 30 Jul & 30mph speed limit sign

29: volume 29 from a book set; next to it is another book "Wonderful London Today"

25: multiple images, including calendar for Wednesday 25

24: yellow pedalo-type boat on lake, probably in Regent's Park

23: building number on shop sign, 23 Hoxton Street, Shoreditch (alongside the number is a stone inscribed "JFB 1892"); this former timber merchant's has recently served as a garage, and in June 2012 it briefly housed an art exhibition, "Highly Strung in Hoxton".

22: £22 price label for "mini orchid"

21: 21st birthday cake (but with only 8 candles- cheapskates)

20: multiple 20mph speed limit signs; they have become very common on residential streets in London

19: price board; champagne from £19.41

18: "strictly over 18's only" neon sign

15: house number at 15 Albion Square, Dalston

14: No. 14 football shirt (all red, including the collar and sleeves, possibly included to honour the northern English team Workington Reds)

12: on dartboard, with dancing darts

11a: building number eleven and a half (see Dan's comments above)

11b: next door to above

10: 10 Downing Steet, a terraced house backing onto the Beach Volleyball stadium site

9: no 9 bus to Trafalgar Square

7: sign on awning of ?restaurant, "Open 7 days a week"

6: clock showing 6 o'clock on Christ Church, Spitalfields

http://www.ccspitalfields.org/history

Christ Church Spitalfields

History of CCS

Christ Church was built between the years 1714 and 1729 as part of the church building programme initiated by the Fifty New Churches act of 1711, backed by Queen Anne, which was implemented by four different Commissions. ...

One of the two surveyors employed by the first Commission, at an initial rate of £200 per year, was Nicholas Hawksmoor -a Nottinghamshire-born architect who had worked with Sir Christopher Wren since his late teens. Of the 12 churches completed (out of the projected 50), six were the work of Hawksmoor, and Christ Church was his masterpiece.

3: multiple images, including yellow fire hydrant locator sign (indicating 3 metres distance)

2: numerous street signs in postal district EC2

1: numerous street signs in postal district N1

https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/podcast/production-meetings/004-sam-hunter-and-julia-whittle

UK Podcasts

Production Meetings: 004 - Sam Hunter and Julia Whittle

interviewers, Mark Shayle & Natasha Houghton

4 Jun 2020

Julia [show-caller, Orangejackets.uk]: "I don't like the bit leading up to it, I prefer it when we've started ... actually, for London we started about 4 o'clock ... because the doors opened and I was cueing geese on, and a fisherman, and I had picnic people, and maypole dancers ...

The opening VT, it wasn't like 2 minutes or 1 minute, it was like 1 minute 32 and something milliseconds ... because we were going live at 9 o'clock ... I felt good about that.

Sam [stage manager, Orangejackets.uk]: "Olympic-wise we've done every one from Athens to Sochi, and then I consulted on Rio"

They go on to explain the regrettable reasons why Sochi and Rio made them give up on the Olympics, and the very cool things they did instead in 2016.

For the 8th anniversary edition, a new feature! The British TV ratings organisation BARB published in its September 2012 Bulletin a graph showing the total of home viewers for the ceremony across all the UK channels which were showing it live (i.e. most BBC and Eurosport UK channels). I have indicated, in this orange colour, the approximate viewer numbers from the graph, in millions, at key moments during the ceremony, with ^ if rising or v if declining since the last reported number, e.g. {^23.9m}. Please note that BARB does not measure viewing outside the home, so we will never know quite how many other people were having viewing parties at big-screen locations, in pubs, parks, town squares etc.

NB: BARB reported that the average audience for BBC1's two-hour warmup to the opening ceremony, which started at 7pm, was {10.25 million}.

welcome to the Isles of Wonder

0:00: introductory journey down the River Thames

{^24m}

Try thinking of this very rapid trip down the Thames, containing far too much information to take in at once, as a piece of advice for the coming event: Just relax, and go with the flow!

Occasional shots of the "Green and Pleasant Land" in the stadium replace lengthy sections of the river which are omitted. Were they cut out as part of the desperate effort to reduce the duration of the show without removing volunteer contributions?

http://www.thamespathway.com/chapter1/the-source.aspx

Thames Pathway: Journal of a Walk Down the River Thames

by Keith Pauling

The official source of the Thames lies in a remote Gloucestershire meadow on the edge of the small village of Kemble. Ordnance Survey map reference ST980994 to be absolutely precise. This area is officially known as Trewsbury Mead but is sometimes referred to as Thames Head. ...

Not everyone is in absolute agreement that this is the true source of the Thames. The Ordnance Survey and the Environment Agency both give Trewsbury Mead as the official source, but there is a small rival faction that argues that the source is at Seven Springs, approximately eleven miles to the north ...

From the start until the outskirts of London, the music is, with occasional interruptions, "Surf Solar" by Fuck Buttons (decorously referred to as F Buttons in all official Olympic literature).

http://vimeo.com/46808734

Wind in the Willows for London Olympics 2012

from BE Animation, 2 months ago

"BE Animation were asked to create a small sequence of animation involving the Wind in the Willows characters for the 'Thames River' sequence during the London Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony."

The "Wind in the Willows" children's book characters are seen in the village of Ashton Keynes- with the camera actually travelling upstream! In practice, the settings for "The Wind in the Willows" are more usually associated with the middle reach of the Thames, mostly around Cookham where author Kenneth Grahame grew up (the famous illustrations by E.H. Shephard, produced decades after the original publication, seem to be modelled on locations around Pangbourne, where Grahame spent the last few years of his life).

The wooden arch bridge we then see [after a brief return to the stadium's poppy field, in place of the expected views around Cricklade] is at the junction of the Thames with the Thames and Severn Canal, near Inglesham.

The sunshades with a pointing hand picture are in the yard of the Riverside pub at Lechlade.

http://www.funshui.org/london-2012-olympic-opening-ceremony.htm

fun shui- free yourself ...

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

Our Healthy Home Consultant Janet Watson has had one of her dreams come true, well actually two of them already this year! Janet was one of the 60,000 people lucky enough to watch the dress rehearsal for the Opening of the London 2012 Olympics on Monday evening, before the actual opening on Friday evening.

Earlier this year Janet was directed and filmed by Danny Boyle and his crew at a friendly pub on the banks of the River Thames. She was in the "Isles of Wonder" River Thames short film after the countdown to the grand opening of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony as a helicopter flew towards the Olympic Stadium just before the opening started. Look out for pale blue patio umbrellas with a hand pointing in the direction of the London 2012 Olympic Stadium and you may just spot her!

The high-speed train crosses the river on Moulsford Bridge, part of the old Great Western route, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and built in 1838-9.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=11077.15

Great Western Passengers' Forum

Discussion topic: 2012 Opening Ceremony

EBrown; Reply #21 on: July 30, 2012, 05:14:51 PM

Quote from: thetrout on July 30, 2012, 05:36:58 AM

*Cynic/Pedant Alert*

But did anybody spot the mistake with the HST in the Opening Ceremony Starting Video??

Pedantic error yes, but still a big one : )

Yes I did. They are in STD seats in a 1st liveried carriage.

Super Guard; Reply #23 on: July 30, 2012, 07:42:24 PM

First Class yellow line with standard class seats.... tut tut ; )

The geese by the waterwheel are another stadium shot [Oxford should have been here on the Thames journey]

The town we see next is Abingdon, and as we leave it the horizon is dominated by the Didcot power stations (scene of a Greenpeace protest in 2006 when activists climbed the 200-metre high main chimney of Didcot A and painted "Blair's legacy" near the top, with an arrow pointing upwards to the escaping fumes).

The island with a temple on it is Temple Island, on which we see a group of British Olympians, with film glimpses of their achievements

http://www.hrr.co.uk/entertainment/temple-island/

Henley Royal Regatta

Temple Island

Temple Island is situated a mile and a half downstream of the picturesque market town of Henley, on one of the most beautiful reaches of the River Thames. Located amidst rolling water meadows and surrounded by wooded hills, it marks the Start of the famous Henley Royal Regatta Course.

The Temple itself is a delightful folly, designed by James Wyatt as a fishing lodge for Fawley Court, the Christopher Wren mansion on the Henley Reach, from which the Temple completed a charming prospect through an avenue of trees.

Bizarrely but logically, we now head back upstream again to the end of the Regatta course at Henley, and cut under Henley Bridge to emerge by the Regatta headquarters. At this point, shots of rowers are seen and the Eton Boating Song is played.

Back to the stadium for some cricket [while the Thames passes towns and suburbs too numerous to mention, and a well-known castle]

London: Chelsea Bridge first, with the wooded Ranelagh Gardens (part of the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea) glimpsed at left. Camera swings right to show Battersea Power Station, with Pink Floyd pig, and flies between the chimneys. The tall, round building ahead is the St George's Wharf Tower, a residential block under construction.

Millbank Tower at left. Over another bridge or two, and approaching Parliament after brief glimpse of the leafy grounds of Lambeth Palace, and St. Thomas's Hospital.

After Clock Tower of Parliament (with beats from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" ), veer right to London Eye, and over the South Bank cultural complex (hearing the theme to TV arts series "The South Bank Show" ). Back over river by the Festival Hall, and the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" starts. Dive down to river level, under a succession of bridges, past HMS Belfast on right, then through Tower Bridge (between roadway and upper walkway).

This commemorates a river trip by the Pistols downstream from Charing Cross Pier on 7 June 1977, during which they tried to perform some of their songs for the invited audience aboard the riverboat "Queen Elizabeth". This attempt to provide an alternative to the Silver Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II was unfortunately cut short by a heavy-handed police intervention. Of course, by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year of 2012, the Metropolitan Police have mellowed, and are more subtle in their reaction to events which run counter to the general tone. Anybody fancy a bicycle ride?

Looking back to silhouetted Tower Bridge, swoop up to vertical shot of east London, roughly as in the opening credits for popular British soap-opera "EastEnders"- from which the drum-beats here are taken- but re-aligned so that the Olympic Stadium is almost exactly half way across the top of the screen, and Greenwich Park, used for many of the equestrian events, is just on-screen at the bottom, on the right-hand curve of the big meander in the Thames. Swoop back down again, (to the sound of "Under the House" by post-punk John Lydon band Public Image Limited / P.I.L.) and through the Thames Barrier at river level, then dive beneath the water (effectively completing the journey from the river's birth to its tidal ending) and emerge in an Underground train (hearing The Clash "London Calling", which makes an apt companion to the song played in the Underground sequence of the main show), then to station ("mind the gap") on a right curve, with blue-tiled walls to head height, remarkably free of posters etc, just station nameboards.

Continue through another tunnel, looking like the original Thames Tunnel (for which Isambard Kingdom Brunel was site manager, to designs by his father) with pedestrians in period dress; music is Sir Edward Elgar's "Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2010/mar/12/thames-tunnel-rotherhithe-robert-hulse

The Guardian

The Thames tunnel: the underwater fancy fair

Robert Hulse, director of the Brunel Museum, takes us on a tour of the Thames tunnel

[an excellent introduction to the tunnel, filmed on a walking tour while it was closed to trains in 2010]

Into a road tunnel, with red stripes along walls (Rotherhithe Tunnel, I believe; see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5-UyBVQ_NA ).

Up through water of the River Lea (music: Lily Allen "Smile") and out to see the Olympic Stadium (music: Muse "Map of the Problematique")- shots of performers preparing, and superimposed Olympic posters.

2:20: Olympic posters montage

http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2012/07/28/atlanta-la-snubbed-during-london-olympics-opening-ceremony-montage

fresh loaf

Atlanta, L.A. snubbed during London Olympics opening ceremony montage?

Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley

Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 2:40 PM

People who tuned in to the 2012 London Summer Olympics opening ceremony last night might have noticed, just before the Danny Boyle-produced extravaganza began, a montage of posters from past games. Apparently Los Angeles, the 1984 Olympics host city, and Atlanta, which, as we all know, hosted the festivities in 1996, weren't included. [...]

We contacted the International Olympic Committee, which referred us to London organizers. We asked them if missed anything during the montage and why the two cities weren't included. We've also contacted officials with NBC Sports, which broadcasts the games. We'll update when we hear word.

Quoting the reply to my emailed query:

"Hello,

Thank you for contacting London 2012 about the Opening Ceremony.

Danny Boyle chose a selection of posters from some, but not all, previous Olympic Games to appear in the film that opened the Ceremony. There was no conscious decision to omit any City, it was simply that not all posters could fit into the time available in the film.

Kind regards,

Debbie

London 2012 team"

Call me a cynic, but I would be inclined to translate Debbie's reply to Thomas as:

"There are a few people in your fine city who know exactly why we snubbed you; but I bet they won't be explaining any time soon."

For the record, the other two omissions were Berlin 1936 (a double bill of the 1936 film "Olympia" and the 2012 Olympic film "First"- both by female directors- would make interesting viewing) and the 1900 staging in Paris:

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/sport/20050705.OBS2452/paris-olympique-les-precedents.html

Le Nouvel Observateur

Paris olympique : les précédents

5 Jul 2005

1900 - Dans l'ombre de l'Exposition universelle

... Sans cérémonie d'ouverture ni de clôture, les Jeux s'éternisent du 20 mai au 28 octobre, dans l'indifférence et la confusion, aux quatre coins de la capitale française et du pays. Coubertin dira plus tard: "c'est miracle que le mouvement olympique ait survécu à ces Jeux". ...

1916, 1940 and 1944 were also missing, because in those years the contest was being staged in an alternative form.

2:40: into the stadium for final countdown with popping balloons (clockwise to "1" at foot of Tor)

If you look closely, you'll see that the camera enters a completely empty stadium (mostly hidden behind the images of posters) until the cut to live nurses holding London 2012 posters. The original intention was to use a cherry-picker for this sequence, but the cut allowed the next shot, soaring up into the air, to be accomplished by simply dangling a camera operator on wires attached to a winch on the roof above the southeast entrance.

The balloon-popping did not go quite 100% according to plan- or did it????

https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-subtle-details-of-the-2012-London-opening-ceremony-that-we-may-not-have-caught

Quora

What are some subtle details of the 2012 London opening ceremony that we may not have caught?

[answer by Jon Petersen, 1 Aug 2012]

A minor addition to the many excellent observations so far. In the countdown to the opening, 2 of the balloons representing the number 6 did not explode, leaving a clear "66" left in the air. I took this as a reference to 1966 and the England World Cup win.

https://www.secnewgate.co.uk/blog/the-greatest-show-on-earth-the-olympic-opening-ceremony-and-my-part-in-it/

SEC Newgate blog

The greatest show on Earth: the Olympic Opening Ceremony (and my part in it)

by Simon Gentry (posted online by Adam Browning)

22 Jul 2021

Rehearsals would run late into the night, often in pouring rain. The newspapers sometime sent helicopters to sneak pictures of what was happening inside the stadium, and people would shout abuse at them. Then late one night two helicopters arrived and two people jumped out. “Don’t worry, they are ours”, the directors said. We thought it was 007 and Johnny English … we were half right.

Other times we’d stay late into the night with Rick Smith from Underworld as the recorded sounds that eventually went onto the soundtrack. That 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, at the start was recorded late one night in a sodden stadium by 200 exhausted Londoners.

As we begin the live-televised portion of the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics 2012, I should mention that it is important to distinguish the whole event from the cultural presentation which it contains. The theme of the cultural presentation is Britain's contributions to the world over the past three centuries, but the ceremony as a whole (including the parade of nations) has a wider-yet-more-personal theme, as we will observe in due course.

NB: For the 2016 crazy edition of this work, I am adding notes of many small details which were captured on some of the hundreds of videos made available online by members of the stadium audience, but not really noticed by the TV cameras. They are indicated in this small brown lettering [in square brackets]. I have tried in particular to illustrate the underlying random precision of the very very complicated "Pandemonium" industrial revolution sequence, which involved over 2,500 performers.

3:20: introducing Bradley Wiggins to ring the Olympic Bell

http://www.standard.co.uk/olympics/olympic-news/the-olympic-opening-ceremony-showstoppers-7987309.html

Evening Standard (London)

The Olympic Opening Ceremony showstoppers

30 July 2012

The Olympic bell that Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins rang to signal the start of the Games was so big it barely managed to squeeze into the stadium. Designers admitted it was "touch-and-go" getting the 23-ton[ne] instrument into the Stratford venue.

"It went in through the tunnel and there was only a matter of inches either side," said Kathryn Hughes, a director of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the company that designed it. Three metres in diameter, it is the largest harmonically tuned bell in the world and had to be cast in Holland because there is no foundry big enough in Britain.

23 tonnes or British tons is around 26 US tons. Meanwhile, ummm, about the Standard's last statement:

http://www.loughboroughecho.net/news/loughborough-news/2012/04/20/olympic-clanger-sees-bell-go-dutch-for-manufacture-73871-30801343/

Loughborough Echo

Olympic clanger sees bell go Dutch for manufacture

by Matt Jarram

20 Apr 2012

LOUGHBOROUGH'S Taylor's Bell Foundry - rejected in favour of a London firm to cast the giant Olympic Bell, has discovered that its winning rivals have sub-contracted the task out to a Dutch manufacturer. The iconic bell, which will officially open the London 2012 ceremony, is being cast in Holland - despite Taylor's making it clear to the Olympic committee that it could carry out the job in the UK. ...

"Out of the 15 biggest bells in the country, 11 have been cast in this bell foundry and we are the only bell foundry to have the capacity to do the job. "

Like many other features of Olympic opening ceremonies, the bell is based on an idea from the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin:

http://suite101.com/article/the-1936-berlin-olympics-bell-a156474#ixzz2PFNhMNOY

Suite 101

The 1936 Berlin Olympics Bell

by Murray Sager

10 Oct 2009

The bell was a massive object weighing over 30,000 lbs. [over 13 tonnes]. The casting included a number of symbols and an inscription. There were of course the linked olympic rings, a German eagle, an image of the Brandenburg Gate, the dates of the games and between two swastikas around the rim of the bell, the words, " Ich raufe die Jugend der Welt ", I call the youth of the world.

Although the Berlin bell was damaged by bombing in the Second World War, it still remains on display. The much larger London bell can perhaps be seen as a way of ending the chapter which started in Berlin.

Bradley Wiggins, born in Belgium to a British mother and an Australian racing cyclist father (who left when he was 2, causing his mother to return to Britain) had won the Tour de France just the previous weekend.

3:55: as bell sounds, 4 small balloons are set free to rise to the stratosphere

Parents whose children were chosen to release these balloons are likely to have been a little disappointed by the TV coverage, which missed the moment of release, and showed a brief glimpse of a child rapidly disappearing off the bottom of the screen as the camera tracked one of the balloons (with a tiny set of Olympic Rings hanging from it) soaring into the evening sky. Listening to videos which include the cues for the main group of performers, you can hear two cues given for the balloon release, by two different people a few seconds apart, suggesting that the first was a mistake.

last chance to see: Green and Pleasant

4:10: "Jerusalem" sung by choirboy in audience as rural life continues ...

{^25.4m}

The position of the Dockhead Choir echoes that of the choir which performed in the 1948 London Olympic Opening Ceremony (although that was much larger, with 1,200 singers).

The short poem "Jerusalem" (sung to a tune written by Sir Hubert Parry over a century later in 1916) forms part of William Blake's preface to his epic "Milton" (a preface which is, amusingly in this context, a call for revolution against the cultural traditions which originated in ancient Greece). Among other well-known lines, "Jerusalem" is the source of the film title "Chariots of Fire".

American viewers may like to know that most of the world saw more of the "green and pleasant land" during the singing; NBC's coverage spent a fair amount of time showing British power couple David and Samantha Cameron (and some other presumable VIPs behind them).

...followed by 3 other national songs (film inserts from scenic locations in Ireland, Scotland and Wales), all juxtaposed with scenes of the nations' Rugby triumphs

Off-screen recording ( by logan jones at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brgwWLKfuJ8 ) shows that NBC also had commentary over about half of the Irish choir's rendition of the Londonderry Air.

http://gloucesterrugby.net/glos-rugby-forum/index.php/topic,301.60.html

Shed Web

Shedweb Main Forum: General Discussion: Olympics

MJJ - Reply #67 on: July 28, 2012, 12:17:12 AM

Odd that in the Olympics to identify to the world masses the importance of us as 4 nations joined as a United Kingdom, they used scoring tries from 6 Nations Rugby, which of course has nothing to do with the Olympics.

Dietrying - Reply #68 on: July 28, 2012, 01:37:35 AM

It will in 2016 and I had some much fun taking the p**s out of my footy mates.Go Rugby ;D ;D

Another brief explanation for American readers. Many years ago, before Manchester United became world-famous, it was acceptable in conversation to distinguish between the two main football types played in Britain (Association Football, in which touching the ball with the hand is mostly forbidden, and Rugby Football, which is closer to American Football but with the ball in play for much more of the time, and far less protective gear) by the jovial nicknames "Soccer" and "Rugger". Those days are long gone. The Association game may even end up being known as "Futbol" given its popularity in South America, but for the time being "Football" is the correct term. The Rugby game should be referred to as "rugby", not least because it is itself divided into two variants, Rugby Union and Rugby League. There are, of course, many localised games called "football" but only one which has a World Cup competition with entrants from over 200 nations, whittled down to 32 who play in the host country before global TV audiences on a par with the Olympics.

However, even rugby football is by no means confined to the area around the town of Rugby, and in response to "MJJ" in the quotations above, it may be pertinent to quote the following:

http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/07/28/london-2012-most-political-olympics-opening-ceremony-since-berlin-1936/

The Roar: Your Sports Opinion

London 2012: Most political Olympics opening ceremony since Berlin 1936

by Spiro Zavos

28 Jul 2012

... Baron de Coubertin adored the famous headmaster of Rugby School, Dr Thomas Arnold. He made a vow on Arnold's tomb to bring the values of Rugby School as expressed in its rugby game to France. He refereed the first rugby club final in France in 1893 and three years later presided over the creation of the first Olympics in 1896. ...

Biographies explain that, as a boy in 1875, young Pierre de Coubertin read the serialised French translation of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" by Thomas Hughes, set at Rugby School and featuring both headmaster Arnold and a description of an early rugby match. It was this idealised version of sport in English education which began his life's mission. Hughes, incidentally, has his own educational and sporting story, being principal of the Working Men's College in Great Ormond Street, London, in the 1870s, and an enthusiastic teacher of the art of boxing.

http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/isles-of-wonder-or-a-world-left-wondering/#comments

Britology Watch: Deconstructing 'British Values'

Isles of Wonder, or a world left wondering?

by David

28 Jul 2012

[comment:]

28 Jul 2012, DougtheDug

I was quite surprised by the inclusion of "Flower of Scotland" as the Scottish anthem and the choice of the verse which talks about sending King Edward II of England home to, "think again" It's a line in the song celebrating the defeat of the invading English to secure Scottish independence for another 400 years. There's another line in the song about how Scotland can, "be a nation again"

As a song in an event celebrating Britishness it stood out like a sore thumb. The organisers didn't seem understand its significance to many nationalist Scots.

Oh, I think they understood well enough.

PS: The backcloth of trees behind the "Tor" (seen occasionally during the singing of national songs) is "inspired by" David Hockney's digital artwork "Summer Sky" (2008), which was illustrated on page 10 of the ceremony programme.

6:20: two horse buses enter stadium from SW and SE

http://www.shire-horse.org.uk/component/content/article/671

The Shire Horse Society

London 2012 Olympics - Opening Ceremony

When the Kent based firm Drayhorse shires first got the phone call from the Olympic organizers to supply staff and 5 shire horses for the Olympic opening ceremony, they couldn't believe there luck! Meeting after meeting followed and then all parties happy the contracts were signed. Then it dawned on the owners Gavin & Nara Stevens how do you train horses to perform in front of 62,000 people, Training started to pick the best mannered horses with the most confidence ...

Omnibus one

Black geldings Charlie and Jim

Driver Gavin Stevens

Grooms Nara Stevens & Paul Stanley

Omnibus two

Grey Shires Honour And Valour

Steve Tubb

Grooms Danny Stevens & Michael Hartland

Tip Cart

Black Shire stallion Albert

Driver Daniel Brown

Groom Mark Brown

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19025877

BBC News

28 July 2012 Last updated at 12:09

Olympic Opening Ceremony: I was there

Participants and spectators from the opening ceremony have been sharing their experiences with the BBC.

Adam Smith, Brunel sequence

I thought I was going to be so nervous, but it went from something nerve-wracking to one of the best things I have done. Kenneth Branagh [who played Isambard Kingdom Brunel] had come up to us and wished us luck and said at the rehearsals to hold something back for the opening ceremony. Just before we went into the stadium we were standing in the entrance with everyone else and there was a real sense of team spirit.

When we ran in with the horse and carts the crowd started really cheering - it gives you goosebumps. And the poppies moment was also a highlight when everything had been so manic and then it all just stopped.

6:50: while the stadium kids' choir sings "Jerusalem", Kenneth Branagh, in frock coat and stovepipe hat (leaving behind a posse of similarly-dressed gents) makes his way from bus to Tor

[Nine of the subsidiary "Brunels" make their way up into the northeast quadrant of the Green and Pleasant Land, but the rest gather at the foot of the Tor to hear BranaghBrunel speak, while the buses depart]

http://pagesandlights.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/calibans-dream-on-danny-boyles-london-opening-ceremonies/

PagesAndLights

Caliban's dream: On Danny Boyle's London opening ceremonies

by Erik Simpson (Associate Professor of English, Grinnell College, Iowa)

28 Jul 2012

The darkness of Blake's words give substance to another recent, celebrated London theatrical production: Jez Butterworth's wonderful Jerusalem, which likewise opens with a haunting rendition of the anthem. Butterworth's hero, Johnny Byron, a force of chaos who limps like his poetic namesake, faces down real-estate developers by drumming and chanting an appeal to ancient forces of the British woods.

[selected comment:]

Steve Purcell, 29 Jul 2012 at 3:47 pm

You make a fascinating parallel between the ceremony and Butterworth's play. Were you aware that Branagh's role in the ceremony was originally meant to be played by Mark Rylance (Johnny Byron in the original production of the play)?

7:50: Kenneth Branagh, in the character of 19th century engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel recites a speech by the character Caliban from William Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

N.B. I have compiled an alternative video version of "Pandemonium," starting at this moment, from dozens of videos by performers and by audience members (both on the night and at rehearsals) in the lower rows of seats and the pits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_wei69GZO0

music: "Nimrod" from Sir Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations", again- as viewers outside the UK will probably not have seen the earlier version with the blue sheets

Before we go any further: the way to tell the difference between Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his near-contemporary Abraham Lincoln is that Brunel is played by a British (Irish) actor, and Lincoln is played by a British / Irish actor.

On the BBC DVD he gets a caption explaining that he's supposed to be Brunel; but for the live broadcast no caption was provided, so individual broadcasters had to make their own arrangements with the help of the Media Guide. The BBC chose to make a quick explanation of the speaker and the speech immediately after Branagh had finished; NBC put up a helpful caption saying "Kenneth Branagh", and cut to commercial immediately after he had finished.

http://pagesandlights.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/calibans-dream-on-danny-boyles-london-opening-ceremonies/

PagesAndLights

Caliban's dream: On Danny Boyle's London opening ceremonies

by Erik Simpson (Associate Professor of English, Grinnell College, Iowa)

28 Jul 2012

Some people have started to notice how weird it was to have Kenneth Branagh, in the garb of a Victorian industrialist, speak in the voice of Shakespeare's Caliban during the London Olympics' opening ceremonies. Columbia professor James Shapiro, for example, noticed the "odd choice," but he does not even attempt to explain it: "The lines are quite beautiful, and I guess they wanted to rip them out of context and talk about how magical a place the British Isles are."

I admit that I had the same reaction to the passage at first: Caliban as a costume-drama oppressor, pounding out his speech in smiling ignorance? Seriously? And this after opening with "Jerusalem" by William Blake, England's great poet of the double edge?

But as the ceremonies went on, I saw that Danny Boyle had been many steps ahead of Shapiro and me. The ceremonies were about protest and dissent ...

Shapiro, as first out of the blocks with an "informed" opinion, has unfortunately steered the thinking of others:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0013838X.2013.778611

English Studies, 94:3, pages 251-258

Thinking through Shakespeare: An Introduction to Shakespeare and Theory

by Johann Gregory & François-Xavier Gleyzon

2013

... as Eric Taylor Woods has argued, what the opening ceremony ended up presenting was "a rather inward-looking and parochial image of Britain". In this sense, the re-appropriation of a play that considered Caliban's voice in order to "show how magical a place the British Isles are" was profoundly ironic, or at least short-sighted. ...

[in case anybody's wondering, Eric Taylor Woods' blog entry here referred to, http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/26348 is a quite astonishing feat of missing-the-point; future literary critics should pay close attention to the CV of Prof. Frank Cottrell Boyce, particularly his work with that other maverick, genre-hopping, music-loving, Lancashire-born director Michael Winterbottom (Variety described their "Welcome to Sarajevo" as "clearly a movie by British filmmakers, in which much is left unsaid and unshown rather than ladled across the screen in large helpings")]

While I'm dealing with deeply unsatisfactory academic responses to the London Opening, I may as well mention:

Olympic Ceremonialism and The Performance of National Character: From London 2012 to Rio 2016

by Rodanthi Tzanelli

Palgrave Macmillan (2013) ISBN 9781137336323

This book exemplifies, for me, all that is depressing about modern scholarship in the humanities. It is, in essence, a house of cards, each card being a theoretical concept. Thus footnotes throughout the book tend to refer, not to primary material relating to the Opening, but to works expounding particular theories. The use of technical terminology is so dense that it occasionally defeats the proof-readers (e.g. "representational plains")- and I'll state here and now my extreme irritation at the academic habit of "translating" foreign technical terms by the closest-sounding English word; I will never forgive the English translators of French Situationist texts for their misuse of an existing English technical term in medicine, "recuperation" as a socio-political translation of the French word "récupération".

As a historian, I also have a problem with the notion, eagerly embraced by Ms Tzanelli, that an artistic performance representing a particular culture is an aspect of tourism; such performances (known from thousands of years ago) long predate tourism (known, in effect, only from the 17th century). Truer to say that tourism is a recent manifestation of a human instinct for knowledge and exploration. Speaking of which-

"The Tempest" is inspired by a contemporary news story of the Atlantic voyage of Sir George Sommers in 1609, which ended in his shipwreck on Bermuda. Expedition member Silvester Jourdan's account of the voyage had been published in 1610 under the title "A Discovery of the Barmudas, Otherwise Called the ISLE OF DIVELS".

Conveniently for us, Shakespeare presents a detailed back-story for the main characters:

Some 24 years previously, the Algerian witch Sycorax was banished to this uninhabited island from her homeland for her evil magic (as discussed earlier, witchcraft was punishable by death in both Christian and Muslim countries at the time, but Shakespeare notes that "for one thing she did, they would not take her life").

She had brought her magical servant spirit Ariel, but he refused her demands, so she imprisoned him within a split tree. Although far too old for safe motherhood, she was pregnant at the time of her exile (the father being the Devil, according to central character Prospero), and gave birth to a disfigured boy, "A freckled whelp hag-born--not honour'd with a human shape". When the boy was quite young, she died. He was able to use his knowledge of the island to survive, but with nobody to talk to, he lived as little more than a beast. Twelve years after Sycorax, Prospero (then Duke of Milan) and his daughter Miranda, "not out three years old" (i.e. approaching her 4th birthday) arrived on the island. Duke Prospero had left affairs of state to his brother Antonio, so that he could focus on his studies in the "liberal arts", but greedy Antonio plotted with the King of Naples, and arranged a fake accident at sea for Prospero and his heiress Miranda, who were taken out far from land and put in a leaky boat without a mast. The decency of Gonzalo, the man ordered to arrange the unfortunate events, ensured that the pair had food, spare clothing and other necessities, plus some of Prospero's most precious books. Even so, only the sight of Miranda gave her father the strength and resolution to bring them to land.

Here all Prospero's research back in Milan paid handsomely, for he was able to find Ariel and free him from his confinement, on condition that he became his servant until Prospero could do without him. The new arrivals also found the wild boy Caliban, whom the exiled Duke took into his new household, and little Miranda became his friend. Caliban and Prospero also learned from each other, for the boy was able to reveal the island's many secrets, while the learned man gave both children their basic education. As Caliban's speech was mere gabble to the Italians, and he was unpractised in its use, they both taught him their language. Caliban also helped out with the household duties. However, as the years went by, he grew from a boy to a young man; then some years later, Miranda began growing from a girl to a young woman. Misshapen though he was, Caliban had all the natural instincts of a youth. Some time before the events of the play, the inevitable happened, and Prospero was forced to defend his daughter's honour. This occurrence is usually interpreted as an attempted rape, and it is plain that Miranda did not want whatever Caliban was attempting- but bear in mind that the person explaining this to us is a father so over-protective that he hypnotises his daughter to sleep when he needs to discuss serious matters with Ariel, and has never quite got round to telling her the truth about their situation.

Whatever its precise nature, Prospero's reaction to the event was severe. Caliban went from friend and helper to slave, confined to a cave except when required for duties such as fetching wood. If he displeased Prospero in any way, magical spirits would pinch and jab him. Thus, by the time of the play, we find Caliban trapped and viciously resentful. In particular he understands that, having been born on the island, and the only person there before Prospero and Miranda arrived, he is, in adulthood, legally its ruler, and Prospero a usurping invader.

At the time of the play, when Ariel creates for Prospero a tempest which brings to the isolated island all his old enemies (and everybody else aboard their ship, carefully preserved from any harm) Miranda will be almost exactly 16 years old, and Caliban approaching 24. The island is apparently in the Atlantic, for it is mentioned that Ariel has previously been on a mission to the "Bermoothes" (i.e. the Bermuda archipelago- topical gag!) and Ariel specifically states that, having scattered the King of Naples' fleet, he has made sure that all but the King's own ship have reassembled safely "upon the Mediterranean flote". If you'd like to add an extra level of meaning here, consider that the concept of an English empire across the Atlantic was promoted in 1570 by John Dee, a philosopher, astrologer and magician who was said to have the power to raise tempests, and who died at his home by the Thames around the time the ill-fated Sommers voyage got under way (sadly the claim that Dee used the secret signature oo7 appears to be false; on the bright side though, explorations of Dee's life by writer Alan Moore formed the basis of a lavish "folk opera" by Damon Albarn in 2011).

Explanations done, Caliban's true role in the drama is revealed about half-way through, in one of the daftest scenes in the history of theatre. He's not the villain, he's a very naughty boy, who in the company of Trinculo and Stephano, two very non-aristocratic Neapolitans (with a fair amount of the King's best wine) provides the big laughs of the play.

It is common to regard the role of Caliban as symbolic of the European treatment of non-Europeans, which is probably a very justifiable viewpoint, but it needs to be seen in the context of its time. As the "Isle of Divels" title of Jourdan's memoir of the Bermuda shipwreck indicates, European travellers tended to assume the worst when they visited far-off lands. Caliban, although his heritage was as Mediterranean as theirs (and Shakespeare states specifically that the King and his retinue were returning from the marriage of his daughter to the King of Tunis, just along the coast from Algiers) was exactly the sort of monstrous creature Trinculo and Stephano had been taught to expect by centuries of spurious geographical writing. His relationship with Prospero, though, more reflects the reality of the early days of European trans-Atlantic colonialism, in which Spain led civilised Christian nations to conquer and exploit people they chose to define as "savage".

If Prospero vs Caliban represents the early tragedy of colonialism, the relationship between Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo replays it as farce- which as it happened, was a fairly accurate description of the colonial efforts of Britain (or, then, effectively England) up to the time the play was written. The Bermuda shipwreck was just the latest in a succession of awkward endings to ill-conceived English ventures across the ocean. "A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Hapned in Virginia Since the First Planting of that Colony" by Capt. John Smith, published in 1608- and so possibly known to Shakespeare when he wrote "The Tempest"- captures the haphazard progress of the colony and its relationships with the many local tribes (including the beginning of the story of Pocahontas, who was then about 12 years old). The English were not plundering, not enslaving, just trying to work out whom they could trust and do business with, to establish a stable basis for a trading colony.

So too, Caliban and his new acquaintances spend their first scene together building a relationship. Where the Virginia colonists brought the products of English metalworking skill to barter, Stephano accidentally impresses Caliban by pouring fine wine into his mouth as he pretends to be comatose. Accustomed to Prospero's magic, Caliban assumes the visitors providing such luxury to be gods or spirits, and in hope of escaping Prospero he offers Stephano his allegiance:

"I'll show thee every fertile inch o' th' island;

And I will kiss thy foot: I prithee, be my god."

As far as I can tell, the fact that those lines are the source of the title of the musical composition which will begin once Kenneth Branagh finishes reciting Shakespeare has not really been discussed. The theme tune for a depiction of Britain's greatest era takes its title from the declaration by the rightful ruler of this Atlantic island that he will be the servant of the new arrival who has so impressed him with a few mouthfuls of wine. Composer Rick Smith's position on the title seems to be "if you need to ask, you've missed the point", as Boyle himself discovered:

Danny Boyle: Creating Wonder

in conversation with Amy Raphael

Faber & Faber

Apr 2013

ISBN 978–0–571–30187–4 [Kindle edition- other editions also available]

I have no idea why he called the drumming track 'And I Will Kiss'. I tried to ask him a couple of times, but have never quite got the answer.

At the time "The Tempest" was written, the British were not systematically involved in the slave trade, although individuals did trade slaves to the Portuguese colonies (and the south-west of the British Isles was itself sometimes raided by slavers from northern Africa). The English started their own Atlantic slave trade a few years after the writing of "The Tempest". In the context of those lines from Caliban, it is important to understand how this trade worked for the Brits. In essence, it was the same as John Smith's exchange of English hatchets for American corn. The British did not send armies across the sea to capture innocent bystanders (mainly because it was very inefficient, as Sir John Hawkins, the first English captain to experiment seriously with the trade, found in the 1560s- his one real success in this field came when he was invited by the Sapi people of Sierra Leone to help them attack a fortified town of their enemies on Conga island). They met some people with whom they could do business, and exchanged British goods for a commodity that some in Africa were very happy to offer, namely other people (the great Muslim explorer Ibn Battuta had reported slave trading in Mali in 1352, and the first Portuguese traders to reach the region, from the 1430s onward, were happy to buy). Similarly, Britain's later Indian empire was less dependent upon force of arms than upon building relationships with local leaders (although the hopelessly amateurish approach of said leaders to military strategy did weigh heavily in Britain's favour). Any discussion of Britain's colonial / imperial crimes has to consider the simple arithmetic that the Empire was an elephant being controlled by a mouse.

Various commentators have remarked on the "omission" of imperialism from the 2012 Opening Ceremony. Various other commentators have remarked on the apparently anachronistic businessmen of African and Asian heritage in the Industrial Era (though they were not entirely unknown in 18th century Britain). I think that by the use of those performers, the choice of Caliban's words to introduce the show, and the related music title "And I Will Kiss" the makers of the 2012 Opening have invited discussion of British imperialism in a less one-sided context, with Africans and Asians (and native Americans, as John Smith would confirm) being heavily involved in the British domination of their own countries for the sake of short-term gain.

Hundreds of people, perhaps over 1,000, died in the hail of British bullets at the Jallianwalabagh / Amritsar massacre in 1919. This, however, was a drop in the ocean compared with the death tolls resulting from British commercial decisions, not effectively challenged by local leaders, which exacerbated the effects of food shortages in India (and even much closer to home, in Ireland) killing millions. To be fair, we don't know how many people died in famines in India before the Brits interfered, because local documents are much scarcer than European ones (PastPresented has provided a database of records from 1500 to 1767 at http://www.vinlandmap.info/india-famine/ ). On the other hand, we do know that, despite a massive increase in population, there have not been any famine megadeaths in India since the nation became independent- although some claim a million deaths, rather than the official 26,000 or so, for the 1974 famine in the then-new nation of Bangladesh.

However, what of the speech itself, and the choice of Isambard Kingdom Brunel as speaker? Brunel, the brilliant inventor and engineer, seems at first to be a Prospero figure, yet his words are Caliban's. Also, like Caliban, he was the son of an exile (his parents met in his father's homeland of France, but faced death in the French Revolution)- and he's by no means the only figure referred to in the London Opening with an immigrant background. Also, much to my surprise:

http://theshakespearestandard.com/o-what-fools-brunel-limericks-and-other-jokes-shakespeare-foolery-news-for-the-week-of-august-2-2012/

The Shakespeare Standard

O, What Fools: Brunel, Limericks, and other Fun ...

by Kim

2 Aug 2012

"Brunel does have Shakespearean connections, making the choice less mystifying than it might appear. In the late 1840s, Brunel commissioned artwork on Shakespearean subjects from a number of important artists of the day, to be displayed in his "Shakespeare room" (which was essentially a large dining room)."

[This was in Brunel's London home, on Duke Street, St. James's. The paintings were sold off by his executors in 1860. For more details see

"Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 'Shakespeare Room' " by H Faberman & P McEvansoneya, in The Burlington Magazine 137, no. 1103 (1995), pages 1-18 ]

Now might be a good moment to look for a Victorian paintings by Ford Madox Brown, called "Work". Apparently a picture of a hole being dug in a road in the London suburb of Hampstead, "Work" actually portrays a cross-section of local people and invites us to speculate on their function in society (Brown provided detailed notes, but using them first is cheating). It's a lovely sunny day, so only one man is wearing a stovepipe hat, but for our current purpose, a man at the right of the picture, with a more casual brown hat, will serve. Within the composition, he seems to be passing the time in idleness, watching the men digging. It turns out, however, that he is Thomas Carlyle, famous historian and philosopher- he is not just watching, he is studying and considering.

Brunel too is a worker with the brain, and a worker for the people with the real power- shareholders in various companies, and landowners who want to improve the accessibility of their assets (who in "Work" are indeed represented by the stove-piped gentleman and his lady companion). In some contexts Brunel can be considered a Prospero figure, in some an Ariel figure with his ability to transform the landscape and even the nature of time and distance- but he is still, too, an overworked Caliban. Not only does Brunel blur three key "Tempest" roles; machines and devices, manufactured and used in quantity, become Ariels or Calibans for everyone. You and I can be Prosperos ourselves (a little bit).

A trivial thought: in making his speech from a supposed Glastonbury Tor, Brunel may be exactly where those feet in ancient times did walk. The legend behind the "Jerusalem" hymn is that as a young man, Jesus was brought by Joseph of Arimathea on one or more business trips to Britain, and that a tree called the Glastonbury Thorn grew from Joseph's walking staff. Also, behind any speech made from a hill there is, inevitably, the Sermon on the Mount (hence, for example, the role of Mow Cop, a hill not too far from Boyle and Boyce's Lancashire territory, as the birthplace of Primitive Methodism).

The context of the speech within "The Tempest" is problematic, and returns us to our uneasy theme of the relationship between sea voyagers and indigenous peoples. Like the native Americans of John Smith's narrative, Caliban is attempting to persuade the new arrivals to help get rid of his enemy- Prospero. Ariel, invisibly present and spying, plays games with the would-be murderers. When Stephano sings a song for Caliban, out of tune, Ariel plays it as it should sound, so, seeing his new allies' growing fear, Caliban gives his famous speech to reassure them. The audience knows Ariel is making the noises; the audience is pretty confident that Caliban knows Ariel is making the noises, so on one level, the words are comical lies. And yet, this passage is (even when not declaimed by Kenneth Branagh in full King Henry V mode) a genuinely stirring and beautiful speech, showing us that Caliban, however ugly he may appear, and however vicious his feelings toward Prospero, has a heart and soul. Furthermore, having seen Prospero casually hypnotising young Miranda, the audience can suspect that behind the lying is something true about Caliban's life.

http://nsimpsonyounger.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/shakespeare-at-olympics-lots-of-layers.html

Early. Modern.

Shakespeare at the Olympics: Lots of Layers

Nancy Simpson-Younger

28 Jul 2012

... Prospero has a history of manipulating his servants by affecting their humors--the fluids that are balanced in the body, and that govern both mood and personality. By altering the humors, Prospero can send inconvenient people (like his daughter, Miranda) temporarily to sleep. As part of the plotline, Caliban tries to turn the tables on Prospero. He encourages two rogues to try to kill the wizard while he's sleeping. In other words, sleep in the Tempest is pretty terrifying. Those high in the pecking order have to fear that they'll never wake up; their subordinates, meanwhile, experience sleep either as a method of escape, or as a terrifying, enforced state of inactivity. ...

The last line we heard of Stephano's tuneless singing was "Thought is free"- but while Prospero is in control, maybe it isn't. Maybe Caliban is accurately describing comforting dreams sent by Prospero to keep him from getting too rebellious to handle; the equivalent of a government controlling the media and communications systems so tightly that it can put out as much propaganda as it likes, without effective challenge.

For the 2012 Opening, needless to say, the speech is given another layer or two of meaning. In particular, it's a continuation of the helpful hints given in the Thames journey. The evening is going to get noisy, but don't be alarmed. There will be many twangling instruments, and sleepers and dreamers, and riches dropping from the sky- and if all goes well, when it ends, you'll want to experience it all over again. For many people, every one of those hints was proven true.

Mind you, for children experiencing their first Olympic Opening, a little preparation was required:

Children and special events; key points.

1) If an event is likely to contain surprises, don't focus too much on what you can predict:

http://parentables.howstuffworks.com/family-matters/Olympic-Opening-Ceremonies-Disappointments.html

TLC Parentables

"Mommy, Where's the Torch?" and Other Olympic Opening Ceremonies Disappointments

by Sandy Rustin

1 Aug 2012

"This is beautiful!" I say, thrilled to see Kenneth Branagh reciting Shakespeare. This is my kind of Olympics!

"What is this?" says my seven year old. "Where are the sports?"

"This is boring," says my three year old. "Where is the torch?"

2) Schools don't teach much history to under-eights; events which are based on history therefore contain a huge amount of stuff that needs explaining:

http://fivegoblogging.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/our-olympic-ceremony.html

Five Go Blogging

Our Olympic Ceremony

by Mrs FiveGoBlogging (and her eldest)

28 Jul 2012

... I was not prepared for the fantastic feast of cultural and artistic delight that was the Olympics Opening Ceremony. I was also ill prepared for the deluge of questions fired at me by the Big One every 15 seconds.

Where is the running track?

Are they playing cricket on the Olympics?

Why are they wearing tall hats?

Why are their faces dirty?

What are those chimneys for?

What are those ladies doing with those placards?

[lots of etc.]

[9:00: As Brunel finishes his speech, the waterwheel comes to a standstill.]

{^26m}

Pandemonium

from Paradise Lost (book 1)

by John Milton

1667

Mean while the winged Haralds by command

Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony

And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim

A solemn Councel forthwith to be held

At PANDAEMONIUM, the high Capital

Of Satan and his Peers:

In keeping with the overall mood of "Paradise Lost" the capital of Hell is not described as a place of horrors. Rather, it is admirable in its own way, but inevitably not as admirable as the city of God.

9:05: a rumble of drums is heard, and the source is soon revealed to be a bunch of scruffy people banging on equally scruffy, inverted buckets, roughly painted with words like "POWER LOOM" "WHITE HEAT" and "HELL". Their precise location is unclear until they are shown to be in the aisles between the audience seats.

[9:10: "Working Men and Women" performers (WMWs for short) are moving from the corridors under the seating to stand in the "voms"- the tunnels leading out to the arena. Miners are waiting inside the hollow Tor]

[9:23: Lights are flashing round the inner edge of the stadium roof, and through the roots of the tree on the Tor.]

[9:33: The fluffy balloon clouds which have floated above the M25 for nearly 2 hours are being pulled down to Earth. A few seconds later, the maypole children start moving off the Green and Pleasant Land down the steps.]

9:40: drumming stops abruptly, then a single full-volume beat, matched by a loud shout from the drummers (and a switch to intense white lighting)

9:50: pull back to reveal Evelyn Glennie, who begins the next section of the drumming with her professional kit

http://attherimmm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/glennie-review-bsl.html

At the Rim

Evelyn Glennie`s performance on 18th August at the Liverpool Philharmonic during the DaDaFest

by MM

23 Aug 2012

[This review, also presented as a BSL video, has nothing to do with the Olympics, but I think hits the nail squarely on the head about Dame Evelyn Glennie:]

You will have to excuse my lack of knowledge about musical instruments and I will try my best to describe them, but I can definitely describe the way Evelyn was playing. She was dancing. I could see the rhythm as she hits the instrument and see the loudness as she couches lower to delicately strike and stand erect for the big noises. Her mood to the sound can be observed through her eyes. I really liked the way she was dancing. ...

Evelyn talks were a real eye opener. She felt the drumming techniques taught by a Hearing person were making her feel stiff in playing her drums. So she devised her own way, hence the movement of her body while playing. I could relate to that because of my own personal experiences in performing arts. ...

https://tomtommag.com/2013/02/evelyn-glennie-on-the-olympics-opening-ceremony/

Tom Tom Mag

Evelyn Glennie on the Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Sofia Pasternack

14 Feb 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2rJEAAqnAI

Pandemonium 2012 - The Story Of The Olympic Drummers

by Andrew Wells

6 Jun 2014

[Numerous drummers comment on their experiences before, during and after the Ceremony]

[09:55: the flashing lights round the stadium roof cease]

10:00: the tree on the Tor is pulled out of the ground, roots and all, and light and fumes emerge from the resulting hole

[simultaneously, the four maypoles are uprooted ready for carrying away]

from Paradise Lost (book 1)

by John Milton

1667

... There stood a Hill not far whose griesly top

Belch'd fire and rowling smoak; ....

10:10: people emerge from the new hole in the Tor summit

[and all the Brunels gaze up at them for a few seconds, following which BranaghBrunel strides down the Tor paths]

http://blog.business.westminster.ac.uk/mba/2012/08/westminster-mba-student-as-a-london-2012-olympic-opening-ceremonies-volunteer-performer-benedict-carandang/

University of Westminster Business School Blog

Westminster MBA student as a London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies Volunteer Performer

by Benedict Carandang

16 Aug 2012

... the 40ft oak tree model rises, and that is the time where we come out of the grassy hill or "Tor." Coming out from that location gave us the best vantage view of the whole stadium. My task alongside with 200 other coal miners was to assist in dismantling the props on stage from the other groups who were assigned into different "counties" all within 15 minutes. Just imagine the sheer number of props on stage that we have to move quickly! It was an organised chaos so to speak. There were around 2500 volunteer performers in this sequence alone. ...

10:20: drumming stops abruptly again, followed by another single bash and loud shout, as more and more people, rather grimy looking, emerge from the Tor

[10:25: Performers hear in their radio earpieces, from controllers high up on the west side of the auditorium, the command "Strike, GO!" and the Green and Pleasant performers begin to leave the arena; first the maypole dancers- who have been waiting patiently at the foot of various steps- then the maypole-uprooters, then the rest, many carrying objects such as trees etc. BranaghBrunel, meanwhile, stands a moment with the large group of Brunels at the foot of the Tor]

The drummers are on a different radio channel from the WMWs, counted up to each major event by four beats [1-2-3-4-event]; events include "BOSH" (single loud bang), "RUMBLE" (as at the start of the section) and even "HOY" (for the loud shout).

10:30: Glennie resumes drumming; many more grimy people emerge from the main entrances to the arena

10:40: another shout; followed by several synchronised beats from all drummers

[10:45: The nine Brunels in the northeast quadrant (hereafter northeastBrunels, regardless of where they end up) split into two rows of four and five, and crouch down to inspect the land]

10:50: the arriving workers begin dismantling the countryside, as the drums take up a new rhythm

If the drum pattern seems oddly reminiscent of the oilrig rescue scene in "Man of Steel"- just bear in mind which came first!

http://autismactionnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ros-and-nathaniels-experience-of.html

Autism Action Network

Ros and Nathaniel's experience of the Olympic Opening Ceremony

by Ros (Nathaniel's mum)

2 Aug 2012

... nothing could have prepared me for the feeling, let alone the noise, of 2000 drums, most of which were less than two feet away from us! Poor Nathaniel, ear defenders or not, he dived under the seat, hid under his blanket and wailed! I felt so helpless! But all was not lost. He came out, as they went to the centre of the stadium, pulled out his binoculars and started dancing! ...

[The above article also gives a very good description of the journey to the stadium, with much praise for the Games Makers and soldiers]

[11:00: As Ros indicates, there are groups of drummers scattered all over the auditorium; meanwhile Green and Pleasant performers are leaving the arena by any route they can find, and more and more WMWs and miners are arriving from the voms and Tor. As if all that wasn't enough, the columns of the curious circular structure on the ground below the Bell now light up.]

11:05: the northeastBrunels survey the work in progress, as even the grass is ripped from the ground

Back to "Work" and different ways of interpreting what we are seeing here. The men in stovepipe hats, who at times seem to be imitating the actions of the workers, are engineers and managers, budding Brunels, studying and planning those actions in order to improve the processes. In which case, they too have a bit of Caliban the worker in them.

Incidentally, watch closely as the grass is removed, to see how the gaps form patterns. The TV cameras did not pay much attention to this, but it would have been very obvious to the roving eyes of the stadium spectators. The first such pattern is a Celtic-style wheel cross which emerges around this time in the central ring.

11:30: high, pulsating synth theme emerges over the continuing drumming

Music timings up to this point are the same on the album as in the live show.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec12/articles/it-1212.htm

Sound on Sound

Peter Cobbin & Kirsty Whalley: Inside Track / Secrets Of The Mix Engineers [A detailed study of the creation of "And I Will Kiss"]

by Paul Tingen

Dec 2012

they produced four recording sessions in Abbey Road Studio 1, one with the 116-piece London Symphony Orchestra On Track, one consisting of four recording blocks (as per Musicians Union regulations) with Dame Evelyn Glennie, one with violinist Sonia Slaney, and 12 recording blocks with a handful of professional percussionists headed by Paul Clarvis and Ralph Salmins. Another four sessions took place in Abbey Road Studio 2, with the 28-piece Grimethorpe Colliery Band brass ensemble, a 20-piece choir, eight male vocalists, and a 40-piece steel band called Nostalgia. There were also several on-location recording sessions at 3 Mills Studios, in a rehearsal place in Dagenham, and in the Olympic Stadium itself, with the 965 drummers who performed on the night - most of them volunteers.

[11:35: As the northeastBrunels crouch to check the ground, a square aperture opens in a cleared patch next to them, round which workers place safety fences (probably inherently anachronistic, but these days we take accidents a whole lot more seriously). A few seconds later, a similar aperture opens in the southwest quadrant of the arena]

11:50: low synth theme added; workers are still emerging from the Tor... shots rove between all elements of the performance

[11:57: The northeastBrunels turn to look at the square aperture, and then make a stoop-and-pull-up gesture, which they repeat twice more, before raising their arms and beckoning down (presumably to a skyhook cable which has descended over the aperture). Elsewhere, finally, the last of the hundreds of miners is emerging from the top of the Tor, and BranaghBrunel leaves his place at the foot of the Tor, strolling southward through the increasingly unGreen and unPleasant Land]

[12:15: Drummers are gradually working their way down the aisles through the audience. As the last miners reach the foot of the Tor, the dozens of Brunels still waiting there are seen making synchronised "process moves", then they walk briskly away- about fourteen clockwise round the M25, the rest anticlockwise]

12:20: musical build, main synth theme appears

[12:25: The northeastBrunels pat their stovepipe hats firmly into place. On the east side of the M25, a leftover cloud is heading for the exit]

[12:40: for about 6 seconds, the northeastBrunels perform rapid and complex process movements. More square apertures are opening up, and a safety fence is being installed round one in the middle of the farmyard (where the cottage and outhouse remain intact and increasingly incongruous)]

[12:45: Groups of workers start cranking large handles by one of the square apertures, then by another]

[12:55: The two main goups of Brunels are still heading southward along the M25, practising synchronised process moves as they go, and drummers are still descending the aisles]

13:12: feedback noise in the soundtrack (also heard at this point in rehearsals)

{^26.4m}

13:15: as workers crank great handles, a massive factory chimney emerges from the ground, accompanied by a steeplejack on a rope

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfN2NsYgnRQ Audience footage by MikeSW2: As the first chimney appears, a man near the camera shouts "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! Look at that!".)

BBC TV

One Night In 2012: An Imagine Special

Interview segment with Frank Cottrell Boyce

2016

One of the most amazing things for me about working on the whole thing was how crazy, dreamy and visionary engineers are. 'Cos like, creative people come in and say, "I do this," but engineers would come in and go, "I can make water that speaks,"* or, you know; WHAT?

We'd have things like, you know, "I've never been given the chance to, but I wanna do this bizarre, unthinkable thing." And you think, wowww, you've had that bottled up inside you waiting for us to ask ...

* Said in what may be an attempt at a Julius Popp accent, though the bit.fall 2012 installation was an Olympic Park feature, not a part of the ceremony.

http://mevio.co.uk/2012/07/the-secrets-behind-londons-magical-olympic-opening-ceremony/

Mevio.uk

The Secrets Behind London's Magical Opening Ceremony

30 Jul 2012

... one of the moments where my household was left thinking how did they do that, was the chimney's rising from the ground to represent the Industrial revolution. High-powered fans inflated the seven fabric chimneys from trap doors in the stage to heights of 100 foot [30m]. They were kept upright by crew using winches while trapeze artists used gears and pulleys to secure them from a mesh of wires suspended over the stadium. ...

from Paradise Lost (book 1)

by John Milton

1667

... [Introduces two teams of demons, one mining metal from the fiery hill, the second smelting it on the adjoining plain, then:]

A third as soon had form'd within the ground

A various mould, and from the boyling cells

By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook,

As in an Organ from one blast of wind

To many a row of Pipes the sound-board breaths.

Anon out of the earth a Fabrick huge

Rose like an Exhalation, with the sound

Of Dulcet Symphonies and voices sweet, ...

...

We'll encounter the metalworking later, of course, but note how this centuries-old passage effectively presents the whole plan for creating the chimneys as inflatable structures, with a musical backing! And a handy title for this study too.

[13:22: Pausing just to the east of the central ring, BranaghBrunel observes the rise of the first chimney for a few seconds before continuing his southward meander. The northeastBrunels look up at the emerging chimney from their much closer viewpoint, holding their hat-brims to stop them falling off. As they look down again a few seconds later, a second chimney is being cranked up over in the southwest quadrant]

[13:35: Satisfied with the first chimney, the northeastBrunels head for the M25 via the east steps]

[13:45: A third chimney starts emerging, just north of the southeast ramp, as BranaghBrunel is passing on his way southward. Now, as the amount of grass continues to shrink, leaving intriguing patterns, large rectangular apertures are opening in addition to the square ones]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9435386/London-2012-How-the-might-of-the-industrial-revolution-was-created-on-stage.html

Daily Telegraph

London 2012: How the might of the industrial revolution was created on stage

by Patrick Sawer

28 Jul 2012

Boyle told his performers "you are creating hell" But he also emphasised that the Industrial Revolution was a key moment in history, giving birth to democratic movements, such as the Suffragettes and the demand for universal health care.

He told them: "It was monstrous but it changed lives. People, including myself, can read and write thanks to it. The workers of the Industrial Revolution built the cities that are now the settings for every Games."

13:50: Trevor Nelson advises BBC viewers to turn up the volume

Because the random interjections of the commentators are the reason why the BBC engineers turned down the music volume in the first place, most viewers choose to ignore Trevor's advice and spare themselves burst eardrums next time he, Huw or Hazel attempts a helpful remark.

[13:53: The northeastBrunels begin running clockwise round the M25, and a moment later the soundtrack begins a sort of drum-battle, accompanied by flashing lights]

[14:05: As the third chimney reaches its full height, the main groups of Brunels on the M25 are approaching the lighted circular structure at the south end of the arena, and the running northeastBrunels are catching up fast]

[14:15: The drumming is replaced by clicking together of drumsticks, a female choir begins singing wild "he-e-e-ey" vocals, and the northeastBrunels catch up with the clockwiseBrunels. About this time the grass in the former maypole areas starts to be removed in small sections, gradually creating variants on sunray / dartboard patterns]

[14:30: groups of banner-carrying suffragettes- in total effectively matching the number of Brunels- start marching out from both sides of the Tor. Cranking begins for a fourth chimney, just southeast of the central ring. All the Brunels meet on the M25 near the illuminated circular structure at the south end of the arena (BranaghBrunel following just after the clockwise group, which he passes as they halt)]

{^27m}

14:35: As BranaghBrunel walks into the circular structure, drummers (now drumming again) are starting to emerge onto both east and west sides of the M25 from among the audience, crossing to the inner grassy verge below the raised exGreen exPleasant Land

14:40: BranaghBrunel hands the big book he has carried since his arrival to one of the photographers, and steps to the middle of the circle, with more drummers now standing both sides of the contraption

[14:45: The last cloud exits via the southwest vom. The fourth chimney begins to emerge from the ground]

14:50: The lighted pillars of the so-called Zoetrope Machine start brightening in sequence, round and round and round

[As they observe this, the assembled Brunels make process moves for a couple of seconds. Out in the increasingly industrial Land, a crucible full of molten iron emerges from another aperture, and on the Tor, two women carrying a large banner with the words "WORKING WOMEN DEMAND THE VOTE" detach themselves from the rear of the eastern party of Suffragettes and head along a path part-way up the slope]

[14:55: As the crucible completes its emergence, drummers are starting to take positions on the inner grass verge of the M25, facing the audience, and a fifth chimney begins to emerge just to the north of the cottage (which still stands incongruously among the vast new constructions)]

14:58: With the Zoetrope Machine lights still whirling, the action cuts to a group of Suffragettes emerging round the west flank of the Tor

15:04: [On DVD a flash photograph of BranaghBrunel in the Zoetrope Machine is briefly shown here] The action cuts again, to more chimney cranking, with a group of trudging workers

[15:07: In the real world, the Brunels give up waiting for the Zoetrope Machine to flash; after a couple of quick process moves, they split into two groups and head off northwards up both sides of the M25 at a slow run. The Suffragettes are now rounding the front face of the Tor (and the two with the large banner have taken up a position in the middle of the slope)]

Also at this time, an instruction goes out on the radio system: "Soldiers prepare, take your earphones out please"

15:12: The fourth chimney reaches its full 22 metre height- but keeps going up! West of the first chimney, a beam engine is being assembled.

[Meanwhile, the two groups of Suffragettes meet, and head out from the Tor across the M25. Also about to cross the M25, from two of the voms, are some large weaving looms. More and more and more drummers are arriving on the M25 verge. And the Zoetrope Machine lights are STILL whirling.]

[15:15: FINALLY! Flashbulbs atop each of the Zoetrope Machine pillars fire and cameras take pictures of BranaghBrunel]

This moment should have been captured on TV, but to director Hamish Hamilton's huge regret (as reported in the 2016 BBC documentary about the ceremony) the performance of photographing Brunel went on too long, so live viewers got neither the full effect of the photo, nor the full effect of the Suffragettes' arrival. Studying audience videos of the dress rehearsals, some possible reasons for the problem become apparent:

1) First and foremost, it should be borne in mind that, very late in the rehearsal process, Danny Boyle was ordered to reduce the length of the Opening Ceremony by half an hour (reported in the press on 18 July). This involved losing one entire sequence by professional performers (to be discussed later) and trimming all other major sections.

2) "Pandemonium" was trimmed in two places, the first cut removing about 55 seconds, starting at about the end of the fourth chimney rise.

3) The performance of the Suffragettes was almost certainly intended to end where it does in the finished version, just before the "Poppy pause". Therefore in the finished version, it either has to be cut by up to 55 seconds, or start up to 55 seconds earlier than originally intended- and it seems that, because the Suffragettes performance tells a specific story, the latter option was preferred.

4) The winding-up of the Zoetrope lights, on the other hand, can take as much or as little time as seems artistically appropriate. In the first public dress rehearsal, on 23 July, it was all over in nine seconds, starting at 14:51 and ending with a flash at 15:00.

5) Very probably, many members of the 23 July audience, on being asked after the performance about their opinions on the whirling lights sequence, said "What whirling lights sequence?" because it was so short that they never noticed it until, perhaps, the final flash. Therefore, a variation was attempted in the 25 July dress rehearsal. The winding-up was started much earlier, at 14:07.

6) That made the effect more noticeable, but it also made life very difficult in other ways, for example giving BranaghBrunel no time to survey the work in progress as he walked south from the Tor; possibly it also distracted attention from the northeastBrunels' routines.

7) Making significant changes to a performance after the final dress rehearsal is a really really bad idea, but evidently in this case it was felt to be justifiable. However, as Hamish Hamilton found, keeping the long Zoetrope wind-up but making it start later created more problems than it solved.

One of the reasons why Isambard Kingdom Brunel is so famous is because he was the subject of an iconic 1857 photograph, which shows him, with hat and cigar, against a background of the colossal anchor chains of his ship, the "Great Eastern":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_End_of_London

"On 31 January 1858, the largest ship of that time, the SS Great Eastern, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched from the yard of Messrs Scott Russell & Co, of Millwall."

The "Great Eastern" never really got the chance to fulfill its intended purpose- carrying passengers half-way round the planet without refuelling- but ran instead on the Atlantic route. Not making a profit in that role, the ship was converted for trans-oceanic cable laying, and between 1865 and 1870 laid over 50,000 kilometres of cable, providing key foundations for instant electrical communication around the world.

Meanwhile, back in the stadium- why multiple cameras? This may be a jesting reference to the original French version of photography, invented in the 1820s and reaching its peak in the Daguerrotype of the late 1830s, which produced images that were beautiful, but unique- the only way to reproduce a Daguerrotype was by taking a Daguerrotype of it. The first technique for making the original image translucent, so that multiple copies could be made simply by shining a light through the original onto more pieces of sensitised material, was invented by William Fox Talbot, at his home in rural Wiltshire (which is depicted on the oldest surviving photographic negative, from 1835) but he spent years trying to improve the quality, and only made the invention public in 1839 after he learned of the patenting of the Daguerrotype process. To show the obvious advantage of his system, Talbot produced a photographically illustrated book, "The Pencil of Nature"- published as a partwork between 1844 and 1846. Several decades of research in both Europe and America would pass, however, before photography was able to combine really high quality with efficiency and ease of use.

.... or maybe the multiple cameras refer to an English photographer who did all his best work in America: Edward Muggeridge (better known by his adopted name Eadweard Muybridge) who invented the multiple-camera technique now employed to create "bullet time" (which is how the end-product of the BranaghBrunel photos was displayed in the 2016 BBC documentary on the Ceremony) but used it in exactly the opposite way. He originally developed the idea in the 1870s, to show, by placing multiple cameras alongside the route taken by a galloping horse, that there really were moments when all four of its hooves were off the ground.

Although the camera setup shown was referred to as the "Zoetrope Machine" it bears no significant resemblance to a real zoetrope (a spinning hollow cylinder with slots cut in it at regular intervals, and the pictures for a short animation attached opposite the slots round its inner surface, as featured in recent BBC2 TV idents).

http://frivolousmonsters.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/a-foreigners-guide-to-the-olympic-opening-ceremony/

Frivolous Monsters (blog; "Based in north Manchester in the UK. I see wonder in the minutiae of what you would probably call everyday life")

A Foreigner's Guide to the Olympic Opening Ceremony

3 Aug 2012

Some fools have bemoaned that the opening ceremony was too politically correct, but in a modern era where cigarettes are digitally painted out of old films Branagh accurately portrayed Brunel by smoking a big fat cigar throughout. I don't know about you, but by screening such a thing on the glamour of TV it's certainly encouraged me to take up a forty-a-day habit.

[However, artist David Hockney pointed out in a sarcastic iPad doodle that no smoke was seen coming from Brunel's cigar]

[15:17: As the fourth chimney, revealed to have a square base, reaches its true, dizzying height of 30 metres, small groups of Brunels split off from the M25 to enter the industrial Land]

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2012/07/27/olympics-live-blog-opening-ceremony/

The Wall Street Journal

Olympics Live Blog: Opening Ceremony

Cassell Bryan-Low, Geoffrey A. Fowler, Matthew Futterman, Jason Gay, Bruce Orwall and the rest of the Journal's team in London and around the world offer their commentary on the biennial spectacle.

27 Jul 2012

4:14 pm * by Rachel Bachman

Britain, is that a smokestack, or are you just happy to see me?

4:15 pm * by Geoffrey A. Fowler

They are indeed smoke stacks, another reference to the Industrial Revolution and its many opportunities (and costs) for England. This is a much more honest view of history than we get out of most opening ceremonies.

...

4:21 pm * by Geoffrey A. Fowler

The overall effect here is quite dramatic --much more narrative than we've seen at past Games.

15:21: The fifth chimney finishes its rise, and we see another shot of the Trudging Men

15:25: Extreme close-up of a sixth chimney, which has just begun its rapid rise southwest of the central ring

[Meanwhile, BranaghBrunel is heading northward anticlockwise round the M25, and the suffragettes have divided into groups in two parallel lines across the M25 below the Tor]

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfN2NsYgnRQ Audience footage by MikeSW2 Suffragettes enter round the sides of the Tor at about 5m 26s )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_End_of_London

"Sylvia Pankhurst became increasingly disillusioned with the suffragette movement's inability to engage with the needs of working class women, so in 1912 she formed her own breakaway movement, the East London Federation of Suffragettes. She based it at a baker's shop at Bow emblazoned with the slogan, "Votes for Women," in large gold letters."

http://feminspire.com/votes-for-women-feminspire-interviews-the-pankhursts/

Feminspire

Votes For Women! Feminspire Interviews The Pankhursts

by Abbey Lewis

13 Sep 2012

... the leader and founder of the suffragette movement was Emmeline Pankhurst. Frustrated by the slow pace and failure to achieve change of the suffragist movement, Emmeline founded the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903. ... her daughters Christabel, Sylvia (pictured), and Adela were all involved in the WSPU. ...

Today, Sylvia's granddaughter Helen Pankhurst and Helen's 17 year old daughter Laura Pankhurst are intrinsically and passionately involved in feminism and women's rights. You may have seen them at the Olympic Opening Ceremony, dressed as suffragettes and celebrating an extremely important period in the history of Britain and women's rights. ...

[very interesting interview follows- and a good booklist too]

[15:32: the DVD shows multiple reenactments of the 1913 death of Emily Wilding Davison]

(another fine moment presumably missed in the live broadcast because the shortening of the performance crammed too many incidents into the same timeframe)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9435339/Opening-ceremony-how-a-click-of-a-mouse-saw-me-play-a-part-in-history.html

Daily Telegraph

Opening ceremony: how a click of a mouse saw me play a part in history

Sarah Butler

29 Jul 2012

Our section was overseen by Toby Sedgwick, the theatre choreographer behind War Horse. We would enter the stadium singing the suffragette anthem, The March of the Women, before re-enacting the moment Emily Davison was killed in the 1913 Derby while trying to put a banner on the King's horse. We would then form a human staircase for her to climb.

For more details of Sarah's experience, including some very damp rehearsals, see:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9434802/London-2012-Diary-of-an-Opening-Ceremony-volunteer.html

Daily Telegraph

London 2012: Diary of an Opening Ceremony volunteer

Sarah Butler

29 Jul 2012

https://www.standard.co.uk/olympics/olympic-news/team-db-the-people-who-helped-create-danny-boyles-extraordinary-vision-7987305.html

Evening Standard [London]

Team DB: the people who helped create Danny Boyle's extraordinary vision

by Liz Hoggard

30 July 2012

Toby Sedgwick

Movement Director

On the night: Sedgwick, 58, directed 1,000 volunteers as they transformed the green and pleasant land into the industrial revolution sections; he also choreographed the parade of suffragettes, Jarrow marchers and Windrush immigrants.

His vision of a digging, hammering army drew on the photography of Sebastião Salgado, and the films of Jacques Tati.

"The one thing the volunteers learned is how the audience interpret everything through body language. I would say to them: 'You must never show what you are doing, you must just BE it'."

Pedigree: Trained as an actor and mime artist.

The Boyle connection: In 2002, Boyle cast him as the priest who first succumbs to the virus in 28 Days Later. Impressed by his knowledge of physical theatre, Boyle asked him to train all the actors in the film.

A video by one of the nurses, Lizzy Muggeridge ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJfKaX242K8 ) reveals that suffragette literature was provided, such as the famous "What a Woman may be, and yet not have the Vote" leaflet, and flyers for the 1911 Women's Coronation Procession, possibly to be handed out to selected members of the audience. Also in the stadium on the night was Davison's original sash, from which the re-enactment sashes were carefully copied.

15:42: The Davisons are carried high by their comrades, who then form human ramps for them to climb

[Some of the stadium screens show film of the original Suffragettes for a few seconds. About this time, BranaghBrunel reaches the northwest ramp, up which two weaving looms are being dragged, and takes advantage of the cover they provide to disappear for a few minutes]

[15:50: on DVD, a few seconds earlier than in the live performance, the Davisons are shown standing on the shoulders of their comrades, arms outstretched]

15:57: A group of Brunels, near the waterwheel, clutch their hat brims as they look up at the attractively patterned, fully-emerged sixth chimney

About 16:02 the radio controller says "Aaand, everybodyyy, slow down for poppies, slow dowwwn for poppiiies".

[The Davisons descend from their elevations]

16:05: pause; poppies and soldiers shown over whistling theme; warm sunset lighting

The International Olympic Committee has consistently refused to hold a minute's public silence in memory of the athletes who died in the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. There is no silence here, but for about a minute, all activity in the arena ceases, and performers stand respectfully still, facing a group of soldiers standing in the last remnant of poppy-rich cornfield, just south of the central circle, while the percussive, dynamic music is replaced by a quiet, whistled tune, symbolic perhaps of comradeship. The poppies and the soldiers standing among them symbolise what has come to be known as Poppy Day (more properly Remembrance Day), the commemoration on 11 November each year (and on the following Sunday in Britain) of the ending of the First World War, and of the lives taken or ruined in all wars.

[16:16: Members of the audience start getting to their feet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4O-nVeyPAo

YouTube

London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony - Industrial Revolution

by My Life in UK (mhrkrishna1)

29 Jul 2012

Audience footage of some 7 minutes of "Pandemonium" showing spectators standing for this section. It turns out, on close inspection (lower left quadrant at about 4m 48s, drifting right as camera pans), that the Mechanicals did make "Up" gestures with their arms just after the quiet music for the pause began, rather than the movement being entirely spontaneous.

http://www.sportingjournal.com.au/2012/07/the-opening-ceremony-britians-story/

The Sporting Journal (Australia)

The Opening Ceremony; 'Britains Story'

by Jacob Arnott

28 Jul 2012

"The story continued through other major parts in British history, including the effects that World War 1 left on the nation. Poppies lined the stadium as both actors & spectators stood silently, respecting the sacrifice of the men who paid the ultimate price for their nation."

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/28/entertainment/la-et-ms-london-2012-the-pop-music-at-the-olympics-opening-ceremony-20120727

Los Angeles Times

London Olympics: Opening ceremony celebrates pop music

by Todd Martens

July 28, 2012

Even at its most silly the scene was driven by music that gave way to uplifting electronics and never swayed from its emphasis on the beat. The sound was all forward momentum, and when the rhythms took hold, the orchestration found a way to dissolve and rev-up. Sure, the whistling seemed uncomfortably close to "Wind of Change," but this was Olympic optimism at its most beat-heavy.

While the association of whistling with the suffering of common soldiers is hardly new (e.g. the theme to "Bridge on the River Kwai"), I certainly wouldn't bet that this echo of the classic Scorpions song celebrating the crumbling of the Iron Curtain is unintentional (particularly given that the Iron Curtain and its ultimate pointlessness will also be referred to later in David Bowie's "Heroes"). Here's a small sample of the lyrics:

http://www.metrolyrics.com/wind-of-change-lyrics-the-scorpions.html

Metrolyrics

The Scorpions

Wind of Change

... Take me to the magic of the moment

On a glory night

Where the children of tomorrow dream away ...

There's our theme of dreaming again- and the tune whistled in this Pandemonium pause is later reinterpreted by a children's choir, blended into a song to accompany the young potential Olympians of tomorrow, as they move to light a Cauldron designed to symbolise international unity.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec12/articles/it-1212.htm

Sound on Sound

Peter Cobbin & Kirsty Whalley: Inside Track / Secrets Of The Mix Engineers [A detailed study of the creation of "And I Will Kiss"]

by Paul Tingen

Dec 2012

[Interview reply from Kirsty Whalley, Associate Music Director:]

"Funnily enough, Rick's whistling was meant as a demo, and we experimented with other people whistling, with what we thought were better mics and a better studio, but nothing had the same feel as his original recording" ...

This might be the appropriate moment to mention that the extraordinary musical "Oh, What a Lovely War!"- which can be seen as a direct ancestor of the 2012 Opening- was first produced by Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop company in 1963 at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, just down the road from where the stadium now stands.

17:15: drumbeats reintroduce main theme, movement resumes, seventh (and final) chimney emerges

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZBG59xP1Gw Audience footage by herman404)

A burst of bright white floodlighting accompanies each drumbeat as the quiet interlude ends- artillery?

17:30: a group of Brunels southeast of the fourth chimney make a stoop-and raise gesture to a steam engine being built there [and the DVD shows photos being taken of groups of soldiers in the Zoetrope Machine]

[17:35: the soldiers are dragging the remnants of poppy-filled cornfield out of the arena. More workers are arriving in the Industrial Land equipped with tools and protective gear for iron foundry work; up in the auditorium, many spectators are only just realising that they should sit down again]

17:50: Brunels in the north-west quadrant perform a new set of turning/pulling process moves in front of a half-completed steam engine

[and nearby, the seventh chimney, another 30-metre giant, has finished its rise]

Again, further cuts to the length of Pandemonium (nearly 1 minute 20 seconds removed from the music after the Poppy Pause, compared with the album version) meant that many of the special routines performed by the groups on the outer track could not be shown properly on live TV. When preparing the DVD, Danny Boyle had the leisure to find the best edit points, to move events slightly within the time-frame, and even to insert short clips filmed at the rehearsals (note how the sky occasionally seems to brighten at moments during Pandemonium which were not seen in the live broadcast).

18:00: singers resume; more turning/pulling process moves from Brunels

By this time, general views of the arena show that the floor is a stylised map of east London, bisected by the meandering Thames. This map, although most of its streets were randomly generated, was based on a real map designed to show the connectivity of routes, hence the variety of different tones for individual streets:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1207/120712-olympic-opening-ceremony-space-syntax-London-map

UCL NEWS

Olympic Opening Ceremony - creating the iconic map of London

27 July 2012

... The map - produced by Space Syntax to advise on plans for new streets and public spaces in London - was spotted by the Games' organisers in a book about the history of mapping in London.

The map is one of many produced by Space Syntax to aid property developers and city authorities plan the biggest urban centres on the planet, including Beijing, Sydney and Athens.

Based on mathematical analysis of street networks developed at UCL's Bartlett School of Architecture, the map forecasts how people will flow through new developments and how this leads to social and economic benefits such as safer public spaces, more successful shops and higher property values.

Space Syntax, which was founded at UCL in 1989, has used its map to redesign key public spaces in London ...

http://www.newsroom.business.hsbc.co.uk/press/release/olympics_floor_company_targets

HSBC Business Banking Newsroom

Olympics floor company targets overseas market with HSBC support

12 Nov 2012

Huntingdon-based Le Mark Group converted the design for the 'reveal' floor featured in the Pandemonium section of the ceremony into a printable format, produced the floor and installed it. It is the largest printed stage floor ever produced, covering over 7,500 square metres and consisting of over 800 separate pieces. The company developed a new floor custom printing technique to meet the organiser's requirements and believes it can now successfully export the process overseas, particularly to the US market.

Le Mark is targeting stadiums and exhibition companies in the States and recently attended a major trade exhibition, the LDI Show in Las Vegas, to showcase the product to US businesses. It is also planning to speak to the organisers of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and Winter Olympics in Russia to discuss how the flooring could be used in their opening ceremonies. ...

http://www.stageone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/London-2012-Olympic-Ceremonies-Case-Study.vET-C.pdf

-is a case study by Stage One, providers of much of the equipment you see on the above plan, including the cables and the Big Secret, plus flying nannies etc. They had also been responsible for numerous earlier dramatic Olympic effects, including the lake and flying elements of the Athens 2004 opening ceremony.

18:15: another musical build with a lighter synth theme

Blimey- can we just take it as read that "And I Will Kiss" represents the creative chaos of the Industrial era with an absurdly large number of musical themes?

Speaking of "absurdly large":

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/sets/72157628617413397/detail/

Flickr: mcrarchives' photostream

Manchester Maps (image set)

posted 2010-12

Posted by Manchester Archives, this chronological series of images of maps of Manchester, beginning with a plan of "about 1650" (probably c1670- watch out, because this and some other early maps have north at the bottom) shows in detail the way the place expanded during the Industrial Revolution, from a small town where most houses backed onto open farmland, to a behemoth engulfing the surrounding countryside for many kilometres.

And when you've explored the map, you might care to compare the work of two artists at opposite ends of the Industrial Revolution, both of whom had an influence on this section of the London Opening: Joseph Wright of Derby (18th century, making brilliant use of darkness and localised light) and L.S. Lowry (20th century, specialising in the depiction of industrialised landscapes and communities) who has a whole arts complex named after him in Salford.

[18:20: the DVD shows workers underground assembling one of the steam engine flywheels]

[18:30: Windrush (1948) immigrants begin to emerge from the northwest vom (clockwise); newsboys with their barrows from the northeast vom (anticlockwise)]

[18:37: Chelsea Pensioners emerge from the southwest vom (clockwise); the various groups of Brunels scattered over the Industrial Land start making their way towards its north end]

18:38: Sergeant Pepper types emerge from the southeast vom (clockwise)

[on the DVD this includes the weird horn-tricycle and two Yellow Submarines behind them]

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsrTBTx3lXw rehearsal footage by joeirene ) Includes the Sergeant Pepper "party piece"- forming concentric circles jogging in opposite directions (seen here just before the rings join)

For a more general view of this section of the performance, see:

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZBG59xP1Gw Audience footage by herman404 )

About that strange curly horn-tricycle: I just don't know (or if I did know, I've forgotten). The Beatles did feature eccentric inventor Bruce Lacey in their film "Help" but this device is more reminiscent of the gently dotty work of Rowland Emett (creator of the inventions of Caractacus Potts in the film of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"). The good news is that during my fruitless search for inspiration, I had the idea of revisiting the video for "Strawberry Fields Forever", the piano in which looks rather like one of the weaving looms shown in "Pandemonium"! We do know that its rider was "Pete the Greek" though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ig8iaSGOv8

YouTube

2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony THE INSIDE STORY!

by Samsam Bubbleman

7 Jan 2013

Many people were bemused (to put it politely) by the appearance of the day-glo Peppers in a presentation about the Industrial Revolution, but the problem disappears if you treat the topic as the whole era when extractive and manufacturing industries were the keys to Britain's prosperity. That era certainly lasted until the 1960s, but in 1963, Prime Minister Harold Wilson warned that a new Britain was about to be "forged in the white heat" of the next revolution- the era of computers and automation.

PS: On the topic of day-glo colours; we associate the major advances in the chemical industry with 19th century Germany, but the first wholly artificial aniline dye was accidentally invented in the East End in 1856, by London student William Perkin, conducting experiments at home while his German university tutor was on holiday. Here's an account of the development of the industry from the Open University (a distance learning institution created by the Wilson government in the 1960s, now the largest university in the UK):

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/history-science-technology-and-medicine/history-science/the-birth-synthetic-dyeing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/nov/19/beatles-yellow-submarine-simpsons-shrek

The Guardian

How the Beatles' Yellow Submarine gave rise to modern animation

Josh Weinstein [one of The Simpsons writing team]

Monday 19 November 2012

... I do need to get into a little back-story, because it's an important lesson in how brilliant things get produced. It's how The Simpsons came to be, and it's how Yellow Submarine happened. It's called trusting in artists and letting them do their stuff. It's also called I-have-no-idea-what-those-hippies-in-Soho-are doing-but-it-has-the-Beatles'-name-on-it-so-I-guess-we'll-make-money. From what I've read, the pressure these artists felt came from not wanting to let the Beatles down because they loved them and their music so much. That's a great sort of pressure to be under. ...

(I should perhaps mention that many people, including me, had serious issues with this article, which ignored, for example, the genius of animators like Tex Avery and Chuck Jones- but I think the statement quoted is worth thinking about)

[18:42: A brass band emerges from the northeast vom (anticlockwise) and a brass theme emerges in the soundtrack]

[18:55: The suffragettes march towards the M25 with banners held high, and Brunels start arriving from the south to fill the open space they had occupied]

19:00: the Empire Windrush appears, followed by a shot of molten metal "pouring" from the foundry crucible

This is the first screen appearance of a recurring theme in the presentation- events of the year 1948, when London last held the Olympic Games. We must resist the temptation to see it as being also a tribute to the British shipbuilding industry, because the Empire Windrush was built in Germany (as the Monte Rosa), used as a troop ship in the Second World War, and confiscated in 1945, after which it joined a group of vessels named after tributaries of the Thames, used mostly for British Empire troop transport. [Possibly not a good idea to take the Yellow Submarines as a tribute to the British submarine industry either, given their main purpose in real life]

http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/empire-windrush-1948

Exploring 20th Century London

Empire Windrush 1948

The old troop-carrying steamship Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury on 22 June 1948. She carried 490 Caribbean men (and two women), mostly from Jamaica and Trinidad. ...

The Windrush passengers were skilled workers who came to find work to help post-war Britain recover. ...

http://mefoley.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/windrush-2/

M E Foley's Anglo-American Experience Blog [M.E. = Mary Ellen]

20 Aug 2012

The Windrush, part 2

The Minister of Labour in London said "They are British citizens and we shall we do our best for them when they arrive" but there was enough opposition for another Ministry official to write a memo emphasizing that "there is no logical ground for treating a British subject who comes of his own accord from Jamaica to Great Britain differently from another who comes to London on his own account from Scotland."...

The Caribbeans had fine suits and snazzy hats that the Windrush crew envied; they had enough money to treat crew members to rum, and better rum than the crew generally got, at that; and they were used to far better food than that served on board. Those who had visited the mother country before warned others that even shipboard food was better than what they'd eat once they landed (which I take as a reference to cooking with rationed supplies rather than as a low blow at British cuisine).

The original plan, by the way, was to have two crucibles, at opposite sides of the central circle. If you look closely at aerial views of the Green and Pleasant Land, you can see the outline of where the channel from the second crucible would have been, forming a boundary between the farmyard and the cricket pitch.

I have a "Hmmmm" about NBC's coverage at this point. Elsewhere in this work I have commented on how they often improved the visuals by editing in shots from their own cameras. However, one such edit occurs a few seconds after the Windrush passengers start being shown on screen, cutting to a rather lacklustre shot of the Chelsea Pensioners, who are briefly explained by Meredith (hence the aforementioned irrelevant commentary when the "official" shot of the Pensioners appears later). They make no attempt at all to explain the Windrush.

[19:02: Film of the arrival of the real Windrush in 1948 appears on some of the upper screens. Right behind the Windrush a group of Pearlies emerge from the northwest vom (anticlockwise). Numerous drummers start climbing up the Tor. A small group of First World War soldiers stroll anticlockwise towards the Zoetrope Machine, just as the Sergeant Peppers are passing]

[19:07: The waterwheel, still since the end of BranaghBrunel's speech, begins turning again. And at last, the cottage, sole remnant of the Green and Pleasant Land, is torn in two and dragged away]

[19:15: As the newsboys halt their barrows on the outer edge of the M25 opposite the northwest moshpit to begin selling, the Sergeant Peppers, at the south end of the M25, crouch down to begin their mad circling party-piece. The northeast and southeast steam engines are now working]

[19:20: The brass band is passing the Tor on the M25. The Pearlies have all left the northwest vom, from which a steel band is about to emerge. The east steam engine starts working, as does one of the weaving looms on the east side; the steeplejacks start descending from the chimneys]

19:20: Chelsea pensioners on screen

http://www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/news

The Royal Hospital Chelsea

Chelsea Pensioners take part in the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

21 Chelsea Pensioners represented retired Army Veterans and the Royal Hospital Chelsea in style at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony. Led by Captain of Invalid Colonel Baker and Chief Clerk Lloyd the Chelsea Pensioners marched in to the Olympic Stadium representing part of the History of Britain. Whilst there was a lot of practice involved (some 40 hours in total!) it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the Royal Hospital Chelsea is incredibly proud of all who participated.

According to the Facebook page of the regimental headquarters of The Royal Logistic Corps, Colonel Baker had formerly been their Regimental Colonel

http://www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/corporate-information

The Royal Hospital was established by Letters Patent by King Charles II. Since 1702 it has been governed by a Board of Commissioners whose composition and powers are set out in the Letters Patent (which have recently been reviewed and revised). The purpose of the Board is to guide the development of The Royal Hospital, ensuring the care and well-being of the Chelsea Pensioners who live here (who are known as In-Pensioners) and safeguarding the historic buildings and grounds, which it owns in trust.

[19:27: A group of hunger marchers from Jarrow is about to emerge from the southeast vom (anticlockwise)]

[19:30: A steel band tries to emerge from the northwest vom, but has to give way for heavy traffic on the M25. Over in the northeast vom, carnival dancers are limbering up.]

http://www.nostalgiasteelband.co.uk/#/as-seen-on/4555188942

The Nostalgia Steel Band present pictures and audio from their recording session at Abbey Road Studios for "And I Will Kiss"..

( rehearsal footage at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ8Bo6mWtYM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDRQ9-Wk3G8 shows carnival dancers with winglike costumes following the Windrush, representing the annual Notting Hill Carnival, as does an episode of MikeSW2's coverage of the live show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ecfj19cbqI )

Pictures including close-ups of performers waiting backstage can be seen on the website of the group, Mahogany Carnival:

http://www.mahoganycarnival.com/portfolios/olympics-opening-ceremony-2012/#!slide_1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSYS-ZJi-hM

Drumming: Pen Camera

by Cody B

30 Jul 2012

[This video by a drummer on the outer track covers the second half of Pandemonium, starting at the Poppy Pause, and it includes close-ups of the Windrush and the carnival dancers. The technical quality is awful- so watch it on the biggest screen you can find, with the sound turned up as loud as possible.]

[19:35: Foundry workers start hammering around the mould containing the Ring casting. Both of the northwest weaving looms are working. The lights of the Zoetrope Machine start revolving]

19:40: molten metal starts flowing into ring mould

[at 19:45 the DVD briefly shows the Jarrow Marchers with their banner; if you look very closely at the stadium video screen in the background, you can see a line of blurred letters across it, which would be "#SAVETHESURPRISE"- indicating that it was filmed at a rehearsal]

http://www.jarrowandhebburngazette.com/news/young-jarrow-marcher-s-olympics-ceremony-honour-1-4782414

Jarrow and Hebburn Gazette

Young Jarrow Marcher's Olympics ceremony 'honour'

by @terrykelly16

28 Jul 2012

A YOUNG Jarrow Marcher walked into the history books when she took part in the spectacular opening ceremony at the Olympic Games in London last night.

Lizi Gray, whose great-great grandfather was one of the original 200 jobless men who took part in the Jarrow March in October 1936, was chosen to portray Ellen Wilkinson, the fiery, red-haired MP who led the first marchers out of the town on their long crusade for work.

Along with 15 young volunteers, Lizi helped recreate the famous Jarrow March for about one billion TV viewers from across the globe.

http://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/local/olympic-dream-for-kevin-1-4810598

The Scarborough News

Olympic dream for Kevin

Published on Tuesday 7 August 2012 13:52

A Scarborough man who played one of the Jarrow Marchers in the Olympic opening ceremony has shared the story of this amazing, one-off experience.

Kevin Makepeace, of Bland's Cliff, replied to an email asking for volunteers last year and was stunned when he was sent an audition date.

The Scarborough Rotary Club member, 50 , said: "I told my wife I'd ticked all the boxes on the form - fire eaters, stilt walkers! ...

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajlQNQ0PU5c Rehearsal footage by aa191286: Jarrow marchers

[19:47: The Brunels, on the bridge between the two northern mosh pits, perform dragging moves towards the Industrial Land]

[19:50: The Windrush and the brass band pass each other on the M25 below the Tor, the lower terraces of which are now crowded with drummers. The steam engine just west of the channel from the crucible starts working]

[19:55: The Brunels move back into the Industrial land from the bridge between the mosh pits, and at the other end of the arena, the Sergeant Peppers finish their circling routine]

[20:00: The Chelsea Pensioners pass the Pearlies near the west vom. Over by the east vom, some of the Jarrow marchers are collapsing from exhaustion and hunger. BranaghBrunel turns up at the north end of the Industrial Land, which he surveys with satisfaction. The operator of the Zoetrope Machine begins a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown]

[20:05: As the Brunels continue dragging southward into the Industrial Land, the Suffragettes, who had been standing on the inner edge of the M25 while the Windrush passed by, cross to the foot of the Tor, where some drummers have now climbed right to the summit. A short way to the west, the steel band meets the brass band. And of course the Zoetrope Machine flashes on schedule]

[20:10: As his military customers leave, the Zoetrope Machine manager says "OK, that's it now". The northeast steam engine comes to a halt]

[20:15: The weird curly horn-tricycle exits via the southwest vom (the Yellow Submarines will follow it out a few seconds later)]

20:20: Pearly Kings & Queens on screen

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/whereilive/east/westessex/eppingforest/9849661.LOUGHTON__Pearly_Queen_talks_about_being_part_of_the_Olympics/

This is Local London

Where I Live (column)

by Clare Hardy

1 Aug 2012

... Teresa Watts, 44, of Roundmead Avenue, Loughton, and her 13-year-old son Alfie, a Pearly Prince, were part of the parade of Pearlies during the ceremony in Stratford on Friday.

"I can't even get near to describing how lovely it was," said Mrs Watts, who is the Pearly Queen of Clapton.

"The roar of the crowd was so loud. We all had ear pieces in to take directions from Danny Boyle and the team, but we couldn't hear them."

She can trace her family back to the apple sellers who formed the original Pearly Kings and Queens in 1875 and her father, Micky Murphy, was a well-known Pearly King.

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/olympic_upset_as_pearly_kings_don_t_strike_gold_with_their_lambeth_walk_1_1466477

Docklands & East London Advertiser

Olympic upset as Pearly kings don't strike 'gold' with their Lambeth Walk

Mike Brooke

1 Aug 2012

... "We wanted to do the 'Lambeth Walk'" said Tower Hamlets Pearly Queen Lorraine Wells. "But you had to listen to the cue on earphones and there was so much noise it was impossible."

TV viewers around the world only caught a few seconds of the 40 Pearlies taking part, who trace their origins to the street market costermongers of the 1860s who sewed pearl buttons on their suits to draw attention to raising money for the needy of Victorian London.

John Scott, Pearly King of Mile End with 20,000 pearl buttons on his whistle-and-flute (suit), said: "The Cockneys should have been more prominent-but it wasn't our show.

"We were disappointed that the BBC coverage made no mention of the charity work we do."

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCv1Y_PzrX0 Audience footage by mjb22 showing the Pearlies )

Meanwhile, in another part of the island ....

As a counterpoint to the tributes to the Suffragettes and the Jarrow crusaders, a well-known modern activist movement, Critical Mass, was continuing the activities it has performed in London on the last Friday of each month since 1994. The purpose of these regular events is, I suppose, basically to assert the right of slow and vulnerable forms of transport, notably bicycles, to use the public highways without fear or harassment- but it's not actually a protest movement:

http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/main.html

Critical Mass London website homepage

Who are we and what are our aims?

We are not sure, opinions seem to differ. There are probably as many aims of CM as there are participants. Each individual comes there with his or her own idea of what it's about, and the sum of this makes up the Mass. We have no organisers and no planned routes and this website does not try to be representative of CM in any way.

Critical Mass achieved its international name following the first ever ride in San Francisco back in 1992, where it was christened 'Commute Clot'. It was then "noted that, in China both motorists and bicyclists had an understood method of negotiating intersections without signals. Traffic would "bunch up" at these intersections until the back log reached a "critical mass" at which point that mass would move through the intersection".

CM gatherings, attended by hundreds of participants, are naturally a matter of concern to the police, but their nature raises an interesting point of law, which was discussed by various courts up to and including the House of Lords. The plans for a conventional parade or protest event have to be notified to the local police in advance, so that the risk of disturbances can be evaluated. However, the plan for a Critical Mass event is precisely that there is no plan, because its aim is to exercise basic freedom of movement. Apart from the starting place and time, everything is decided on the whim of the moment.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldjudgmt/jd081126/metro-1.htm

House of Lords Session 2007 - 08

[2008] UKHL 69 on appeal from: [2007] EWCA Civ 477

OPINIONS OF THE LORDS OF APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT IN THE CAUSE

Kay (FC) (Appellant) v Commissioner of the Police of the Metropolis (Respondent)

WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2008

[from the Introduction, paragraph 2:]

The nature of Critical Mass is central to both the narrow and the wider issues. It has been agreed between the parties in the following terms:

"Critical Mass is not an organisation but the name given to a recurrent event. It takes place in central London on the evening of the last Friday of every month, as it has done since April 1994. Similar events take place on the last Friday of every month in many other cities throughout the world. Critical Mass starts at the same location (the South Bank, near the National Theatre) at the same time (6 pm). It is featured in Time Out magazine. It is in the nature of Critical Mass that there is no fixed, settled or predetermined route, end-time or destination; where Critical Mass goes, where and what time it ends, are all things which are chosen by the actions of the participants on the day"

[legislation quoted in the Introduction:]

4. The following are the relevant provisions of the 1986 Act:

"1 Advance notice of public processions

(1) Written notice shall be given in accordance with this section of any proposal to hold a public procession intended -

(a) to demonstrate support for or opposition to the views or actions of any person or body of persons,

(b) to publicise a cause or campaign, or

(c) to mark or commemorate an event, unless it is not reasonably practicable to give any advance notice of the procession.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply where the procession is one commonly or customarily held in the police area (or areas) in which it is proposed to be held or is a funeral procession organised by a funeral director acting in the normal course of his business."

[etc. In regard to the 27 July events, the next Section is probably the most important, because it was of interest, but (see para 6 below) not at issue, in the judgement:]

"12 Imposing conditions on public processions

(1) If the senior police officer, having regard to the time or place at which and the circumstances in which any public procession is being held or is intended to be held and to its route or proposed route, reasonably believes that-

(a) it may result in serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community, or

(b) the purpose of the persons organising it is the intimidation of others with a view to compelling them not to do an act they have a right to do, or to do an act they have a right not to do,

he may give directions imposing on the persons organising or taking part in the procession such conditions as appear to him necessary to prevent such disorder, damage, disruption or intimidation, including conditions as to the route of the procession or prohibiting it from entering any public place specified in the directions."

Further paragraphs from the Introduction:

5. These proceedings were initiated by the appellant in response to a circular letter handed to participants in Critical Mass by Superintendent Gomm of New Scotland Yard which included the following assertions:

"Organisers of public processions are required by law to notify police at least six days before the event occurs of the date, time, proposed route and name and address of an organiser. Failure to do so makes the event unlawful. . . . These cycle protests are not lawful because no organiser has provided police with the necessary notification. Your participation in this event could render you liable to prosecution. Police policy in facilitating these events is currently under review."

6. The narrow issue is whether Critical Mass is a "procession [which is] commonly or customarily held in the police area (or areas) in which it is proposed to be held", so that it falls within the exemption granted by section 11(2). The wider issues raise the question of whether, and if so how, section 11 of the 1986 Act applies to events such as Critical Mass.

Each Lord of Appeal gave a detailed explanation of their reasoning on the matter, and the consensus was that, under Section 11, a spontaneously-evolving event like Critical Mass, in which it was by definition impossible to notify the police of the route in advance, should either never have been permitted to start (bear in mind that the first was held in 1994, years after the 1986 Act came into force) or must somehow be accepted as not falling under section 11(1). Given that it was permitted to start, and every aspect of it except the route became customary, then the almost unanimous decision was that it must be exempted. Given further that on the great majority of occasions over its history, it had been policed very effectively without knowledge of the route, and that journeys by sizeable numbers of individuals together were part of daily life, there was also a general view that it would be unwise to grant the police further powers.

So Critical Mass has continued to be held. But the last Friday of July 2012 was Olympic Opening day, and a great deal of political and commercial power had been involved in the organisation of the Games:

http://occupylondon.org.uk/events/july-critical-mass-london-2012-olympic-special

Occupy London

July Critical Mass London 2012 Olympic Special

July 27, 2012 Category: Shoutout

Date/Time - 27/07/2012 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Location - Southbank, near Waterloo Bridge

Critical Mass London, 27 July, 2012

This month's Critical Mass will be on the same night as the olympic opening ceromony, so its going to be a good one. Share this news with all your mates, and tell them to be at usual meeting point for 6pm for the 7pm set off, at Southbank near Waterloo bridge.

UK call out!

Lets make some noise!

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/498121.html?c=on

IndyMedia

Anti-Olympic Friday 27th July protest 6pm South Bank under Waterloo Bridge

Fuck the 2012 Olympics

20 Jul 2012

We a group of anarchists are organising a mass anti-Olympic games protest. Meet at 6pm on the South Bank under Waterloo Bridge, at 6pm on Friday the 27th of July we will then set off at 7pm to blockade roads and cause chaos around the West End.

Please spread the word of this far and wide. Lets make it really huge! Use Twitter and Facebook to spread word about this action.

Invitations like that, not quite in the true spirit of Critical Mass, gave the Metropolitan Police the excuse to invoke Section 12 (as quoted above) against which Critical Mass has no ante facto protection. Some even suspected that the Police had posted the second invitation themselves, for precisely that purpose (although, if it could be confirmed at any subsequent time that that was indeed what happened, the legal and PR consequences for the police would be quite unpleasant- not that such considerations would necessarily stop them, as the family of the late Stephen Lawrence seem to be finding in 2013 [and the Hillsborough families in 2016]). Be all that as it may, thanks to the wonders of social media, there were few excuses for ignoring the Section 12 conditions. Or there would have been, if the police hadn't been worried about giving protestors the chance to evade any Section 12 conditions notified in advance:

https://twitter.com/MetPoliceEvents

26 Jul 2012: Metropolitan Police @MetPoliceEvents

A number of protests tomorrow (27/07/2012) during a very busy day in London #Olympics#London2012#protest

[various tweets about the London cabbies' demo followed; note, incidentally, that the above tweet does not mention Critical Mass]

27 Jul 2012: 18:49 UTC, Metropolitan Police @MetPoliceEvents

#Criticalmass riders are reminded that breaches of conditions under Sec12 may liable them to arrest. #Protest

[UTC (effectively the same as Greenwich Mean Time) is the time used internally in Tweets, expressed as a number of seconds which translate to the full date and time- but for British Summer Time (i.e. Daylight Saving Time) a further hour needs to be added, so anybody joining the Mass between the time it set off and 19:49 BST would presumably be unaware of the Section 12 notice]

27 Jul 2012: 18:50 UTC, Metropolitan Police Metropolitan Police @MetPoliceEvents

Please see following tweets for conditions under Sec12 #criticalmass #protest

27 Jul 2012: 18:57 UTC, Metropolitan Police Metropolitan Police @MetPoliceEvents

The procession is not to commence before 1800hrs on 27/07/2012 and end no later than 0300 on 28/07/2012 #Criticalmass #protest

27 Jul 2012: 18:58 UTC, Metropolitan Police Metropolitan Police @MetPoliceEvents

Participants must not enter any part of the ORN #criticalmass #protest

[ORN was the Olympic Route Network of road lanes reserved for Olympic official traffic]

27 Jul 2012: 18:58 UTC, Metropolitan Police Metropolitan Police @MetPoliceEvents

Participants must remain south of the River Thames at all times during the times stated #criticalmass #protest

27 Jul 2012: 18:59 UTC, Metropolitan Police @MetPoliceEvents

Participants must keep moving on the procession route unless stopped or directed by police or due to traffic signals #criticalmass #protest

Some reports from the evening [note that, as throughout this work, these are only small samples]:

http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12612

olympic critical mass - report and pics

Published: July 29, 2012 22:40 by rikki

for more than a year, the critical mass bicycle ride has had minimal or no policing. that all changed on friday, with a massive police operation in place and draconian conditions imposed to try and prevent riders from entering any part of north london. despite the deployment of police from several forces alongside the met, and even a fly-by from a lynx armed forces helicopter, hundreds of cyclists defied the ban, out-witted the police, and cycled as far as the olympic village, causing far less disruption than that caused by police trying to enforce their potentially unlawful ban. ...

there were more serious confrontations at blackfriars bridge, including an altercation with a transport officer (4125) who so lost control that a police medic had to restrain him at one point! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuHWYW6Bx4g AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz1HNoK6UBs AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfftgb4KOlE&feature=youtu.be).

To those videos of the scene (approaching the bridge from the south, at the large and awkward Southwark Street / Stamford Street junction) I'll add http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA8TNeHeBBw and the first ten seconds or so of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpMQrIqrtCo with two notes- first, the police at this incident were vastly outnumbered by the cyclists, many of whom, in what had become a ridiculously straggly and thinned-out "mass", had just ridden through a red light, causing significant aggravation for traffic; second, although officer 4125's actions quickly became, in the absence of adequate backup, over-violent, the correct thing to do to calm him was not for a man taller than him, and with what looks like considerable upper-body development, to stand behind him and wrestle him down.

http://rt.com/news/london-police-olympics-arrests-269/

RT: Question More

© Autonomous Nonprofit Organization "TV-Novosti" 2005-012

Mass arrests at monthly cycling event in London on Olympic ceremony night (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Published: 28 July, 2012, 01:14

Edited: 29 July, 2012, 23:57

London police used pepper spray and kettling tactics against "Critical Mass" cycle ride participants as the British capital held the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Games. At least 50 people have reportedly been detained.

Scuffles occurred near the Olympic Stadium on the outskirts of the Olympic Park, with participants saying they were being "kettled" or corralled. Some witnesses said police pushed the cyclists aside to get David Beckham through traffic.

A witness video uploaded to YouTube allegedly showed police assaulting and pepper-spraying a disabled man on a tricycle.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/kerry-anne-mendoza/mass-arrests-outside-londons-olympic-opening-ceremony-eye-witness-acco

Our Kingdom: Power and Liberty in Britain

Mass arrests outside London's Olympic opening ceremony: an eye-witness account

Kerry-anne Mendoza

31 Jul 2012

At 8.20 the procession had made it to Bow Road and passed my B&B. I was tweeting for @OurOlympics and decided to hop on one of the Boris Bikes across the road and follow the procession to get footage to release of the ride and any police interference. No sooner had I caught up with the procession, than we were ushered by police into a cul-de-sac off the Stratford High Street called Warton Road. As confused cyclists attempted to turn around and make their way out, police blocked them, formed a perimeter and arrested anyone who made an attempt to leave the area. ...

["Boris Bikes" are bicycles which can be hired from hundreds of parking sites around London (and do not have to be returned to the same point)- similar to schemes in many cities around the world. The nickname refers to Mayor Boris Johnson. Until the end of 2012, the hire charge was just £1 for the first half-hour, but it doubled in 2013. Kerry-anne's geography is a little confused, as Warton Road is not a cul-de-sac for cyclists, even with the temporary barriers lowered; videos show that the main kettle was just on the High Street corner, and involved a large number of police vehicles.]

At around 10.20pm police informed us we were being arrested and our bikes would be following us on a separate bus. London red buses pulled up and one by one, we were ushered through the police line, photographed, read our rights, handcuffed, and taken onto a bus. Each of us had an individual police officer assigned to us, leading us onto the bus and standing with us. I was on the first bus to leave the area. We asked where the police were taking us, but they were drafted in from the Midlands and were not aware. Finally we heard Charing Cross.

An hour later, we arrived at Charing Cross. There were no seats left on the bus so I was standing, handcuffed, for this journey. On arrival, a small group from our bus (eight from 20) were ushered into the police station after a short wait. We were led to believe we would be following them in. However, after an hour had passed people were getting twitchy. The police had provided small bottles of water; however no one had been given access to a toilet for the three hours that had passed. ...

http://spen666.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/july-27ththe-day-of-shame-for-britain/

Bobby Shaftoe's Gone to Sea

July 27th-The Day of Shame for Britain

by spen666

29 Jul 2012

[features a good collection of videos from the evening]

... in the footage, at Charing Cross Police Station and at Tescos, notice how certain officers try to prevent the filming of what is happening. One may ask why that is? The police use filming of incidents to help prevent crime or convict perpetrators of crime, but seem to try by force to prevent people filming their criminal actions or simply their actions that portray them in a less than good light. At Tescos, it is noticeable that it is one officer only that tries to prevent filming. The majority of officers are helpful to the cameraman in showing their collar numbers. ...

George Orwell never envisaged a version of 1984 in which the public are monitoring the authorities as closely as the authorities monitor the public!

http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/text/reports27-7-2012.html

Critical Mass London

Ride reports 27-7-2012

[from report by Paul:]

... Everywhere I looked ahead of me, there were lone cyclists being 'interviewed' by police. I somehow tried to keep my head down through the traffic, and eventually dismounted, hoping that it would give me a better chance at leniency. I walked past some officers on foot near the flyover, again expecting to be stopped and questioned, but fortunately they ignored me, and I was able to dock my bike at Bow Road station and get to the safety of the tube.

From a personal point of view, it was an exciting adventure, a spiced up version of Critical Mass where we managed to outwit London's 'finest'. I know though that I was inches away from having the horrible night that many of you endured, and I don't want my self-congratulatory prose to take anything away from the hardships faced by those that weren't so lucky. ...

http://road.cc/content/news/66610-most-critical-mass-cyclists-arrested-eve-olympics-will-go-free

Most Critical Mass cyclists arrested on eve of Olympics will go free

Sarah Barth,

13 Sep 2012

Most of the Critical Mass cycle protesters arrested on the eve of the Olympic Games in London will face no further action, solicitors representing protesters have said.

Of the 182 people arrested on the outskirts of the Olympic Park following a scuffle between police and Critical Mass riders, only 16 will be interviewed when they return to police stations next week.

Riders complained they were being kettled at around 22.30 on July 27, as the Olympic opening ceremony was underway in the main stadium.

https://network23.org/criticalmassdefence/

Critical Mass Defence (blog)

Please look at the Urgent Callout page ...

criticalmassdefence

29 Nov 2012

The majority of the 182 arrestees were given No Further Action in their cases, and only nine were finally charged. They are currently awaiting a full 5 day group trial in late February.

The trial of the Critical Mass 9, at Westminster Magistrates' Court, started on Monday 25 February 2013, and was expected to last four or five days.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3699653.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2013_02_27

The Times- Cities Fit For Cycling

Beckham delayed on opening ceremony day by police stand-off with cyclists

Kaya Burgess

26 Feb 2013

Geoff Gelbart, prosecuting, confirmed that the ride was a "procession" and not a "protest", but added that police feared there could be "attempts to infiltrate Critical Mass by other individuals or groups who would want to hijack Critical Mass for their own ends" and cited messages on online forums threatening to organise "mass anti-Olympic Games protests".

The defence did try to pursue the potentially explosive "police trolling" line with respect to the dodgy-looking Indymedia protest announcement, but were unsuccessful. Here, in case you were wondering, is the reasoning behind the claim:

http://netpol.org/2013/03/18/a-costly-creation-of-criminals-the-critical-mass-trials/

Netpol

A Costly Creation of Criminals – the Critical Mass trials

collaborative contribution by some of the Critical Mass Nine

18 Mar 2013

"The pretext – so-called 'intelligence' – was a single internet posting suggesting that people would 'cause chaos' in the West End on that evening. The police admitted that they had no other evidence for this planned event, no meetings, flyers or other internet presence; nor did they attempt to trace its origin. This creates a strong suspicion that the post was part of the police operation."

On Monday 4 March 2013, an interim ruling was made:

https://twitter.com/GBCLegal

Tweet, 4 Mar 2013, by Green & Black Cross, @GBCLegal

DJ finds use of s12 and conds 1 & 3 lawful. Charges dismissed against two defendants on question of knowledge of conds. #cm9

Tweet, 4 Mar 2013, by Green & Black Cross, @GBCLegal

We should maybe technically tweet with #cm7 now but for clarity's sake and #solidarity we will stick with #cm9.

[DJ = District Judge. After hearing a few more witnesses on 4-5 March, the case was adjourned until 13 March]

Tweet, 5 Mar 2013, by Green & Black Cross, @GBCLegal

Bicycle bells: how can you tell whether they are rung in a celebratory or an angry manner? #mybikebelldoesnthavethatsetting #cm9

One interesting feature of the trial was the discussion of the role of Protest Liaison Officers- the friendly ones whose job is to attempt to communicate with protestors.

http://netpol.org/2013/03/13/police-liaison-officers-intelligence-gathering-self-policing-and-the-dangers-of-talking-to-the-police/

Netpol: the network for police monitoring

Police Liaison Officers – Intelligence gathering, self-policing and the dangers of talking to the police

13 Mar 2013

... When cyclists assembled that evening they were greeted by the infamous baby blue bibs of the Protest Liaison Team, led by Bronze 521 Chief Inspector Sonia Davis. Davis, the most senior officer on the ground, was in command of six Protest Liaison officers who were briefed to communicate the specific conditions of the section 12 notice. This was important to the police, as only people who are aware of such conditions commit an offence by breaching them. The PLOs spoke to individuals and groups of cyclists, handing out s12 notices with maps. Then in September, as part of the ongoing prosecution, Davis viewed images of the arrestees to identify those she had spoken to on South Bank.

...

Davis was unable to deny that that gathering information and intelligence from members of the public forms part of the Police Liaison role: "Obviously, we want to gather information, but that's different to intelligence." "Intelligence", according to Davis, was narrowly defined as "information that has come from police sources and is acted upon". "Information" was anything else. This might include the demographic or the mood of the crowd, or personal data about individuals present. She said that unlike Forward Intelligence Team (FIT) officers, PLOs are not shown photographs of known individuals at their briefings, but that FIT officers would helpfully identify any trouble makers for them, and alert them when a 'person of interest' was present or approaching. ...

The article also reminded us that a United Nations Special Rapporteur had recently visited the UK to study its handling of protest, as Netpol had reported in detail a few weeks earlier:

http://netpol.org/2013/01/25/un-criticises-spycops-kettling-and-categorising-protest-as-domestic-extremism/

Netpol: the network for police monitoring

UN criticises spycops, kettling and categorising protest as 'domestic extremism'

25 Jan 2013

UN Special Rapporteur on rights to freedom of assembly and association, Mr Maina Kiai, has delivered preliminary findings on the current state of UK protest and assembly. ...

... when questions were put to him as to the mass kettling and arrests which took place at Critical Mass bike ride during the Olympics opening ceremony, the Rapporteur strongly reaffirmed his condemnation of police use of kettling, outrightly identifying it as 'wrong' and in breach of international human rights legislation. The use of disproportionately harsh bail conditions – also a feature of the Critical Mass arrests – was also criticised.

One amusing feature of the trial (and presumably many others in the same court) is that the Westminster Magistrates' Court complex at 181 Marylebone Road was only opened in summer 2012, replacing an old building on Horseferry Road, and not all navigation databases have been properly updated (at the time of writing, 16 March 2013, a Google Maps search, for example, shows the court at the old address, with the not-entirely-useful note "This place has closed or relocated"). This resulted in various witnesses being seriously delayed. However, progress was made, gradually, with the key matter of contention being whether, in the confused and noisy situation at the start of the Mass, defendants had actually received the Section 12 notification, either verbally or on paper:

https://twitter.com/GBCLegal

Tweet, 13 Mar 2013, by Green & Black Cross, @GBCLegal

One more defendant has had charges dropped after prosecution's closing submission. Insufficient evidence. 6 remain of the #cm9.

Tweet, 14 Mar 2013, by Green & Black Cross, @GBCLegal

5 guilty. 1 not guilty. #cm9

Tweet, 14 Mar 2013, by Green & Black Cross, @GBCLegal

4 of 5 defendants sentenced: conditional discharges + costs. 5th will be tomorrow morning. #cm9

The fifth guilty defendant received the same sentence. What I find curious is the lack of interest in the trial. Only about 20 people turned up on the first day to protest, and newspapers seem almost unanimously to have ignored it, from start to finish (The Guardian's Bike Blog of 18 March 2013 being the almost-inevitable exception http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2013/mar/18/police-activism ). Is this a sign of a general spirit of sourness against both sides in the case?

And now we return you to the stadium

[20:20 (still): The southeast steam engine comes to a halt, but the northwest one starts up (hesitantly), soon followed by the southwest. At the foot of the Tor, the Suffragettes repeat their Emily Wilding Davison performance]

[20:25: The lights dim, leaving the Industrial Land lit mostly by the glow of the foundry, and the M25 by sets of lamps at intervals round its outer edge]

[20:30: The cottage remains, having spent some time waiting for a chance to cross the M25, exit via the northwest vom just before the brass band reaches it. The steel band reaches the Tor bridge, and the Sergeant Peppers perform their bouncing routine south of the west vom]

[20:35: The Windrush reaches the northeast vom, where the carnival dancers are still twirling. The Chelsea Pensioners are a few metres from the northwest steps up to the Land]

20:40: general view of the arena, and direct overhead shot of Ring

[Also, four other Rings above the roof, round the perimeter of the stadium, start glowing red. BranaghBrunel walks north between the moshpits and turns at the edge of the M25 to survey the Industrial Land. The steel band is passing the foot of the Tor; the Jarrow marchers and the Windrush are about to meet a short way south of the northeast vom]

[20:45: The newsboys leave their sales pitch and follow the brass band southward past the northwest vom; the 1948 immigrants halt to let the Jarrow marchers pass. The floating Rings are now glowing orange; the Brunels are making energetic hammer-shovel process moves in the space at the north end of the Industrial Land. Both steam engines on the west side, and the one south of the newly-cast Ring, are working, but those in the east are being packed away]

[20:50: On the west side of the arena, the Sergeant Peppers start another of their circling routines. As the last Jarrow marchers pass their front rank, the 1948 immigrants start moving southward again]

[20:55: All the hundreds of Working Men and Women take several steps towards the new Ring. Up above, the other Rings, now bright orange, start floating towards the centre of the arena. The Chelsea Pensioners move off the M25 to occupy a patch of grass below the Industrial land, near the northwest vom. The carnival dancers emerge, at last, onto the M25 to follow the Windrush, the steel band having carefully left a gap for them. The Pearlies pass the southwest ramp to the Land. The Suffragettes split into two groups and move to the east and west flanks of the Tor (with the patient pair of banner holders still standing on a slightly higher terrace, below the mass of drummers)]

21:00: whistling theme returns over top of everything else, and 4 other rings are shown over the stadium roof

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsiE8yOBbUI Rehearsal footage by Dave Ryan )

Includes looms working, rings approaching etc.

[Down below, the Brunels move north between the moshpits again, and their place at the northern edge of the Industrial land is taken by dozens of workers armed with large floor-brushes]

[21:05: The brass band has to pause its march just south of the northwest vom, because the Sergeant Peppers are blocking the M25 with their circling routine]

21:10: The south steam engine on the west side comes to a halt, but its northern companion, and the one south of the Ring, are still working

21:15: The Brunels march north, towards the Tor, passing either side of the proud BranaghBrunel

21:20: another musical build from the choir, and the four Rings are shown gliding towards the centre of the stadium

This is, I think, the first time since 1996 in Atlanta that the Rings have been shown converging together from different parts of the Stadium. The idea behind that movement will be repeated at the climax of the ceremony.

[Also at this time, the southern weaving loom on the east side stops working, as does the steam engine south of the Ring. The foundry workers suddenly cease their energetic activity]

[21:25: The Pearlies reach the inactive Zoetrope Machine]

[21:30: All the Working Men and Women in the Industrial Land turn to face outwards. The Sergeant Peppers finish their circle routine and pass the brass band (who are still being followed by the newsboys). The Chelsea Pensioners, wearing what seem to be highly reflective white gloves, are waving energetically to the audience from their place on the grass verge]

[21:35: The WMWs begin striding out towards the edge of the Industrial Land, doing process moves, then the foundry workers (called "forgers and smelters" by the radio controller) back away from the Ring. The Brunels have all crossed the M25, and are standing between the two Suffragette groups at the foot of the Tor, with BranaghBrunel in the centre]

21:40: The WMWs with brushes at the north end of the Industrial Land are beating time with them

[as they are joined by more who have been collecting brushes from a stock by the M25 just west of the Tor. Although the brass band had passed the Sergeant Peppers on the inside, the newsboys suddenly veer right to pass them on the outside, perhaps in hope of selling a few papers to the front row of the audience]

[21:45: The lights go out on all the weaving looms, and the northwest steam engine comes to a halt]

[21:50: WMWs perform process moves at the edge of the Industrial Land; the Sergeant Peppers perform their bouncing routine just south of the northwest vom; much of the east side of the M25 is now occupied by 1948 immigrants, the Windrush, the carnival dancers and the steel band; the Jarrow marchers are passing the foot of the Tor]

[21:55: All the chimneys start sinking back into the ground, as does the tree still hovering over the summit of the Tor]

[22:00 on DVD the brass band is briefly seen marching by the waterwheel]

http://www.themouthpiece.com/vb/showthread.php?47621-Grimethorpe-Announcement/page11

Page 11 of a discussion on the lack of TV coverage of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band's two contributions to the Opening, including a summary by arranger & associate conductor Sandy Smith, with links to pictures.

[And the bright, newly-cast Ring starts rising up into the air]

[22:05: Nearly all WMWs are now at the edge of the Industrial Land, doing process moves; the Jarrow marchers are about to meet the Sergeant Peppers near the northwest vom. The newsboys have to abandon their sales pitch to the front rows as a 2012 tractor pulling trucks loaded with corn removed from the Green and Pleasant Land wants to get by]

22:10: the rising Ring appears on screen

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/the-big-story/engineering-the-london-2012-olympics-opening-ceremony/1013640.article

The Engineer

Engineering the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony

by Stephen Harris

23 Aug 2012

... Next came the 'forging' of the giant Olympic rings, which were filled with LEDs to make them glow like molten steel. As one rose from the centre of the stadium, another four flew in from platforms on the roof, positioned precisely to overlap to form an Olympic emblem in the sky. This required some careful programming to compensate for up to 3.5m of deflection in the aerial cables due to the changing loads on the system, which was also controlling the chimneys. 'You had to make sure you had included all the loads at a particular time on the system, because if one load wasn't there it would give it a different result so the rings would hit each other,' said Lee. ...

[James Lee, "flying technical manager"]

[22:15: foundry workers in full protective gear start crossing the empty ring mould to inspect the rising Ring from directly underneath]

22:20: on BBC, Hazel Irvine manages not quite to blow it with her commentary

[The Sergeant Peppers, just north of the northwest vom, start their bouncing routine again; the brass band is passing the southwest steps up to the Land]

[22:25: The newsboys, bless'em, move back to the outside of the M25 after the truck-train has passed]

[22:35: Now it's the Jarrow marchers' turn to make way for the truck train. All the foundry workers are now inside the Ring mould]

[22:40: DVD shows news vendors]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/london-games/games-opening-ceremony-showcases-the-best-of-british/story-e6frgdg6-1226437307343

The Australian

Olympic Games begin in British spirit

by: Peter Wilson in the Olympic Stadium

(with additions to August 13, 2012 12:30PM)

"The chimneys recreated the "dark Satanic mills" of the industrial revolution alongside marching trade unionists and a bedlam of different social groups as Boyle used a dash of historical honesty to meet the stunning standards set by the opening ceremonies of Beijing and Sydney.

There was even a nod to a lively free press, which is not the most popular institution in Britain at the moment, in the form of old-style street vendors selling the "Daily Sketch." "

It seems also that the news media were not entirely popular with the London Opening team, for this group of performers was barely mentioned in the Media Guide (appearing only in a list of the numbers in each group, without other explanation). Revenge for "spoilers", or a test to see how much of the press reporting of the Opening was not simply cribbed from the Media Guide? Certainly, few press reports seemed to notice the poor newsboys.

[22:45: The brass band reaches the "posh pit" at the south end of the arena]

[22:55: The chimneys have all disappeared back underground, as have most of the steam engines]

[23:00: The Tor tree is now firmly re-rooted. That annoying train of corn trucks is leaving via the northwest vom]

[23:02: The radio controller says "1-2-3 and stop"]

23:07: the Olympic symbol, now formed by the Rings, cascades fire; on BBC, Huw Edwards manages not quite to blow it with his commentary- but whether any comments were actually necessary is a moot point.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9435386/London-2012-How-the-might-of-the-industrial-revolution-was-created-on-stage.html

Daily Telegraph

London 2012: How the might of the industrial revolution was created on stage

by Patrick Sawer

28 Jul 2012

... When they were all in position, pyrotechnics were triggered by computer to create first a 15-second shower of silver sparks, followed by a 15-second shower of gold sparks. The 40-strong crew beneath were protected from the blinding light and heat of the sparks by fireproof overalls and welders' caps and goggles. The LED units inside each of the rings were created by Brighton-based Howard Eaton Lighting. ...

Those red-hot sparks, which can be seen in videos spattering on the stage below the Rings, may be a cheeky nod to Beijing, where the Rings, made from thousands of LED lights, appeared on TV to be the result of firework sparks falling from the stadium roof.

https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmcumeds/674/674.pdf

United Kingdom Parliament: House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee

Supporting the creative economy

Third Report of Session 2013-14

page: Ev 357

Olympic Rings Forged in HELL

After the lighting of the Olympic flame, perhaps the next most iconic moment of the Opening was the fiery appearance of the Olympic rings, built by HELL (Howard Eaton Lighting Ltd.). The rings were created from fibre glass-clad steel frame trusses, built in-house. Seven 90kg segments formed each 12m diameter circle. Attention was focussed on the centre ring, which was "forged" from molten steel during the industrial revolution scene: the other four rings were already flown above and concealed on the stadium roof. ...

After the games the steel frames went straight to be melted down, the fibreglass stripped for recycling, and all the PSUs, LEDS and DMX drivers returned to HELL for future projects.

http://www.q-sfx.co.uk/#!london-olympics-opening-ceremony/cb7g

Quantum Special Effects Corp.

London Olympics: Opening Ceremony

The iconic Molten Rings were the centerpiece of Danny Boyle's Opening Olympic Ceremony, and was our largest pyrotechnic challenge to date. After months of planning and development and working tirelessly to the intense schedule, the big moment arrived and the effect fired perfectly, wowing an audience of over a billion worldwide and featuring on the front page of 70 international newspapers.

http://www.whatsonstage.com/features/theatre/london/E8831343667038/Guest+Blog%3A+I+performed+in+the+Olympics+Opening+Ceremony.html

What's On Stage

Guest Blog: I performed in the Olympics Opening Ceremony

Mel West (Head of Drama and a teacher of English at a secondary school in Hampshire)

30 Jul 2012

... as we heard Evelyn Glennie beat out the opening rhythms of our symphony of destruction all our focus went towards the task at hand. We went to it as if our lives depended on it. As our music paused for the moment of remembrance a dreamlike stillness descended, and I was fully aware for the first time of the crackle of excitement from the crowd around us. As we picked up the pace for the final demolition, and turned at last to see the sparks showering from the rings above our heads, more than a few tears were shed. I felt close to drowning in the roar of the crowd and all of our steely, industrial determination melted into smiles of triumph and pride. ...

[Elegantly, as the cascade from the rings dies away, falling sparks are seen on the audience pixels]

[NBC cuts to commercial with: "We're back with a royal entrance you won't wanna miss. Much more from London straight ahead"]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvQUZmX-Mw

Behind the scenes of the London 2012 opening ceremony

by TheImaginationGroup

15 Aug 2012

[Video of the first 20 minutes or so of the Opening, as seen from high in one of the stands, with soundtrack of the radio instructions to performers, including click track.

During the Poppy Pause, the controllers take stock, and ask for Working Men and Women, who have no immediate duties, to help with removal of turf. Further appeals, a couple of minutes later, direct efforts more specifically to particular areas which are behind schedule.

As the performers exit after the joining of the Rings, the radio controller says: "You are now part of the cultural record of London for ever and ever" (there is an interesting little addition a few seconds later, however, as the performers make their exits along the aisles through the audience: "You do not have to go up through the Press, you can find other ways up through the- other than up through the Press. Guys who are going up through the Press, you can go other places in the stadium, please go, don't queue up through that Aisle 11"; either some performers were ignoring their proper exit routes in hope of getting their pictures in the newspapers, or the press photographers were using the aisle themselves as they nipped out of the noisy arena to phone their editors about splashing the amazing Rings across the next day's front page).]

See also:

https://soundcloud.com/neeki1/pandemonium-steve-and-rick

Audio of the earpiece instructions to the Pandemonium drummers

Boyle's biographer sums up the reaction of many in her introduction to the 2013 edition:

Danny Boyle: Creating Wonder

in conversation with Amy Raphael

Faber & Faber

Apr 2013

ISBN 978–0–571–30187–4 [Kindle edition- other editions also available]

... "the Olympic rings light up the stadium. They light up Britain. For a moment, they even light up the world. I find myself in tears. Because this is my country and I have never felt proud of it before." ...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=204&t=1178223&i=260

PistonHeads

Gassing Station 'The Pie & Piston' TV, Film & Radio: Opening Ceremony 2012

27 Jul 2012

[comment posted about 9:22pm by] Dr Jekyll- 16,195 posts / 199 months:

This thread is like Stadtler and Waldorf on the muppets.

Awful!

Terrible!

Disgraceful!

Well it wasn't that bad.

It was good!

Excellent!

Bravo!

Here's a chain of inventions taking place within a single lifetime; say, of somebody born on 17 January 1706 [actually that's an awkward choice, because until 1752 in Britain and its colonies, the year changed at Lady Day, 25 March, nine months before Christmas, so what we call January 1706 would then have been called January 1705, or 1705/6 by people who realised how daft the old system was].

1709: In Shropshire, Abraham Darby improved blast furnace technology (first invented thousands of years earlier by the Chinese, and apparently re-invented much later in western Europe) by using coal-based coke (first invented hundreds of years earlier by, er, the Chinese, and apparently re-invented a few decades before 1709 in England) instead of wood-based charcoal as fuel.

1712: In Staffordshire, or possibly somewhere nearer to his home town of Dartmouth in Devon, Thomas Newcomen made the first practical steam engine (based on earlier work by fellow-Devonian Thomas Savery and others). With the new blast-furnace technology, very large Newcomen engines could be manufactured in quantity, to pump water out of deep mines (so effectively, that in 1729, coal mines at Whitehaven in Cumberland were extended under the sea floor). This increased access to deep-mined reserves of coal and metal ores, so machinery and other metal goods could be manufactured more cheaply.

Over the next few decades, large numbers of large machines were increasingly installed together in "manufactories" and "mills", powered by waterwheels (the ancient Greeks seem to have had those centuries before the Chinese; yay Athens 2004, loved the lake). One of the first such projects was directly beneficial to China's exports- the industrialisation of silk thread making from 1717 (in Derbyshire) onward, based on earlier Italian technologies.

In Warwickshire in 1780-81, two different methods of converting the linear back-and-forth motion of a steam piston to steady rotary motion were developed, by James Pickard and by the firm of Boulton and Watt, using weighted wheels to preserve momentum. From this point on, steam engines could be used as an alternative to waterwheels for powering machinery.

In Leicestershire and Yorkshire from 1784-87, industrialisation was applied to another key textile process, with the development of the power weaving loom by Edmund Cartwright.

Our entirely hypothetical 1706-born person was still alive in 1787, dying at a grand old age on 17 April 1790. But he lived on the other side of the Atlantic, so he had to do his own inventing.

http://culturalsnow.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-olympic-opening-ceremony-being.html

cultural snow (blog)

by Tim Footman

Saturday, July 28, 2012

The Olympic opening ceremony: being Boyled

Was it really as cheeky and subversive as it seemed? Boyle wanted to make a story about revolutions but rather than Hegelian dialectic we got phallic chimneys appearing from the ersatz countryside as the industrial revolution brought pollution and capitalism to the countryside, turning everything dark and satanic. And yet Brunel and his top-hatted, bewhiskered chums were still presented as the good guys, forging the modern age and beginning a continuum that leads inexorably to a benign Tim Berners-Lee at his desk. Take that, greens and lefties alike.

http://www.martindurkin.com/short-thoughts/oh-danny-boyle-miserable-leftys-olympic-opening-ceremony

Martin Durkin: short thoughts

Oh Danny Boyle - Miserable Lefty's Olympic Opening Ceremony

by Martin Durkin

28 Jul 2012

... in the topsy-turvy world of Danny Boyle, industrial capitalism is what's wicked and shameful about Britain. ...

[comment by Erica Blair, 28 Jul 2012]

... Durkin is so thick he missed the fact that Boyle celebrated the Industrial Revolution with all its costs and benefits - who forged the Olympic rings you pillock?

Happy and Glorious

The official protocol for Olympic opening ceremonies states that the Head of State of the host country has to be welcomed to the stadium by the President of the International Olympic Committee. However, there's nothing in the rules to specify that this slightly tedious business has to be shown on television ...

24:35: title sequence

{^27.9m}

Every section of the Opening had a filmed title sequence, in an appropriate style (e.g. wood carving for "Green and Pleasant"; a computer printer for "Thanks Tim"), created by 59 Productions. These were shown on the upper stadium screens, but only a couple appeared on TV.

http://59productions.co.uk/project/olympic_title_stings

[Links to Vimeo videos of all the section titles created by 59 Productions, including a very interesting unused version of "Happy and Glorious".]

24:40: start of the film, featuring a taxi approaching Buckingham Palace as a party of Brazilian children (identifiable as such by the symbols on their caps) is being shown round. Over the next 90 seconds or so, we meet James Bond (looking a lot like actor Daniel Craig), some of the Queen's corgis, the Queen's personal footman Paul Whybrew, and H.M. Queen Elizabeth II herself

The New Elizabethan Age: Culture, Society and National Identity after World War II

edited by Irene Morra

I.B.Tauris, 2016

ISBN 9780857728678

Excerpts from a Q&A session organized by Scott Anthony "as part of the Public and Popular History programme at the University of Cambridge on 5 February 2014."

Frank Cottrell Boyce: [explaining that designer Mark Tildesley's imaginative proposal for the Queen's entrance remained on the team's Ideas Wall for a long time] "Eventually, about a year out, we got a producer, a very formidable woman called Tracey Seaward, who came in and tried to professionalize us a bit. So she looked at it and went 'What is this exactly?' 'This is Mark's idea of how to bring the Queen into the stadium; obvously it wouldn't work.' And she went, "I think we'll just phone up about that', and she put a letter together and the storyboard, this beautiful storyboard that Mark had drawn, and said to the Palace, "What we need is your permission to represent the monarch in this way and we need to know what she is wearing on the day' ..."

music: Handel's "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" from the oratorio "Solomon" (1748-9)

http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/george-frederic-handel

Westminster Abbey: Founded 960

George Frederic Handel

George Frederic Handel, the famous composer, is buried in the south transept of Westminster Abbey. He was born at Halle in Saxony in 1685, son of Georg and Dorothea, and died in London in 1759. He worked first at the opera house in Hamburg and spent several years in Italy before making his first visit to London in 1710. By 1717 he had settled permanently in England and in February 1727 was naturalized as an Englishman by Act of Parliament.

Months earlier, some alert person notified sensation-peddling newspaper The Sun that James Bond had been seen visiting Buckingham Palace. After further investigation, the paper published a report about Bond's involvement with the Olympic Opening Ceremony- in its April Fool's Day edition.

As Frank Cottrell Boyce noted in the 2016 BBC documentary about the ceremony: "It was the one time in its entire history that The Sun told the truth. And nobody believed it."

The Brazilian children came as quite a surprise to the lead commentator on the nation's Record TV network, who interjected a couple of seconds late, as if initially unable to believe his eyes: "Brasileira, de crianças brasileiras na residência oficial de sua Majestade!"

There were comments from some ceremony viewers about the odd, jerky style in which the corgis were filmed. Looking back to the then-most-recent Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," a plausible theory emerged:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JitterCam

tv tropes

Jitter Cam (trope entry)

Mocked in the opening video for the 2012 London Olympics, featuring Daniel Craig's James Bond. The Queen's corgis are shown running about... in the newest James Bond style of shaky-cam.

24:50: shadows indicate early evening (i.e. after 7pm British Summer Time)

26:10: time on clock in Palace shows 8-30

26:20: Bond, to the tune of Handel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks" (1749), escorts the Queen to a helicopter, which at

27:00: takes off (with music by Eric Coates from the 1955 film "The Dam Busters", about the development and use of "bouncing bombs" to destroy German dams in 1943) and flies over London (complete with animated statue of Sir Winston Churchill).

This flying sequence is a gentle reminder about the Second World War, in which, following the non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in August 1939, and the swift and utter failure of France's costly "Maginot Line" defences in May 1940, only Britain and its crumbling empire (plus, while they had the chance, the Greeks against the Italians) put up any effective resistance to Fascism until June 1941. The dam-busting bombs were just one of the more startling of a huge array of new weapons and defences developed by the British in the run-up to the war, and throughout its course.

One powerful person wanted the reminder to be a lot less gentle:

BBC TV

One Night In 2012: An Imagine Special

Interview segment with Stephen Daldry

2016

Divergence of taste, perhaps, one could call it- would be the polite way of talking about it. Jeremy Hunt- he sort-of wound up the Prime Minister to a certain extent- were very concerned with Britain's role in defeating, um, Fascism. ... And that sort-of went to the wire really, in the end Danny and I eventually had to go without Jeremy Hunt to see the Prime Minister and just explain that it wasn't going to happen; and actually in the end I thought David Cameron actually did just say, "Well, it's your ceremony and it's fine," is what he said at the meeting.

[The documentary then quotes a spokesman for Jeremy Hunt asserting that he was "a huge fan of the entire opening ceremony; in fact, he personally authorised an additional 40 million pounds to fund it." Unfortunately, as usual with politicians and money, that claim is not quite true: as noted earlier, the extra money was spread between all 2012's Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies, a doubling of the overall budget from an amount tens of millions of pounds less than what Beijing was estimated to have spent on its opening ceremony alone in 2008; this confusion between the opening ceremony budget and the total budget for all the ceremonies can be seen in some press reports, sometimes apparently compounded by conversions to and from US Dollars]

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-youth.html

Library of Congress: Exhibitions

Churchill and the Great Republic:An Age of Youth

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, to a British father and an American mother. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a British politician and aristocrat. His mother, Jennie Jerome, was the beautiful daughter of an American entrepreneur.

http://fxguide.com/featured/how-james-bond-met-the-queen-and-other-olympics-effects/

fxguide

How James Bond met the Queen, and other Olympics effects

by Ian Failes

c1 Aug 2012

In a rare collaboration between live production and visual effects, the Olympic opening ceremony director Danny Boyle called on long-term collaborators Union VFX to help with various aspects of the show. First, the team at Union helped previs the actual ceremony, and then also worked on the opening video, plus sequences in which Daniel 'James Bond' Craig meets the Queen, and a Chariots of Fire homage with Rowan Atkinson.

...

In a surprising twist to the opening ceremony, one video segment featured actor Daniel Craig as James Bond meeting the Queen and bringing her via helicopter – and then parachute – to the Olympic precinct. Production designer Mark Tildesley conceived and storyboarded the idea, with Union picking up several of the VFX elements required.

...

Union's visual effects work for the Bond and Queen segment included a couple of CG helicopter shots, a CG Winston Churchill statue brought to life and a number of sky replacements. However, the shot of the helicopter flying through the Tower Bridge was actually accomplished for real.

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=16365.0

Secret Projects [aerospace projects discussion forum]

topic: Olympics Opening Ceremony Helicopter

first post:

uk 75, August 02, 2012, 03:12:18 pm

I was waiting for someone to mention this one, but I may have missed it, so here goes. The use of an Agusta Westland helicopter (albeit not identified as such in the footage) to deliver 007 and "EIIR" to the Olympic site was a nice bit of product placement... Well, at least the filmmakers didnt take the lazy way out and use a hired Jet Ranger or other US type..

AeroFranz, August 02, 2012, 08:34:06 pm

... My understanding is that the opening ceremony was a celebration of all that is British, so using an AW139 (sort of UK product) makes sense.

27:30: Parliament clock shows 8-35

28:15: as helicopter flies through Tower Bridge, the sun is nearing the horizon

From all the internally consistent time indications in the film, it looks as if the next scene was originally intended to take place at the very beginning of the TV show, just after 9pm:

28:30: a helicopter appears live over the stadium (against a dark half-past-nineish sky). On BBC, Huw once more just barely #saves the surprise, and at

29:20: the Queen jumps from the helicopter, followed by Bond, as the James Bond theme (originally composed by Monty Norman, 1962) plays

[Note that the DVD, unlike the TV broadcast, darkens the scene in the helicopter to match better with the live conditions, and shows more of the Queen's descent in preference to the patriotic pixel display] [Note also that the two parachutes open in time with the music!]

Bearing in mind that the new Bond movie is called "Skyfall" this is a very nifty bit of free publicity (particularly as the film, like the Opening presentation, has something of a "new generation" theme) which may conceivably have justified the £27 million cost of the Opening Ceremony all by itself, given that by the end of 2012, "Skyfall" had taken, at the British box office alone, £50 million more than the previous Bond film, "Quantum of Solace". Note also that we can see the arena below has been completely cleared in under 4 minutes, and now shows the plain London map.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyCFfbSXEhc

DP/30: The Oral History Of Hollywood YouTube channel

DP/30: Trance, director Danny Boyle (spoilers)

Interview Mar 2013; released 20 Mar

Interviewer: "I give you credit for, you know, the success of the Bond movie [Skyfall] ..."

DB: "Well, I think we contributed to it. I think we, we certainly added to it; it was- priceless publicity. I think Barbara [Broccoli, producer] knew that; she was VERY helpful to us. She thought, 'If we can pull this off, it'll be like [DB makes open-hands, open-mouth gesture] UNBELIEVABLE'."

...

Interviewer: "You are, happy-go-lucky as usual. [laughs] It's funny, this movie is so dark, and some- so many of your movies are so dark, and you're so- don't seem very dark."

DB: "No! It's like, you get to exorcise all your- the darker instincts in the movies really; and it's especially true with this because peo- we- we kind-of shot this while we were d- doing the Olympic ceremony, which is a wholesome, family entertainment, national pride kind of thing. MEANWHILE, the Evil Twin of that, the evil twin sister [joke: Danny has a twin sister, Maria] is actually being made at night-time in 'Trance' and- so I love that, because you know it's like- and I love- I think the dark films, there's something delicious about the storytelling; that you can really- that you can take genres and kind-of mess with them, and, I love that side of film-making personally."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVmWV3cP_u8

YouTube

Concam Olympic games opening ceremony 2012 part2

by cmaccr2

27 Dec 2012

Activities of a Pandemonium miner, including the great tidy-up while the spectators are watching the James Bond interlude

[another low-quality, high-interest performer video; part 1, including emergence from inside the Tor, is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZNFZ2iZZmo ]

A little of the background to this performance was revealed in the television documentary Our Queen, broadcast on ITV in the UK, 17 March 2013. It was confirmed that the proposal was fully discussed by the Queen's advisors (but it was described as a "binary" decision- Yes or No- rather than attempting to impose changes). Additionally, Lord Coe reported that on the night, as the parachutists made their jump, he heard the words "Go Granny" from two very well-known young men sitting just behind him.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/olympics/4460237/London-2012-The-Queens-stunt-double-revealed-as-wingsuit-daredevil.html

The Queen's stunt double revealed as wingsuit daredevil

by staff reporter

28 Jul 2012

Gary Connery, dressed in an identical salmon outfit to Her Majesty, jumped from a helicopter above the stadium, alongside fellow parachutist Mark Sutton togged up as James Bond actor Daniel Craig. ...

After last night's jump Gary, from Henley-on-Thames, tweeted: "What an amazing experience at the opening ceremony. Love the dress, will see if I can keep it."...

Mr Connery, who admitted he was nervous beforehand, said he and Mr Sutton had a "tight" landing zone in the Olympic site.

"We landed on one of the bridges so part of our training had been landing on the various bridges and so it was quite a tight landing but that's what we do, it's professional, so I hope that everybody thought that they got the right people in for the job."

http://clairewillettwrites.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/claire-live-blogs-the-olympic-opening-ceremonies/

It's Kind of a Long Story (A girl who writes plays in Oregon and the strange things that happen to her)

Claire Live-Blogs the Olympic Opening Ceremonies

by Claire

27 Jul 2012

8:20: OH MY GOD YOU GUYS IT'S JAMES BOND AND THE QUEEN! Just kicking it in the royal helicopter LIKE YOU DO. How bad do I want them to be best friends in real life?? I am dying from how much I love this. I want an Olympic opening ceremonies spinoff buddy cop movie! And the random waving Brits are kind of adorbs.

8:24: THEY JUMPED OUT OF THE HELICOPTER TO THE SOUND OF THE JAMES BOND THEME SONG. YOU GUYS. I CANNOT EVEN HANDLE IT.

http://agentanachronism.dreamwidth.org/9216.html

agentanachronism's journal

2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony recap; from my living room in Queens...

by agentanachronism (aka Nella)

29 Jul 2012

(Yes, yes, it was a body double but STILL. THINK about that for a moment. Someone had to go to the Queen and say "Your Majesty; we'd like to depict you leaping out of a helicopter with the latest James Bond." And she AGREED.)

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=1453

Jew or Not Jew

Sam Mendes

[visit the site to learn Sam's Jew Score, and more silly stuff]

... when "American Beauty" came out, we ended up watching it in Germany ... the director of the film is not American at all, rather a Brit (Jewish mother, Trinidadian Portuguese father), Sam Mendes. ... Mendes' latest movie is the next installment of the James Bond franchise, "Skyfall". ...

29:50: as they float down on Union Flag parachutes to land just outside the stadium, the audience pixels and the running track show red white & blue patterns

https://blog.jscgi.com/2012/09/14/2012_ceremonies/

Jamie Shiels CGI

Working at Crystal CG on the London 2012 Olympic Ceremonies

by Jamie Shiels

Sep 2014

During the 7 months I worked on the project I was responsible for setting up all the pixel maps to enable the animators to produce the work for the audience pixels. This involved many challenges including creating After Effects templates that helped correct the distortions that the bowl like shape of the stadium naturally made. Another challenge was to create a process so we could work as if the image was being projected down onto the stadium, instead of working as if we were standing in the stadium, this was seen in the Opening ceremony with the Union Flag slowly rippling during the Queen and James Bonds parachute jump. These were just a few of the technical aspects that had to be figured out to make best use of the Audience Pixels.

Given the huge number of cables strung across the arena in all directions, trying to land inside the stadium would have been somewhere between embarrassing and suicidal. The best impression of the cable network, and of many other technical aspects of the production, is given in a presentation by several senior staff to the Professional Lighting and Sound Association:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0Z8pCTt1hE

lsionline

Backstage at the London 2012 Olympic Ceremonies

Presentation by Olympic OC technical team members at the PLASA Professional Development Programme 2012

Published 15 Oct 2012

[The presentation consists basically of short talks, but includes several short sequences showing the preparations for the four Olympic ceremonies, including a nerve-wracking test slide down the zip-wire from the top of the Orbit tower, seemingly doomed to tangle with some of the many cables]

https://www.avinteractive.com/case-studies/london-2012-17-09-2012/

AV Magazine

Case Studies: London 2012 was AV's innovation Games

by Brian Davis

17 Sep 2012

... London 2012 technical director Piers Shepperd takes up the story: "Our greatest challenge was probably co-ordination of all the different departments and the technology. Then making sure that all the technology - from pixels to audio, videobus and camera output - was seamless when it played back to the world."

So how did it all come together for the key opening ceremony? The answer was two-fold, says Shepperd: "We relied on old technology, having very robust stage management, physically calling the big cues over the intercom systems. Then layered behind that we used timecodes to accurately cue systems by department."

Contingency planning was also important. "There was a massive planning document and loads of rehearsal for the opening ceremony. For example, if the Olympic rings had got stuck, we'd have moved on to another video sequence as a fallback," he says. ...

https://www.live-production.tv/news/sports/riedel-london-olympic-games.html

Live Production

Riedel at the London Olympic Games

26/08/2012

The Ceremonies Project

Since April 2012 the opening and closing ceremonies were trained at two rehearsal sites in Dagenham. Riedel provided 1,400 wireless intercom systems for everyone involved in the production spanning from the stage managers, the show callers, the sound, effect and lighting specialists. In addition Riedel was supplying the in-ear mass monitoring equipment for the 14,500 actors on six different communication channels.

This year’s ceremony also marked a first as the artistic portion of the event was not produced by OBS. Instead, OBS focused on the ceremonial portion of the program while the artistic portion was covered by “Done and Dusted” with OBVans from CTV and Live TV. The two production feeds were weaved together by OBS to become one seamless production. That led to some complexity when the artistic production shifted to the Olympic protocol elements, like the parade and speeches that were produced by the OBS team. In order to maintain a consistent look both the OBS and CTV teams relied on Phillips LDK8000 camera matrices, providing a consistent image quality from one part of the ceremony to the next. Communications also needed to be integrated so all parties involved relied on Riedel intercom systems because the Riedel systems were very good at interfacing the nodes that were used by OBS and those used by the OBVans. This provided the technicians to reprogram the intercoms for days.

http://www.cammotion.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Isles-of-Wonder.pdf

Barrie Dodd on camerawork

http://wordpodcast.co.uk/2015/09/24/word-podcast-240-patrick-woodroffe/

Word Podcast 240 - Patrick Woodroffe

24 Sep 2015

David Hepworth & Mark Ellen podcast with lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe [mostly about his work with the Stones and other rock acts, but including two sections about an unsung hero of the event, Julia Whittle, who called the cues for the Vancouver, London and Sochi ceremonies, plus many, many other major events (her calm, methodical work can be heard at a couple of points in the BBC's "Imagine: One Night in 2012" documentary)]

Mark: With a show like that, is there one person in the stadium who's calling the shots?

Patrick: Oh yes- and her name is Julia. Julia is from Essex and she's the Show Caller ... Julia had 220 people on the com system .. I have the recordings of Julia calling 220 people, and calling the entrance to the Queen, and calling the helicopter, and calling the fireworks ...

[some time, and numerous Mick Jagger thoughts later...]

Patrick: There was an amazing helicopter pilot called Marc Wolff who was the James Bond helicopter pilot, and they practiced the things over and over and over again, so everything had to be called by the lovely* Julia from Essex, who would call the helicopter in from Position Bravo to Overhead, Stand By, Ready to Report [etc.] ... It was so complicated to say that they gave them code words ... It made it so exciting to hear it, and you'd hear Julia go, er, "Stand by, stand by heli overhead Oddjob, Oddjob, and report Thunderball."

"Roger ... stadium control, 527330 we have Thunderball, we have Thunderball."

... And then, the thing for the, the final thing, which was: My jumpers have gone and I'm clear- and you heard Marc with this pride in his voice, saying "527330 ... stadium control: Shaken, But Not Stirred."

[*"the lovely" is an extra bonus giggle for fans of the BBC radio show "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue"]

In another interview, Patrick explained some neat bits of co-operation:

http://www.lighting.co.uk/news/the-master-of-ceremonies/8635361.article

Lighting magazine

The master of ceremonies

by Jill Entwistle

5 Sep 2012

...he was fortunate to benefit from two lighting elements that were originally outside his remit - the roof and exterior lighting scheme by Durham Marenghi, and the paddle-shaped pixel tablets attached to every seat in the stadium, creating the largest-ever video screen. By calling cues to the Marenghi team, complementary scenes - red white and blue running around the top of the roof for the parachute drop, for instance - could be arranged.

The Pixel Paddles were also a 'huge gift', says Woodroffe. "We were very quick to grab them. In the times when there were no pixels, we used them as lights.

"Crystal CG, the programmer, created these beautiful textures and colours and ripples, so when the athletes came in, for instance, everything went blue with just flashes of strobes. So suddenly, rather than being a dull stadium lit in white, you had this beautifully composed blue background to all this cold, hard white light."

The stadium system used by Marenghi (the "paddles" here are not the pixel paddles but the triangular lighting towers):

https://www.lsionline.com/news/business/syncrolite-systems-at-the-summer-olympics--lvgkm7

Lighting & Sound International

Syncrolite systems at the Summer Olympics

31 Jul 2012

Fifty-four ArenaColors are flown on back of each paddle (four for each of 14 paddles). These are focused away from the FOP onto the upper exterior ring of the Stadium. These units allow colour changing and wash on a very large area.

... Syncrolite is lighting the entire exterior of the Olympic Stadium with only 40 Syncrolite XL 8000W fixtures. These units are two each on 20 towers spaced around the exterior and shoot approximately 150ft to the stadium wrap surface using OmniColor technology and Micro Lens Arrays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQtRW3cKWSg

London 2012 - Victoria Park

by Molly Tolzmann

Stills and excerpts from the Victoria Park big screen site, including the Queen's arrival (both on the screen and the helicopter in reality), plus the national anthem

30:10: Queen & Duke of Edinburgh & Jacques Rogge arrive

31:00: armed forces representatives bring in the Union Flag, and carry it to the flagpole

music here is the London Symphony Orchestra's interpretation of "Sundowner" by Blanck Mass (alias BJ Power of Fuck Buttons; the Fuck Buttons track "Olympians" was also featured during the Ns of the Parade of Nations)

http://www.arrse.co.uk/london-olympics-2012/185403-olympic-opening-ceremony-feedback-thread-3.html

Army Rumour Service

Olympic Opening Ceremony Feedback Thread

27-07-2012, 21:35, r031button

Well at least the RAF guy wasn't out in the public spot light while out of step

27-07-2012, 21:38, Jack H

Quote Originally Posted by Caecilius

"Crab out of step. How do you mess that up?"

[in Army slang, Royal Air Force personnel are "Crabs"]

Hehehe...years of practice!....

27-07-2012, 21:47, Auld-Yin

Quote Originally Posted by Caecilius

"Crab out of step. How do you mess that up?"

I think you'll find that the Crabs will claim that he was the only one in step!

32:40: Kaos signing choir, wearing pyjamas, performs the National Anthem acappella as the Union Flag is raised

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB3qX47mlzk

YouTube

Our time at the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

by TheKaosSigningChoir

5 Jun 2016

The choir's own 10-minute account of their Olympic adventure.

34:05: the Queen thinks "That song again; it seems to follow me everywhere I go"

http://agentanachronism.dreamwidth.org/9216.html

agentanachronism's journal

2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony recap; from my living room in Queens...

by agentanachronism (aka Nella)

29 Jul 2012

"I kept having to explain to people on twitter that yes, it sounds like the tune of "My Country Tis of Thee", but it was their tune first and let's be fair, our own National Anthem is sung to an old British Drinking song."

Second to the Right, and Straight on Till Morning

Quite close to the performance date, pressure came from high levels [apparently from several directions, so referred to here as "The Forces"] to cut this section, supposedly because of concerns about the ceremony ending too late for public transport:

BBC TV

One Night In 2012: An Imagine Special

Interview segment with Danny Boyle

2016

We did have some standoffs. You know- there were some moments, some big moments, yeah. The Forces wanted to cut one of the sequences; the NHS ... They wanted us to reduce that, or cut it, or make them just walk round the stadium ... That was against the very nature of what we'd built right from the very very beginning; it wasn't even about a particular sequence, it was about all the volunteers, and if you make these kind of statements and if you make this kind of an inclusive action of involving people in the process, you're not then gonna cut them at the end. And that was very important to us, and so, you- you have to put your foot down.

{^28.6m}

34:20: on BBC, Huw just about gets his brief introduction to this section in before the stadium announcer starts

In 2020 it became fashionable to focus on the sinister aspects of this scene- but even the most paranoid commentators missed the significance of the music which accompanies the animated title. It's "Rock-a-bye baby" which has some of the most quietly disturbing lyrics of any nursery rhyme.

34:30: the audience pixels show a heart-monitor pulse circling the stadium, and two of the upper screens show pre-natal ultrasound images; announcement "Please welcome Mike Oldfield, with the staff of the United Kingdom's National Health Service and our very special guests this evening, patients and staff from Great Ormond Street Hospital."

[In another of the more subtle aspects of the show, the first public dress rehearsal had used the wording "Please welcome to the stage Mike Oldfield, and the staff of the United Kingdom National Health Service and Great Ormond Street Hospital" - implying that the staff members who would be involved in the final show were rehearsing without any of the patients, while the final rehearsal had "Please welcome Mike Oldfield, and the staff of the United Kingdom National Health Service, and our very special guests this evening, the patients and staff of Great Ormond Street Hospital"- implying that a large number of patients and staff had been invited to sit in the main auditorium that night.]

https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/press-releases/incredible-honour-great-ormond-street-hospital-london-2012-olympic-opening-ceremony/

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

Incredible honour for Great Ormond Street Hospital at London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

28 Jul 2012, 5:25 p.m.

[Press release about the GOSH patients & staff involved in the ceremony]

The announcements in both French and English use the words "National Health Service" and "Great Ormond Street Hospital" so there's not much excuse for missing the significance of the initials "GOSH" and "NHS" displayed in the next few minutes, unless your local TV commentators talked over them. Oh .... really? NBC? Well that is a surprise ...

The music is Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" (album 1973, which remained in the UK chart for 279 weeks, and remarkably sold 200,000 copies more in Australia than in the USA) which was also used (against his wishes) in the soundtrack to one of the most disturbing films ever made, "The Exorcist". Given that this sequence, like the film, is showing us children in their sickbeds, we have reason to be very apprehensive.

BBC TV

One Night In 2012: An Imagine Special

Interview segment with Danny Boyle

2016

These spectacles can become slightly anodyne because they're all positive. They're just, like, bright, shining things; and it's a dramatist's instinct, isn't it- there's no light without the dark.

http://www.mikeoldfield.org/info/features/1953.htm

MUSIC FROM THE DARKNESS: Chapter One

Michael Gordon Oldfield was born on the 15th May 1953. His father was a practising GP in Reading whilst his mother, who suffered from a mental illness and was frequently in and out of hospital, had been employed as a nurse.

[GP= General Practitioner, a family doctor]

BBC 4 TV

Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story

contribution from Danny Boyle

Oct 2013

"Our starting point was music. For the second sequence in the Olympic Opening Ceremony it was Tubular Bells that we actually wanted to make a cornerstone of 20 minutes of the evening. It's tricky, 'cos you think "How's he going to react?" You know, we're not going to be able to play, all 40-odd minutes of it; you know it's gonna be a cut-down version- and I have to say, of all the collaborators that we worked with on it, he was extraordinary. Not only the ability to manipulate that tune in different ways, but also, his appetite for it, was amazing. He's had to be very very protective of the work, understandably, but with us he was like" [makes open-arms gesture]. "We started to put it together with this sequence which was born out of children's literature, and caring, and the villains in children's literature- 'cos the theme tune of The Exorcist, that made sense as a starting point for it, and then the celebratory sense of Tubular Bells was also good, because we wanted to celebrate the NHS, and we wanted to use a lot of the staff from the NHS to learn dancing."

36:40: patients & staff of GOSH shown on the Tor

At this point some explanation is needed, beginning with a slight digression. The mystery novelist Ellis Peters, creator of Brother Cadfael, also wrote in other genres. Like many other young women (even including, at her own insistence, teenage driver & mechanic Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II- see http://www.helensburgh-heritage.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=868:i-taught-the-queen-to-drive&catid=72:reminiscences&Itemid=493 ) she did military service during the Second World War. That experience, and the lessons she learned by working with so many other people towards a common goal, formed the basis of a novel, published in October 1942 under her real name Edith Pargeter, called "She Goes to War". In the last chapter, facing up to a future without the soldier she had loved, the central character reflects on her new understanding, and what she intends to do with it. In particular, she accepts her duty to fight, not just against Fascism, but for a better future, and she knows she is not alone:

"I've learned that my country, the Britain I hardly knew, is very much greater than I thought her, as well as very much less. I've discovered that the virtue and kindness and courage and constancy of her common people are beyond all praise, that they are the salt of the earth; that because they are what they are they have always won her victories, and always allowed the fruits of victory to be taken away from them; and that they have learned, too, so rapidly that this time, by God's grace, they will fight to keep their victory as they fought to win it." [Edith Pargeter, "She Goes To War", London, Heinemann, 1942]

Just after Pargeter's novel, in December 1942, appeared one of the most significant books in British history, "The Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services". This committee, led by economist Sir William Beveridge, had been set up in 1941 at the request of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Although Churchill in 1941 was leader of the nominally right-wing Conservative party, he had actually been a member of the more left-wing Liberal party in the early years of the 20th century, and worked with Beveridge on the introduction of schemes such as government-run Labour Exchanges to help match unemployed people with jobs. The report identified five great evils, want (i.e. poverty), ignorance, disease, squalor and idleness (i.e not performing either paid or unpaid work). In surveying existing provision to deal with these "five giants" it concluded that Britain was in most cases among the best-provided nations in the world- albeit as a result of piecemeal development, not rational planning, which had led to strange anomalies. When it came to health issues, however, there was clear evidence that Britain was lagging behind its peers. Beveridge proposed that the problems needed to be tackled all together, by "a comprehensive policy of social progress".

While the nation was at war, little could be done, but an important start was made with the Education Act of 1944. This raised the school leaving age to 15 for all children (implemented in 1947) with provision for a further rise to 16 when practicable. It also created a more logical system of local Education Authorities for administrative purposes, and a clear division between primary (generalised, up to age 11) and secondary education. The latter was to be delivered, where practical, via three different categories of school: secondary technical schools for those who, at 11, showed aptitude in subjects such as science and engineering; secondary modern schools for those who inclined more towards craft and domestic subjects; grammar schools for those who specialised in humanities, languages etc. In sparsely-populated areas where provision of separate schools was not economically practical, "comprehensive schools" merging all types would serve instead. The system as implemented had serious weaknesses, not least a continuing shortage of the "technical" schools which led the system to become polarised between "modern" and "grammar"- particularly unsatisfactory when combined with the use of examinations, rather than long-term assessment, to decide children's directions at age 11.

However, we're getting ahead of the story. The next major step, in 1945, was the Family Allowance Act, which directed Government money to mothers to create an economic cushion for children. That Act was also the work of Churchill's wartime government, but in July 1945, a few weeks after victory was secured in Europe, a General Election was held to restore normal democracy in place of the emergency government which had guided the United Kingdom through the war. The Conservative party, led by Churchill who had so brilliantly kept the nation going through the darkest years, was decisively voted out, and the Labour party was invited to put the Beveridge recommendations into effect, as quickly as possible. Realistically, that should have meant a very long delay indeed, for the nation was deeply in debt, and so were most possible international trade partners. Furthermore, the repair of war damage had to be a priority.

Fortunately, riding at the peak of his influence, British economist John Maynard Keynes was able to persuade the United States Government to continue lending to the UK on favourable terms (not favourable enough for some in Westminster, but Keynes was able to justify his decisions- only to find, early in 1946, that the Americans were set on converting their current economic influence into long-term domination, through amendments to the structures of the new World Bank and International Monetary Fund). In an attempt to avoid the worst of the problems which had followed the First World War, the Labour government nationalised key industries such as coal and electricity generation (1947) and railways (1948)- all preceded, in 1946, by the Bank of England, which had formerly belonged to private shareholders.

Concurrently with this effort, the great push to create the new, integrated Welfare State began. Repair and replacement of millions of war-damaged houses did contribute to the fight against squalor, and the new government encouraged large-scale building of new housing by local authorities. They went further, passing the New Towns Act 1946 which allowed the designation of rural land for the creation of completely new planned communities, the first being built alongside the ancient town of Stevenage. A new National Insurance Act was also passed in 1946, by which the existing scheme of "National Insurance" against health and unemployment problems, introduced by the Liberals in 1911, was redesigned and linked more closely with service provision. A single, universal, flat-rate contribution (originally just under 25p per week) gave access to unemployment benefits, pay during sick-leave, maternity leave, pensions and other allowances (at the rate of £1.30 per week for a single person, £2.10 per week for a couple). A linked Industrial Injuries Act allowed for enhanced payments to those who were injured in the course of their work. The National Health Service Act was also passed in 1946, scheduled to come into effect on 5 July 1948 (by the way, Scotland had separate but parallel legislation, which is one reason why today its National Health Service is run quite differently from that in England and Wales; Scotland also has deep-fried Mars Bars, which is one reason why its people don't benefit quite as much from the NHS as they ought to).

Meanwhile, nearly all of Europe's nations were struggling to rebuild their economies after the Second World War (not helped by a bitterly cold and snowy winter at the beginning of 1947). Succeeding better than most, thanks to utterly ruthless policies, was Stalin's Soviet Union, which was consequently able to exert a growing influence. The American answer to this was more money, provided from 1948 onward under the Marshall Plan, and Britain was the largest recipient (unfortunately for the long-term health of the British economy). In the short term, the arrangement provided a lifeline (or, as some would see it, enough rope...) to allow the continuation of the Welfare State scheme, while maintaining the nation's troublesome imperial responsibilities. It also encouraged Britons to purchase American goods, thus continuing the cultural impetus of the GI invasion in the lead-up to D-Day.

1948 legislation to build the Welfare State included the National Assistance Act, providing a safety net for those who fell outside the bounds of the 1946 reforms, such as the disabled. However, the major event of the year was, of course, the unveiling of the National Health Service. Among the factors nobody had fully allowed for was the possibility that the cumulative efects of better healthcare, better living conditions, better diet etc. would raise the average life expectancy at birth to quite astonishing heights. An average English/Welsh person born in 1948 could then expect to live until about 2016- age 68. In reality, the current estimate is that that person will live almost to the age of 80, and maybe just miss out on the 2028 Olympic Games.

In some other countries, of course, they know what's really going on:

http://gianelloni.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/2012-olympic-opening-freak-show/

Gianelloni Family

2012 Olympic Opening Freak Show

by Gianelloni

29 Jul 2012

[comment by Lorene Saccone, 30 Jul 2012]

The whole thing was boring and ridiculous! This is the mind set of social medicine...and it's the model of the big pharm companies! Celebrate illness, make the sick kids around the world feel good and okay that they are sick, cause, look, you're on television.

37m: party like it's 1948

http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20120808_1.htm Thinking Faith

Writing History: The Opening Ceremony in its Author's Words

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

8 Aug 2012

When I turned up at the beginning of the process I got out my laptop and started typing. Danny Boyle told me to put it away. He spent months just encouraging us to collect and share things - songs, poems, images - that moved or excited us. In the end, a pattern began to emerge. I was amazed on the night how many of those first images found their place in the show, often in the most unexpected of places. Danny had a photo of a young woman swing dancing, purse in hand, in a dance hall in the fifties. It was drenched in energy and hope. Somehow it became that brilliant, baffling NHS sequence.

Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice

Beyond the island story?: The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games as public history

by Catherine Baker

2015 (vol. 19, p416)

[on the politics of the ceremony in general and the NHS sequence in particular]

... if one at least accepts Boyle's argument that he intended to contribute to a national historical narrative rather than make a temporary intervention against a particular government policy, something distinctive about the mode of historical representation in the opening ceremony can be identified: what might be called 'mosaic history', that is, the conceiving of the nation as a multiplicity of stories rather than as one single collective experience.

"Tubular Bells" eventually spawned a Mk 2 and a Mk 3 version, sections of which are incorporated in tonight's performance. Oldfield explained how Danny Boyle came to pick him for the Olympics:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9431694/Mike-Oldfield-interview-How-Tubular-Bells-led-me-to-the-Olympic-opening-ceremony.html

Mike Oldfield interview: How 'Tubular Bells' led me to the Olympic opening ceremony

by Craig McLean

28 July 2012

He played Oldfield a mock-up video of a section of the embryonic opening ceremony. He'd used a large part of a performance, titled Tubular Bells III, that the songwriter had staged in Horse Guards Parade in 1998. "Typically, it bucketed down with rain," remembers Oldfield. "And typically, the British decided, 'well, to hell with this, we're gonna have fun anyway.' And it turned out to be a raging success."

But even Oldfield was surprised by what happened next:

"He sent me a Benny Goodman track...At first I thought, 'you can't, no.' Then I started playing around with the sequences and mocking something up and thought, 'it really does work, yes.'"

So, instead of the expected "Exorcist" nightmare, the show takes a spectacular lurch into swing dancing. With 1948 medical staff played by real 2012 medical staff (to the cast and crew, this section was known as "Swing Out Sisters"). Despite the lack of rain, the daft spirit of the Tubular Bells III performance lives on.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2181464/Paul-McCartney-paid-1-Olympics-opening-ceremony-performance.html

This Is Money

Don't spend it all at once: McCartney and other London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony stars paid £1 to perform

Tara Evans

31 July 2012

Organisers of the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony say that former Beatle Paul McCartney and other star performers were paid as little as £1.

Rapper Dizzee Rascal, singer Emeli Sande, indie band Arctic Monkeys and rock star Mike Oldfield all performed at Friday night's spectacle.

The musicians originally agreed to perform for free but the inclusion of the token fee meant that contracts were legally binding, according to games organisers Locog.

https://www.standard.co.uk/olympics/olympic-news/team-db-the-people-who-helped-create-danny-boyles-extraordinary-vision-7987305.html

Evening Standard [London]

Team DB: the people who helped create Danny Boyle's extraordinary vision

by Liz Hoggard

30 July 2012

Temujin Gill and Sunanda Biswas

Co-choreographers

On the night: Choreographed NHS sequence Swing Out Sisters, featuring 352 beds and 600 dancing staff.

Pedigree: Gill is an associate artist at Greenwich Dance, a former Jiving Lindy Hopper and founder of Temujin Dance. He created the Lindy Hop extravaganza for Ray Davies's Meltdown Festival 2011, and performed as one of the horses on stage in Equus with Daniel Radcliffe. His long-term dance partner Biswas (B-Girl) is founder of Flowzaic, the UK's first all-female breaking crew. She choreographed the film Fishtank and has worked with Take That.

http://blog.osirra.com/2012/08/03/the-olympics-opening-ceremony-my-review/

Tangential Ramblings

Dan from London

The Olympics opening ceremony: my review

August 3, 2012

Bedtime reading gives way to swing dancing and on-bed leaping (much to the joy of my daughter-a special late-night treat for her to watch this), and then soothing music and the children sleep.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/27/olympic-opening-ceremony

The Guardian

Danny Boyle's Olympic opening ceremony: madcap, surreal and moving

Owen Gibson, Olympics editor

Friday 27 July 2012 22.00 BST

[comment:]

Heretica, 28 July 2012 1:30PM

Response to horemheb, 28 July 2012 8:18AM: "... and the NHS ..."

A totally, horrendously, Americanised sequence, in case you hadn't noticed which you apparently didn't -- implication being privatisation with health insurance. No wonder Cameron liked it so much.

The likely inspiration for the dancing medical staff is the extraordinary 1986 BBC television series "The Singing Detective," in which a mystery writer driven delirious by the pain of his skin disease imagines he is his 1940s detective hero. The staff of his hospital ward become part of his hallucination, dancing to the big band music in his head.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/29/olympics-opening-ceremony-review-hats-off-danny-boy.html

The Daily Beast

Olympics Opening-Ceremonies Review: Hats Off, Danny Boy

by Simon Schama Jul 29, 2012 7:09 AM EDT

There was a lot of Potter at work here. Not Harry despite, the blow-up Voldemort and J.K. Rowling reading from somewhere remote, but the late, great Dennis Potter: the unrepentant lefty, Orwellian satirist, and fiendishly inventive playwright whose The Singing Detective (with Michael Gambon turning in a staggering piece of acting) is still one of the great free-form masterpieces of modern television, by turns suicidally bitter and redemptively sweet and constantly harking back to Potter's own childhood ...

http://www.birdsontheblog.co.uk/the-olympic-opening-ceremony-explained/

Birds on the Blog

The Olympics Opening Ceremony explained

by Sarah Arrow

28 Jul 2012

... The dancing nurses apparently freaked some people out, as it appears they are nurses in real life too. Here in the UK we might be a bit more relaxed; you see, we have not outlawed our nurses from dancing, yet.

http://www.standard.co.uk/olympics/olympic-news/this-is-for-everyone-the-peoples-opening-ceremony-7987292.html

Evening Standard [London]

This is for everyone. The People's Opening Ceremony

by Sophie Goodchild (Health and Social Affairs Correspondent) [+ others as noted]

30 July 2012

... Jackie Serrano, 38, a staff nurse at UCLH [University College London Hospitals] who lives in Tottenham Court Rd:

"There was a bit of drama during rehearsals with sprains. I ended up hitting my ankle on one of the beds. They were quite heavy.

"The nurses all had code names. Mine was 'M25 nurse' because we were positioned around the stadium. We had to wear false eyelashes, bright red lipstick and wore petticoats. It was all very glamorous. We had make-up artists and stylists come in to show us how to put our hair up.

"I enjoyed the rehearsals so much. The commitment was incredible. There were people from Cambridge, Salford -some of the girls haven't seen their children for days because they work full-time and the rest of the time they've been rehearsing."

The most detailed volunteer account of this section seems to be the set of six blog posts by student and amateur dancer Mark Green, beginning with:

http://markgreensworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/the-olympic-experience-part-one/

http://markgreensworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/the-olympic-experience-part-two/

Mark Green's World

The Olympic Experience, Part Two

by Mark Green

19 Apr 2013

First off, with two people per bed, in theory you cannot create a tight shape without one of them getting crushed. Second, with roughly eight hundred people and four hundred beds involved, what might have seemed like a good idea on paper did a few times turn out to be unmanageable.

http://www.community-links.org/linksuk/?p=3405

community links

The Best Day Ever

by Mia

31 Jul 2012

I was wearing very comfortable pyjamas and they put my hair into high pigtails. I really liked my costume because and it kept me warm on the cold nights when we were out in the stadium practising. We did so much practising but it was worth it because at the start after about three rehearsals we had done, I got a bit confused but they really helped me out so I learnt what I needed to do. I kept all the plans a secret because the person organising it said it to us specifically that this is like a birthday surprise so please don't tell anyone. People, like my Uncle I think, said to me I'll pay you a thousand pounds if you tell me, but I didn't because I would have felt awful.

[Up in the aisles of the auditorium, a spot of pup-play is in progress, featuring a large number of Dalmatians]

{v28m}

37:50: dancing ends and kids doze off

38:20: aerial shot shows beds now as crescent moon

39:00: girl reading under the bedclothes, soon featuring JK Rowling reading from the first chapter of "Peter Pan"

Although the TV coverage did indeed give the impression that JKR was "somewhere remote" she was in fact standing right next to the GOSH special guests on the Tor. She shares with Mike Oldfield the honour of having a debut work which went on to multimillion sales, and launched a decades-long career, rejected by all major publishers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01mx27g

BBC Radio 4

Front Row: J.K. Rowling

interview by Mark Lawson

27 Sep 2012

"... I had said "No" for months. I mean, um, nobody was badgering me for months, but I was asked about a year before the ceremony, would I participate, and I just said "No, I'd be far too scared, sorry, can't do that." And then- it was Danny Boyle- came back through someone else and said "Oh, go on" and I said "No, I'm sorry I just can't, too frightened" and then finally he said "Oh can we just meet and talk?"- well of course Danny is the most persuasive, fantastic person in the world, so the moment you meet him you're- you're lost ... your resolve crumbles completely, so he told me exactly what was going to happen in the opening ceremony, and I said "Ohhhhhh, alright then" and then spent about five, six weeks being terrified. But it was- I'm so glad I did it. I'm so glad I did, it was one of the best things I've ever done."

[39:15: DVD shows JKR's name on the audience pixels]

[39:35: evil eyes shown on audience pixels]

39:40: nightmares begin

{^28.3m}

Close inspection of the big, old-fashioned looking hardback books being read by JKR and the young girl reveals that they are not titled "Peter Pan" but "The Isles of Wonder". In December 2013, a rehearsal copy was auctioned on Ebay, and the sale description explained that it contained short excerpts (one page, with a facing illustration) from each of the five children's classics referenced in the nightmare section. This, presumably, was part of the overall policy of having backups and alternatives wherever possible.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/between-the-covers-05082012-8007535.html

The Independent

Between the Covers

5 Aug 2012

The book from which JK Rowling read (the beginning of J M Barrie's Peter Pan) at the Olympics opening ceremony was made for the occasion by the Wyvern Bindery in London. Inside the 10-page The Isles of Wonder - Between the Covers can exclusively reveal - were excerpts from Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and 101 Dalmations.

The music for most of this section is adapted from the final part of "Tubular Bells III" ("Far Above the Clouds")

Ignoring for now the monsters rising from some of the beds, and the child-catcher's ominous prison carriage, take a closer look at those dark, scampering figures which are infesting the arena.

Closer.

Closer....

Yes, they're in a form of blackface. Black make-up with pale (green) highlights around the eyes. For 2012, that really is a bit bold.

Given that swarming and scampering creatures of the dark in children's literature, such as the Dementors, or the svart-alfar of Alan Garner's "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen" tend to be described as pale-skinned* (indeed Garner also specifically mentions the "nut-brown" complexion of one of the magical good guys) what are we to make of this Olympic decision? If, like so much else in the presentation, it has a sociopolitical intent, I'd have to guess that it is an attempt to reclaim the real black. If we're going to use the term "black" to describe people whose ancestors in relatively recent times have lived in Africa south of the Sahara, then some people are going to have to get used to the idea that "black" is really the correct word for an absence of reflected and/or transmitted light.

* "Attack the Block" is not children's literature- and besides, in that case the most notable facial feature is not eyes.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/28/1114490/-The-very-British-bits-in-the-Opening-Ceremony-explored

by RiverCityMadman on Sat Jul 28, 2012 at 09:53:47 AM PDT

Wasn't the child catcher an add-on for the movie version? Admittedly, the script (written by Roald Dahl, from the book by Ian Fleming) was also British. I just found it...odd.

by niemann on Sat Jul 28, 2012 at 09:50:39 PM PDT

Yes, he was. I was surprised some years ago to finally read the book of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and to find how very different it is from the film.

The book does come across as much more of an Ian Fleming story, plausibly from the same mind that created James Bond; whereas the movie seems much more of a Roald Dahl story, more in line with themes found in his works, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.

The Childcatcher creates a peripheral puzzle of the Opening. The actor/skater playing the part is not listed in the ceremony credits (the only reference being the copyright clearance for use of the character, who was definitely not played by the only credited male professional skater, "Starlight Express" veteran Leroy Ricardo Jones, nor indeed by the only credited female skater, Amanda Valentine Constantinou, who was playing a Dementor). British viewers who have commented online identify him as Noel Fielding, familiar from numerous TV comedy shows and a performer in the first annual Channel 4 Comedy Gala, 2010, in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital. I agree with this identification, but if it was Noel, he's being very modest; Fielding-friendly website thevelvetonion.com does not even deign to mention the online speculation. Also unhelpful is this photo posted by make-up artist Noella:

http://distilleryimage5.s3.amazonaws.com/1c126f3e709811e28e7522000a1fbe50_7.jpg

Removing prosthetic piece for the child catcher in opening ceremony of the Olympics!

And I don't know how much reliance can be placed on this:

http://myceremony.co.uk/My_Ceremony_Experience/Second_on_the_Right.html

which has pictures of the anonymous performer in and out of make-up (accessed 8 Apr 2013)

http://meetmeatmikes.com/was-noel-fielding-child-catcher-at/

Meet Me At Mike's

:: WAS NOEL FIELDING THE CHILD CATCHER AT THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY?!

by Pip Lincolne

28 Jul 2012

[Comment by EMIRIYAKI, August 1, 2012 at 1:21 AM]

Hello Everyone! I was the childcatcher in the Olympic opening ceremony 2012... I am Colombian figure skater ?? glad you like the show xxx

- doesn't really get us very far; the only Colombian Emiriyaki I can find is a publicist and former food blogger from Bogota ...

http://www.panmacmillan.com/author/frankcottrellboyce

Frank Cottrell Boyce (page about the author of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again")

A Note from Frank Cottrell Boyce

The very first film I saw in the cinema was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I remember two things about the occasion -one was that we were taken to the pick 'n'mix in Woolies and actually allowed to choose our own sweets (I went for Cherry Lips). The other was the moment when Chitty drove off the edge of the cliff and the whole building rang with howls, first of fear and then frustration as the image froze and the word 'Intermission' blazed across the screen. I sat through the next ten minutes not even looking at the sweets I'd so carefully picked and mixed, just waiting for the film to start up again.

It was the day I discovered that a story could be even better than Cherry Lips!

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-660027.html

Straight Dope Message Board

2012 Olympics Opening Ceremonies

Left Hand of Dorkness

29 Jul 2012

We've been watching a bit of it each night with our 3-year-old daughter. Last night the bit about nightmares was seriously terrifying for her, but not necessarily in a bad way; we had a conversation about how sometimes people tell stories about scary things to help them understand the scary things, and then talked about children and bad dreams and adults.

http://adam-wright.com/news/page/2/

Queen Of Hearts Summer 2012

July 29, 2013

Worked at Artem as part of a team designing and making this pop-up and inflatable puppet, its part of the opening London Games. It lifted out of a bed that raised up and could rotate 360 degrees via people on the ground, one performer inside the body who lifted the body up and operated the arms and a mouth.

https://puppetswithguts.com/shows/olympic-opening-ceremony/

Puppets With Guts

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

Lead by Blind Summit Theatre with puppeteering from Ivan Thorley, artistic direction from Danny Boyle Artistic Director Ivan Thorley was one of several puppeteers operating The Queen of Hearts in the Pandemonium section of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium, led by Blind Summit Theatre with overall artistic direction by Danny Boyle.

It's unlikely to be a coincidence that there are five big monsters (Voldemort, Cruella de Vil, the Child Catcher, Captain Hook and the Queen of Hearts). Remember the Beveridge Report? Also, I'd suggest that the "children's literature" theme is commemorating the educational aspect of the 1940s reforms, rather than the NHS.

A brief aside: isn't it lovely how British author E.L. James has created a trio of bestsellers by the simple device of exploiting the essential perviness at the heart of the teen "Twilight" books? Of course, the notion can be taken too literally, as now seems to have been the case with 1940s pioneer dance DJ turned 1960s TV star Jimmy Savile:

"... he seemed at first to identify a bit too much with the kids. It was all right though. For all his flamboyance he was very strict about sex and things like that. He was very religious too which was a good thing, even if he went on about it rather a lot." [George Melly, "Revolt Into Style" 1970]

41:50: for most British viewers the biggest nightmare of all, the BBC's Trevor Nelson gabbling about nothing of importance, as the sequence approaches its climax (note, meanwhile, that the medical staff have been hypnotised, and are moving their bodies in unison but not getting anything done)

42:05: arrival of the Poppinses

[Accompanied, in best pantomime style, by hearty encouragement from the Mechanicals for the spectators to help save the day by waving those pixel paddles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReJjvlipXpM

Tribute to the NHS/children's literature

by mjb22

9 Aug 2012

[The last few minutes of "Second to the Right", from low down in the audience, showing the hypnotised medical staff on the outer track, Voldemort's wand in action, and the Poppinses, plus some energetic waving of pixel paddles]

On the topic of Voldemort's wand: it worked perfectly at the first public dress rehearsal on 23 July, but in the final rehearsal on 25 July, it got tangled, and ended up pointing directly at Voldemort's own chest. No Avada Kedavra spells were performed that night.

Also between the first dress rehearsal and the final performance, a major change was made to the imagery seen on the audience pixels while Mary is shooing away the monsters. On 23 July, they showed tumbling umbrellas and cute birds (very much in the spirit of the Disney film) but by performance day, these had been replaced by a scene of blue sky and fluffy clouds.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180227/London-2012-Olympics-Some-Americans-left-baffled-tribute-NHS-Mary-Poppins-Opening-Ceremony.html

Daily Mail

Americans baffled by 'left-wing tribute' to free healthcare during Opening Ceremonies

Beth Stebner

28 Jul 2012

[comment:]

29 Jul 2012, martin a (Stoke on Trent)

if you look carefully, mary poplins only saves the day when she releases the nurses from the zombie like trance state inflicted by lord voldemort. if you're looking for significance in that you might say that this represents the oppressive layers of bureaucracy and half baked "initiatives" that hamper the excellent professionals of the nhs from doing the jobs they should be doing rather than being data entry/ form filling/ desk bound "zombies" that successive governments have increasingly turned them into.

Well, it's a plausible theory. In general, though, what are we to make of a phalanx of Poppinses? More specifically, what are we to make of their quantity, and the lack of colour in their clothing (the 1964 Disney version of Mary Poppins set off her dark outdoor wear with a bright scarf)? Say hello to Nurse Matilda, known in her 2005 cinematic incarnation as Nanny McPhee. First appearing in 1964, Nurse Matilda was darker than the Disney Mary, both in her garb and in her behaviour, yet she is clearly a Poppins avatar. My suspicion is that the existence of Matilda / McPhee (considerably more Emma Thompson-esque in the films than in the book illustrations) was the spur to all that followed.

In the 21st century, the magically powerful, dangerous, playful, caring woman has become a primal shaper of the universe, the embodiment of the forces for positive development that steer existence between the extremes of chaos and stasis. So she is presented in Neil Gaiman's work (notably his troubling take on C.S. Lewis's Narnia fantasies, "The Problem of Susan") and, most graphically, in "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century: 2009" by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, where she reveals the truth about herself when facing down a teenage wizard who has been horribly corrupted by evil during his magical schooling.

http://www.thecontrarianmedia.com/2012/07/mary-poppins-vs-voldemort/

The Contrarian

Mary Poppins vs. Voldemort

Posted by: Casey Rae

July 25, 2012

I read her to be nothing less than the feminine aspect of Godhead, Abraxas or what-have-you -perhaps even the Almighty Herself. As Moore's Poppins relates, "I rocked the baby gods to sleep before time started...and I am companion to the women who paste up the stars. The quarters of the world are bound unto my compass. I have taken tea with earthquakes. I know what the bee knows..."

No, I'm not going to discuss other possible influences of LoEG on the Olympic opening, for the simple reason that LoEG is just too much larger on the inside than it is on the outside, but I think we can take as read the basic principle that the Olympic team are very much in tune with the way Alan Moore works. So anyway, yes, multiple Poppinses banishing the Five Giants by their mere presence, because that's the nature of Poppins in the modern multiverse.

But there's more! There is a common phrase in Britain "the nanny state", which is used to describe a certain sort of over-protectiveness often manifested by government agencies, that risks dampening individual effort and initiative. One of the defining characteristics of Poppinses is their sense of timing; they arrive when most needed, and leave the moment the need is gone (deliberately disregarding any attachment their clients may have formed). That, too is the way the Welfare State is supposed to work, just providing support when necessary. That the system often does not manage to work in that way is interesting; can it be improved without too many awkward side-effects?

43:10: In Dulci Jubilo (one English translation is "Good Christian Men Rejoice")

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-LDOOFU-O8 - published on 12 Sep 2012 by eddyk3 - is a short video showing the audience waving their pixel paddles during "In Dulci Jubilo" )

In the 1970s, Mike Oldfield, who had been a folk musician in his teens, had a tradition of counterpointing his own compositions with versions of traditional tunes. Although the "proper" ending for Tubular Bells is a sailors' hornpipe, to honour the childhood theme of this section the team chose Oldfield's 1975 hit version (UK #4, and now part of the nation's traditional festive radio soundtrack; Netherlands #2) of a probably-medieval German tune celebrating the most famous birth of all time.

44:35: end of In Dulci Jubilo; time to settle down

[44:55: DVD shows the sections of the Giant Baby's head unfolding from beds, then the sheet over its giant bed being waved by lines of nurses either side]

[45:15: DVD close-up of nurses waving the Giant Baby's sheet]

45:20: aerial shot of the Giant Baby, showing the rippling effect on the sheet

http://jesusbroadfield.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/london-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on/

jesusbroadfield, blog [British, claims to have an Argentinian father, which would change the pronunciation a bit]

July 28, 2012

Giant baby, not unlike the dead one from Trainspotting. Nice tribute to the NHS.

http://news.sky.com/story/966116/olympics-opening-ceremony-a-hit-around-globe

Sky News

Olympics Opening Ceremony A Hit Around Globe

by Jonathan Samuels (Australia Correspondent)

28 Jul 2012

[comment by Nikki Emerson, 28 Jul 2012]

My son said the big baby was creepy & 2 seconds later the NBC correspondent said the same thing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9434802/London-2012-Diary-of-an-Opening-Ceremony-volunteer.html

Daily Telegraph

London 2012: Diary of an Opening Ceremony volunteer

Sarah Butler

29 Jul 2012

20 July ... The dancers in the nurse routine are amazing, full of fun and energy, but an inflatable Voldemort refuses to go back in his box after his big moment and the enormous baby's head -which marks their finale -gets stuck half-formed. More work to be done.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01l8rbx

BBC Radio 4

Front Row, featuring Mike Kelt of theatrical prop company Artem

interview by Kirsty Lang

3 Aug 2012

Kirsty: "How do you keep a giant baby secret?"

Mike: "Well, that wasn't so difficult because it was- the- we didn't actually deliver the- the final bits of it until the last dress rehearsal. [laughs]"

On the DVD commentary, Boyle and Boyce confirm that the Giant Baby never really worked properly in rehearsal. It is not mentioned in the official Media Guide to the ceremony, as its inclusion was a last-minute act of faith. And note how the sections of baby's head, as they opened out from the beds, looked like pages of books, making it a contender for the most mixed metaphor in Olympic history.

Opening Ceremony Media Guide

"Images we see on the screens include an ultrasound scan of a baby in the womb. The technique of using ultrasound in ante-natal care was developed by, among others, Professor Ian McDonald and Dr Stuart Campbell, both from Scotland."

The ultrasound connection would explain the rippling effect where the baby's body should be. For some historical background, see

http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/history1.html

Presumably this particular development in medical technology was chosen to link in with the section's theme of childhood nurturing, but it has to stand as a small token of a much wider sphere of activity. The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology / Medicine was jointly won by British genetic researcher Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent" (i.e. they can be converted to adaptable "stem cells"). There were also British winners or joint winners of the same prize in 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2001 (etc. back to the second ever award, in 1902). And where would TV crime shows with the letters I, S and C in the titles (not necessarily in that order) be without the analysis of the form of DNA (as featured in the Athens 2004 Olympic Opening) at Cambridge in the early 1950s and the development of DNA profiling at Leicester in the 1980s?

[45:35: DVD only? Giant Baby shown again, this time with the join across its forehead very evident]

45:45: end of Oldfield music

{=28.3m}

Inevitably, not quite all the dancers in this sequence were real NHS staff; there was at least one other occupation which had to be included:

http://visitenglandblog.com/back-stage-at-the-olympic-opening-ceremony-with-laura-porter/

Visit England

Backstage at the Olympic Opening Ceremony

by Laura Porter [freelance journalist / blogger]

30 Jul 2012

... We got to keep our costumes so 1940s style nurses were spotted out in London all throughout the night. We had spent so much time together over the last few months -often more than with our family. Saying goodbye was hard and many went out to party for the night as the adrenalin just doesn't stop that quickly after performing in front of billions of people worldwide. Everyone we passed wanted their photo taken with us. We must have been quite a sight as we all looked alike with our meticulous hair and makeup, like some sort of nurse clones. ...

(Due to the vast numbers involved, performers could not hang around backstage to watch the remainder of the live show when they had finished)

And finally:

http://www.lsionline.co.uk/news/story/Tait-s-Olympic-Opening-Ceremony-hospital-beds-head-to-Tunisia/-HV690X

L&Si Online

Tait's Olympic Opening Ceremony hospital beds head to Tunisia

by Claire Beeson

30 July 2012

After the Opening Ceremony, a team of 15 volunteers will spend three days removing the LED pillows and duvets, batteries and wiring required for the production to turn the beds into functioning hospital beds. These beds will then be delivered to Hospital Habis Burguiba De Medenine and Hospital de Taouine in Tunisia.

Chariots de Feu

46:15: as lights on NHS beds go out one by one, announcement of the London Symphony Orchestra playing Chariots of Fire (written by Vangelis Papathanassiou during his 12-year residence in London), "as a tribute to the British film industry"

47:05: Chariots starts with orchestral introduction

47:20: the distinctive one-note synth pulse starts; camera reveals Rowan Atkinson playing

mere seconds later: {^29.1m}

BBC Radio 3

Proms Lecture

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

16 July 2016

[Off-the-cuff response from the post-lecture discussion]

We worked in Three Mills Studios and as the months went by it got fuller and fuller and fuller, and every now and then Danny would call people in and say "Give me- ten British pop singles that you know," and those people were from all over the world and it would- would be such an eye-opener. And this is no disrespect but, er, we would never have been fans of Mr Bean, we were ASTONISHED at how much traction he had globally. We- it was amazing; like nobody hadn't heard of him [brief banter ensues] and that was a really kind of humiliating, or great, lesson for me, 'cos I just, er, took it upon, er, gah, I don't know what, you know, I took it upon myself to write a Mr Bean bit, and it was like this incredibly complicated falling over, rings going up in the air thing and: they took it to Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson and he just went, "Oh it'll just be funny if I just do that".

And it- 'cos like that is real artistry isn't it, and; yeah. In my vanity I thought he would need help being funny. From me.

https://suuuz.wordpress.com/2012/07/

A Whole Lot of Blah

The Olympics are Here!

by Aussieforgood

28 Jul 2012

My favorite part of the ceremony was Chariots of Fire, although my first thought was, beh, I don't want to listen to an orchestra for the next 5 minutes until I looked up and there was Mr Bean 'ruining it' for everyone. I couldn't stop laughing.

http://tseretniw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/i-love-olympics.html

Winterism blog [Winter is a young woman from Canada]

London 2012 - Opening Ceremony

Brilliant. I think we can all agree that this was one of the, if not the biggest highlight of the whole show. Everyone knows Mr. Bean. I don't think I have ever in my life heard a bad thing about this character. It was the perfect choice for Boyle to put Rowan Atkinson in the show. I feel a little bad for the orchestra being overshadowed, but it would have been a little boring to just sit there for the duration of Chariots of Fire watching them play. It was a great way to put that piece in and keep people watching.

We may be seeing another riposte to Zhang Yimou's Beijing 2008 Opening here; Rowan's finger and umbrella-tip playing the single note are probably the smallest live events ever to have entertained a stadium audience.

Now here's a funny thing: Rowan Atkinson's status in the Opening is somewhat unusual. He is, at the end of his performance, identified by the stadium announcers- but even in the Media Guide it is never explicitly stated that he is playing Mr Bean. We are just left to assume, from the multiplicity of references to Bean, including the internationally successful film "Mr Bean's Holiday", and the corresponding absence of references to the slightly-less-successful "Johnny English" films, that Bean is being portrayed here.

Blackadder (as "The Black Adder") makes a separate appearance later, and British audiences at least are likely to have been reminded of the quietly apocalyptic ending to his fourth incarnation during the earlier "poppy pause".

http://www.avclub.com/articles/olympics-opening-ceremonies,82935/

A.V. Club

The 2012 Summer Olympics

by Noel Murray

27 Jul 2012

As for Boyle's salute to socialized medicine, at least it was coupled with an appreciation of the great British children's literature, featuring a reading from J.K. Rowling, and a scene where giant inflatables of Voldemort, Captain Hook and Cruella De Vil were vanquished by a descending army of Mary Poppinses. Scoff if you must, but my kids were still awake and watching that part of the show, and my daughter-a voracious reader-was delighted. (She also just about hit the floor laughing at the sketch where an exaggeratedly bored Rowan Atkinson played the repetitive synthesizer part of the Chariots Of Fire theme.)

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1696007/london-2012-opening-ceremony-9pm-27th-july-2012-on-bbc-one/p24

Digital Spy forums

London 2012 Opening Ceremony 9pm 27th July 2012 on BBC One

Dakota, 20.57: It's quite emotional really, the event that's been spoken about for the past seven years is moments away from starting. Let's hope it lives up to the hype it's created after all the time

[Deleted User], 20.59: The little girl playing a cello taller than her was adorable

penelopesimpson, 21.08: I can't believe what I'm watching. Maybe it's so clever I don't get it but I think it is absolutely terrible.

Cookmeparsnips, 21.15: I just pd myself laughing at the chimneys 'majestically rising'. I don't know if it's cos I've had too much wine, or cos it's ridiculously and randomly phallic. Still, cheered me up a bit.

square_eyes, 21.16: This is just grim. Looks utterly awful. Not how I'd want my country represented.

kibblerok, 21.28: This is fantastic so far, loving the soundtrack.

A bit quirky but I've not seen an opening ceremony quite like it, and for once it feels I'm watching a ceremony, and not a performance from a distance.

horwichallstars, 21.41: My 6 yeear old has hidden under a blanket !! bless

An important point to remember- children tend not to use adult social media, and so their opinions are under-represented when considering reactions to a "family oriented" event like this. Here are a few thoughts from Mumsnet:

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/london2012/1527560-OLYMPIC-OPENING-CEREMONY-THREAD-PART-2?pg=4

Mumsnet

Olympic Opening Ceremony thread, part 2

treedelivery Fri 27-Jul-12 21:37:26 [i.e., during the NHS section]

My dd is laughing her head off. She has a few trips to hospital and plans to bounce on the beds next time she is in.

lambethlil Fri 27-Jul-12 21:41:57 [i.e. during the monsters section]

Yikes@its a knock out heads- 3 screaming kids here.

Jenny70 Fri 27-Jul-12 21:50:10

My DS is in hysterics at Mr Bean!

moosemama Fri 27-Jul-12 21:50:37

Dcs loving Mr Bean!

Evilwater Fri 27-Jul-12 21:52:57

Btw my unborn son is loving this,

janji Fri 27-Jul-12 21:53:02

Am loving this!! Dc so excited! Brill family tele!

With a limit of 1,000 posts per thread, the Mumsnetters got through four threads during the London Opening. Unlike many on Twitter and Facebook, they weren't trying to be funny or smart, just expressing their feelings as the evening progressed. As a result, in addition to providing clues about children's reactions, Mumsnet probably provides the best moment-by-moment indicator of how a wide audience perceived the event. Part 1 is at:

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/london2012/a1526605-OLYMPIC-OPENING-CEREMONY-THREAD

Some more parental contributions:

http://nikkistafford.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/what-i-learned-from-olympic-opening.html

Nik at Nite

What I Learned from the Olympic Opening Ceremonies

by Nikki Stafford (a Joss Whedon expert)

28 Jul 2012

... I had to explain James Bond to my daughter, and I said, "He's part of the queen's secret service; basically a spy who goes to other countries in the name of England." She thought I was talking about a real guy ...

[comment by Erin {pughs' news}, 28 Jul 2012]

My kids love Mr Bean. They were SO excited to see him at the Olympics! My eldest was laughing so hard when he jumped into that car, he got the hiccups. And then for the rest of the night, they both kept asking me, "When are we going to see Mr Bean again?"

http://www.magicmum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=212&t=440420

MagicMum (An Irish forum for mums and mums-to-be)

Topic: not loving the olympic opening ceremony *

[comment by Gertrude, 27 Jul 2012, 21:20]

Thought the same at first but once it got going i started to get into the swing of it.

The kids are enjoying it, with the older two trying to identify each age it goes through.

* The topic title later morphed into "now loving the olympic opening ceremony"

http://slouchingtowardsthatcham.com/2012/07/28/10-more-thoughts-on-london-2012s-olympic-opening-ceremony/

Slouching Towards Thatcham (Tales from the front-line of fatherhood)

by Tim (father of three)

28 Jul 2012

[comment by Jed Bartlet, 29 Jul 2012]:

... Rowan Atkinson didn't particularly do it for me, but my two kids absolutely loved that bit. Loved it. ...

[comment by Tim, 31 Jul 2012]

... The more time passes since the opening ceremony, the more I like it. The bits I wasn't so keen on fade in the memory, leaving only a surprisingly large number of good recollections. ...

http://www.designweek.co.uk/analysis/the-london-2012-olympics-opening-ceremony-what-did-you-think/3034992.article

Design Week

The London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony - what did you think?

contribution by Scott McCubbin (Associate Director, Uniform)

30 Jul 2012

... One report from a Liverpool bar described how Chinese visitors thought the Rowan Atkinson skit was so hilarious that one quite literally fell off his seat while videoing the TV on his phone. My own seven year-old boy spent the next two days re-telling the story of the Queen parachuting into the stadium. ...

http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2012/07/haggerston-park-crowd-give-mixed-views-on-olympics-opening/

EASTLONDONLINES ["produced by journalism students at Goldsmiths, University of London"]

Haggerston Park crowd share views on Opening Ceremony

by Ines O'Gorman

30 Jul 2012

While an estimated billion people tuned in to see Danny Boyle's Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday night, several thousand made their way to Haggerston Park in Hackney to watch it on the big screen.

...

Cathal Turley, 29, banker, Wapping:

"I thought it started pretty poor but in the end it was good. I think the music was great, they did a lot there. They went through every genre of music which I really enjoyed. The Cure coming on was my favourite bit of the whole ceremony and Mr Bean".

The Cure?

It must be noted that both live and filmed portions of the Atkinson segment are based on earlier ideas. A New Zealand contributor to the Gamesbids forum pointed out the following YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebC6eZmqCm8

showing that the multitalented French director, writer and actor Patrice Leconte did the "really bored and frustrated musician" schtick two decades earlier with "Le batteur du Boléro" (but in defence of Atkinson and scriptwriter Richard Curtis, I'd have to say that Leconte's version didn't do the concept full justice; also they were probably aware of an even earlier orchestra sketch, created in 1959 by British comedian Charlie Drake, and remade by him in 1967 for a "best of" show called "The World of Charlie Drake," which featured, among many other things, repeated shots of a musician who had almost nothing to do at all-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZM33ynvBKg ).

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2012/07/oh_how_i_wish_you_could_hear_t.html

Chicago Sun Times

Oh, how I wish you could hear this!

by Roger Ebert on July 28, 2012 11:20 AM

[comment:]

Mark in Auburn, New York, 28 Jul 2012

... the "Chariots Of Fire" video had me saying "It's been done" as it reminded me of all the Billy Crystal film inserts we've seen at the Oscars.

- which is of course true, but if we're going down that route, wasn't Billy Crystal basically ripping off earlier gems by the likes of Woody Allen and Buster Keaton? Here, though, is a rather interesting criticism:

http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/07/28/london-2012-most-political-olympics-opening-ceremony-since-berlin-1936/

The Roar: Your Sports Opinion

London 2012: Most political Olympics opening ceremony since Berlin 1936

by Spiro Zavos

28 Jul 2012

[comment:]

29 Jul 2012, ItsJustNotCricket

... I'm REALLY hoping the skit with Mr Ban in the Chariots of Fire clip was not intended the way it could be interpreted ie a thumbs up the nose gesture to the Chinese (Eric Liddle is regarded by many in China to be the first China Olympian) by having a bumbling, incompetent but oh so British Mr Bean trip him up and run on to victory. ...

It took me a while, a fair amount of trial and error, and some very slow viewings of the original film and the 2012 version, to work out what exactly was done here. At first I thought that the 2012 version had cut directly from the opening shot of the original film to new footage, but Danny Boyle said otherwise on the DVD commentary, and sure enough, on close inspection, it turned out that the shot immediately after the first cut was also from the original film, with the head of Rowan Atkinson painstakingly superimposed on a runner just behind Ian Charleson's Eric Liddell. The next cut does take us to completely new footage, as Atkinson is elbowed aside by another runner coming up from behind, played by Stephen Campbell Moore. It is Moore whom Atkinson trips at the end, not Charleson as Liddell, so ItsJustNotCricket need not worry.

We must indeed presume that the Opening team were well aware of the China connection. Eric Liddell, son of a Scotish missionary couple, was born in Tientsin [modern transliteration Tianjin], China, but was educated in Scotland, where he became both a runner and a member of the national Rugby Union team. In 1925, after his 1924 Olympic 400 metre sprint win, he returned to China to follow in his parents' footsteps as a missionary and teacher. He chose to stay during the Second World War, and died there, of a brain tumour, in February 1945. In literal terms, he was the first Chinese-born person ever to win an Olympic gold medal, and his loyalty to the country has been repaid with considerable respect. In conclusion, I don't think the sketch was meant as "thumbs up the nose" but rather perhaps the opposite, an acknowledgement that Britain has often been characterised more by ingenious deviousness than honesty or honour.

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1143328/Samsung-among-brands-fleeting-roles-Opening-Ceremony/

Marketing magazine

Samsung among brands with fleeting roles in Opening Ceremony

by Matthew Chapman, 30 July 2012, 12:15pm

... A Samsung phone was also featured in the routine where Mr Bean played 'Chariots of Fire'. Mr Bean pulled out a Galaxy Ace to take a picture of the stadium. ...

A screenshot of a tweet supposedly sent by Mr Bean at this time later appeared on social media, but it seems to be a fake; the @_bean_ account from which it was allegedly sent belongs to somebody else entirely.

About four minutes into this sketch, a note of comic confusion was added to Barry Davies' commentary for Olympic Broadcasting Services. He had deliberately not talked over the orchestra's performance, even when Mr Bean appeared, and somebody seems to have rung him to ask whether his microphone was switched off. It wasn't, and he didn't switch it off before answering the call.

http://www.iainfarrington.com/olympics.html

Iain Farrington

Olympics Opening Ceremony London 2012

In May 2012, I received a phone call asking whether I could play the piano in a comedy sketch for the London Olympics Opening Ceremony. Once I had checked that this wasn't some elaborate prank, I accepted.

... thankfully all the acting was by that comic genius Rowan Atkinson in a rendition of the Chariots of Fire theme, complete with a big Romantic piano part. We met at the Olympic Stadium the week before the show, without the orchestra, and the advice he gave was simple - play the music straight and don't look round.

http://contemplatingtheclouds.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/london-2012-olympic-opening-ceremony-utterly-mad-utterly-inspired/

[aka] What do you see when you stare out the window?

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Utterly Mad, Utterly Inspired

by Craig (from Edinburgh)

28 Jul 2012

... we all know what Chariots of Fire music means -St Andrews. Yes, the dream sequence. IT'S WEST SANDS!!!!! I was watching with a group of fellow St Andreans and had Twitter open. We almost jumped for joy, Twitter virtually exploded with excited alumni. I used to live two minutes from West Sands, so I have many fond memories of it -running down towards that beautiful skyline, the waves gently lapping around my feet, and yes, that music going through my head.

http://www.leftbackinthechangingroom.com/2012/07/behind-scenes-at-opening-ceremony.html

Left Back In the Changing Room

Behind the scenes at the Opening Ceremony...

by Phil Goose (guest blogger)

31 Jul 2012

Back in early April this year, an advert went out through the sports centre of the University of St Andrews, where until very recently I was a student. 'Wanted, 25 athletic men for BBC promo'. ...

We were each given a LOCOG non-disclosure form, and from then on in we could tell no-one about it. It was a Chariots of Fire piece, it was for the Olympic Opening Ceremony- and it was to be directed by Danny Boyle. ...

Once down on the beach we were told there were going to be two actors taking part in the sketch with us. One turned out to be Stephen Moore, most famous for The History Boys. The other was codenamed ...

... we would have to wait for the right amount of cloud cover, and then we may have to reset again as the tide kept continually coming in and out, as it does. This meant we were standing around on cold, wet sand for most of the time, and if not, running on a cold, wet uneven surface. The principal actors got whisked off inbetween shots to keep themselves warm, and we were handed out trackies. Nevertheless, I don't think I have ever said "JC it's cold" with such frequency in a 48 hour period. ...

After the Olympics, Rowan Atkinson spent quite a while in serious mode, notably in his membership of the "Reform Section 5" campaign (referring to Section 5 of the aforementioned 1986 Public Order Act, which was originally aimed at the sort of "hate speech" techniques once employed by the Nazis, but ended up being applied to even mildly insulting words relating to minority groups:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIR73WVfC9c ). However, after the Government accepted an amendment to drop the word "insult" from the law in January 2013, he had a chance to relax (well, and to promote his new stage acting role).

http://www.theartsdesk.com/comedy/theartsdesk-qa-comedian-rowan-atkinson

theartsdesk

theartsdesk Q&A: Comedian Rowan Atkinson

Interview by Jasper Rees

19 Jan 2013

What's interesting is that I couldn't play the C sharp. I had to play the D. The C sharp's a black note that you can't keep an umbrella tip on while playing repeatedly. Very very difficult. We discovered that fairly early on. I am surprised that no one's written in and said, "You're a semitone sharp."

In the above interview, Atkinson does also effectively confirm that his unnamed character was Mr Bean. However, in an earlier interview (while still mostly in "serious mode") he said otherwise:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/9690459/Rowan-Atkinson-Goodbye-Mr-Bean.html

Daily Telegraph

Rowan Atkinson: Goodbye, Mr Bean?

Dominic Cavendish

21 Nov 2012

Performing at the Olympic Stadium this summer held little terror for him, he says. ... His wordless antics were hailed by some, understandably enough, as being in character as Mr Bean. They weren't and, also for the record, he thinks his bug-eyed creation may well be nearing the end of the line.

Danny Boyle reports in the updated version of his biography that the character's name was actually Derek, evidently an LSO musician who reacts to drawing the short straw in "Chariots of Fire" by channeling his inner Bean.

PS: In the Telegraph intervew, Atkinson also highlighted the success and importance of "#savethesurprise":

"I think we benefited hugely from the element of surprise. In the modern media age, we are rarely surprised by what we see. Whether it's on television or film or in the theatre, everything is so advertised, so trailed, that most entertainment is merely what you thought it was going to be like. The idea of sitting down in front of something about which you know absolutely nothing is very rare and that's what we had."

The punctuation of the cultural presentation, every 15 minutes or so, by short inserts like the Bean sequence, is interesting. The logical thing to do with such a hiatus in a live event, if you happen to be an advertising-funded broadcaster, would be to cram in a few commercials. However, once broadcasters learned the content of the inserts, they found themselves in an impossible dilemma. This Olympic Opening Ceremony, like the dramatic, comedic, balletic 45-minute flow which has earned Association Football the sobriquet "The Beautiful Game", sharply highlighted the need for commercial broadcasters to vary their funding models for certain categories of programme (as usual, unlike Beijing, which helpfully provided a short video about the art of writing around 15 minutes in; a short marionette performance just before the half-hour; random fireworks around 44 minutes, etc.).

{^29.3m}- UK peak audience of the century so far

51:35: end of Bean sequence (after announcement of Rowan Atkinson)

http://scsacrossthepond.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/reporting-from-opening-ceremonies/

Across the Pond: Santa Cruz Sentinel power couple covers the London Olympics

Reporting from opening ceremonies

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Julie Jag

9:51 p.m: Not only do I love Chariots of Fire, but I also love British humor. Rowan Atkinson was hilarious in that skit.

And while it was going on, an entire house and mountain were built.

About that "mountain"- Messrs Boyle and Boyce confirmed in their DVD commentary that the giant blow-up house on which scenes were projected for the next sequence did not inflate quite as well as it should. The first shots of it (coming up in a couple of minutes) show it looking much more like a mountain than a house, but it just about got there in the end. Julie corrected herself later in her liveblog!

June (not Frankie just yet)

51:45: captions held up for "Frankie and June say Thanks Tim"

Throughout this section, handheld captions denote simple person-to-person speech; a variety of superimposed captions indicate phone speech, texting etc. Frankie is probably not named for the ceremony scriptwriter, but for Danny Boyle's late father, whose birthday was 27 July. For video coverage of small details, including the use of the Zorb balls, don't forget:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHpqYlLSMU8 Published on 29 Jul 2012 by AlexBDA

which includes most of this section.

51:50: car heard approaching

52:00: six pips

The "six pips" - short sine-wave tones which can be used to give a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown to the exact hour- marked by the start of the sixth, longer pip- were first broadcast by the BBC in 1924, from a clock at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (updated several times since, and now based on atomic time standards generated by the National Physical Laboratory for a continuous broadcast service). Although the pips are extremely accurate in their original long-wave broadcast form, from a single transmitter in the English Midlands, listeners today are likely to be using digital radio or online services, on which they are significantly delayed by coding and decoding processes.

52:10: car (Mini) enters

music: an old-fashioned British light orchestral piece: to be precise, the early BBC Newsreel theme "Girls in Grey"

You don't actually need to know the specific title of the music to get the impression of quaint, old-fashioned Britishness, but as it happens, the DVD edit reveals that the caption "BBC News and Newsreel" was shown at this point on the audience pixels.

http://www.rfsoc.org.uk/jim42.shtml

The Robert Farnon Society website

Journal Into Melody: The Nostalgic Delights of BBC Television Newsreel

By Peter Luck

... in 1948 the BBC began to make its own newsreel style programmes, recruiting senior journalists from the established newsreels. These films were light in content but tended to be deferential to the political establishment. BBC Television Newsreel was launched on Monday 5th January of that year, on a weekly basis. ...

The programme's title music was changed to Charles Williams' composition 'Girls in Grey' in February 1949.

Very briefly- the British Broadcasting Corporation was originally established as the "British Broadcasting Company" after the success of radio in America forced the British government to allow regular public broadcasting- and I'm typing these words 90 years and one day after its first broadcast on 14 November 1922. Experimental television transmissions followed in 1932, but the regular "high definition" (actually lower resolution than modern standard definition) TV service established in 1936 had to close down at the start of the Second World War, reopening in 1946. John Reith, the first general manager of the company (later Director General of the corporation) defined the BBC's mission in three terms:

1: Inform

52:30: car driving

music: another old-fashioned tumty-tumty British light orchestral piece, actually "The Archers" theme tune

http://www.rippingalevillage.co.uk/RippingaleRecentHistory-RippingalesArchers.htm

Rippingale Village

Rippingale - Birthplace of the Archers

by Jim Latham

... The BBC called a conference of farmers, farming organisations and Government departments, to develop ideas how to make farmers move with the times and finally on 3rd June 1948, everyone came together - so many they booked the Council Chamber at Birmingham Town Hall. It lasted all day - suggestions, ideas, discussions, arguments - but nothing new, nothing which clicked until, almost at the end of the meeting, a man stood up at the back of the hall. It was Henry Burtt [of Rippingale, Lincolnshire, a world expert on seed crops] and what he had to say was the real birth of The Archers, - "I've listened very carefully to all that has been said and discussed, but it seems to me that what is really wanted is a farming Dick Barton" and he then sat down. Heads turned, there was loud laughter - "What on earth was he talking about?" It brought the meeting to a close.

"Dick Barton - Special Agent," was the most popular radio programme of the day with an audience of 25 million - a melodrama which left Mr Barton in startling, cliff-hanger situations at the end of every episode. ...

It is not clear whether the BBC were aware that such a strategy had already been implemented in Australia, with Gwen Meredith's "The Lawsons," which had begun in 1944 (and would be succeeded in 1949 by her less disaster-dominated "Blue Hills"). The BBC decided to try the idea, so after a period of script development and consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture, the pilot for "The Archers" was broadcast in May 1950, and the soap opera to promote farming knowhow began its run on 1 January 1951. It is still broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015, with an audience of millions (but with a lot less practical farming information these days).

2: Educate

3: Entertain

PS on Minis:

http://www.insidethegames.biz/olympics/sponsors/17303-italian-job-drives-into-london-2012

Inside the Games

"Italian Job" drives into London 2012

by Tom Degun

16 June 2012

... Car manufacturer Mini has released a short London 2012 themed film to pay homage to the 1969 classic film The Italian Job that starred Michael Caine as the likable mobster Charlie Croker.

Called The Britalian Job, the new film has been created to celebrate Mini's partnership with Team GB and ParalympicsGB. ...

Mini are owned by BMW, the Official Automotive Partner for the London 2012. ...

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/londonspy/controversy-over-mini-minis-olympic-athletics-161157575.html

Controversy over mini Minis at Olympic athletics

by Eurosport- London Spy

7 Aug 2012

Fans at the Olympics have been chuckling at the sight of the miniature radio-controlled Minis which are being used to help out officials at the athletics. The cars have been used to return javelins, discuses and hammers to competitors in the field events at London 2012, saving time and effort for all involved and adding a light-hearted element to the serious business at hand.

But the remote-controlled cars whizzing around the athletics stadium have triggered branding questions. The Olympic venues at the London Games are supposed to be strictly ad-free, but the use of the distinctive cars appears to be blatant advertising. The International Olympic Committee ensures adverts or logos of products are not visible in the fields of play in line with its Olympic Charter despite sponsors paying hundreds of millions of dollars to be associated with the Games.

[selected comment:]

c8 Aug 2012, PATRICIA

I didn't even realise they were Mini's...Just thought they were little cars to help out! But now they've brought the whole worlds attention to them, we all now know they're made by BMW..... THAT is the power of FREE advertising!

http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/art-design/alec-issigonis-and-the-design-of-the-mini-cooper.html

Marked by Teachers

alec issigonis and the design of the mini cooper

Alec Arnold Constantine Issigonis was born is SP Smyrna, a Greek community in the Ottoman Empire. His grandfather Demosthesis SP migrated to Smyrna in the 1830's APOS and worked on the British railway that was getting built to link Smyrna to Aydin. Through Alec's grandfathers APOS engineering work when building the railway he gained British nationality. Alec's father Constantine was born in Smyrna in 1872 with British nationality. Alec's mother was called Hulda and can be traced back to Wurttemberg which is now part of Germany.

The SPelling and APOStrophe annotations are mine. If I were a teacher, I would also wonder quite loudly about the resemblance of this to the (better-written) Wikipedia coverage.

52:55: as mum & son move from car to house, weather forecast is heard, and seen on top screens (and some audience pixels show lightning); forecaster then appears full-screen, assuring viewers that a hurricane is not about to hit Britain

About that house (the smaller of two we'll see in this segment):

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/13/12724439-intrigue-builds-as-the-olympic-stadium-is-prepped-for-opening-ceremonies?lite

NBC News Photoblog

Intrigue builds as the Olympic stadium is prepped for opening ceremonies

photo by Alastair Grant (via AP), 13 Jul 2012

[Points of interest in this photo include:

the normal-sized "Frankie and June" house at the left entrance is split in two because it's too tall to enter in one piece;

just in front of it are the sections of the "Empire Windrush";

in front of them (and the random white van, one of the great icons of modern Britain) is a very large NHS bed;

two of the Rings are waiting suspended above the roof;

also suspended on cables, over the track and just below roof-level, the grey crispy-noodle shapes of some of the million-watts-worth of loudspeakers;

suspended rather lower down, the tree is raised from the summit of the Tor;]

About that weather forecast:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/hi/about/newsid_7833000/7833282.stm

BBC Weather

A history of TV weather forecasts

On November 11, 1936, the world's first television chart was transmitted at the start of a trial series. BBC Television closed down during World War II but, in July 1949, weather maps with captions began to be broadcast again. ...

[By this time, television in the USA had developed the idea of the on-screen weather presenter, but Britain apparently took its weather more seriously]

The idea of personalised weather forecasting on BBC Television was first raised at an executive lunch in 1953. The BBC's then Director-General, Sir Ian Jacob, noted that "a young but highly professional meteorologist who was in the party" had made the point that it would be better if, instead of just weather maps and charts, the forecaster himself appeared on screen. ...

On January 11, 1954, George Cowling of the Met Office became the first person to present a weather forecast on British television.

The Met Office (originally "Meteorological Office") is the UK's official weather service. As for the hurricane:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hurricane-woman-revealed-after-20-513459

Daily Mirror

Hurricane woman revealed after 20 yrs

15 October 2007

Twenty years ago the BBC weatherman stood before the nation and announced: "Apparently a lady rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, don't worry if you're watching, there isn't."

How wrong he was. Hours later one of the most destructive storms of recent British history smashed into southern England, killing 18 people and causing £1.5billion worth of damage.

...

Chief meteorologist Ewen McCallum says Michael Fish's remark was "inappropriate". He said: "I'd like to think should a great storm or major depression occur again the risk of it happening would be picked up and communicated to the public rather than the very deterministic yes or no we had in 1987."

The 1987 storm, which was expected to hit northern France, was not technically a hurricane since southern England isn't tropical. But it certainly had hurricane-force winds, with vicious gusts of up to 122 mph. ...

2012 has been a very mixed year for the BBC, with its irritating coverage of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration, and its deeply questionable approach to various matters uncomfortably close to home. This clip reminds the Brits that fallibility is, to an extent, part of the BBC's enduring appeal. We much prefer a BBC which gets things wrong to a BBC which gets things right more often by playing safe.

Please note, by the way, how this sampling of events from the history of the BBC has echoed the sampling of 20th century social movements in the Industrial Era section, and the narrative flow of the NHS section: before 1948, in 1948 and after 1948. In addition to providing an element of connection, the "anachronistic" references can be seen as introducing an alternative way of measuring time- in generations and life stages rather than years. Many older people in 2012 would associate their grandparents with the suffragettes, and their own teenage years with 1940s BBC radio, whereas the young generation would associate their grandparents with The Beatles, and their own childhoods with Harry Potter.

53:07: cloudburst from the inflatable cloud over the house, mum hurries in (boy remains on doorstep with pocket video game)

music: "Black and White Rag" played by Winifred Atwell on her Other Piano (reminiscent of silent comedy music; more recently known in the UK as the theme to former long-running snooker show "Pot Black")

At this point occurred a notorious (but actually widely misunderstood) #nbcfail. Let's take a closer look (with the help of NMWebstudio's little clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjXc-KiIHP4 ):

[SHOW: Mini car, with number-plate TBL 2012, pulls up, old-fashioned British radio music playing]

Lauer: ..ing you the opening ceremony divided into major sections we have already seen the transformation the transition from the agrarian era in this country, to the industrial revolution we're in the middle of another transition now, one that we're actually still living through

Vieira: (little laugh-type sound)

Lauer: this from industrial to the digital age

[SHOW: woman and boy have got out of car and walk]

Vieira: Yeah the title of this section is "Frankie and June say Thanks, Tim"- Tim being Englishman Tim Berners-Lee if you haven't heard of him, we haven't either.

[SHOW: as woman reaches house, voice of a British TV weather presenter is heard (almost completely drowned out by Vieira's next comment); he appears full-screen for a moment.]

Lauer: (short laugh)

Vieira: (stumbles) You certainly know what he's credited with creating however, the World Wide Web.

[SHOW: Silent-comedy type piano music plays- also buried in the NBC sound mix- as a fluffy inflatable cloud above the house provides a deluge.]

Vieira: Frankie and June are the characters in this ...

If you study the transcript above, you'll see that the basis of the widespread complaints at the time (Meredith Vieira's apparent ignorance) was itself slightly flawed. Vieira was aware that Berners-Lee is "credited with creating" the World Wide Web, so clearly she had heard of him (she could not fail to, as the official Opening Media Guide provided a very straightforward summary). It may be that she and Lauer had decided to make a subtle point about the real, somewhat complex story of the web's practical development, most of which took place in the United States (hence perhaps the later suggestion to Google him). However the mendacious "if you haven't heard of him, we haven't either" is the opposite of subtle, and it's blatantly disrespectful to a man who has spent decades encouraging the development of the Web, and the freedoms it represents.

The real point of my transcript, though, is to make it clear that the commentators are also being blatantly disrespectful towards the ceremony itself. In just 15 seconds they managed both to ruin a joke by talking over it, and to reveal the identity of Tim, thus hinting at a personal appearance (as indeed occurred in typically unpredictable fashion a frenetic quarter of an hour later, his name and significance being clearly stated at the appropriate moment by the stadium announcers).

If they had heard it, I think Americans would have appreciated the weather joke as a reference to a British cliché, and possibly even as a glance back to Shakespeare's "Tempest". It matters not to anybody outside Britain that the weather forecast was a genuine historic recording, and, as it turned out, the wind was sufficiently strong to flatten 15 million trees (the 18 deaths were quickly forgotten by most of the population ...). Nor does it matter to anybody outside Britain that the comedy music which rounded off the joke is actually, in the UK, a sporting theme tune of sorts, having been used for a snooker show.

It might well matter to some Americans that the tune is George Botsford's "Black and White Rag", and it matters to some Britons that this honky-tonk interpretation was by West Indian pianist Winifred Atwell, who studied at the Royal College of Music, in London, in the late 1940s, and (according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) quickly became a star after playing ragtime at a charity concert in 1948. In the early 1950s she became the first British-based artist to have three million-selling hits (of which "Black and White Rag" was the first, in 1952), and when British pop moved on into the rock and roll era, she started a new career in Australia.

Some incidental quotes from keyboardists Keith Emerson:

www.facebook.com/notes/greg-lake-fan-page/classic-rock-sept-2004-part-ii/120365024692987

from Classic Rock, Sept 2004

[while discussing ELP's "Benny the Bouncer"]

"I was brought up with bar-room piano. Playing in pubs, and I love honky-tonk piano. I had this conversation with Rick Wakeman and we all love Winifred Atwell"

and Elton John:

http://www.npg.org.uk/gayicons/john.htm

National Portrait Gallery (London)

[nominating her for an exhibition, "Gay Icons"]

"Winifred Atwell's piano performances were simply captivating. She showed me what was possible and was a total inspiration."

It's well worth noting at this point that both the raincloud and the house (which was so light that on one windy day it blew away and smashed into the stadium structure) were among the many large props provided for the show by specialist firm Artem. See

http://www.artem.com/blog/matt-loaders-olympic-story-marking-three-years-since-the-london-olympics

for a 2015 look back by one of their senior technicians, Matt Loader, with links to pages on specific items such as the Giant Baby.

53:15: family in house

{v29.2m}

music: "Push the Button" by Sugababes (2005; #1 in Austria, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, Billboard European Hot 100)

Please note that, to save time, I have mostly used Wikipedia's information about individual songs and their chart performance.

http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/sport/london-olympics/danny-boyles-aussie-girl-for-the-london-opening-ceremony.htm

Australian Times [London]

Danny Boyle's Aussie girl for the London Opening Ceremony

by Louise Jefferson

3 Aug 2012

... "Remember the house in the middle of the stadium – with the family inside? Seen watching television, sitting at the dinner table, ect. That was us! ...

Because we – the 'Inner Family' – were filmed in advance (and therefore wouldn't be acting out our scenes live during the Ceremony), Danny wanted to be sure we would actually be in the Opening Ceremony. So he arranged for us to be one of the picnic groups in the 'Green & Pleasant Land' scene." ...

53:25: telly on- "Harry Hill's TV Burp"; meanwhile upstairs, sisters June and Abi get ready for a night out (accompanied by much instant electronic communication of words & pictures)

"TV Burp", a light-hearted TV clip show (an important concept to understand when viewing the next few minutes of the Olympic Opening) actually finished its decade-long run at the beginning of 2012- so hard luck. Although made for British commercial TV, it had in recent years, been filmed in the rival BBC's London studios, and, after initial reluctance, often featured BBC material. Watching this very very odd presentation of recent television "highlights", even if you had only third-hand knowledge of some of the featured items, was a joy. Mind you, when it comes to shows looking back at recent television, I've always had a fondness for the BBC's long-running "Points of View", particularly in the days when it was presented by ice-queen Anne Robinson.

53:45: as mum closes the curtains, lights are seen in distance; she briefly opens them again, to be confronted by a horde of young people with phones & tablets, taking pictures

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1143328/Samsung-among-brands-fleeting-roles-Opening-Ceremony/

Marketing magazine

Samsung among brands with fleeting roles in Opening Ceremony

by Matthew Chapman, 30 July 2012, 12:15pm

... Samsung could potentially lay claim to the most noticeable product placement of the night. ...

But there are questions about how obvious Samsung's involvement was to the TV audience, let alone those in the stadium, as while its smartphones featured, the branding on them is not noticeable.

Its Galaxy Note and Galaxy SIII devices were featured in a segment showcasing British music and focusing on the role communications technology plays in modern life. The devices were used by teenagers to update their social media profiles, which appeared in the television feed from the event (and were not branded).

53:50: boy still playing video game on doorstep (a vintage space shoot-em-up); scores rack up through 1960 to 2012 (but at times sink as low as 1948 and rise as high as 2016)

https://vimeo.com/52879381

London 2012 Olympic Ceremony - Space Invaders

by Future Power Station

59 Productions came to us to produce part of the 4D projection mapping for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. It was incredibly complicated and involved eight projectors, each in different positions round the stadium, giving the whole crowd an equally exciting view of the action. Unfortunately, we can’t show footage from the ceremony itself, so we’ve re-created our part of the show in 3D.

music: blending nicely with the video game beeps, the upbeat synthpop intro to "Enola Gay" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1980; top 10 UK single; #1 in France, Italy and Portugal)

The lyrics to the song are not played; but here's a sample:

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/o/omd/enola+gay_20103450.html

LyricsFreak

OMD "Enola Gay" lyrics

It's 8:15, and that's the time that it's always been

We got your message on the radio, conditions normal and you're coming home

Enola Gay, is mother proud of little boy today

Aha this kiss you give, it's never ever gonna fade away

Isn't culture brilliant?! Here the 2012 Opening presents music from a song, without the words- and even if you did hear them, the words present the destruction of an entire city in a single moment without mentioning the city, or the destruction. But once a single person gets the hint, and passes it on:

http://twitter.com/michaelsaxton/statuses/228957053434077184

Twitter

from Michael Saxton @MichaelSaxton

27 Jul 2012

Push the button followed by Enola Gay. World Destruction next? No it's going Underground. Run to the bunkers now

#2012OlympicCeremony

[On the DVD we briefly see the boy depicted as a David Hockney style "joiner", representing the images just taken with the phone cameras]

At this point I need to make it clear that I have not coped at all well with the art and design references in this section of the presentation. I think there are probably lots and lots, but I utterly lack the expertise to spot them.

53:55: back to the crowd, who direct their phone cameras towards another house, much larger, in the centre of the stadium (and visibly inflating), on which space shoot-em-up images can be seen

[During this song extract, groups of dancers with long LED tubes are emerging from traps around the big house: Red to the north, Yellow to the east, and Blue to the southwest]

54:05: as the crowd moves away and the boy is dragged indoors by mum, we glimpse kaleidoscopic light effects on the pixels, echoing the bright shoot-em-up imagery

It's time for a pause. Superficially, you've just seen two minutes of a local family beginning a weekend evening, in a smallish, fairly modern British house (incidentally, in London, family houses standing on their own are very uncommon, but building a whole row in the arena would have cost much more). The family has a car and a television, and individual members have electronic gadgets of various types, with the teenagers particularly keen on social media. Some of the adults are of north European ancestry (pink skin and fair hair) but others are of tropical African ancestry (brown skin and dark hair), and the younger generation show the joined heritage which, as it turns out, has produced some of the very greatest Britons in the 20th and 21st centuries. At least three generations of the family seem to be shown, but the grandparents and eccentric uncle are probably just visiting for the evening, not resident (this sort of close-knit family is perhaps more a feature of the domestic soap-operas favoured by the British than of real modern-day life). One Conservative Member of Parliament watching the event, Adrian Burley, was far from happy about the percentage of non-pink persons appearing in all scenes; his angry tweet featuring the term "multicultural crap" was widely condemned- not least because that particular phrase missed an important point:

The Spectator

Are you thinking what Aidan Burley was thinking?

Martin Bright, 4 August 2012 10:30

[comment]

Eddie:

Actually, the opening ceremony was anti-multicultural, not multicultural at all. It showed children of immigrants (like me) fully integrated and assimilated into British society. This cosmopolitan integration is not the aim of the ideology of multiculturalism ...

This was an anti-multicultural and pro-integration olympics. However, there are still very many people out there who have been born and brought up in the UK who do not see themselves as in any way British ...

A new Danny Boyle film, "Yesterday," scripted by Richard Curtis, was released in the early summer of 2019, and at the time of this update (6 August) has been in the Top 10 both in the UK and US for 6 weeks. It is, in more than one way, a follow-up to "Frankie and June," with its pop-history theme, philosophical elements of "This Is For Everyone" and integrationist character dynamics (though they perhaps went too far casting Ed Sheeran as a stadium-filling pop star; his appearance in the 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony, conveniently released by the YouTube Olympic Channel on 29 July 2019 [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_VGwqUzdvk ], was surely a one-off fluke).

I'll return to the general "soap opera family" theme later, but like the Giant Baby, elements of this scene are hinting at much larger stories. As the "Enola Gay" comment above suggested, one hint is presented quite assertively in pictures and sound. The boy is playing a specific type of video game, a space battle, in which, against a dark background, beams of energy are fired at targets which then explode. For me, this is, apart from being a dig at modern aerial warfare with remote-controlled drones, reminiscent of a scientific device called a cloud chamber, developed between 1895 and 1912 by Scottish meteorologist Charles Wilson ("Cloud chambers are cool" as my physics teacher feebly quipped, circa 1969), which was used to detect the paths of sub-atomic particles.

Specifically, such a device was used by Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealand born scientist who came to Britain early in the 20th century. At Manchester University in 1917-18 he conducted experiments to show that the supposedly fundamental building blocks of matter (atoms, which combined into molecules in whole numbers, as calculated in Manchester a century earlier by meteorologist-turned-physicist John Dalton) actually could be split, because they consisted of a small positively-charged nucleus orbited by an appropriate number of negatively-charged particles.

Oops, sorry- I'm going to interrupt myself to point out a curious thing, possibly coincidental, possibly symptomatic of the spirit of the "Pandemonium" era. If you were to focus on a small region of time and space, within 12 years either side of the date 4 July 1776 , and within a radius of 2 km round Wellington Farm, south-west of the little market town of Cockermouth in northern England, you would encounter mostly open moorland and lots of sheep- even at the site of Wellington Farm house itself- but you would still manage to find the births of Fletcher Christian, leader of the mutiny on HMS Bounty (Moorland Close, near the village of Eaglesfield, 25 Sep 1764, son of a lawyer); John Dalton, scientist (a cottage in Eaglesfield village, 5 Sep 1766, son of a weaver); the Wordsworths, children of a Cockermouth lawyer, including poet William (4 Jul 1770), reticent prose genius Dorothy (25 Dec 1771) and Christopher (9 Jun 1774) who became Master of Trinity College, Cambridge and, as a member of the Hackney Phalanx, a co-founder of the National Society for the Promotion of the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church (now renamed, but still responsible for most Anglican schools in Britain); Maria Dundas, later Lady Callcott (Papcastle, 19 July 1785, daughter of a naval officer) whose biography I can't even begin to summarise [but the British Museum now has online some of her sketches of 2016 Olympic city Rio de Janeiro: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=156572001&objectId=724174&partId=1#more-views ]; and finally mathematician Fearon Fallows, who established the Royal Observatory's southern hemisphere branch at Cape Town, South Africa (son of a weaver, born in a cottage adjoining the Wordsworth house, 4 Jul 1788- NOT 1789).

The placename "Wellington Farm" gives a clue as to why the London Opening omitted many key figures and themes in British history. It is named after the Duke of Wellington, who led the winning alliance at the final battle to end French delusions of conquest in 1815. Although Britain had been fighting France for two decades, this was not just an era of military heroes, but of artists such as Turner and Constable; poets such as Coleridge and Byron; novelists such as Austen and Scott; scientists such as Humphry Davy and William Smith; political and economic thinkers such as Malthus and Bentham, and so on. In short, you could easily fill a couple of hours with a pageant of British achievements in the ten years between the Battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo. And there are plenty of other decades where that came from.

Meanwhile, back with the narrative- interpreting the results of atom-splitting experiments using the apparatus Rutherford had devised with German scientist Hans Geiger at Manchester was quite difficult, but when Rutherford moved on to Cambridge University in 1921, he was able to use a cloud chamber, ingeniously automated by Japanese scientist Takeo Shimizu and the newly graduated Patrick Blackett, so that a photo could be taken every 15 seconds. The results confirmed the theory, and it also became apparent that significant amounts of energy were released at the moment of splitting. Leo Szilard, a Hungarian working in London, was inspired by a 1932 lecture of Rutherford's to postulate the "chain reaction" which would allow each split to trigger more splits, and hence more energy releases. His 1936 patent for a proposed method to achieve this became the property of the British government, but in 1938 he moved to the United States, where, with the help of Albert Einstein, he was able to persuade the government to begin the Manhattan Project. Ignoring the scientists' recommendation for a non-lethal demonstration of the power of nuclear weapons, the "Little Boy" bomb dropped from the aircraft "Enola Gay" exploded above the Japanese city of Hiroshima at 8:15 am on 6 August 1945.

That hint was most explicit in the soundtrack; the next is mostly in the visuals.

My parents studied science at Manchester University. In the autumn of 1948, before they knew each other, they returned to begin the second year of their BSc courses, and noticed that one part of the department was abuzz with mysterious activity. The mother of one of my schoolfriends, who before she met her husband was an administrator on the project, could have explained what was going on, but probably even she did not know that it was the follow-up to a remarkable creation which had helped to win the Second World War (#savethesuprise was nothing compared to the determination with which tens of thousands of people kept for decades the secrets of Britain's intelligence-gathering and code-breaking, at least as valuable against the Soviet Union as against Nazi Germany; see "On Alan Turing and the Origins of Digital Computers" by B. Randell, http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/publications/books/papers/126.pdf ). Colossus 1, the world's first electronic computer, had been installed at the Bletchley Park communications centre in 1943; further inventions had followed rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic, and now in 1948, some of the Bletchley staff, including the brilliant theoretician Alan Turing, just arrived after a frustrating three-year struggle with internal politics at the National Physical Laboratory, were working in Manchester on a new step in computer evolution.

The "Baby", developed there earlier in the year had been the first electronic computer to include effective versions of all the essential functions identified by Hungarian-American genius John von Neumann (who had swopped ideas with Turing at Princeton in the late 1930s). From the larger machine built in 1948-9, the "Manchester Mk. 1" came the design basis of the world's first commercially manufactured computer, the "Ferranti Mk. 1" (built in the Manchester suburb of Gorton *). I should point out, however, that it was not the first computer to be built for commercial use, as the first customer was Manchester University itself; a rival design developed at Cambridge University became the basis for the Lyons Electronic Office in the autumn of 1951 (Lyons being a major British catering firm).

* If you're thinking the firm's name doesn't sound local, you're quite right. Founder Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti was born in Liverpool.

Americans wanted to buy American technology- and the US invention of transistors as a replacement for the large valves used in early computers was a spectacular development; the Thomas Edison model of throwing resources at problems (which had also served well for the Manhattan Project) continued to be very effective. One trick which eluded everybody for years, though, was how to transmit electronic data over telephone networks with zero corruption. In the early 1960s, American designer Paul Baran cracked the basic problem, but obstacles to implementation (including resistance from the telecommunications industry) led to his proposals being shelved. In 1965, Donald Davies, who had worked with Turing at the UK's National Physical Laboratory, came up with, in effect, the same invention again, only better implemented, giving it the name "packet switching" (see "Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Innovation: A History of Computer Communications 1968-1988" by James Pelkey http://www.historyofcomputercommunications.info/Book/2/2.5%20Donald%20Davies-65-66.html ). Once this became known, development proceeded on both sides of the Atlantic (and in the Pacific too, on Hawaii, using radio rather than telephone lines) so that within a few years there were at least four different packet switching networks in operation. The next giant leap was firmly American, and was the real beginning of the internet- creating an architecture which allowed different systems to exchange data, regardless of their internal differences. Thanks Bob, thanks Vint!

1974, the year Kahn & Cerf published their scheme for virtual envelopes to carry online packets from system to system, was the year I first learned to program a computer. It was a British (ICL) mainframe and during the daytime it was so busy that input had to be via punched cards. In the evenings though- keyboard playtime! ICL gradually faded away as America came up with more and more brilliant ideas which consolidated its dominance of information technology. Paradoxically though, when in 1980 I bought my own computer, it was neither British nor American; it was a Video Genie, a Hong Kong semi-clone of the American TRS-80. Home computers had been made possible by American success at implementing a European concept, the integrated circuit, which was becoming more powerful and efficient every year- so increasingly, the Far East was benefiting from the ability to ship large quantities of small devices, a trend which continues to the present day.

The new (1979) British government under Margaret Thatcher, with its commitment to business development, recognised that information technology education would have to be a priority- which fitted well with the thinking of the BBC. Funding and assistance was therefore made available for what eventually became a massive educational programme, the BBC Computer Literacy Project. This required the rapid provision of computers in all schools, which must be capable of handling the educational demands of the Project. After an initial scheme went sour, different manufacturers submitted their proposals, and the chosen company was Acorn of Cambridge. One of the neatest features of the scheme was that, although the "BBC Microcomputer" was intended as a high-end machine, the Project as a whole would apply to the widest possible range of computers. Therefore, for example, one of Acorn's main rival bidders for the BBC job, Sinclair Research, continued the low-end approach it had pioneered in 1980 with the monochrome-output ZX80, bursting into colour in 1983 with a jolly little machine called the Sinclair Spectrum (which was also accepted as a machine for which British schools could claim purchase grants).

Suddenly, from 1982, the UK was Computer Fun Central. I was working in a school at the time, and I remember writing a series of little tiny programs in BASIC (a structured version of which could be learned through the Project) which would list on a single 25-line by 40-character "Teletext" screen and would do something mildly interesting but not exactly satisfying, so that pupils could choose to add their own bells and whistles. Although the kids tended to be taught on BBC Micros, they transferred the skills to their own Sinclairs (and other machines including the Commodore 64, which also managed to hit the market at exactly the right time). As a result, all sorts of young people (both the children and the young adults who cashed in by creating software to meet the new demand for games etc.) learned to do creative things with computers, and Britain gained a useful foothold in the software industry.

The world of microcomputers kept moving on, however, and soon, although it had been designed with some extraordinary expansion capabilities, the BBC Micro, with its 8-bit central processor, was becoming obsolete. Acorn's efforts to keep up with the pace of development led into some interesting areas. One of these was Reduced Instruction Set Computing- using combinations of simple processor instructions to replace single complex instructions. This was becoming quite a hot topic in the early 1980s, and Acorn recognised that it might help them overcome some huge frustrations like new high-speed processors which actually performed some tasks more slowly than older models. Forced by lack of resources to be very literal about the "Reduced" aspect of the design, the developers concentrated on simplicity and ease of use. Thus, by the time struggling Acorn was bought by Italian manufacturer Olivetti in 1985, it already had a working 32-bit RISC processor chip design, ARM 1, the first in the world for commercial manufacture. Here the advanced design of the BBC Micro paid off, because the ARM 1 could be plugged in as a second processor, enabling developers to explore its capabilities without huge additional investment, using their existing BBC machines.

In 1987, Acorn launched a successor to the BBC Micro, called the Archimedes, using a new, even more efficient, ARM 2 chip design, and an innovative graphical operating system. Sadly, it was already too late; IBM PCs and Apple's Mackintosh were so dominant in their respective fields that there was no market for the bold experiment. The chips themselves, however, aroused considerable interest for their cost-performance ratio, and Apple was among those looking in Acorn's direction. In 1990, the initials ARM ceased to stand for "Acorn RISC Microprocessor" and a new company "Advanced RISC Machines" was born, with Apple on board, and Acorn left to concentrate on computers once more. The way ahead was swiftly planned, and in 1991, ARM started selling "solutions"- designs which could be incorporated by manufacturers into their own chips.

Frozen out of the personal computer market, ARM's solutions, which were as notable for their low power consumption as for their low cost and ease of use, soon began appearing in portable electronic devices. Then they began appearing in A LOT of portable electronic devices, particularly those made in eastern Asia; not just millions, but billions (and now tens of billions). So, there's a very complicated reason why you see young people waving a lot of portable electronic devices around in the 2012 Olympic Opening.

http://kotaku.com/5929751/there-was-a-nintendo-3ds-in-the-olympics-opening-ceremony-for-some-reason/

Kotaku

There Was a Nintendo 3DS In the Olympics' Opening Ceremony For Some Reason

Kirk Hamilton

The opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Summer Games had their share of surprises, but we certainly weren't expecting to see a Nintendo 3DS among them. Get off the stoop, young man, and go do some sports! ...

Update: Game designer Martin Hollis informs me that ARM, the company that makes the 3DS processor, is based in Britain. So, one possible justification for the inclusion of a Nintendo product in a British opening ceremony.

[selected comment:]

Seraphna:

Wouldn't the fact that Nintendo has the Olympic Licence for a game be part of the reason?

(Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games)

["makes the 3DS processor" hasn't grasped the elegance of the "solutions" concept:]

http://h30565.www3.hp.com/t5/Mobility-Matters/Olympics-British-Mobility-Technology-on-Show-in-London/ba-p/5728

HP Input Output

Olympics: British Mobility Technology on Show in London

by Richi Jennings

30 Jul 2012

... The vignettes of Frankie and June treated ubiquitous, powerful mobile communications devices as an absolute given. And for this, we have another British invention to thank: ARM processors.

ARM designs power the vast majority of the smartphones and tablets we use today. The designs are licensed by system-on-a-chipmakers such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, Nvidia, etc., which sell their implementations to device makers big and small. ...

Postscript: It was announced on 18 July 2016 that ARM Holdings, with sales increasing so fast that 15 billion chips were manufactured to its designs in 2015 alone, was to be bought from its various current shareholders by a Japanese company.

54:10: cut to the big house, now showing normal house walls (and "Enola Gay" abruptly stops)- but in the foreground numerous performers are waving long LED tubes. Sound track moves to "Food Glorious Food" (from the musical "Oliver") as big house walls show family on lower floor; movie scenes on upper

A quick philosophical explanation:

London 2012 Olympic Games

BBC DVD bonus commentary track

by Danny Boyle & Frank Cottrell Boyce

2012

Frank: It's the house that all the idea- the music that we're going to see, listen to, all came from inside houses like this one

Danny: Yeah, and these soap operas that we- we invented, and have exported to the world, all take part, take place, in this idea of this house

Frank: And all these pop stars are people who started in front of the- the mirror, in their- in their bedroom, you know

Danny: Yeah, what comes out of these bedrooms is this kind of creati- modern creativity; not High Art; something that some people think is high art, but you wouldn't call it High Art to begin with, but it is Art, really it's an expression of ourselves

Danny isn't claiming that the British invented soap operas, just that they invented one particular type of soap opera, focusing on relatively ordinary occurrences in the lives of relatively ordinary people, as illustrated in the next minute or so:

54:15: immediately into scene from EastEnders, talking about fish pie; then a very swift montage of other TV programmes and movies ("FGF" still playing under dialogue) from ...

http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/olympics-2012/22161/film-tv-in-the-olympics-opening-ceremony

Den of Geek

"Fawlty Towers, Coronation Street (Deirdre Barlow - we think - exclaiming over a tin of sardines ...), Eldorado (possibly?) "

(no, not Spanish-set former British soap opera "Eldorado"; after all, the British did not invent eating, or families ...)

http://www.rtve.es/television/20120727/cuentame-como-paso-juegos-olimpicos-londres-2012/550811.shtml

rtve (Spain)

Cuéntame cómo pasó, serie 'olímpica'

27.07.2012

La familia Alcántara, de la serie de TVE Cuéntame cómo pasó, nos ha sorprendido una vez más. Durante la ceremonia inaugural de los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres 2012 hemos visto imágenes de una secuencia del primer capítulo de la serie en la que vemos a la familia alrededor de la mesa. ... (minuto 4 del capítulo 1, "El retorno del fugitivo") ...

Hace tres semanas, la organización de los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres se puso en contacto con la productora Ganga para solicitar permiso para utilizar alguna secuencia de la serie de TVE en la fiesta de apertura de Londres 2012. El director artístico de la ceremonia inaugural, el cineasta Danny Boyle, la conoce y había visto algunos capítulos de la emblemática ficción de la cadena pública.

to the "Going for an English" sketch from "Goodness Gracious Me"

If the title "Goodness Gracious Me" makes you think of an old Peter Sellers / Sophia Loren comedy song- well, fair enough. This popular BBC sketch show with a British Indian cast (originally on Radio 4, but transferred to television from 1998) delighted in satirising such casual mockery of non-westerners, and the "Going for an English" sketch presented a mirror image of an all-too-common scenario: a bunch of drunken English friends visiting a local Indian restaurant. The show was succeeded in 2001 by the Emmy award-winning "The Kumars at No. 42".

to "Oliver" and "Oliver Twist" and "Blackadder" (series 1; i.e. really "The Black Adder")

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2012/07/the-olympics-go-to-the-movies.html

The New Yorker

The Sporting Scene

July 28, 2012

Movie-Spotting at the Olympics

Posted by Anthony Lane

Many of the extracts that I did catch were projected onto the side of the house that sat, for a while, in the midst of the Olympic stage. There we saw the pale, grave hero of David Lean's "Oliver Twist"(1948), holding up his bowl and asking for more; John Howard Davies, who took the role of Oliver, grew up to win acclaim of a very different but no less British variety- he produced six episodes of "Fawlty Towers," in whose farcical extremes Dickens might have well delighted.

54:30: cut to performers playing with LED tubes on the running track, as dialogue is:

(American woman) "Everybody, gadgets down now" (American kid) "Die, stupid" (American woman) "I told you to put that down"... [Google identifies this as "Modern Family", series 2 ep 5]

54:40: dialogue "so unfair" (Harry Enfield as Kevin the Teenager); more dialogue (middle-aged middle-class English woman) "For what we are about to receive, let us be truly thankful"

The latter quotation is from the 1971 Disney film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (the food on offer includes stewed nettles, mangelwurzel jam and other dishes which might have been offered during the food rationing which had to be imposed in Britain during the Second World War). Somebody on the London Opening team seems to have a strange fondness for children's films which bear almost no resemblance to the books on which they are supposedly based; first "Chitty" (and indeed "Mary Poppins" which author P.L. Travers absolutely hated) and now Mary Norton's "Bedknob and Broomstick". The original stories, published in 1943 and 1945, did not feature magical defence against Nazis in any way; indeed I can't imagine the author daring to write such a plotline while Britain was suffering V-weapon attacks. To be fair, Ben Aaronovitch's recent fantasy/ horror/ police procedural novels about young Londoner Peter Grant affirm that magic was indeed used in the Second World War- with the unfortunate result of killing almost every magic-user in Europe.

54:45: Sally Webster dialogue from "Coronation Street"

"Corrie" is currently the world's longest-running TV soap opera, and still among Britain's most popular shows:

http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/sally-webster-on-olympics.html

Coronation Street Blog

Sally Webster on the Olympics!

28 July 2012

Sharp eyed viewers of the Olympic Games opening ceremonies last night might have spotted Sally Webster's face and voice projected on screen during the segment about the teens and texting "storyline". She was waggling her finger at Rosie and saying "Cause you're going nowhere dressed like that, young lady!" as the onscreen teen girls were getting ready to go out on the lash. Seconds earlier there was also a flash of a scene between Ken and Deirdre ...

[comments:]

Anonymous, 28 July 2012 22:00

What has teens and texting got to do with the Olympics?

Anonymous, 29 July 2012 15:32

God only knows. I could say ask Danny Boyle but the script for the event was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce who also used to write for Corrie.

54:50: the sisters, who were trying to sneak out of the house, reluctantly turn back to face their parents

54:55: further TV snippets on the same theme

(the British didn't invent teenagers either:)

dialogue includes:

(American teenage girl, dressed in not much Halloween costume): "Check it! I'm a scary black cat." (from "Modern Family" again)

(English teenage girl): "This is a proper skirt"; (older man): "It's too short" (from sadly-missed British comedy "Desmond's", starring the even more sadly missed Norman Beaton; this scene concludes with "Go and put on a proper skirt before you catch a cold" after...)

(another older man to another American teenage girl as she shows off her new outfit): "Wear it when I'm dead"; (from "The Cosby Show")

55m: sisters are let out by mum & dad and join their friends;

At this moment, the third major section of the presentation effectively presents another aspect of a theme which was also detectable in the first two: the importance of badness. Here the parents decide that the risk their daughters are taking is not unreasonable, and that good outcomes are more likely than bad. Similarly, the presentation of villains from children's literature emphasised the importance of not hiding from children the existence of evil and the possibility of opposing it. As for "Pandemonium"- well, as Danny Boyle indicated to his cast, if you're reading these words you aren't an illiterate farm-worker, which is what you probably would be without the nightmares of the Industrial Revolution.

Incidentally:

BBC TV

One Night In 2012: An Imagine Special

Interview segment with Jasmine Breinburg ("June")

2016

I remember coming out, and thinking like, "Oh, I'm gonna be so scared," and then I saw everyone and I was like, "Oh, they're so small they don't look real, it's fine." [grins]

(Frankie's on his way ...)

music now "When I Was a Youngster" by Rizzle Kicks (a hip-hop-pop-ish duo from Brighton) (2011, UK #8)

The online versions of the lyrics for this song provide a neat illustration of the cynicism behind lyric websites (the main purpose of which seems to be the advertising of ringtones). I have yet to find a single correct version of the lyrics to this song on any lyric site- instead, there are clones from two different original incorrect versions (one of which has mutated slightly to create an additional sub-clone). So, here's my own attempt at transcribing some of the words we hear in the 2012 Opening:

When I Was A Youngster

Rizzle Kicks

Yo! Wanted to be a fireman,

Then I lost the desire man,

The second I got old enough

To buy myself a cider can.

Yeah, I was a smart little kid;

That side's departed me since.

These days you can catch me sitting

on a bench in the park with a lager and crisps.

[During this song extract the dancers with coloured tubes move down from the stage, to join others on the M25. The big house finally inflates enough for all its walls to be used as projection screens. Also, a helpful car thief reverses the Mini out through the northwest vom]

55:10: introducing the lads

55:20: girls & boys out to play; much instant messaging etc.

55:30: dancers with red LED tubes form line of glowing arches, representing a Tube train; the girls get on board

music changes to The Jam "Going Underground" (1980, UK #1)

Although this song accompanies images of a journey on the London Underground rail system, the lyrics actually return to the earlier nuclear arms theme ( "You want more money, of course I don't mind / To buy nuclear textbooks for atomic crimes" ) as part of their presentation of one alternative to the Rizzle Kicks picture of young adulthood. The central figure of the Jam song goes "underground" in the sense of the 19th century "underground railroad" out of the slave states of America, disappearing from the view of the authorities.

55:40: train moves off; coloured lines start to extend across the audience pixels, forming a Tube map

http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mjr/underground/myths.html

TubeMapCentral

by Max Roberts

London Underground Map Myths

[my summary]

Max's pages show many good examples to debunk myths about the world-famous London Underground map design (even about the name of the 1930s designer, who signed himself Henry Beck, not Harry). Illustrations include a London Underground map from 1911 with colour-coding for the routes, and several examples from the 1920s of route diagrams representing rail networks with intersecting straight lines in a purely topological fashion. These were particularly common within railway carriages, where standard oblong panels were used to display information and advertisements. What Beck did was to put together several design features and apply a strict set of rules. By this means he was able to display a complex network in a clear fashion; in particular, his insistence that lines must form an angle of 90 or 45 degrees with page edges made the placing of text against the lines much easier.

These rules have been applied with success on many transport networks throughout the world up to the present day. An attempt to simplify yet further, by using only horizontal and vertical lines for the Madrid Metro map, produces a result which to me seems rather miserly and crowded.

However, there's more to this Underground story (apart from the obvious point that it provides this segment's explicit link to London). First, there's a Brunel connection; Isambard Brunel's father, Marc Brunel, emigrated from France, first to the United States and then to England in the 1790s. [based on http://www.brunel200.com/childhood_family.htm] Retained by the British government for his services to military engineering, he aroused great interest with a proposal for a protective shield system to solve the problem of digging a tunnel beneath the River Thames, downstream of the Port of London (thus permitting river crossings between the northern and southern docks of the Port without impeding the ships). Young Isambard, who spent some time helping his father, narrowly avoided death when the workings abruptly flooded in 1828 (six of the diggers were less fortunate), and later that year investors lost patience, so the tunnel was sealed off. Seven years passed before work recommenced, and when it was completed in 1842 there was not enough money to build the intended spiral entrance ramp. Although thus rendered useless for its intended purpose of conveying goods across the river, the tunnel was something of a wonder of the world, the first ever built under deep water, and for some time it served as a most unusual shopping mall.

[based on http://thevictorianist.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/so-far-as-any-present-use-is-concerned.html]

Meanwhile, a transport revolution had happened. The Stockton and Darlington Railway, in the Tees valley of northern England, opened in 1825 (the same year work began on the Tunnel) had proved the value of steam locomotives for rapid transport over long distances. For the world's first inter-city [well, at the time technically just inter-phenomenally-large-town] railway, between Liverpool and Manchester, an additional first had been achieved, with the digging of two railway tunnels beneath the streets of Liverpool itself. [http://www.liverpoolwiki.org/Liverpool's_Historic_Rail_Tunnels]. Then, in 1844, across the Atlantic at Cobble Hill in Brooklyn NY, a similar result was achieved by the elegant method of cutting a deep trench along the city streets and covering it over to create streets with a railway underneath [http://www.brooklynrail.net/proj_aatunnel.html].

The Liverpool and Brooklyn tunnels were intended merely to take long-distance routes to convenient terminal points, but it was recognised that if the problem of exhaust gases could be solved, entire railway networks could be constructed beneath large cities to help ease the problem of street congestion. The "atmospheric" propulsion system using suction pipes, first developed for practical use by the Samuda brothers of London, proved unreliable, as Isambard Brunel found when he used this method for a steep section of line between Exeter and Newton Abbot in Devon in 1847 (not least because rats kept eating the leather flaps used to seal the pipes). [http://brunel.hmswarrior.org/resources/atmospheric_railway.pdf]

By the early 1860s, a "condensing" system had been developed which allowed steam engines to run for short periods in tunnels without emitting too many fumes. In 1863, using a mixture of tunnel digging and "cut and cover" the Metropolitan Railway beneath London was opened as the world's first multi-station underground passenger line. At which point, we return to the Thames Tunnel, because it was quickly realised that, thanks to its generous dimensions, with the improvements in locomotive technology it was ideally suited for conversion to railway use. It was bought by the East London Railway Company in 1865, and by 1869 was linked with the main line south to Brighton, further links being developed as revenues grew. Serving variously as an "overground" branch and an Underground line, the Thames Tunnel (refurbished in recent years) remains in use today.

http://www.inc.com/gene-marks/london-olympics-business-lessons-from-the-british.html

Inc.

6 Business Lessons From the London Olympics

Gene Marks

1 Aug 2012

... When we received our Olympic tickets a few months ago, we also received a London Transport travel card for each day. This seemed to me a little strange. Until I got to London. And then I saw the brilliance. Because if we, along with every other ignorant American and tourist, had to figure out the fare system and buy Tube tickets for each day, the lines would've probably stretched to Paris. Some very, very smart and obscure British person somewhere figured this out. ...

55:55: the boys are also on a tube train

56:10 (DVD: The big house shows the front of a Tube train; on close inspection the driver turns out to be Ken Livingstone, London's Mayor from 2000 to 2008)

Ken Livingstone was the Mayor who backed London's Olympic bid (with its associated infrastructure improvements), but he lost an election to Boris Johnson in May 2008. Hence it was Boris rather than Ken who accepted the Olympic flag at the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

56:30: as happy people travel on the Tube, audience pixels show the rush of a train in the tunnels

"Frankie and June" was the sequence which best demonstrated the effectiveness of animation on the audience pixels (for the most part ignored by the TV cameras) and this footage of a Tube journey was one of the most ambitious sections.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-08/01/content_15637524.htm

China Daily

Home / Business / Companies

Future is clear after London spectacular

Updated: 2012-08-01 10:55

By Gao Yuan ( China Daily)

... while all eyes were on the London landmark displaying the spectacular digital animation, it was a Chinese company, Crystal CG, which made the magic happen.

Crystal specializes in large-scale computer graphics, providing visuals for events such as stadium extravaganzas and graphics for TV networks. ...

Its deal with London was struck in 2009 when the company won a bid to supply digitalized animation content to the organizing committee.

Prior to that, the company demonstrated what it could do at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, animating a traditional Chinese wash painting on a 145-meter-long LED scroll lying at the center of the National Stadium in Beijing, better known as the Bird's Nest.

http://59productions.co.uk/project/olympic_opening_ceremony

59 fifty nine productions

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

The team's primary role was to art direct all video content delivered the Olympic Stadium. This included the four massive LED screens mounted on the stadium roof, all projection in the show, and the "audience pixels" ...

All video content for the "audience pixels" for the Olympic Opening Ceremony was art directed by 59 Productions and produced by Crystal CG.

56:40: change of music to intro of Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" [1977, album track, though released as a single many years later] as we focus on her and on him, noticing each other

This is, for practical purposes, the "love at first sight leading to a challenge" story between Miranda and Ferdinand from "The Tempest," updated with Ariel represented by the personal communication technology of the 21st century. Vaguely relevant note on this theme: a 1932 statue of Prospero and Ariel, by Eric Gill (who was also a great designer of typefaces, including the famous Gill Sans) stands over the main entance to Broadcasting House, the BBC's historic headquarters in London. In the play, the success of the whirlwind romance prompts an interlude of music and dancing arranged by Ariel, but here the music and dancing are part of the love story.

[While our attention is distracted, lots of dancers in very strange 1960s costumes are moving up from the M25 and assembling to the northeast of the big house]

Another jolly thought. June and Frankie are played by young Londoners Jasmine Breinburg and Henrique Costa. It may or may not be obvious to non-Brits that neither of those surnames is typically English; Breinburg being German and Costa being Portuguese (Henrique was actually born in Portugal but was brought to England when he was a toddler). It seems likely, therefore, that we have at least five nationalities rolled up in these two people, including British, German, Portuguese and probably two widely separated tropical locations. We're quite a long way beyond "black" and "white" here.

(At this point, the similar scene in Baz Luhrmann's ingenious 1996 modern-dress film of "Romeo + Juliet" where Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as the star-crossed lovers first see each other through a fish-tank, is shown on the big house; this was not visible in the live broadcast)

56:55: "Gregory's Girl" film clip full screen "She's gorgeous" (continues on big house)

The less-than-totally-sane school comedy "Gregory's Girl" (1981) established the reputation of Scottish director Bill Forsyth. After making two more films in Scotland ("Local Hero" and "Comfort and Joy"), he went to Hollywood.

http://guru.bafta.org/frank-cottrell-boyce-screenwriters-lecture

BAFTA

Screenwriters' Lecture

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

2011

I'm not going to talk about seeing Gregory's Girl for the first time and thinking, 'Aaahh, that's my world, that's where I live on the screen. I didn't know you were allowed to do that,' and feeling completely thrilled and excited to see that.

http://www.reelscotland.com/gregorys-girl-school-set-to-close/

Reel Scotland

Gregory's Girl school set to close

by Jonathan Melville

20 Sep 2012

... There's no news on how the penguin will be affected by the closure.

57:05: film on big house changes to Chaplin's "City Lights" (with music); June is abruptly pulled from her reverie by friends

{v28.7m}

http://discoveringchaplin.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/there-was-charlie-chaplin-sighting-at.html#comment-form

Discovering Chaplin (blog)

by Jessica

[comment:]

28 Jul 2012, ritaskleinewelt

during the music/internet segment, they showed two very brief clips from 'city lights' when the tramp meets virginia for the first time.

http://www.charliechaplin.com/en/biography/articles/21-Overview-of-His-Life

Charlie Chaplin

Overview of His Life

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in London, England, on April 16th 1889. His father was a versatile vocalist and actor; and his mother, known under the stage name of Lily Harley, was an attractive actress and singer, who gained a reputation for her work in the light opera field.

Charlie was thrown on his own resources before he reached the age of ten as the early death of his father and the subsequent illness of his mother made it necessary for Charlie and his brother, Sydney, to fend for themselves. ...

57:10: captions (hand-held) from Frankie's mates: "That girl has dropped her phone"

(the dancefloor decades)

57:15: Frankie picks up phone, as music changes to The Who "My Generation" (1965, UK #2; also #11 in the "Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" [2004, 2010])

We've now reached our first destination, the 1960s. "My Generation" serves as a bridge between the introduction (continuing from "Going Underground" the theme of restless youth trying to find a place in the world) and the main event, a journey through five decades of British hits.

57:20: the girls dance with others (some in weird modernist outfits, illuminated conical dresses etc.), forming bars in a circle

http://frivolousmonsters.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/a-foreigners-guide-to-the-olympic-opening-ceremony/

Frivolous Monsters (blog; "Based in north Manchester in the UK. I see wonder in the minutiae of what you would probably call everyday life")

A Foreigner's Guide to the Olympic Opening Ceremony

3 Aug 2012

... Oompa-Loompa Daleks. ...

Less frivolously, designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb explained, in the 2016 BBC documentary about the ceremony, that the light-up dresses were based, as I should have realised years ago, on the early monochrome op-art of Bridget Riley.

PS: don't forget:

http://dulwichonview.org.uk/2012/09/14/my-time-as-a-light-up-dress-in-the-olympics-opening-ceremony/

Dulwich OnView

My time as a Light Up Dress in the Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Madeline Adeane

14 Sep 2012

And for a guide to all the dances in this section:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1infSWk--Y&list=PLchEg1pkin1yasfD1cvT-w2eSG-qym3ed

Olympics Opening Ceremony 2012: 'Thanks Tim' dances

by dancetothistv

38 short videos showing the moves!

57:30: music change to the Rolling Stones "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" (1965, UK #1, US #1; also #2 in the "Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" [2004, 2010]) (footage of them shown on big house, after a brief shot of comedian Tommy Cooper)

http://lettersfromhannah.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/keep-calm-and-corgi-on-with-kenneth-branagh-at-the-olympics/

Letters From Hannah, blog (she's American, and her likes include "shenanigans")

Keep Calm and Corgi On- With Kenneth Branagh. At the Olympics.

"My Generation" by the Who! Love it! They have NAILED the soundtrack. But now Meredith Viera is singing-oh please no!

http://marketknowledge.ambition.com.au/world-of-work/gags-edinburgh-fringe-festival-2012-vs-tommy-cooper/

Ambition- Market Knowledge: World of Work

Gags -Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012 vs Tommy Cooper

compiled by Paul Lyons

3 Sep 2012

In a desperate attempt to escape the bad economic news I have listed the top ten one liners in 2012 as voted by the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and some of the late Tommy Cooper, whom in my opinion was the doyen of dumb gags.

[including:]

Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese. And there are 5 people in my family, so it must be one of them. It's either my mum or my dad. Or my older brother Colin. Or my younger brother Ho-Chan-Chu. But I think it's Colin.

Two aerials meet on a roof, fall in love and get married. The ceremony was rubbish but the reception was brilliant.

57:40: music change to The Kinks, "All Day and All of the Night" (1964, UK #2, US #7)

The big house gets seriously psychedelic at this point, but it's not much seen on the live broadcast.

This track shared a producer with "My Generation", expatriate American Shel Talmy. Although he kick-started the careers of both The Who and The Kinks, his concept of a consistent "band style" wore thin after a few similar-sounding singles, so both bands chose to move in their own idiosyncratic directions.

57:50: music change to Millie "My Boy Lollipop" (1964, UK #2, US #2) (video on big house, and briefly full screen)

This is slightly complicated. A track first recorded by an American teenager in the 1950s, using Jamaican rhythms, was re-recorded by a Jamaican teenager in 1964, for a Jamaican record label, in London. It proved to be the commercial breakthrough for Chris Blackwell's Island Records, which would go on to release some of the most adventurous pop & rock music of subsequent decades.

A personal aside: "Frankie and June" seems generally to be regarded as the least successful section of the show (apart from the epilogue). I suspect that I am not well placed to comment, because, perhaps not coincidentally given that I'm about the same age as Danny Boyle, I recognised here the sounds and images of my life (well, obviously minus The Supremes, The Temptations, The Monkees, Joni Mitchell etc. etc., but you know what I mean). Millie Small's version of "My Boy Lollipop" is, along with the tune used to promote the 1964 Tokyo Olympics (by German composer Helmut Zacharias), one of the first songs I can be confident of remembering from its original time period, rather than through nostalgic re-releases (a particular problem with The Beatles- then again, nostalgic online video has reminded me of wonders I thought I had only dreamed, such as the sight and sound of a Galasphere).

[Another group of dancers, in 1970s era-that-taste-forgot costumes, is making its way up from the M25 to assemble southeast of the big house]

58m: cut to the boys in an aisle among the audience, Frankie trying to spot June

58:10: dancers flow within their circle, design changing

58:15: dancers' circle design is now Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament symbol; music cut to The Beatles "She Loves You" (1963, UK #1, US #1, etc. etc. etc.) (briefly shown full-screen, then on big house)

It seems at least one of the creative team read "Revolt Into Style", critic and musician George Melly's classic 1970 study of the early development of British pop culture. Those barber-poles seen framing the video on the big house in the Beatles section are almost certainly cribbed from Melly's account of "Ready Steady Go", an early pop TV show which was arguably a direct precursor to the frenetic style of the "Frankie and June" sequence. During a visit to see James Brown perform (early in 1966) he met artist Derek Boshier, who had just been chatting with the show's designer and was delighted to learn that the "barber pole" striped look which was his early artistic obsession had been adopted as a frame for the acts on the previous week's show.

( http://www.derekboshier.com/images/paint/pop/popjpgs/airmailletter.jpg )

Image of Derek Boshier painting from 1961, of an airmail letter, with the characteristic "barber-pole" edges of the official stationery widened to appear more prominent

( http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/first-toothpaste-painting-72559 )

Image of 1962 Derek Boshier painting of a tube of stripy toothpaste, with the red and white stripes equal widths, and in a spiral

58:25: kestrel cry, and a scene from "Kes" (directed by Ken Loach, 1969) is shown, first on big house then full-screen

I'm not going to comment on "Kes". If you haven't seen it, see it, preferably when you're about 13 years old (but if you're not from northern England, make sure your captioning is turned on).

58:35: a phone rings [on DVD, we briefly see June being handed a phone by Abi ]; cut to Frankie with (graphic) speech-bubble "I've found your phone"

Comparing the broadcast and DVD versions, it is clear that something went wrong with the timing here- the scene of June being handed the phone took place on stage a few seconds too late, at the same time as Frankie's speech bubble graphic appeared

58:40: cut to conversation between a doomed British bomber pilot and a lovely-sounding American radio operator named June, from the 1946 film "A Matter of Life and Death" starring David Niven and Kim Hunter (retitled "Stairway to Heaven" in the USA, which was a cheap and cynical move, but did have one fortunate consequence).

The makers of this film, "The Archers" (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, a Hungarian Jew who came to Britain in 1935) were contemporaries of documentary specialist Humphrey Jennings, whose work inspired the London Opening, but their fantastical storytelling was almost the direct opposite of his style. Almost.

http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/46_AMOLAD/AMatterOfFriedOnions.html

Article from the journal "Seizure"

A matter of fried onions

by Diane Broadbent Friedman

1992; v1: pp307-310

This is not a medical film, but rather a fantasy of love and the interplay of American and English cultures. Yet this film depicts clinical details in such an accurate way that a clinician might diagnose the probable site of the lesion.

music is now Mud "Tiger Feet" (1974, UK #1, Netherlands #1)

If you feel compelled to ask why a "cheap'n'cheerful" group like Mud was included between the Beatles and Led Zep, try searching for the word Chinnichap. They had to be in here somehow !

The visuals on the house (and briefly on the upper screens) change from Niven & Hunter to the "Monty Python's Flying Circus" opening title animation by Terry Gilliam

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/07/31/a-complete-ish-reference-guide-to-the-london-olympic-opening-ceremony/

A Getting-More-Complete-Ish Reference Guide To The London Olympic Opening Ceremony

Written on July 31, 2012 by Rich Johnston

A phone call to June -and I guess this is part of why she was called June -the clip from A Matter of Life and Death, Powell and Pressburger's wartime classic. Conceived initially as a propaganda film it transcended these boundaries and is one of the great romantic melodramas, telling the story of an airmen's trial in heaven when he somehow escapes the call to ascend. ...

You'll see a tiny glimpse of Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations on a distant screen as Mud's Tiger Feet is playing. There's no connection between the two. Well, except maybe "feet."

Cartoonist-turned-animator-turned-film-director Terry Gilliam, born in Minnesota, moved from California to London in the 1960s, and never quite managed to leave.

http://moviecitynews.com/2012/12/tarantino-talks-django-influence-terry-gilliams-advice-3-most-influential-films/

Movie City News

Tarantino Talks DJANGO Influence; Terry Gilliam's Advice; 3 Most Influential Films

interview by Ray Pride

10 Dec 2012

[the Advice, given when Tarantino was trying to get "Reservoir Dogs" made, being:]

'Quentin, you don't really have to conjure up your vision. What you have to do is know what your vision is. And then you have to hire really talented people and it's their job to create your vision. If you hire the right costume designer, you hire the right production designer, you hire the right cinematographer, [get the right] the props, you hire the right people who get what you're trying to do and...explain it them. If you can articulate your vision and they're talented, they will give you your vision."

[ellipses, brackets and oddities in the above extract are from the original article]

For the experiences of a 70s volunteer try:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/richard-brownliemarshall/london-2012-olympics-opening-ceremony_b_1710484.html

Huffington Post

London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony: Behind the Scenes

Richard Brownlie-Marshall

27 Jul 2012 (22:15 BST)

-who incidentally contributed this observation on London vs Beijing:

With the Olympics banner being the only similarity, the actual show and approach differs so greatly it's like comparing Star Wars to Gone with the Wind.

58:45: Frankie speech bubble graphic "Where are you"; June speech bubble graphic "On our way to the 70's"

58:50: dancers costume theme now Glam

{^28.9m}

59:05: brief full-screen shot of Mud, before music changes to Led Zeppelin "Trampled Under Foot" (1975, album track; the band were not keen on releasing singles)

[The BBC DVD Big House Extra feature reveals that scenes from two great 1973 double-bill chillers "Don't Look Now" (by Nicolas Roeg) and "The Wicker Man" (by Robin Hardy; accept no remakes) are being shown on the big house at this point; the main DVD shows scenes from the former, but not the latter]

59:15: the 70s dancers are forming into a new shape

59:20: music changes to The Specials' version of "A Message to you Rudy" (1979, UK #10, Austria #7; the black-and-white brickwork shown here on the big house celebrates the 2 Tone label which released this and many other hits of the time), Shape is becoming a five-point star

Half the upper screens at this time show scenes from the hideous, wonderful film "Withnail and I" (by Bruce Robinson; released in 1987 and set in 1969).

59:30: music changes to David Bowie "Starman"; Bowie in "The Man Who Fell to Earth" on big house, while four "astronauts" with jet packs shoot skyward from among the dancers

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/david-bowie?before=1343506781

elektrabohemian

INNOVATOR BOWIE ACKNOWLEDGED IN OLYMPIC CEREMONY

The piece began with a red lightning bolt and the TOTPs footage of Starman projected on to the walls of a house as hundreds of Ziggyesque/glam rock clones formed a huge star and the familiar refrain "There's a Staaarmaaaaan waiting in the sky..." boomed out across the arena.

Kind of: 'Nijinsky Meets Woolworths' as Bowie once said of Ziggy Stardust.

In the middle of the star, a cluster of clones huddled together and held aloft massive Aladdin Sane Kabuki stick masks (similar to those used on the Diamond Dogs tour), with the small modification of generous manes of shocking red hair.

[TOTP= Top of the Pops, a now-defunct chart-based BBC pop show, first broadcast in 1964]

The jetpacks may be a nod to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Opening. The Brits didn't really go for jetpacks (except in the James Bond film "Thunderball"). Instead they worked on jet aircraft which could take off and land vertically. The result, the Harrier jump-jet, which could also use the technology to dodge approaching missiles, helped win the 1982 Falklands War (or Guerra de las Malvinas if you're an Argentinian politician who needs a boost in the opinion polls) and updated versions remain in service around the world today.

59:35: Bowie briefly full-screen

59:40: star fully formed, with dancers forming two smaller, moving star shapes inside it, and a group of masks in the centre; jet-pack men release sparkly confetti

The five-pointed star may not just be a tribute to the song- the 1970s were also the decade in which China (check out the emblem on the nation's flag) began its reconnection with the world, and with the Olympic movement.

59:45: June stands by dancers wearing giant Bowie/Ziggy masks

There were also other masks representing Freddie Mercury and, er ...

www.facebook.com/marcbolan/posts/170326439768711

Marc Bolan facebook page

30 Jul 2012, "Marc Bolan":

Though not visible in the TV broadcast, the London Olympic opening ceremonies DID feature a bit of Bolan. These 'Slider' heads were there alongside the Bowie & Freddie Mercury heads.

31 Jul 2012, Shaz Head

I don't think it ws meant 2 b Marc. I think these we're supposed 2 be SLASH, hence the sunglasses. Sorry 2 say this as I'm disappointed 2 tht they didn't represent Bolan. But iv heard elsewhere tht this was Slash.

31 Jul 2012, Matthew Joseph Hughes

Slash was 5 years old when Bowie & Bolan were at their height... this was part of the 70s celebration, so... yeah.

31 Jul 2012, Shaz Head

They said on TV there were giant masks and tht SLASH was one of them. So i still stand by my comment earlier that the mask is Slash. Praps at the closing ceremony we might get some TRex music - hope so!

31 Jul 2012, Kirsty-Ann Heggie

Dudes I was there, they were Bolan heads. Rock on.

[See the cover of the 1972 T Rex album "Slider" for the image of Bolan adapted on the masks. Funnily enough, Slash and Bolan were both born in north London.]

A slight digression, related to the topic of masks: some have seen the London Opening as a descendant of the masque, a form of courtly entertainment which reached its zenith in the days of Shakespeare, under his rival Ben Jonson (with visual style by Inigo Jones, who later modernised English architecture with lovely buildings such as the Queen's House at Greenwich, seen during the Olympics as the background to the dressage).

http://willcoe.com/2012/08/29/danny-boyles-political-masque/

-willcoedotcom

Danny Boyle's political masque

Will Coe

It would be easier to teach a grizzly to samba than to get Boyle or Jonson to work to order. Surprisingly, the Department of Media, Culture and Sport (and their Jacobean counterparts, Queen Anne and the Countess of Bedford) understood that sheer entertainment could be more persuasive than instruction. With the chokingly awful Millennium Dome a not too distant reminder of any British government's inability to package culture, creative genius was allowed to flower unwatered at the London Opening Ceremony. Of course there were political undercurrents in both ceremony and masque but these stemmed from Boyle and Jonson, not their political paymasters.

[The Paralympic opening, taking its major inspirations from the 17th century, used the masque form more literally]

[Meanwhile, another group of dancers, in 1980s costumes, is coming up from the M25 to assemble southwest of the big house]

59:50: music change to Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975, UK #1 repeatedly, US #9)- video shown on big house [with another video inset, in old-fashioned red/green 3D]

1 hour: cut to head-banging bit of the song, with scene from "Wayne's World" full screen

Not a British film, of course (although a British connection could be shoehorned in if necessary) but it is just the perfect response to this particular musical moment: [note too that after the release of the 1992 film, the re-released single reached US #2]

1-00:05: cut to dancers also head-banging

1-00:10: cut to June's family, wearing old-style 3D specs in their living-room, also head-banging

[insert "Society of the Spectacle" joke here ...]

http://www.mercury-and-queen.com/zanzibar.htm

FMQ: Mercury - and - Queen

First Steps- Childhood in Zanzibar

Daria Kokozej

2006-11

Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5 in 1946 in Zanzibar, a tropical island off the east coast of Africa, as the first of two children of Jer and Bomi Bulsara (Freddie's sister, Kashmira, was born in 1952). His father Bomi worked as a High Court cashier for the British Government as Zanzibar was a British protectorate at that time. He was well paid and the family had servants and a relatively high standard of living. In their home they would initiate Farrokh in their own Parsee culture, reading to him fables and legends like The Arabian Nights. ...

[1-00:12: on DVD, dancers can be seen holding a string of carboard cutout people between them on poles, to represent the multiplied effect in the Bohemian Rhapsody video!]

https://www.sportsliberated.com/that-time-i-was-in-the-london-2012-opening-ceremony/

Sports Liberated: Jo Blogs

I was in the London 2012 opening ceremony… I know!

by Jo Gunston ['I even keep the secret despite working at a newspaper at the time']

22 Jun 2020

During a 1970s dance sequence our catsuit-clad group of 10, ‘The Reverbs’ are positioned in five pairs on each point of a star-shaped troupe. One of the pair wears a ‘backpack’ with a number of glittery human-shaped cut outs strung together, descending from life-sized to smaller and smaller figures. The partner, positioned behind, uses a pole to hook the first, drawing out the people paper-chain effect, therefore creating the 3D illusion as per the video. Got it? Good.

1-00:25: as guitar solo starts, TARDIS materialising noise is heard (and DVD shows it whirling through the Vortex, apparently shown in the stadium on the upper screens)

http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/olympics-2012/22161/film-tv-in-the-olympics-opening-ceremony

[Comments:]

timelordwannabe

"Troughton, Pertwee, Tom, Davison, Colin and McCoy's faces all appeared with the TARDIS noise on a big-screen (but the TV broadcast cut to dancers instead at this point)." [Tom and Colin are referred to here by their first names because they share the surname Baker]

Although the montage of Doctors (who?) is certainly visible in rehearsal footage, the BBC DVD, and audience footage, show that it was not included in the final performance, which I think is probably a good thing. This is almost the exact half-way point of the "Frankie and June" sequence, ignoring the applause at the end (music buffs may like to compare the electronic tone which appears half-way through "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles). Think of the TARDIS as offering us a choice; we can interpret the whole sequence as showing a series of themed "music of the decade" dancefloors on a single night, or we can imagine Frankie pursuing June through space and time ...

... cut to audience who are also wearing old-fashioned 3-D specs, with Frankie & friends playing air guitar

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/olympic-opening-ceremony-made-tech-history-for-me-50008746/

CNET UK, Crave gadget blog

Olympic opening ceremony made tech history for me

By Rich Trenholm on 30 July 2012

Of all the technology featured, the only dud was, unsurprisingly, 3D. As 3D images were projected on the giant cube in the middle of the stadium, the crowd donned 3D glasses and promptly took them off again as the images didn't work unless you were sitting in exactly the right place

[comments inc.:]

anonymous 30 July, 2012 20:32

I agree with some of the comments; it's definitely the worst Olympic opening I've seen. It looked like a train wreck with a lot of people doing different things all at once. What the heck was going on there?!

1-00:30: the dancers are also playing air guitar

1-00:40: as patterns within dance star continue to flow; music changes to Sex Pistols "Pretty Vacant" (1977, UK #6); close up (in red half-light) of weird black-clad punk figures, with huge model heads, pogoing on spring-heels

[NBC cuts to commercials here, and, despite not being live, returns to the show at the end of the Sex Pistols segment]

http://www.purevolume.com/news/John-Lydon-Public-Image-Limited-PureVolume-Exclusive-Interview

purevolume

The PV Q&A: PiL's John Lydon on Punks, Censorship, and Why There's Still Hope for the Future

Interview by Tom Lanham

Via PureVolume Sep 13

JL: I worked closely with Mr. Boyle, the man who put together the opening ceremony, because he's somebody I really respect. And he wanted to celebrate the National Health System, which is an intrinsic, beautiful British concept, regardless of how many Republicans view it as communism. My attitude in life is, if you can't offer a helping hand to the rest of your fellow citizens, then it's you that should leave the country, not them.

http://artists.letssingit.com/the-sex-pistols-the-sex-pistols-35th-anniversary-box-set-w9cgd/news/455647/1

Let's Sing It

The Sex Pistols - News

Oct 2012

Interviewer (John Lewis): Did you see "Pretty Vacant" being used at the Olympic Opening Ceremony?

Steve Jones: Annoyingly, here in the US, NBC cut to an ad break for our song! But I'm glad it looked good. Of course, Danny Boyle had to ask us for permission. Some fucking trainspotters will tell you that we were selling out by saying yes, but fuck them -I'm proud that it was used. We knew Danny would do something good.

1-00:55: John Rotten/Lydon full-screen, then back to shots of pogoers (now from above)

http://www.patriciafinney.com/?p=433

Patricia Finney (blog)

Danny Boyle and the Isles of Wonder Olympic Opening Ceremony

by Patricia Finney (novelist, poet etc.)

29 Jul 2012

... At one point (the punk bit with weird people in white feathered helmets pogoing on stilts to Pretty Vacant...(wtf?)) my staid 22 year old son besought me "Mu-um, PLEASE don't dance!" ...

1-01:10: song lyrics appear on pixels

1-01:20: Frankie & friends are now on the dancefloor; more messages & photos shown, and more punks

1-01:45: high shot shows a new circular formation of dancers as a smiley, then cut from Pistols to New Order's "Blue Monday" (1983, UK #12, and again at #9, Germany #2, New Zealand #2; plus re-releases, most successfully in 1988)

[Welcome back NBC viewers- tough luck that the commentary is again drowning out the music]

For this song, the screens briefly show random scenes from the "Madchester" musical era of the 1980s; the big house shows shots from Ridley Scott's film "Blade Runner" (1982, but it's had more re-releases than even "Blue Monday").

As an irrelevant bonus, here's a fabulous photograph by Robert Hardy of a view a few miles from Stockton on Tees, where the Scott brothers spent their teenage years: ( https://web.archive.org/web/20130323214411/http://rob8hardy.photium.com/ [archive copy of closed website])

1-02:10: as we see shots of girls, boys and Smiley dancers (in day-glo outfits), June texts question "What's your name?"

1-02:15: music cuts to Frankie Goes to Hollywood "Relax" (1983, UK #1 eventually- chart highs for this single are actually 1984, Germany #1, Italy #1, Norway #2, Australia #5, US #10)

1-02:20: Frankie shows off his "Frankie Say" teeshirt

1-02:25: music, Soul II Soul ft. Caron Wheeler "Back to Life (however do you want me)" (1989; UK #1, Netherlands #1, Sweden #3, Switzerland #2, US #4) as we return to the house, where the young lad is trying on a dress; also shown is:

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lesbian-kiss-olympic-opening-ceremony-sparks-praise-fury280712

GayStarNews

Lesbian kiss at Olympic opening ceremony sparks praise, fury

by Joe Morgan

28 Jul 2012

"a clip of British film Billy Elliot, showing a young gay teen dressing up in girl's clothes."

(for what it's worth, I thought the Olympic boy's dress looked better on him)

[On NBC, Matt and Meredith chose this moment to begin a lengthy "explanation" of the audience pixels: "One more thing I don't understand" says the pretend-ditz]

1-02.35: dancers circle begins to break up

1-02.40: music: opening of Happy Mondays "Step On" (a 1990, UK #5 cover of the 1971 John Kongos song "He's Gonna Step On You Again")

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9LN-8y96Q Published on 5 Aug 2012 by WDUK)

Audience video giving a good view of the lighting and effects for the later part of "Frankie and June".

1-02.45: music: Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams (are made of this)" (1983, UK #2, France #1, Canada #1, Germany #4, New Zealand #2, US #1)- video on big house

Another "dreams" song, and another children's literature reference, as the flying scene from the animated version of Raymond Briggs' "The Snowman" appears alongside Annie Lennox.

1-02.55: dancers in a formation of straight lines; various shots

1-03:15: music: The Prodigy "Firestarter" (1996, UK #1, Finland #1, Norway #1, Sweden #2, New Zealand #3, Eurochart Hot 100 #2); accompanied by flamethrowers, not seen to their best effect in the broadcast version

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSHSf9Eda5s Published on 26 Jul 2012 by superview88 )

Rehearsal footage of this section

A little bit of controversy:

http://www.quora.com/2012-London-Olympics-Opening-Ceremony/Why-did-Danny-Boyle-choose-Prodigy-over-Oasis-to-represent-music-during-the-opening-ceremony

Quora

30 Jul 2012

question:

2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony: Why did Danny Boyle choose Prodigy over Oasis to represent music during the opening ceremony?

Oasis was clearly the most popular Britpop band of the era and arguable the most popular music act of the 90s in Britain.

[Responses include:]

30 Jul 2012, Anon User

If most popular was the only metric we would have had something from The Spice Girls.... is that what you really really want?

31 Jul 2012, Aman Anand

* The simple explanation: 'Firestarter' is the perfect song for a ceremony which culminated with a group of children starting a fire, i.e. lighting the Olympic torch

* This won't go down well with their legion of fans, but Oasis have dated very badly since their impressive run in the late Nineties and do not deserve to held in the same league as either Prodigy, Radiohead or Blur

1-03:30: pogoing punks return; also video briefly full-screen

1-03.40: shots of dancers illuminated by the flames

For some experiences of a "Firestarter" dancer, see:

http://exploredreamdiscoverblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Explore. Dream. Discover.

My Olympic Experience

by Sophie Dewing (lives in London, works in TV)

[3 articles- scroll down to 30 July to find the first!]

[1-03.44: spectator footage only*- 10 runners, five wearing blue, five wearing pinkish, carrying torches (one unlit) jog along west flank of the field of play]

I only noticed this strange appearance, keeping the fire theme going through the next musical excerpt, when I revisited spectator videos of Thanks Tim on "we only just had Lemmy's funeral, and now THIS" day. It's best seen at lower-right of WDUK's aforementioned video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9LN-8y96Q ), starting about 1 min 10 secs. Jo Ditzel's rehearsal video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEO9_VOrLl8 ) also shows, from around 55 seconds, ten runners with only nine flames.

* To be strictly accurate, the torch-bearers were also seen in the middle distance at left in Eurosport's 3D live coverage.

https://www.sportsliberated.com/that-time-i-was-in-the-london-2012-opening-ceremony/

Sports Liberated: Jo Blogs

I was in the London 2012 opening ceremony… I know!

by Jo Gunston [a Bohemian Rhapsody 'reverb' special effect]

22 Jun 2020

I jig onto the stage, dance a little, dash off, remove my ‘reverb backpack’, run 200m round the track to the point where I pick up a lit flare, running further round the track while thrusting said flare in the air all the while avoiding setting my lacquered hair on fire; after putting the now dud flare in a bucket of water off stage I head back out into the throng with arms waving in the air like reeds singing, ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ ...

1-03.45: music, Underworld "Born Slippy.NUXX" (1995 B-side to the single "Born Slippy" WHICH IS NOT THE SAME THING! 1996 single; Uk #2); shots from "The Full Monty" (Peter Cattaneo, 1997) and "Trainspotting" (Danny Boyle, 1996, which of course featured this music) on big house. Meanwhile, the three formations of dancers begin to break up

[and a crowd of new dancers in more modern costumes runs up from the M25]

1-04:00: music gives way to dialogue, Hugh Grant from "Notting Hill"

(June and Frankie and Dizzee and Tim)

1-04.05: live audience singing of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pV4sRj8vM4

London 2012 Opening Ceremony: part of the crowd!

by mjb22

"Firestarter" to "Bubbles" and Dizzee, from low down in the audience, showing a Zorb ball in action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dJC8uKX-cc

I'm forever blowing bubbles at 2012 Olympics Ceremony

samsambubbleman

[SamSamBubbleman is a bubbleologist. He runs a business in Tottenham called Bubble INC. He had found that plastic nets with large circular holes (early versions were made by joining together lots of plastic six-pack drink can holders) could be used to produce vast numbers of bubbles. The Olympic team found him, and he made them a billion bubbles: "We actually had 55 people on my Bubble Nets, and 300 people with 2 bubble guns each!". Unfortunately, the bubbles didn't blow far enough across the arena to make much impression on the TV cameras, except perhaps on the 3D broadcast, which attempted to show them close-up

( 2D screenshots of the 3D broadcast at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJfpkwzR340 Uploaded by caro123ist )]

http://www.birdsontheblog.co.uk/the-olympic-opening-ceremony-explained/

Birds on the Blog

The Olympics Opening Ceremony explained

by Sarah Arrow

28 Jul 2012

... Bubbles -No, not Michael Jackson's monkey.

The Olympic stadium is in Stratford, East London. Nearby a local team, West Ham (they wear claret and blue, lose almost every match they play and then have a miraculous recovery, you may remember them from a film called Green Street ;) ) who are hoping to move into the empty Olympic stadium, have their own song. It's called Bubbles. Every person in London was singing that song, it means something to the local people. ...

While the above is undoubtedly true and relevant; we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that this section is supposed to be about recent developments in British culture. As developments go, the deregulation of financial markets, including London's, was one of the biggest, and one of the most dramatic in its effects:

http://blog.datamarket.com/2012/01/05/bubbles/

DataMarket blog

I'm forever blowing bubbles

by Matt Riggott

January 5, 2012

"Bubble" is a pleasant word, isn't it? For me, it brings back memories of childhood -real or invented -playing in the garden, blowing big globs of washing-up liquid into the air and watching them pop above my head.

But put "economic" in front of it and we have something far less pleasant. Economic bubbles are most certainly not filled with fun, although there's obviously enough pleasure (and by pleasure I mean money) to be found in the period before the bubble pops that they keep on coming. Tulip mania, the South Sea bubble, the Roaring Twenties stock market bubble, the dot-com bubble (originally and cunningly branded the dot-com boom), all of which have culminated in property bubbles we see around the world today. ...

http://www.bubbleblowers.com/music/Music.html

Bubble Blowers Museum

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles

... Fortune's always hiding,

I've looked everywhere,

I'm forever blowing bubbles,

Pretty bubbles in the air.

I'm dreaming dreams, I'm scheming schemes, ...

Not a bad summary of the situation, all things considered (particularly the fact that the lyrics were written around 1918).

1-04.10: June heads towards Frankie; who sees her and walks in her direction; shots alternate on both of them, getting closer and closer

1-04.35: music "City Lights" replaces the "Bubbles" song; Chaplin scene on big house

1-04.45: "David Cassidy" speech from Hugh Grant (Four Weddings and a Funeral)

1-04.50: music: Blur "Song 2" (1997; UK #2, Australia #4, frequently sampled at sporting events); kissing montage begins

The footage shown "full-screen" on TV was:

Bogart & Bergman as Rick & Ilsa, from "Casablanca" (USA 1942)

Note that we begin with an American film- the British no more invented kissing than they invented meals & families & teenagers

Fiona & Shrek as themselves, from "Shrek" (USA 2001)

John White & Joan Hooley, as Giles Farmer & Louise Mahler, from "Emergency- Ward 10" (British TV, 1964)

As increasing numbers of citizens from the former British Empire arrived in the United Kingdom during the 1950s and 1960s, TV companies were very nervous of audience reactions to the depiction of people from different ethnic backgrounds appearing in scenes of ordinary life. The commercial TV companies which sprang up outside London in the late 1950s were first to attempt to tackle the issue, by the blunt tactic of including it in their strands of issue-led single plays. On Sunday 1 February 1959, 9:35 to 11:05pm, the ITV network broadcast what The Times (30 Jan 1959, page 13) described as "a special new production" of the recent stage play Hot Summer Night, by Ted Willis, in the Armchair Theatre series produced by Manchester-based A.B.C. Television. Although (as The Times reported in its review on 2 February, page 12) the emphasis was changed on TV from "the operation of the colour bar in Britain" to "a drama of family life in which the racial motif was by no means integral", an excerpt posted on YouTube in 2015 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqlVK0L7Hk) reveals that the erotic kiss between the daughter of the racist central couple and her West Indian boyfriend was retained.

The actor playing the boyfriend, Jamaican-born Lloyd Reckord, became rather typecast as a victim of white British racism (eventually returning to Jamaica for a very distinguished career as a producer and director) but he escaped it to some extent in the play You In Your Small Corner, written by his brother Barry Reckord, and also transferred from stage to small screen on 5 June 1962, 9:15 to 10:45pm, in the ITV Play of the Week series produced by Manchester's other commercial TV company, Granada. Here too he was a Jamaican immigrant with a white British girlfriend, but this time the prejudice was based on class, and the belief of his enterprising and ambitious mother that, as a student at Cambridge University, he could do better. Once again, he got to kiss the girl on screen, and the couple were even shown getting out of bed.

Late-night "issue" dramas were all very well, but they were seen by relatively few people, and when it came to mass-audience series in the peak early evening drama slot, black faces (or rather, dark grey, on Britain's monochrome TV sets) were mostly seen in bit-parts. Casting integration lagged far behind the real situation in large cities, because racism was considered not just acceptable but politically sensible. In 1964, led again by the commercial broadcasting sector (the BBC being very sensitive to the whims of politicians) the decision was made that audience racism was just going to have to be confronted head-on. The scheme which resulted was even reported in African-American media:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DsIDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62

Google Books:

Jet magazine, 26 Mar 1964

Photo story "The Kiss That Wasn't":

"Playing role of woman doctor in British TV drama Emergency Ward 10, Jamaican-born beauty Joan Hooley practices kiss with actor John Carlisle to test viewer reaction. Script calls for actress to kiss white boyfriend, but studio hasn't picked 'who it will be'. "

The picture of the kiss test showed three other actresses looking on in amusement, waiting their turns. Joan had made her first appearance on the show (then one of Britain's most popular soap-operas) a few days before the Jet article appeared, and "who it will be" refers to the eventual boyfriend. Over several months, a romantic relationship then developed between her character (surgeon Louise Mahler) and series regular Doctor Giles Farmer (played by John White), leading up to the broadcast of what, at the time of the London 2012 Olympics, was generally believed to be the earliest example in the world of a lip-to-lip kiss on TV between a light-grey person and a dark-grey person, the earlier late-night dramas being remembered only by a few academics.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YYaryaqLfd4C&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172

Google Books

Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television

Stephen Bourne

(Updated edition) Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005

[quoting Joan Hooley:]

"... when they originally wrote the script we were supposed to be in my bedroom and I was supposed to be wearing my slip. We were going to embrace and kiss, but the powers that be decided that was too risqué for a family programme. ... So they changed the whole setting from the bedroom to the hospital garden."

Joan suggests that this change would not have been made if she had the same ethnic background as her screen boyfriend, but of course, this whole plotline was intended to make a point. The change was therefore announced in advance, and even found its way into the pages of newspapers which probably had very few soap opera fans among their readers:

The Times (London)

15 July 1964

"A scene showing a kiss and embrace between a coloured doctor and a white doctor has been cut from next Friday's episode of "Emergency- Ward 10". ... Last night the Independent Television Authority said that they had not ordered the cut and that this had nothing to do with the colour question."

... which in a sense was true, because the real purpose of soap operas is to bring in large audiences- and nothing brings in audiences like a hot press report. Stephen Bourne's account of the affair in "Black in the British Frame" continues:

"The day after the scene was shown, the Daily Express published a photograph of Louise and Giles kissing, and informed its readers 'not a viewer rang up to complain'. ... However, by the end of 1964 the romance had ended, and Louise was killed off"

That's not a very reassuring ending, and there's even a regrettable coda. Joan Hooley (who later also became a scriptwriter for the aforementioned comedy Desmond's) virtually relived her 1964 experience in 1998-2000, as a sadly tokenistic West Indian character on one of the most popular current soap operas, EastEnders:

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/It+started+with+a+kiss.-a0212287731

New African

It started with a kiss.

by Clayton Goodwin

November 1, 2009

Ms Hooley has accused the BBC of racism and tokenism in using her as a prop without a significant story-line. She is quoted as saying: "It was very demeaning and a form of insidious racism. That is a very strong phrase to use against the BBC and EastEnders, but I feel very badly about how they handled my character. They were just fulfilling a duty to have a black face on the show."

EastEnders has always had a basic problem, that it is intended to appeal to a nation where only a minority can trace non-British ancestors in the past century (or even millennium?), but it is set in a part of London where the proportions are reversed. Accepting that they had blundered, the producers have in recent years made their ethnic mix a little closer to local reality.

Coincidentally, detailed statistics from the 2011 Census of England and Wales have just been released (Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate censuses). Here are summarised figures on ethnic background for England & Wales in total, and for the cluster of four London boroughs around the Olympic Park: Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest:

( http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-for-local-authorities-in-england-and-wales/rft-table-ks201ew.xls )

Olympic neighbourhood / England & Wales

British "white": 29% / 80.5%

Other "white": 15% / 5.5%

Mixed: 5% / 2%

Indian subcontinent: 24% / 5%

Other Asia: 6% / 2%

African/ Caribbean etc. "black": 17% / 3%

Others (inc. Arab): 4% / 1%

(PS: inhabitants per square km: 9368 / 371 )

PPS: The population of London in the 2011 census, about 8,174,000, is not much smaller than the entire resident population of England in the very first census, back in 1801: 8,331,000 (the total population of Great Britain then being 10,472,000- to which should be added 471,000 out on the oceans, or serving their country around the world; the population of Ireland, then newly joined in the United Kingdom, was not successfully measured until 1821, when it was discovered to be a remarkable 6,847,000- over 400,000 more than its population in 2011 !)

shot of the big house here, showing first:

Wills & Kate as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, from their wedding day (world TV, 2011) then

Lady & the Tramp, munching spaghetti, from "Lady and the Tramp" (USA 1955)

back to full-screen for

Anna Friel & Nicola Stephenson as Beth Jordache & Margaret Clemence, from "Brookside" (British TV, 1994)

http://www.afterellen.com/content/2012/07/london-olympics-opening-ceremony-includes-lesbian-kiss-seen-around-world

AfterEllen

The London Olympics opening ceremony includes a lesbian kiss seen around the world

by the linster

28 Jul 2012

... The clip itself is significant because it was the first lesbian kiss on pre-watershed British television, which, for the Yanks among us, means that it aired early in the evening and was considered suitable for all ages to watch. ...

[Post-watershed, the UK pioneer was probably "Girl" on BBC2 in 1974, featuring Alison Steadman and Myra Frances]

http://www.nickihastie.demon.co.uk/brooksid.htm

Lesbian Essays and Other Writings

"You Never See Lesbians": Reading "lesbian" through Channel 4 TV's Brookside

Nicki Hastie

c9 July 1994 [page accessed 3 Dec 2012]

In the Guardian, almost exactly a year ago to the day (8 July 1993), Katharine Viner and Justine Hankins were bemoaning "the absence of home-grown lesbian images" in Britain compared with America's glossy and glamorous media coverage of well-known "lesbian" celebrities. What I find interesting about Viner and Hankins' article is that they look to "challenging soaps such as EastEnders and Brookside" to produce these "home-grown lesbian images" for the British public. ...

When, and through which signifiers, does a lesbian storyline become visible? Specifying dates has become vital for me in terms of timing my involvement as a lesbian reader of Brookside and comparing this with responses in the press. For the tabloid press, the lesbian storyline really began in the week leading up to Christmas 1993 and seemed to receive confirmation only after the 14 January 1994 episode. ...

But in fact such an intimate embrace had been screened on 19 and 22 November 1993. On both occasions, Beth and Margaret are shown in bed together in each other's arms. They kiss and hug, but in a non-sexual context so that they are depicted as "innocent" friends free from the suggestion of lesbianism.

However, the essay also discusses an even earlier "signifier"- back in October 1993, Beth had lent Margaret her copy of the classic novel "The Well of Loneliness" by Radclyffe Hall; the title not spoken, but the cover shown clearly. In case you were wondering, Beth's storyline was doomed to end badly, as she had earlier taken part in the murder of her violent, rapist father.

(see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW5c-4mJglw for confirmation that NBC did not censor the Brookside kiss)

Audrey Hepburn & George Peppard as Holly & Paul, from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (USA 1961)

after cutting back to Frankie & June, the live version then shows Lady/Tramp and Kate/Wills full-screen;

the BBC DVD substitutes:

Dev Patel & Freida Pinto as Jamal & Latika, from "Slumdog Millionaire" (UK / India 2008)

Kate Winslet & Leonardo DiCaprio as Rose & Jack, from "Titanic" (USA 1997)

Gene Kelly & Debbie Reynolds as Don & Kathy, from "Singin' in the Rain" (USA 1952)

Kim Hunter [hello again] & Charlton Heston as Dr. Zira & Col. Taylor, from "Planet of the Apes" (USA 1968)

WALL-E & EVE, from "WALL-E" (USA 2008- should have got more Oscars)

Leo & Claire as Romeo + Juliet again

A few more kisses were seen on the big house but not clearly shown on TV or DVD, the most notable of which were from:

"Cidade de Deus" / "City of God" (2002, a violent Brazilian gangster story set in one of Rio de Janeiro's favelas, co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, the former being chosen to direct the bid video and to co-direct the opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics)

"My Beautiful Laundrette" (1985, a British film about entrepreneurialism etc.- shown is the champagne celebration between Johnny & Omar)

also, "Brief Encounter" (1945, a classic British take on adultery) popped up on more than one occasion during "Frankie & June"

1-05:02: June posts a status change, "Single" to "In a relationship" as we see aerial shots of dancers; message finishes "Party! My house, now!!!"

{v28.5m}

1-05:10: music, intro to Dizzee Rascal "Bonkers" (2009; UK #1, Belgium #6, Australia #13- but it ended up with Platinum sales there) as the party invite goes rather viral

http://i-donline.com/2012/08/london-2012-fashion-olympians/

i-D

London 2012: Fashion Olympians

interview feature by Milly McMahon

13 Aug 2012

London-based fashion designers Michael van der Ham, Christopher Shannon and milliner Nasir Mazhar created a wardrobe of medal-worthy costumes for performers at The Olympic Opening Ceremony. Collaborating with award-winning Director Danny Boyle and Costume Designer Suttirat Larlarb, the shining lights of British fashion dressed 350 of the ceremony's participants ...

[specifically, the "present day" dancers seen during Dizzee's performance]

1-05:15: Dizzee shown live as he starts his spiel

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/review-danny-boyles-witty-subversive-spectacular-opening-ceremony-for-london-2012-olympics-was-a-triumph-20120728?page=2#blogPostHeaderPanel

Indiewire

Review: Danny Boyle's Witty, Subversive & Spectacular Opening Ceremony For London 2012 Olympics Was A Triumph

by Oliver Lyttelton

28 Jul 2012

... we watched the ceremony in Bow, East London, about a 5 minute walk from the stadium, and when Rascal, a native of the area, appeared, cheers echoed from every house in the street ...

Bow is in London postcode area E3, hence the logo on Dizzee's jacket.

A word of explanation may be needed here for American viewers. Hip-hop is not the only form of music in the world which involves spoken lyrics. The "patter" songs of Gilbert and Sullivan in the 19th century, the idiosyncratic poetry of "Facade" by Dame Edith Sitwell and William Walton in the 1920s, the "toasting" of Jamaican DJs in the 1960s, the London proto-rap of Ian Dury in the 1970s, the deceptively powerful depictions of everyday life by Mike Skinner as "The Streets" in the noughties, all use spoken lyrics (with or without sung choruses) in "un-American" ways. On the song "Bonkers" performed at this point in the London Opening, local lad Dizzee Rascal (whose performances are pretty much guaranteed to get 50,000 people dancing in the proverbial muddy field) collaborated with Armand van Helden to create a chart-topping pop sound rather different from both hip-hop and the no-nonsense urban London "grime" tradition in which he made his name.

Having sorted that out- pay close attention to the lyrics:

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dizzee+rascal/bonkers_20795359.html

Bonkers lyrics

I wake up everyday it's a daydream

Everything in my life ain't what it seems

I wake up just to go back to sleep

All sorts of people (but not those watching NBC, for whom Lauer and Vieira helpfully talked over a substantial portion of the song's beginning) quickly spotted something there:

http://quiteirregular.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/caliban-and-brunel-kenneth-branaghs-speech-at-the-olympics-opening-ceremony/

quiteirregular (blog)

29 Jul 2012

Caliban and Brunel: Kenneth Branagh's Speech at the Olympics Opening Ceremony

[comments:]

Duncan, July 29, 2012 at 4:37 pm

Caliban's words were picked up towards the end of the evening by another artist: "I wake up just to go back to sleep" from Bonkers by Dizzee Rascal.

Coincidence?

quiteirregular, August 5, 2012 at 5:31 pm

A very suggestive one if it is! Great spot...

Yes, Caliban's speech as recited by Branagh-as-Brunel is being echoed in the words of the song. What's more, Dizzee's continuing description of himself sounds a lot like the Caliban we know and love:

And all I care about is sex and violence

A heavy bass line is my kind of silence

.....

Some people think I'm bonkers

But I just think I'm free

....

Which is rather comforting really; downtrodden Caliban asserting his independence. Well, comforting for a given value of comfort. The time has come, I think, to worry about that bowler hat (or "Derby" for NBC viewers).

Wearing a bowler in imitation of Charlie Chaplin is one thing. A young man wearing a bowler for a night out with his mates in England is rather another. A modern Caliban, if dressed like Frankie, starts to seem uncommonly like Alex, the bowler-and-casual wearing central figure of The Film Stanley Kubrick Banned- his 1971 adaptation of Anthony Burgess's short 1962 novel "A Clockwork Orange"- in which Prospero is played by a Government determined to demonstrate a commitment to "law and order" at any cost (and Ariel, once again, is the technology).

1-05:16: On big house, people in bed hold up caption "Quiet down there"- flipped over for French version, "ça suffit en bas".

1-05:45: pixels show pulsing rectangles effect

1-05:50: music cuts to "Nimma Nimma" (written specially for the occasion by Indian composer A.R. Rahman) as camera shows dancers [the DVD interpolates video shots for this song, showing an Indian-flavoured house party]

The way "Nimma Nimma" is used puzzles me. Although created for the London opening, it isn't included in the famous "leaked setlist", where its place is taken by "Nachna Onda Nei" by Tigerstyle, featuring the film song "Naanthaan ungappanda". M.I.A's "Paper Planes" (another Rahman composition) was due to feature after Tinie Tempah.

1-06:05: music back to "Bonkers" chorus

A bit of Dizzee history:

http://www.ghanacelebrities.com/2010/06/28/ghanaian-wins-bet-2010s-best-actor-award-another-ghanaian-won-best-international-act-award

Ghanaian Wins BET 2010's Best Actor Award + Another Ghanaian Won Best International Act Award

Chris-Vincent Agyapong Febiri

28 Jun 2010

The half Ghanaian and half Sierra Leonean Actor, Idris Elba took home this year's BET Best Actor Award. It is not shocking to me since Idris Elba's acting prowess cannot be questioned at all. I surely believe he is the next Denzel Washington and will soon be taking over Hollywood. The East London born actor is merging so well in Hollywood and has a lot of undisputable potentials...

Also, Another half Ghanaian and half Nigerian born in London, Dizzee Rascal took home the Best International Act Award, beating our own Kojo Antwi and others...

http://www.questia.com/library/1P2-31845238/games-making-my-home-a-building-hole-says-dizzee

Evening Standard

Games Making My Home a 'Building Hole' Says Dizzee ; Rapper's Rap East End Boy Rascal in 2012 Rant -- But He Wants to Sing at the Opening

by Kiran Randhawa

4 Sep 2009

AS AN East End boy born and bred, Dizzee Rascal could be expected to welcome the 2012 Olympics.

But the rapper lived up to the Bonkers title of one of his hits today when he attacked the Games for turning his childhood home into a "big building hole". ...

Young Dylan Mills' main talent in his early teens was getting expelled from schools. For his great re-invention, it seems he has to say "Thanks Tim":

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1043910,00.html

The Observer

Music Monthly: Total respect

Akin Ojumnu

21 Sep 2003

... Before I got to Langdon Park I had been rinsed [thrown] out of a couple of local schools. The title of my album, Boy in Da Corner, is about my life at that time. I'd been that kid in the corner of the classroom, the street corner. I had my back against the wall in general.

But in Mr Smith's class there weren't any problems. ...

Tim Smith did things to help me like sending me across the road to a professional studio to get more experience. On Monday nights he let my friends from the street come into the department so we could lay down some tracks. It didn't bother me that he was a middle-aged man. He was my teacher; age didn't matter, I respected him. He understood my music and understood what I was trying to do, so nothing else mattered.

1-06:20: wide shot of stadium, with pixels and track lightshow

1-06:25: dancers head for party central

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/27/london-2012-olympics-opening-ceremony-live-blog-pictures_n_1710032.html

Huffington Post

London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony Live Blog

22:08: Lots of comments at the bottom of the post calling the show 'boring". Are you watching the same thing? Either way, keep them coming...

1-06:30: cut to house loft, and music: Amy Winehouse & Mark Ronson, "Valerie" (2007; UK #2; Netherlands #1; Germany #3; Switzerland #4 etc.- this is a cover of a 2006 UK #9 single by The Zutons) (brief shot full screen)

1-06:35: many, many friends enter small house for party

According to the Boyle & Boyce commentary for the BBC DVD, the original intention was to have all the thousand-plus performers enter the small house, which would then rise to reveal just Tim Berners-Lee at his desk. However, it came to the attention of the producers [on 4 July, according to Patrick Woodroffe] that there was a secret plot (if "secret" is the right word for anything involving Facebook) for the performers to rebel on the night, and congregate on "Glastonbury Tor" instead. The Tor being hollow, this could have been a very bad idea indeed, so a compromise was struck.

1-06:40: Frankie & June dancing in loft

[One of the crazier aspects of the Tor compromise is that, in reality, even the partygoers who did enter the house sneaked out again through the back window; Frankie and June have climbed up to the highest terraces (with their friends), and eagle-eyed members of the stadium audience can see them apparently in two places at once]

1-06:45: music: Muse "Uprising" (2009; UK #9, Denmark #5, Norway #4, Finland #8, Switzerland #8; although it reached only #37 on the US Billboard Hot 100, it hung around a very long time, and went Platinum)

Note the abrupt ending to Amy's contribution, as she sings "Va....". This is also audible in rehearsal footage, so it's evidently intentional.

1-06:50: widish shot showing dancers & pixels

1-06:55: back to F & J dancing in loft to Muse

1-07:05: 70s dancers dance to Muse

1-07:20: The phrase "East London madness" introduces, not Kano & Mikey J's "Random Antics" which was apparently a victim of The Cuts, but Tinie Tempah's "Pass Out" (2010, UK #1, Euro Hot 100 #7)

The big house is decorated during this song with artwork that wouldn't look out of place in a children's picture book, but in reality seems to be a celebration of the local street art mural tradition (which survived the first wave of 2012 gentrification, even at the borders of the Olympic Park).

1-07:25: aerial shot of dancers on the Tor

1-07:30: music back to "Bonkers"; mix of close-up and dance shots

[around this time the DVD has shots of many performers congregating on the running track, either side of the small house]

1-07:45: music changes to a new intro, and we begin moving toward the house

1-07:50: the new music is recognisable as Emeli Sandé "Heaven" (2011 [early 2012 outside UK]; UK #2, Japan #9, Denmark #3); the big house shows a speeded-up replay of the whole sequence, in reverse

http://www.roguemag.co.uk/emeli-sande-releases-the-single-heaven-album-to-follow-in-august/

Rogue: Action sports and lifestyle

Emeli Sande releases the single Heaven, album to follow in August

cJul 2011

One of the brightest artists on the scene right now, Sande has been writing tracks of other artists for a while now including Tinie Tempah (Let Go), Professor Green (Kids That Love To Dance), Wiley (Never be That Woman), Susan Boyle, Cheryl Cole and the Saturdays.

Hailing from Scotland with a father from Zambia and her mother coming from Cumbria, Emeli Sande is not to be compared to other artists. Her refeshingly clear and soulful voice stands a cut above the rest.

1-08:00: as we approach the house, it rises into the air, revealing not partygoers, but an office desk

{^28.1m}

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/the-big-story/engineering-the-london-2012-olympics-opening-ceremony/1013640.article

The Engineer

Engineering the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony

by Stephen Harris

23 Aug 2012

... a smaller house built from foam over a lightweight steel structure was erected. It was so large it had to enter the stadium in two pieces, the top half being lowered via the cable system onto the bottom half that was rolled in, before the whole thing was lifted again to reveal the British inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners Lee. ...

Continuing the #nbcfail from the start of this section: (see http://qik.com/video/53195321 from Tammy Kerschner)

[SHOW: Camera moves towards small house]

Lauer: You know we told you a little bit earlier about the title of this, "Frankie and June Say Thanks, Tim".

[SHOW: House begins to rise]

Lauer: That refers to Tim Berners-Lee we mentioned as the creator of the World Wide Web,

[SHOW: A person sitting at a desk begins to be revealed]

Lauer continued: and in just a second as the house is raised you will see the man himself.

Do houses routinely get raised into the air to introduce the guests on US chat shows or something? We just saw about 300 people entering this little house; now we see it rising into the air with all the partygoers apparently vanished, but NBC don't care- they just want to tell us what the next surprise will be. Yet again, they put a damper on one moment while giving a spoiler for another.

1-08:05: sitting at the desk, we see [as a graphic caption explains at the appropriate moment] Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, typing at a computer (a NeXTcube like the one on which he created the first web page)

Vieira: That is him, typing out a message, for the audience here and at home.

1-08:20: his message "This is for everyone" is shown on the pixels [he has also tweeted it, discreetly using another Steve Jobs non-Olympic-sponsor gadget, his iPhone]

2012-07-27, 21:08:32 UTC [=22:08:32 BST]

https://twitter.com/timberners_lee

This is for everyone #london2012 #oneweb #openingceremony @webfoundation @w3c

Vieira: This- Is- For- Everyone ...

I should mention here a significant fact that I had failed to notice until 2021; in the original London bid for the Games, one of the key slogans was "Games For Everyone", which links perfectly with Tim's philosophy.

As discussed earlier, Tim Berners-Lee did not "invent the internet". Rather, as his tweet hinted, he took an internet which had developed over two decades as a walled garden for academics and techies, and, in 1990-91, transformed it into the first digital information sharing system "for everyone". Although the World Wide Web itself is essentially a combination of earlier ideas, the importance of Berners-Lee is that he did not just say "Wouldn't it be great if we could combine these old ideas?" With the help of that NeXTcube, he created software which would do everything he wanted within the existing resources at CERN where he worked (except that, at the time, few computers other than the NeXTcube could handle full graphic on-screen interaction, so Nicola Pellow, a student from Leicester wrote an alternative browser for less sophisticated machines). Interestingly, he was reportedly furious when the Mosaic browser, the 1993 US development which gave the Web true mass appeal, added the facility to build pictures into web pages directly, rather than make them available as separate files- even with broadband some web pages show why this can be a problem, when an over-ambitious graphic element temporarily halts the rendering of the entire page [browser add-ons like Flashblock can help].

http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html ( Frequently asked questions, by Tim Berners-Lee ) Includes some interesting information about the development of the Web, and about Tim himself- such as the detail that his parents met while working on the first Ferranti computer in Manchester. He also clarifies the role of Robert Caillau, the "forgotten" Belgian, who was the key advocate and negotiator for the project, ensuring that it got development staffing, and most importantly, persuaded CERN, over some 18 months, that the Web should be made freely available. Perhaps most interestingly, Tim explains how the Web developed from a much earlier project of his, a hypertext system called "ENQUIRE" which ran into a problem that links could not be made between different file systems.

http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_lee.htm

Living Internet

Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, and the World Wide Web

Bill Stewart

7 Jan 2000 [with updates; accessed 5 Dec 2012]

... Berners-Lee named his first hypertext system Enquire, after an old book he found as a child in his parents house called Enquire Within upon Everything which provided a range of household tips and advice. The book fascinated young Tim with the suggestion that it magically contained the answer to any problem in the world. With the building of the Enquire system in 1980, and then the Web ten years later, Berners-Lee has pretty much successfully dedicated his life to making that childhood book real. ...

http://infomesh.net/2001/enquire/manual/

Infomesh

Enquire Manual - In HyperText

Tim Berners-Lee

Oct 1980 [scanned and hyperlinked 2001, by Sean B. Palmer; accessed 5 Dec 2012]

... ENQUIRE stores its information on a computer. The ENQUIRE-WITHIN program allows a person to create and edit the data, so that others can later extract it as it is relevant to them. ...

The most interesting feature of the ENQUIRE manual is that it is describing something quite like the Wiki concept. Apparently, like Paul Baran with digital packets, Berners-Lee ran into resistance when trying to incorporate this in the Web, so it had to be independently re-invented as the Wiki (by American Ward Cunningham, who followed the grand internet tradition and made it freely available; thanks Ward!).

[NB: The Manual does not itself use the term "hypertext" and Berners-Lee says he was then unaware of the work of Ted Nelson (who had coined the word in 1965, and has spent decades trying to bring to fruition his very ambitious concept of how it should work).]

Returning briefly to my earlier story of IT development in Britain; some weeks after the Olympics, on a visit to my Mum (who had, incidentally, been brought up in a house beyond the reach of mains electricity, so the dolls' house her uncle made for her had electric light before her home did), I noticed that her newspaper included an article by Frank Cottrell Boyce about the book "Pandaemonium" by Humphrey Jennings, which was a major inspiration for the London Opening. The book had been reissued, to save Olympic fans the necessity of paying silly prices to buy second-hand copies. Picking up my Kindle Touch reader (created in America, "Assembled in China", ARM processor of course), with a couple of dabs at the screen I was connected to www.amazon.co.uk via Mum's BT Home Hub wi-fi, and within a minute I was reading to her from the book. Information technology has come an astonishingly long way since 1948.

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/movingimage/2012/07/pandaemonium-and-the-isles-of-wonder.html

British Library Moving Image Blog

Pandaemonium and the Isles of Wonder

Luke McKernan

29 July 2012

Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950) is generally recognised to be among the greatest of all British documentary filmmakers. In films such as London Can Take It! (1940, co-directed with Harry Watt), Listen to Britain (1942, co-directed with Stewart McAllister), Fires Were Started (1943) and A Diary for Timothy (1946), Jennings documented the relevance of the British experience of war to history, art, society and culture. Often described as a poet among filmmakers, he applied a poet's synthetic vision to the British condition at a time of national crisis.

30 Jul 2012, Luke adds a [comment] to his own piece:

And would you believe it, the name of the 11-year-old boy who sang 'Jerusalem' at the start of ceremony was ... Humphrey. "While I think his voice is brilliant, I admit I wasn't sure why they picked him at first" says Humphrey Keeper's schoolteacher in a Times interview.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/11168564/Ministers-dont-get-culture-says-2012-Games-scriptwriter.html

Daily Telegraph

Ministers don't 'get' culture, says 2012 Games scriptwriter

by Keith Perry

17 Oct 2014

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the screenwriter and author, will make a scathing attack on the Government, accusing it of not understanding "how culture happens".

The author is due to say in a literary lecture that his script for the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony, watched by millions of people, was the result of "a series of kindnesses".

He will tell the audience at the David Fickling lecture at the Oxford Story Museum that the ceremony was inspired by a collection of lectures, originally given by the film-maker Humphrey Jennings to a group of Welsh miners and published as a book called Pandaemonium. This was given to him by the director Julien Temple, and Cottrell-Boyce in turn passed it on to Danny Boyle who was the artistic director of the ceremony. ...

1-08:35: the audience pixels and the big house go berserk in a frenzy of data, as Emeli sings of heaven and good intentions

[And hundreds of dancers on the M25 light up their mobile phones]

http://www.theatrecrafts.com/files/LSI_Isles_of_Wonder.pdf

Lighting & Sound International

Isles of Wonder (40-page special feature)

Aug-Sep 2012

[A very detailed look at the technical aspects of the Opening, revealing a host of key contributors whose names are unknown outside specialist circles. And, in the very last paragraph of the very last page, it includes an explanation of a unique effect created for this moment in "Thanks Tim"- crackling energy tubes which surround the Big House, adding visceral impact to jagged lines of flashing light laser-projected on the floor:]

Shaun Barnett is managing director and SFX designer for Quantum Special Effects ...

"Finally the 'shock tubes' - the concept is that they recreate the impression of electricity flashing down a wire. ... They are a simple mono-filament type line, hollow and internally coated with powdered aluminium; they burn at 2,000 feet per second and we're bundling something approaching 4km into a 70m braid to produce that pronounced pulse."

https://www.er-productions.com/case-studies/london-2012

eR Productions

London: 2012 Olympics [case study]

ER Productions supplied LOCOG – the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games – with a list of laser requirements for all three ceremonies, totalling more than 790 watts of laser power, and also provided a health and safety officer.

Around 900-million people around the world watched the London 2012 opening show, which featured a large-scale lighting projection around the main stage during the ‘neural network’ explosion scene, which celebrated Briton Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the World Wide Web. ...

NB: DVD here shows, full-screen, "wall of images" footage that was displayed on the Big House in the stadium at this point to illustrate the Web's power to share information, revealing that the images were of human rights protests.

[In rehearsals, the sound of shattering glass was also heard at about this point, but it was dropped from the final performance, possibly because the image of breaking the "glass ceiling" would be a feature of the Paralympic Opening Ceremony]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8NUCHF7jX0

London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Nedas Domres

Excerpts; audience view from fairly high- good on the ending of "Thanks Tim" and the Arctic Monkeys performance

1-08:45: music quiets, pixels go dark; crowd cheers and Tim, seen initially from the back, gets up from his desk

1-09:00: the stadium announcers introduce Tim, and he waves to the crowd

[NBC trims Tim's appearance, and ends it here]

1-09:05: Tim applauds the dancers

That was the last of the three main artistic presentations. Here a Games volunteer who lived through the entire event several times, in rehearsals and on the night, suggests a couple of thematic threads running through all three:

http://www.gamesbids.com/forums/topic/21698-london-2012-opening-ceremony-what-did-you-think/page-19

The Forums of GamesBids.com

[topic:] London 2012 Opening Ceremony - What did you think?

28 Jul 2012, FDLondon (a Ceremony volunteer)

... There are quite a few subtle threads to the broader basic narrative of moving through the ages to the modern era that I've realised after seeing it a few times. The changes in transport as we moved through - from foot, to horse omnibus to cars and Tubes (and then back to bikes, just kidding!). There's also another thread about how we express ourselves; in the Green and Pleasant land, there's no form of communication other than verbal, as we begin the Industrial Revolution, it's spoken word but then we start with basic adverts on the 'buses' and the newspaper boys running around. The literature segment shows how powerful words can be to all ages and then now, the social media portion means that we all have ability to communicate with the world instantly. That ability to have free speech and communicate through written words is a cornerstone of the modern world and this shows it developing. ...

The above discussion forum is principally dedicated to Olympics past, present and future. Most of those who joined in this particular topic thread were very very irritated by the chaotic and untidy nature of the London Opening (one pointing out that Danny Boyle's stage production of "Frankenstein" set a much higher standard).

The Torch Relay

1-09:25: filmed sequence, focusing first on the 1948 Games (including a shot of then-Princess Elizabeth** in the audience), then showing scenes from the 2012 torch relay- very fast cutting, but very heartwarming.

music: David Holmes (from Belfast) "I heard Wonders" (2008, album track).

{^28.3m}

[this section was omitted by NBC]

** Or then again, maybe not. Princess Elizabeth attended some events in 1948, but a less-than-totally happy and glorious phase of her first pregnancy made her miss the Opening Ceremony. Although the Pathé News catalogue labels the young woman seen here as Princess Elizabeth, Footage Farm (who have digitised syndicated film of the occasion as shown in America), call her Princess Margaret ! As Queen, Elizabeth would attend the opening of the equestrian portion of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics (which was held in Stockholm, Sweden, due to Australia's quarantine laws, so it was opened by the King of Sweden, while the Melbourne opening was performed by the Queen's official representative, the Governor-General) and would personally open the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

1-12:25: shots of torch-bearer on the London Eye ferris wheel (not in, on- perched atop one of the passenger pods)

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/9834928.Adventurer_s_daughter_takes_Olympic_torch_to_top_of_London_Eye/?ref=rss

Swindon Advertiser

Adventurer's daughter takes Olympic torch to top of London Eye

6:30pm Tuesday 24th July 2012

... teenage explorer Amelia Hempleman-Adams, the youngest person to ski to the South Pole, soared to new heights as she carried the Olympic Torch on the London Eye on Sunday. Amelia, 17, daughter of adventurer David Hempleman-Adams, stood on top of one of the giant wheel's carriages overlooking London as she held the flame aloft as part of the torch relay. The teenager said she was a little nervous when the stunt was first suggested but was glad she decided to do it, describing it as an unforgettable opportunity.

1-12:35: the Eye by night, then Tower Bridge by night, rapidly approached by a dramatically-lit speedboat

[NBC cut directly to this speedboat shot from Tim Berners-Lee, which in my opinion digs a surprisingly large hole in the thematic progress of the presentation]

Although the speedboat "Max Power" did pass through Tower Bridge for the Opening, filming had actually been done earlier:

http://towerbridge.blip.pl/archive/7/2012

Blip: towerbridge.pl

2012 lipiec

[log of scheduled openings for July 2012]

["Otwieram" = opening; "w dól" = downward (i.e. downstream). Subtract an hour to convert Polish to UK time, then subtract another 10 minutes for luck]

Wtorek, 24 lipca 2012

23:10 Otwieram sie przed he Max Project plynacym w góre Tamizy.

23:10 Zamykam sie za he Max Project plynacym w góre Tamizy.

23:20 Otwieram sie przed he Max Project plynacym w dól Tamizy.

23:20 Zamykam sie za he Max Project plynacym w dól Tamizy.

Czwartek, 26 lipca 2012

22:50 Otwieram sie przed he Max Project plynacym w góre Tamizy.

23:00 Zamykam sie za he Max Project plynacym w góre Tamizy.

23:50 Otwieram sie przed he Max Project plynacym w dól Tamizy.

Piatek, 27 lipca 2012

00:00 Zamykam sie za he Max Project plynacym w dól Tamizy.

Piatek, 27 lipca 2012

22:50 Otwieram sie przed he Max Project plynacym w dól Tamizy.

23:30 Zamykam sie za he Max Project plynacym w dól Tamizy.

Alert readers will have spotted that the time conversion puts the bridge opening quite a bit earlier than the 12 minutes past 10 we have reached in the ceremony. For confirmation, we turn to a roving aquatic reporter:

http://nbluckyduck.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/olympic-weekend-friday-steer-it-like.html

Life Afloat on LUCKY DUCK [blog]

Olympic Weekend - Friday - Steer it like Beckham...

by Amy

30 Jul 2012

... at 9:30, we left the television and walked across the basin to Limehouse Lock.

Why? Well, the lockkeeper at the briefing had said that "a boat" was booked through the lock at 9:45pm.

...

We headed down to the lock to find very large numbers of policemen and security guards, all of whom were completely deflecting, in a practiced deadpan way, any questions from the public about whether the torch was going to come through.

However, we took up a strategic position, and waited....

Lights fast approached on the Thames, and soon three RIBs came into sight. They drove quickly into the lock, but we were all disappointed to see that the Olympic torch wasn't lit!

1-12:45: close-up of torch, pan down to young footballer Jade Bailey, with pilot out-of-focus behind; then ext. view of boat from side, with the Tower of London in the background

At this point, slightly too early in my opinion, the BBC's Huw Edwards confirms the identity of the out-of-focus helmsman [NBC's timing was much better]

1-12:55: Bailey close-up from behind; she looks over her shoulder at the pilot; close-up on him- David Beckham

http://www.moteurboat.com/actualite/infos/le-bateau-olympique-de-beckham.html

Moteur Boat

Le bateau olympique de Beckham

... Le fameux bateau est un Bladerunner BR RIB35X, une sorte d'hybride open/offshore/semi-rigide développé par le chantier anglais Ice Marine. Lors de la cérémonie d'ouverture, il était équipé de deux moteurs Mercury Verado de 350 chevaux -et de quelques artifices pour le show -, une configuration qui lui permet d'approcher 77 nœds en vitesse de pointe. A sa barre, le médiatique joueur de football David Beckham, tandis que Jeremy Watts, fondateur-dirigeant du chantier Ice Marine/Bladerunner et ancien double champion du monde offshore, opérait aux commandes de gaz.

... or the English version if you prefer:

http://www.motorboatsmonthly.co.uk/news/532262/david-beckham-s-olympic-boat-the-details

Motor Boats Monthly

David Beckham's Olympic boat - the details

Mon, 30 Jul 2012

Greg Goulding

One of the stars of the opening ceremony was this Bladerunner BR RIB35X sportsboat, piloted by a certain David Beckham.

The Bladerunner, fitted with twin 350hp Mercury Verado supercharged 4 stroke outboards, is capable of 77knots (88mph). With David at the helm, the Torch on the bow and Bladerunner MD Jeremy Watts working as throttle-man, the boat lit the up the Thames with its neon deck and underwater lighting as it powered under Tower Bridge and on to the stadium.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180814/London-2012-Olympics-opening-ceremony-How-magic-moments.html

Mail Online (Daily Mail website)

How they made those magic moments: The secrets behind that jaw-dropping Olympic opening ceremony

By Alice-azania Jarvis

Despite rumours that David Beckham wasn't actually driving the speedboat -named Max Power -that sped him down the Thames, organisers insist he was operating the controls, with other crew members on hand just for safety (though they admit he didn't dock the boat himself). Apart from close-up shots of Becks, the entire trip was filmed live, overseen by Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry.

http://www.maxiboat.tv/news/exclu-david-beckham-en-speedboat-2028

MaxiBoat.tv

Exclu : David Beckham aux JO

... Le désormais célèbre "Max Power" pourrait être exposé au prochain Salon Nautique de Londres début janvier 2013.

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2125135_beckham_olympics_speedboat_fails_to_sell_at_auction

getSURREY

Beckham Olympics speedboat fails to sell at auction

by Charlotte Talbot

4 Dec 2012

THE speedboat used by David Beckham during the Olympics Opening Ceremony failed to sell when it was put up for auction in Weybridge on Monday.

The Bladerunner RIB 35 Powerboat went under the hammer at a special Bonhams' automotive sale held at Mercedes-Benz World, but it did not meet its reserve price. ...

1-13:05: back to the two-shot

1-13:15: panning shot as boat approaches part-raised Tower Bridge, the top walkway of which erupts with fireworks

1-13:20: boat passes under Tower Bridge in a succession of fast shots from different viewpoints

Note in particular that some shots were from another boat shadowing Beckham's, yet no such boat was seen in long shots. These seem to have been filmed on the 24 July run-through, (which saved cash by only using the roadway fireworks):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODT1-bgdaTM (by Ice Duke) and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSjn9scDRTk (by Baynes Media)

Here's the run-through on 26 July, with full fireworks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP_i59i81kw (by Lee Williams)

And finally, some spectator views of the ceremonial run on 27 July:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbD9mzLsID4 (by Morgan Sinclair)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBnxTC5gisk (by NameOnRice)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7jNg_Mf_h8 (by Kanaal van TrueMasterz)

1-13:25: as boat clears bridge, showers of sparks cascade from the roadway

1-13:30: another pan following boat as it approaches Canary Wharf

1-13:45: shots of boat & Tower Bridge & Beckham

{^28.6m}

As the boat passed under Tower Bridge, there was a stadium announcement of David and Jade's identities (having made their early declaration, the BBC suppressed this).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS92Dv8CFnc

Youtube

David Beckham London Olympic

uploaded by TheMinga1971

27 Jul 2012

[German TV coverage of the boat passing under Tower Bridge, with the stadium announcements audible in the background.]

I thought at first the following quotation was NBC again, but it seems commentators everywhere were trying to get in their two cents' worth, and I now reckon this was an English-language service in the Middle East (from screen-shot video by signal6000, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5sVHphwSH0&feature=related):

... "Canary Wharf there thee uh; great financial centre here, started by the Reichmann brothers from Toronto as Beckham came; down under the Tower Bridge. Another name being mentioned to light thee cauldron is uh; the great Daley Thompson, back-to-back decathlon winner."

Just before we leave this outside broadcast, a thought about the conceptual cleverness of including multiple events which can be seen from outside the stadium, in addition to the usual fireworks. This little video from news aggregator Zoom.in shows how such events can be filmed from public spaces, enabling non-Olympic TV and video publishers to circumvent the official 30-second news allowance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_vDhkaMIe0

YouTube (Zoom.in channel)

Olympia Spektakel für London - Spiele eröffnet

Filmed by AP; music by Lamb

28 Jul 2012

[I think we get another commercial on NBC just after this point- certainly the following announcement is not heard:]

memento mori

1-13:50: aerial pull-away from boat, followed by aerial shot of Stadium, as we hear announcer, "Ladies and gentlemen; please pause to respect our memorial wall, for friends and family of those in the stadium, that can not be here tonight. Thank-you."

At first sight, the various short interludes between the major sections of this opening ceremony seem like intrusions, but in reality they are prologues to the themes the organisers wish to present in the major scenes which follow them. Queen Elizabeth arrives not as Head of State (which traditionally happens at the very start of the ceremony) but as a woman whose first child was born in 1948, just after the last London Olympics and the founding of the National Health Service. The orchestral "tribute to the British film industry" introduces us to other aspects of the UK's popular culture in the years since 1948, which will be major themes in "Thanks Tim". And now, the prologue to the parade of thousands of some of the most vibrantly alive people in the world is a message about the inevitability and unpredictability of death (e.g. January 26, 2020).

The "play within a play" towards the end of "The Tempest" (Act 4, Scene 1) is actually a masque performed by Ariel's fellow spirits; a celebration of the betrothal of Miranda and Ferdinand, featuring the goddesses Ceres and Juno, with Iris, spirit of the rainbow, and a troupe of dancing nymphs and harvesters. Lulled into relaxation by this gentle celebration of the miracle of life, Prospero suddenly remembers that his own risks being ended the next time he falls asleep. Shaken, he abruptly ends the rural dance, with his own counterpoint to Caliban's speech on sleep and dreaming:

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air;

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep."

It is the pivot of the play; the moment when a drama with romance and comic relief becomes a piece of magic, gently turning us all away from our cheery anticipation of revenge and humorous come-uppances.

Compare also a notoriously odd feature in the children's book "The Wind in the Willows" which we saw briefly illustrated in the opening River Thames journey film; a chapter called "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in which the atmosphere of Edwardian bourgeois high-jinks is briefly abandoned.

On a summer night, Ratty and Mole work together to find Otter's lost child, and are drawn downstream by a half-heard, piping tune until, as the dawn appears, they discover the Piper, whose power they both trust and fear. They find they have also been led to the missing otter-child, but when the Piper leaves them, all three feel a heavy sadness. As they make their way home, the wind plays more tantalising music; Ratty attempts to convey the words of the song to Mole, but ultimately, just as he thinks he has grasped "the real, the unmistakable thing, simple--passionate--perfect---" he falls asleep.

This chapter is, for many people (including the founder members of Pink Floyd), what makes the book. It shows readers that the "Toad of Toad Hall" foolishness is not what life is all about; that the basic good within characters like Ratty and Mole (and we might add Prospero, and Caliban) connects to something larger. And now, in the Olympic ceremony, we have reached a similar pivotal moment. In my opinion, it actually began with those shots of the 1948 torch being lit at Olympia. Although Beckham's bling boat looks consistent with the mood of earlier moments like the arrival of the Queen, there is one important difference which puts it squarely into the theme set up by the torch relay montage, and provides a foretaste of the cauldron lighting: the announcers name both Beckham and young footballing Londoner Jade Bailey, who is the actual torch bearer at this point. The torch-bearing and the reflections on mortality which are about to begin, jointly form the true heart of the evening, the odd-chapter-out (by the way, arguably, Beijing had also had an odd-chapter-out at this point, between the artistic presentation and the parade- a couple of minutes of seemingly informal exuberance from groups of traditionally-costumed dancers representing the 56 nationalities within China; yin/yang again).

1:14:20: screen shows montage of hundreds of photos of individuals, none identified, but including, according to press reports, all 52 who died in the 7/7 bombings.

The press reports may not quite be accurate:

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/london2012/1527560-OLYMPIC-OPENING-CEREMONY-THREAD-PART-2?pg=31

Mumsnet

Olympic Opening Ceremony thread, part 2

[comment by bisjolympics Fri 27-Jul-12 22:31:53]

... there wasn't anyone I recognised from 7/7 (I was a bit too involved in that so would recognise the photos of most who died).

Letter sent to opening ceremony ticket-holders:

"As you are an esteemed member of our audience for the evening, we would like to create, with your help, a commemorative board featuring a family member or dear friend who has passed away recently.

My Dad was a mad Olympics fan and would have been 91 on 27 July 2012, so I'll be including him.

[submission details given]

Danny Boyle"

http://michaelheppell.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/137/

Michael Heppell ~ The Blog

Opening Ceremony

01 Wednesday Aug 2012

Michael Heppell

Sooooo much emotion. Emeli Sandé singing Abide With Me while images were shown of those who wanted to remember was incredible. Especially when a picture of my Dad, who died last year, appeared.

The International Olympic Committee has consistently refused to hold a minute's public silence in memory of the athletes who died in the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. There is no silence in this "Memorial Wall" segment, just quiet, reflective music ("An Ending- Ascent" by Brian Eno).

This sequence, with the subsequent singing of "Abide With Me" was not aired by NBC, who showed instead an interview with Michael Phelps

http://www.addisonrecorder.com/the-addison-recorder-watched-the-opening-ceremonies-and-lived-to-tell-the-tale/

The Addison Recorder: Pop culture dispatches from the Great Lakes

The Addison Recorder Watched the Opening Ceremonies and Lived to Tell the Tale

by Andrew Rostan

27 Jul 2012

Boyle and the Brits put together a genuinely moving ceremony. There was even a beautiful moment of calm before the Parade of Nations, with Emeli Sande’s performance of “Abide With Me” to honor the 7/7/05 attack victims. You may not remember it. That’s because it was completely chopped out of the broadcast for that STUPID SEACREST-PHELPS INTERVIEW!!!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/28/1114493/-NBC-Didn-t-Show-Us-the-Whole-Olympic-Ceremony

Daily Kos

topic: NBC Didn't Show Us the Whole Olympic Ceremony - Updated with NBC response

[comment:]

Cali Scribe on Sat Jul 28, 2012 at 09:36:00 AM PDT

When they went to the Phelps interview, I commented on that to the spouse, who said, "There's probably not much going on right now." Little did we know.

http://deadspin.com/5936807/nbc-cut-a-memorial-tribute-to-a-dead-us-marine-from-its-opening-ceremony-telecast-heres-his-story

NBC Cut A Memorial Tribute To A Dead U.S. Marine From Its Opening Ceremony Telecast. Here's His Story.

Timothy Burke

Aug 23, 2012

Three weeks ago we brought you the story of U.S. Air Force Academy cadet Andrew Chin. Chin's friends and family submitted his photo to be included in a memorial segment of the London Olympics opening ceremony, only for them to realize when the program aired on NBC in tape delay that the memorial segment had been edited out. ...

We noted in that piece another U.S. serviceman, a Marine, could be seen in the Wall of Remembrance section and that we were working to identify him. Today, we can, as well as identifying another American NBC cut out of the opening ceremony broadcast in the name of "tailoring programming to its American audience."

...

There were probably other Americans featured in the opening ceremony memorial whose friends or family eagerly gathered to see their departed loved one, only to have NBC cut the minute-long segment out in order to make room for a Ryan Seacrest interview of Michael Phelps. If you know them, tell us their story.

1-15:05: the great bell sounds, heralding the dance by Akram Khan, initially just to a heartbeat rhythm, with the "sun" disc gliding slowly above, then Emeli Sandé, now live, starts singing acapella, later joined by quiet strings, which fade again towards the end

The International Olympic Committee has consistently refused to hold a minute's public silence in memory of the athletes who died in the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. There is no silence in this dance sequence, but for the first minute or so we hear nothing but heartbeats, and a sudden exhalation of breath as dust is thrown high in the air by the dancers. I should stress at this point that, nowhere in the official literature connected with the Opening Ceremony is it indicated that either the wall of photos or this dance is a memorial to the victims of the London bombings which occurred the day after the city won the right to host the 2012 Olympics in 2005. Nor is any such connection mentioned in the Olympic Broadcasting Services live commentary. However, BBC commentator Hazel Irvine talked over the first part of the dance sequence (including the dramatic exhalation), saying:

"Yes the excitement of that moment in Singapore seven years ago when London won the Games was tempered with great sorrow the very next day with events on the 7th of July that year. Moving wall of memories remembering those who are no longer here to share in this wonderful event, and this is a calming and reflective pause, after the exuberance, of the last hour and a quarter."

Although the theme of the dance was officially "the struggle between life and death using such powerful images of mortality as dust and the setting sun", the fact that there were 50 + 2 dancers, the style of the dance, the particular use of the dust, and the odd detail that the "setting sun" actually rose, to beat its furnace heat down upon the stage, all tend to indicate that this performance was based on the first few terrible minutes after the 7/7 bombs exploded. Nonetheless, that still does not mean that it was "about 7/7" more than it really was about the wider "life and death" theme (which was emphasised by having a continuation of the "Memorial Wall" showing for about 40 seconds on one diagonally-opposite pair of the big video screens, then on the other). Here, for example is a rather radical interpretation:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/29/london-2012-danny-boyle-opening-ceremony

The Guardian

London 2012: Danny Boyle's story of Britain was a celebration of freedom

by Shami Chakrabarti [115-year-old co-founder of Liberty]

29 Jul 2012

[comment:]

29 July 2012, SoothingBalm

... It was certainly not only a tribute to the 7/7 victims but made CLEAR references to Guantanamo bay and the consequences of hundreds and thousands of deaths which followed on from 9/11 and 7/7. ...

It was danced to the sound of a heart beat and at the end, on a desert like scene with dust wafting across the stage, the running figures ended up on the floor jerking. Reminding me of the Bradley Manning Apache helicopter video obscenity. ...

Orange suits, for God's sake put two and two together why don't you. ...

Not that the suits exactly were orange- more a crimson sort of colour, but seen under yellow light. And the figures weren't jerking on the floor at the end- but they certainly were a little earlier. By the way, it's not entirely clear on the official video that the "sun" rises vertically at the south end of the arena, then tilts to horizontal as it begins to drift slowly northward, with the dancers following, until it is near the Tor, where it descends, still horizontal, until it is just a metre or two above their heads at the end.

http://tseretniw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/i-love-olympics.html

Winterism blog (Winter is a young woman from Canada)

London 2012 - Opening Ceremony

Abide with Me

Next to Mr. Bean, this next part is my favourite. The dance performance was great. The choreography was stunning, and I love that we got to just enjoy the dancers with a simple heartbeat drumming through the stadium for a good minute or two before the talented Emeli Sandé started to sing Abide with Me.

http://50yearsindance.com/2012/08/05/akram-khan-a-master-choreographer-for-our-olympics-london-2012/

50 Years in Dance

Akram Khan - A master choreographer for our Olympics, London 2012

S. Pinto- Duschinsky

5 Aug 2012

The dancers were the spirits of those who would have been with us if cruelty had not interceded. Akram Khan depicted their restless souls in search of their lost lives. The Boy represented a legacy of defiance and hope, left to us by these spirits. They did not want to die, to leave us. They bind us to one another.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/secret-of-emeli-sandes-olympic-spot-1187517

Daily Record

Secret behind Emeli Sande's showstopping Olympic opening ceremony performance revealed

by Record correspondents

30 Jul 2012

Akram said the distinctive moves of the dancers depicted the struggle between life and death.

He said: "I realised I had to be very Japanese about it. When Danny was speaking in the early stages about the entire ceremony, I felt I had to strip away and simplify stuff because everything was so spectacular and powerful, and I couldn't match that.

In that sense, I was being quite Japanese, in the sense that I wanted to empty the space rather than fill it because I felt they needed an opposition to what was happening."

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/theater-dance/best-dance-performance-akram-khan-667047/

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Best Dance Performance: Akram Khan [Best of 2012 series]

by Jane Vranish

20 Dec 2012

1. Akram Khan (Pittsburgh Dance Council, Byham Theater, Oct. 20): Pittsburghers got to see why this British/Bangladesh choreographer is so huge in Europe. Persian poet and philosopher Rumi inspired "Vertical Road," a mesmerizing piece that centered on human redemption through billowing movement and powerful rhythms. People are still talking about this performance -- its message was that powerful.

http://templetv.net/shows/temple-the-london-olympics/july-31-2012/

tutv (Temple University Television)

Temple @ the London Olympics: July 31, 2012

[Includes part of a press conference on 28 July with Akram Khan, including his thoughts on the 7/7 suggestion]:

"... there's no- harm- if people, interpreted that there was a link, but there was no direct connection that it was part-based on 7/7 or, um, you know, no its no link at all ..."

[- and his stunned response to being told that NBC omitted it:]

"Is it not, um, accessible enough? Or, is it, is it not commercial enough? Or, I don't know what it is. If it's for those reasons, then I'm really really disappointed."

The International Olympic Committee has consistently refused to hold a minute's public silence in memory of the athletes who died in the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Since 1927, Britain's most significant annual sporting event, the Football Association Cup final, has always featured communal singing of the hymn "Abide With Me," the lyrics of which were written by clergyman Henry Lyte in the middle of his last illness. Although technically Christian, the poem makes no reference to Jesus except the context of his own encounter with death, on the cross, and, as the Ceremony Media Guide notes, it was "Mahatma Gandhi's favourite hymn".

http://www.britishfuture.org/national-conversations/britain/our-island-story/

British Future

Our island story

by Rachael Jolley

28 Jul 2012

Debates about British identity have sometimes got stuck around issues of whether we think of ourselves as an insular or a global nation; whether we need to recall and strengthen our traditions, or focus on the future in a fast-moving world; whether we are really a rural or urban nation. The truth is that we are all of these things, so that many would feel a sense of loss if forced to make a stark choice between them. The Christian heritage can form the inheritance of a multi-faith and secular society too, as the moving use of Abide With Me to quietly remember the atrocity of 7/7, the day after London was awarded the Games, showed. The ceremony as a whole ratified a resolution which London made, collectively, by 8/7 and 9/7 that year; that we wanted to remain true to the hopeful story that had been told in our name on 6/7 in Singapore to invite the world to our capital.

The origins of the F.A. Cup final singing of "Abide With Me" (a practice which soon spread to the Rugby League Challenge Cup finals) were presented in an article in Soccer History magazine, issue 22, "Pack Up Your Troubles: Football and Community Singing" ( http://www.soccer-history.co.uk/pakupyourtroubles.pdf ). As the article title implies, many of the singers, men in their late 20s and 30s, would, a decade earlier, have been singing to keep their spirits up during some of the most insane military efforts ever known, at the height of the "war to end all wars". Further background to the movement is revealed in the following online discussion thread:

http://www.abrsm.org/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t19366.html

Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music

Forums > ABRSM > General Music Forum

topic: Community Singing

post by Roseau, 17 Nov 2006:

Years ago someone gave me a copy of the "Daily Express" Community Song Book. I got it out the other day to look for some canons for my daughter and read the foreword.

I quote:

"On the night of November 20th 1926, ten thousand people assembled in the Albert Hall to launch the "Daily Express Community Singing Movement". There were a few minutes of shyness, strangeness and timidity. Then suddenly, the spirit of song took complete command of the enormous audience. The chorus of "John Peel" swelled and volleyed round the great hall, and in that moment was born the astounding social movement that has since swept over the country like a prairie fire." ....

[comment] 17 Nov 2006, 5:30 PM, by skylark:

I think it must have been a movement in those days - I've got both the Daily Express book you mentioned and also a similar book published by the News Chronicle (undated unfortunately) which says this in the Foreword:

"This "News-Chronicle" song book is not merely intended for Community Singing purposes. Singing together is a form of amusement and delight. It is a glorious way in which we can, in large bodies, express something which we could not tell in any other way." ....

The "Soccer History" article indicates that the first Daily Express community singing at a football match was on Boxing Day 1926 (Fulham v Reading at Craven Cottage). The Sunday Express of 27 March 1927 reported what seems to have been the first inclusion of "Abide With Me" among the more "rousing" songs in such a programme, before the FA Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Southampton at Chelsea Football Club's ground on 26 March, when it was a "surprise success". It was included again at that year's final the following weekend, and was one of several songs recorded at the event and released by Columbia. Several copies of this recording of "Abide With Me," sung by 90,000 people, are available online.

http://olympics.edition.cnn.com/Event/London-2012-Olympics-Live-Blog?Page=2

CNN International

London 2012 Olympics Live Blog

27-28 Jul 2012

22:18 BST, Jonathan Stevenson

'Abide With Me' is sung quite beautifully inside the Olympic Stadium in London by Emeli Sande. Spine-tinglingly beautiful, as a matter of fact.

22:18 BST, fulmerspot

Abide with me. Tears welling.

22:20 BST, rmt1982

This is fantastic. I'm actually crying at this. I'm 29 years old, and I'm crying like a little child. This is beautiful

1-20:05: end of "Abide With Me" and audience breaks silence to applaud; the principal performers are then named by the announcers

{v27.9m}

The Parade of Nations

In a sense, the Parade had begun some time earlier, thanks to some inspired educational programmes:

http://blog.britishcouncil.org/2012/07/31/london-2012-the-guard-of-honour-paves-the-way-to-gold/

British Council blog

London 2012: The Guard of Honour paves the way to gold

by Lucy Nacson-Jones

31 Jul 2012

... I stood alongside 2,000 young people and 500 teachers from 250 schools across the UK that took part in our International Inspiration programme and London 2012 Get Set (the official London 2012 education programme). We were all there to form part of the exciting, young and vibrant welcome for thousands of athletes entering the grand opening of the London 2012 Olympics.

... the Guard of Honour lined the athletes' path with glowing lanterns in tow and wonderfully artistic homemade banners that were evidently a product of hours of thought and effort. We cheered and laughed with the athletes as they walked the parade. The athletes themselves were overwhelmed by their welcome and were lagging behind for pictures with their supporters. Not one team was left unsupported. ...

www.hanginglanterns.co.uk

Globe lanterns were provided by The Hanging Lantern Company (of Uckfield), probably using the Floralyte battery LED units they preferred

In total there were around 2,000 children (minimum age 10) participating, in groups of eight per school. There are numerous descriptions and photo albums on the websites of participating schools, but they do not seem to have made videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYDBR84sJ1o

Guard of Honour

by Hayes PE

30 Jul 2012

[A slideshow from Hayes School, showing many aspects of the Guard of Honour]

Some of the athletes did make videos as they prepared in the Athletes' Village and made their way to the stadium, my favourite being this from the man who would become the third member of Jamaica's 1-2-3 smash in the 200 metres sprint:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSE7ThemfqQ

YouTube

ChilSpot Part:Twice #TeamJamaica

by Warren Weir

3 Aug 2012

For some other viewpoints on Jamaica's arrival, see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsQd9ytvXVM (stadium entrance tunnel)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkaSCsUqry8 (spectator view from above the vom)

You may also like to know that Youtube user ReCorrer Uruguay posted a dozen unedited video snippets showing that team's journey to the ceremony, among numerous others showing their Olympic experiences (mostly with titles starting "Londres 2012").

https://whaddupjp.com/2012/08/02/london-2012-olympic-park-opening-ceremony/

Whaddup JP

London 2012 Olympic Park Opening Ceremony

by Jon Parker

2 Aug 2012

The line up of 204 nations stretched all the way from the stadium on the south west side of the park across the common domain to the athlete’s village over a mile away on the east. I walked alongside most of the queue before assuming my place near the front so I could greet each nation as they walked past one by one.

Myself and several of the performers from earlier were cheering and shouting at each country with an enthusiasm perhaps only matched by Team Canada and Team Ireland as they came past. Some countries were less enthusiastic in their response, particularly some from the middle east which appeared to have no athletes and only dignitaries representing them. North Korea did not appreciate us shouting “we love your flag” either after the podium flag mix up the previous day – that was perhaps the only awkward moment of the night.

We joked about jumping the barrier and joining one of the lesser known countries in walking around the stadium waving with their national flag. I was astonished to find that someone actually did this ...

Returning briefly to the kids, Children and special events; key points continued

3) Prepare exit strategies!

http://mymumdom.com/did-you-let-your-children-watch-the-olympic-opening-ceremony/

My Mumdom

Did You Let Your Children Watch The Olympic Opening Ceremony?

by Jacq (a "kiwi in the UK")

28 Jul 2012

... during the music medley, they all got up and danced and sang along. ...

And this is where it went downhill. Once the music had finished, and the countries came on they wouldn't sit down again and kept jumping up, changing seats, poking each other and wailing.

By the time we got to the 'Bs', the younger three had been sent to bed protesting bitterly at the unfairness of it all. ...

1-20:40: parade starts

http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/olympics/2012/07/writer-fatter-slower-the-opening-ceremonies-.html

Star-Telegram (blog- London Calling: A Texas Take on the Olympics)

Writer, Fatter, Slower, The Opening Ceremonies

Gaile Robertson

28 Jul 2012

... and the parade of athletes for the Three Kisses Olympics began. ...

[But while the cameras focus on the emergence of the Greek team, technicians are placing a large circular cover over the centre of the arena, hiding the sinking of a large section of the floor, which is a heavy-duty lift (code-named "Frank"), and safety fences are being installed round the cover, all round the top of the banking of the performance area, and up the various ramps. Also, the drummers seen along the first section of the parade route are, at this point, the only marshals in the arena: the rest arrive off-camera as the TV coverage focuses tightly on the athletes (though a few can be seen moving into position when the Tor is seen in the background). They include many of the Mechanicals, no longer needed to lead audience participation, who bring with them plenty of bottles of water for the athletes and station themselves on all the stairs up to the performance area.]

Returning from a commercial break after their Michael Phelps interview, NBC showed a wide shot which revealed Akram Khan's dancers, otherwise unseen by American viewers, running off the stage to make way for the Marshals. Respectful? I think not.

Television viewers may not have noticed that, during the parade, the upper screens in the stadium showed, alongside the views of the teams, a globe, with zoom-in maps of each country (and flags) as it was introduced.

For more on the Moroccan sound in the first parade track, "Galvanize" by The Chemical Brothers, try:

http://www.travel-exploration.com/subpage.cfm/Najat_Atabou

Here's a list of the tracks played during the parade, with the countries seen at the start of each track:

1-20:40 : The Chemical Brothers - Galvanize (Greece parading)

1-23:18 : High Contrast - Moon Watcher (American Samoa parading)

1-26:38 : Underworld - Always Loved a Film (Instrumental) (Australia parading)

1-30:35 : Underworld - Rez (High Contrast Remix) (Bangladesh parading, just before Barbados)

1-37:16 : Underworld - Deep Arch (Darren Price mix) (Burkina Faso parading)

1-40:28 : Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls (Central African Republic parading)

1-43:59 : Underworld - Minneapolis (High Contrast Remix) (Congo parading)

1-52:02 : Adele - Rolling in the Deep (Equatorial Guinea parading)

1-53:19 : The Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive (exact start of Fiji parading)

1-57:56 : High Contrast - Strutter (Grenada parading)

2-01:11 : High Contrast - Reach (Hungary parading)

2-06:34 : High Contrast - Ghost Dance (Japan parading)

2-09:44 : Underworld - Confusion The Waitress (Darren Price & High Contrast Remix) (Kuwait parading)

2-12:41 : Wretch 32 feat. L - Traktor (Luxembourg parading)

2-14:45 : Underworld - Dark & Long (Dark Train) (Remix) (Malta parading)

2-19:43 : Fuck Buttons - Olympians (High Contrast Remix) (Myanmar parading)

2-24:30 : Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky (Palau parading, just before Palestine)

2-26:43 : High Contrast - Can't Stop This Fire (Philippines parading)

2-31:14 : Underworld - Moon in Water (Instrumental) (St. Vincent & the Grenadines parading)

2-34:40 : Underworld - Crocodile (High Contrast Remix) (Sierra Leone parading)

2-38:31 : U2 - Where the Streets Have No Name (High Contrast Remix) (Spain parading)

2-43:22 : U2 - Beautiful Day (Timor-Leste parading)

2-47:05 : High Contrast - For Years (Uganda parading)

2-52:26 : High Contrast - Emotional Vampire (Venezuela parading, just before Vietnam)

2-54:30 : David Bowie - Heroes (start of Team GB parading)

2-57:35 : The Chemical Brothers - Galvanize (Team GB still parading)

Most of the above tracks appear on the second CD of the official album, one or two more by High Contrast on his EP "The Road Goes On Forever". The album track order is slightly different, probably due to changes made after the parade was rehearsed; also, because the parade took less time than feared, three tracks on the album (and, according to Underworld's Darren Price, some others not on the album, including one by Oasis) were not played in the ceremony. The three extra album tracks are:

Underworld - Dirty Epic (Darren Price & High Contrast Remix); High Contrast - The Long Way Home; Underworld - Dark and Long (Darren Price & High Contrast Remix).

[Darude - Sandstorm was not played at any point in the ceremony]

The press reported (based on the handy Opening media guide) that the music for the parade had a tempo of 120 beats per minute, to speed the athletes up. Those in the know doubtless muttered "so what?" However, the bpm effect is quite interesting, because it's a bit more subtle than you might at first expect.

The first use of a club DJ to provide music for an Olympic parade was in Athens, where the legendary Tiësto did his stuff. The pace he set was around 140 beats per minute, which is very brisk indeed for walking- so brisk that I suspect, if you analysed the footage closely, you'd find some athletes stepping on alternate beats at half the intended tempo. Certainly it did not shorten the parade time, which at almost exactly 2 hours from the start announcement to the concluding burst of fireworks was longer than Sydney's (about 1 hour 50 minutes, paced by a traditional marching band; looking back it's amazing how quaint some parts of Sydney's enjoyable opening now seem).

On the basis that the principle was sound, but the execution over-enthusiastic, a similar approach was tried at Turin's Winter Olympics in 2006, using a less fierce pace of around 120 bpm (it's hard to walk at half that pace without looking like a coffin-bearer). The timings can't easily be compared, because far fewer nations compete in the Winter Olympics, but the change seems to have been beneficial. Beijing 2008, however, made a conscious decision to keep the imposed regularity for its cultural presentation, so the parade music was provided by several groups of musicians from around the world playing in traditional local styles. On this occasion, the time from start to fireworks was about 15 minutes longer than Athens- nearly two and a quarter hours.

For London 2012, a combination of learned wisdom and innovation was used. As in Athens, the soundtrack was provided by a DJ (High Contrast, although he did not mix live), but as in Turin the pace was 120bpm.

http://www.highlycontrasting.com/2012/08/15/high-contrasts-olympic-story-part-3/

highlycontrasting.com

High Contrast's Olympic Story: Part 3

by Lincoln Barrett

15 Aug 2012

... I had to provide more music than could be needed just so they were covered in case it went much longer than it should. During the show the music cues would be triggered by a guy who was a seasoned pro at these kind of events. It's an incredibly high pressured job for him, so I had to work the mix out in advance with all the timings of where tracks should come in and give him all the data so he could load it into his Pyramix system (and backup systems) and be able to just follow the path I laid out. The key was that whilst I had to arrange things into a flowing mix that made sense in itself, things had to be malleable enough so that he could cut to another piece of music at any point ...

Occasionally, the process of converting Underworld tracks to 120bpm may have gone a little too far. There were serious grumbles about "Rez"- and...

https://www.borndirty.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17777&page=17

dirty forums

Re: Isles of Wonder - Music for the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games

1 Aug 2012

comment by Lx_Nen

Is it just me, or does "Confusion the Waitress (Darren Price & High Contrast Remix)" have absolutely none of the original in it at all?

comment by TheBang

Yeah, I'm having a hard time finding anything from the original in it.

The same could be said of Darren's remix of "Deep Arch" which was not identified by even the most devoted Underworld fan until he uploaded it under that title to Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/dj-darren-price/underworld-deep-arch-darren-price-unreleased-mix

Soundcloud: Darren Price

Underworld - Deep Arch - Darren Price Unreleased Olympics Opening Ceremony Mix

Google date 20 Aug 2018

Ingeniously, the drummers from the Industrial Era sequence were brought back (cleaned up and more smartly dressed) to line the track, adding emphasis to the beats. Small teams of drummers could also be sent out to act as sheepdogs, marching and drumming right behind groups of stragglers. Some drummers left their buckets behind, and formed lines in and around the former "Green and Pleasant" land (the grassy outer slopes of which still survived) to keep the assembling athletes neatly corralled, and away from the mysterious circular object in the centre. They didn't just stand there like dummies, however:

http://stephendcook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-story-london-2012-olympic-opening_30.html

Life Begins @ 40

My Story: London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony (Part 3)

by Stephen Cook

30 Jul 2012

... Steve Boyd, our mass choreography leader came out with some classic instructions on the night including "Can you get the Australians off the Water wheel - IT'S HOLLOW"

While 200 of the drummers accompanied the entrance of the teams with their beats, the rest of us were spread all over the stage, creating the lovely shapes you saw on TV and spent most of the time dancing away and doing our special moves like 'The Bolt', the 'Freddie' (Mercury) and the 'Travolta'! ...

[By the way, part 1 of Stephen Cook's story is at http://stephendcook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-story-london-2012-olympic-opening.html?m=1 ]

-and, for that matter, Steve Boyd (whose CV includes work on 11 previous Olympics, right back to Barcelona 1992) also has a page about the ceremony, including videos with samples of his radio-control chat:

http://steveboydportfolio.com/Portfolio/Olympics/Pages/London_2012.html

http://yodel.yahoo.com/blogs/general/very-proud-yahoo-olympics-opening-ceremony-11810.html

Yahoo! Yodel

A Very Proud Yahoo In Olympics Opening Ceremony

by James Bird (Corp IT Manager at Yahoo! UK)

30 Jul 2012

... the Freddie Mercury (jump out with both legs and raise right fist). Some of the athletes really got into the moves, too – the Danes were great! Occasionally, I heard the dreaded words "FREESTYLE!" A lot of the volunteers were actors or dancers so they loved it, but as an IT manager I wasn't so keen on those bits!

The dance moves were a development of Beijing's use of cheerleader-marshals, who danced seemingly non-stop for the entire two-hour-plus parade (which in turn was a reaction to Athens' use of marshals who looked remarkably like prison camp guards).

In addition to the marshals/drummers, there were also, of course, two volunteers accompanying each nation: a child carrying a copper petal, and a young woman carrying a name-banner-frame-thing:

http://www.guildford-dragon.com/2012/07/29/local-girl-izzie-radley-reports-of-her-participation-in-the-olympic-opening-ceremony/

The Guildford Dragon

Local Girl, Izzie Radley, Reports On Taking Part In The Olympic Opening Ceremony

by Izzie Radley

29 Jul 2012

... in our dressing room were 204 very similar girls all needing hair and make-up done with about 15 mirrors, 3 make-up artists and 2 hair dressers between us all. We had a lot of time to spare though, which was a definite necessity. It was likened by one of the girls to a dressing room in a Miss World Beauty Pageant - not because of our looks but because we all took to calling one another by country name rather than actual name! I was Miss Dominica; Louise was Miss Djibouti, and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI08CXBQQD4

YouTube

London 2012 Opening Ceremony athletes parade placard bearers

by Lady of the World

24 Aug 2012

Show day for the hundreds of placard bearers in the Parade of Nations. At 7 minutes, it shows details of the name-banner frame and how it fits at the back of the dress. The supports are made of transparent plastic, not metal (as, of course, is the horizontal strip to which the letters are attached; but that is flat, so it does not catch the light so much). Although the supports looked weird, the overall concept of having all the names, no matter how long, displayed in the same large size of lettering (and without any surrounding placard) was very good. It was usually quite easy to read the names in general shots of each team on parade.

Steve Boyd also coordinated the parade at the Rio 2016 opening ceremony, using every trick from London. Rio smartly substituted samba bands for the London drummers, but the most memorable and novel organisational feature of the 2016 parade was the use of brightly decorated tricycles to carry the country names. I think it was this gimmick, probably introduced against Steve's wishes, which caused the Rio parade to be over 25 minutes longer than London's (the three small extra teams being theoretically balanced by the much shorter parade route, using half-laps as in Sochi 2014, rather than full laps, with the marshals directing teams left or right at the end of the central runway). The use of young women and children walking alongside the flag-bearers in London meant that most flag-bearers would feel embarrassed if they failed to keep up the pace, and the young women could even make hurrying gestures to flag-bearers who deliberately dawdled, but the use of tricycles, positioned slightly ahead of the flag-bearers, nullified both advantages and left the seedling-carrying children keeping pace with the grown-up flag-bearers. Worse, putting the tricycles out in front meant that it was impossible for the TV cameras to show both country names and flag-bearers properly in the same shot, so the tricycles ended up having priority over the actual teams. Also, "recycling" the tricycles meant that TV viewers started looking out for their favourite riders coming round again- and in at least one case (Burundi), the slowness of the parade meant that no tricycles had returned to the start in time to carry the team's name!

PS: If you liked Rio's Tongan flag-bearer, look out for Fiji (and a glimpsed double helping from American Samoa) in London's parade.

Back to London; here are a few examples of the subtle tricks in action, from the first few minutes of the parade:

1-22:58: A spot of one-handed drumming, for variety and reduction of Repetitive Strain Injury

This is also a nice shot of the Tor awaiting its new decorations.

1-25:29: A brief arm-waving routine from the marshals

1-26:20 (DVD only): wide shot showing the Tor with the Greek flag already planted, and a petal being displayed

1-27:28: close-up of the Greek flag being planted, and the petal being displayed

Yes, Danny Boyle inserted the attractive wide-shot on the DVD out of sequence, hoping that nobody would notice.

1-27:41: Whole arena from the south, showing the organic pattern formed by the lines of marshals

1-29:33: Looking back along the parade route to the entrance

This is real subtlety. Azerbaijan are dawdling, so the Bahamas are bunched close behind them, and to encourage the next team (which will be Bahrain) to set a fast pace, a very large gap has been left behind the Bahamas.

PS: watch out for another random bit of shape-throwing from the marshals.

1-30:54: More marshals groovin'

1-31:04: - accompanied by some drumstick-clicking

1-34:20: close-up of the Australian flag about to be planted, and the petal being displayed

1-37:03: nice shot of the Tor and arm-waving marshals

Fast-forward for a couple of glimpses at the middle of the parade:

2-08:00ish: the marshals in the central area unexpectedly march into a new configuration of curved shapes, including an outer perimeter at the top of the grassy banks

This manoeuvre, like all other major movements of marshals, is carefully hidden from the TV cameras, but can be seen on some spectator videos, for example at about 7:16 on this splendidly shot but eerily silent compilation of memorable moments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBLwbZwDBhA

YouTube

CEREMONIAL uvod LONDON 2012

by abcmch

19 Aug 2012

2-18:36: at bottom right, marshals block the M25 to force a team onto the inner verge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8cZRu8_yqw

YouTube

London 2012 Opening Ceremony: athletes' parade and drummers and dancers!

by mjb22

9 Aug 2012

- apart from showing the drummers and boogie marshals quite nicely, this video reveals that the team being shunted off at the south-east corner, after barely half a lap, was Mexico, possibly to create a biggish gap behind the rather sluggish teams they were following.

2-27:04 (not on DVD): another general view showing a shunted team at bottom right

The DVD shows Team GB assembled outside the stadium at this point, also replacing a shot of the New Zealand flag being carried up the Tor. Looking south-east from the Tor, that shows most of the spectators have left the stadium at this very inbetweenish point of the parade. There's also a video taken around this time by Kiwi canoeist Mike Dawson, showing how, when they had completed their lap, those who did not wish to stay for the rest of the ceremony were directed back down the north-east ramp from the central area, so they could leave the stadium via the north east vom (again clearly showing the lack of spectators):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3TiyOQNWjs

YouTube

London 2012 athletes perspective

Mike Dawson

12 Aug 2012

Fast-forwarding again to the end of the parade, we find that Danny Boyle has been very busy indeed on the Team GB entrance section of the DVD:

2-55:31 (DVD): the whole arena from the north end

2-55:31 (broadcast): One of OBS's most egregious shots of the Queen

2-55:45: the assembly of athletes, seen from the west side

Note on this shot that many athletes have been placed on the grassy inner verge of the M25 during the parade, to make marshalling easier

2-58:40 (DVD): attractive aerial view of the stadium

2-58:40 (broadcast): nondescript close-up of Team GB parading

2-59:43 (DVD): the Tor, now beautifully decorated with the nations' flags

2-59:43 (broadcast): nondescript close-up of Team GB parading

By the way, on the DVD version here, at lower right you can see the athletes from the M25 verge climbing up to the central performance area, ready for the next phase of the ceremony.

There are various other differences between the broadcast and DVD versions around this time which I'll leave you to find for yourself (in the unlikely event that you're interested in such minutiae), particularly in the transition to the next event:

A final neat trick was used at the end of the parade, where London had a live rock performance which began while half of Team GB were still on the track (details later). Total time to this point from the parade announcement was about 1 hour and 40 minutes- still 10 minutes longer than the organisers had hoped for, but so fast that NBC's Bob Costas (who replaced Meredith Vieira from the parade onward) actually made a lighthearted complaint about not having time to say everything he wanted. Mind you, NBC had a trick or two of their own:

http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/70714856.html

Oh No They Didn't (ONTD)

Olympic Opening Ceremony 2012: Best and Worst Moments from London Extravaganza!

[comment:]

sparkfactory 28th-Jul-2012 07:28 pm (UTC)

omg it was so bad, and they were skipping countries during the parade of nations by being like ~oh here's what you missed during the commercials~ when it was pre-recorded and they could've let every country have their moment. flop network tbh

NBC's arrogance was also very evident in the commentary as the teams arrived, with much accentuation of the negative.

Both the worldwide TV commentators and the blogosphere had fun parading their, erm, unsophisticated enjoyment, during this section:

http://westborough.patch.com/blog_posts/olympic-opening-ceremonies-a-running-blog

Westborough Patch

Olympic Opening Ceremonies - A Running Blog

Jon McGrath

Posted on July 28, 2012 at 7:49 am

...

9:40 PM No fair getting me excited for the new James Bond movie then saying it doesn't open until November.

[whoops, looks like NBC ran another commercial:]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFNv5nDYMsU

James Bond 007

SKYFALL OLYMPIC TV SPOT (version shown on NBC)

28 Jul 2012

...

Olympic Opening Ceremonies - A Running Blog

9:49 PM Welcome, athletes from the Cook Islands, the first country in the Parade I haven't heard of. Only 11,000 people live there, so I don't feel too badly about it.

...

9:50 PM Czech Republic team expecting rain throughout the games; all wearing massive blue rubber boots.

...

9:58 PM Welcome Finland, and your aluminum foil outfits.

...

10:00 PM Is it just a coincidence that the nation of Georgia wears the same colors as the University of Georgia?

10:01 PM Germans are dressed like they're going to a baby shower.

...

10:08 PM The Independent Athletes are having the best time of all.

...

10:16 PM A white guy carrying the Kenyan flag? What's wrong with this picture?

http://www.addisonrecorder.com/the-addison-recorder-watched-the-opening-ceremonies-and-lived-to-tell-the-tale/

The Addison Recorder: Pop culture dispatches from the Great Lakes

The Addison Recorder Watched the Opening Ceremonies and Lived to Tell the Tale

by Andrew Rostan [a liveblogging NBC viewer]

27 Jul 2012

THIRTEENTH SEGMENT [teams beginning with C; commercials split the parade alone into a dozen segments]

Line of the night from the wonderful Mark Harris: “This is actually a found-footage horror film about 3 Americans in London who learn that if they stop talking for 2 seconds, they’ll die.”

...

Words of doom: “This parade will continue and so will we.”

FOURTEENTH SEGMENT

I wonder if the countries who march by during the commercial break get pissed off at NBC, if they have somebody watching the American broadcast and feeling slighted. On the other hand, they might be happy that Lauer and Viera don’t have to talk about them.

Lots more where that came from- and indeed all over the Web; almost every newspaper and blog site in the world seemed to feel the need to liveblog the event. Quite a few people noticed that a German dignitary gave a very straight-armed salute as his team paraded- but Germans pointed out that he was saluting- or rather, waving- with his left hand, and it emerged that he was in fact Walter Tröger, who as mayor of the Olympic Village at the Munich Games in 1972, had offered himself as a substitute hostage.

Another odd occurrence was hardly noticed by anybody:

http://www.china.org.cn/sports/2012londonolympics/2012-08/03/content_26116256.htm

China.org.cn

Japanese led astray in Olympics opening embarrassment

3 August 2012

On August 1, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) held an internal briefing and confirmed that the Japanese players failed to see the ceremony for the ignition of the Olympic cauldron. According to a spokesman for the JOC, more than 30 of Japan's 44 athletes hoped to return to the Olympic Village as soon as possible on the evening of the opening ceremony in order to conserve their energy. A subsequent miscommunication led to the athletes being ushered directly out of the stadium. According to Games regulations, the athletes were not permitted to re-enter the stadium and so missed the ignition of the Olympic cauldron.

According to Hashimoto Masako, deputy head of the Japanese delegation, such problems were not limited to the Japanese. "Besides the Japanese delegation, several other delegations also encountered such things,"

(the most visible problem was India's "Lady in Red" - look her up for yourself if you feel the need, but all you really need to know is that her subsequent attempts to use the publicity stunt for business promotion seem to have met well-deserved satyagraha)

Meanwhile:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/olympic-opening-ceremony-underway-194612830--oly.html

Yahoo Sports: Fourth-Place Medal

Live updates from the Opening Ceremony

by Joey Gulino

27 Jul 2012 7:23 AM EDT

6:22 p.m. ET: Marie Muller is carrying the Luxembourg flag. She's a judo practitioner who's easy on the eyes. If looks could kill ...

6:24 p.m. ET: The Marshall Islands, located in the northern Pacific Ocean, enter the obscure nation derby.

6:28 p.m. ET: Nauru is out now. It's another obscure island nation in the Pacific Ocean. How many of those are there?

... and inevitably ....

http://www.christianpost.com/news/nbc-olympics-coverage-of-parade-of-nations-ruined-by-commercials-commentary-79030/

NBC Olympics Coverage of Parade of Nations 'Ruined' by Commercials, Commentary?

Christian Post

By Nicola Menzie , Christian Post Reporter

27 Jul 2012

U.S. viewers who tuned into NBC's coverage of the 2012 Olympics in London Friday night were displeased by the commentary provided by Bob Costas and felt the constant commercial breaks "ruined" the much-anticipated "Parade of Nations" segment.

"Memo to NBC: New #openingceremony rule: No commercials during Parade of Nations. Let us enjoy the geography lesson w/o the network promos," tweeted @edatpost.

Elizabeth Gunther (@scifigirl1986) added: "Seriously. I'm all for politics, but can't we leave them out of the parade of nations? Pakistan may not be our friend, but come on."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/london-2012-olympics/wp/2012/07/27/opening-ceremonies/

Olympic opening liveblog

[this excerpt by Jen Chaney]

11:04 PM [United States Eastern Time]: The most moving and ridiculous Olympic commercial so far

Coca-Cola just aired an commercial during the opening ceremonies featuring a montage of past medal winners, set to the tune of Sia's "Breathe Me."

Naturally, it had us all at Sia, since that song could make hardened criminals with no tear ducts cry. But as moving as it was, its ultimate claim was kind of ridiculous.

"If you've had a Coke in the past 40 years," the voice-over says, "you've had a hand in making an Olympic dream come true."

So ...by drinking a sugary soft drink, I've helped people achieve their physical potential? Just haven't achieved it myself?

Etc. etc. etc.

On the subject of the USA: their parade (as it had in Beijing 2008) achieves a breathtaking feat of teamspreading, stretching itself along the outer edge of the track all the way to the south end before the last member has even entered, and then defying the best efforts of the drummer-marshal-sheepdogs to bunch them up again. The team (nominal size 530 athletes) took around 2 minutes 20 seconds to enter the stadium.

In this video, just after the 1-minute mark, Olympic officials can be seen running to the vom, to make the later entrants behave less selfishly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x879ejC0apw

YouTube

London 2012 Opening Ceremony (July 27, 2012) PART 8

by kuteazn21

13 Aug 2012

However, on a per capita basis, the champions of the art may have been the Spanish. The French team (nominal size 330 athletes) took about 40 seconds to enter the stadium, from their announcement to the next team's; China (nominal size 396 athletes) took a minute; Australia (nominal size 410 athletes) took about 70 seconds- but Spain (nominal size 282 athletes) ingeniously managed to take 82 seconds. Repeating behaviour which had made them downright notorious in the Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremony, they used every trick in the book to maximise their presence; the flag-bearer, 2.1 metre tall basketball player Pau Gasol, strolled so slowly that the petite woman carrying the nameboard turned to look at him after 25 seconds or so and contemptuously jerked her head forward to make him match her pace. But meanwhile, behind him, team members were leaving the vom just 2 or 3 at a time, spreading the team out ridiculously.

What the USA and Spain had in common was that their national broadcasters had their own cameras at the trackside, so they didn't care if the official Olympic Broadcasting Services cameras cut away to the next team, their own cameras could linger on their national heroes as long as they wanted. This was starkly demonstrated in the NBC coverage of the USA team's entrance, when they completely ignored the next team, Uruguay, and only remembered the existence of the rest of the world after the announcement of Uzbekistan.

France's TF1 adopted a slightly different, but if anything even more annoying strategy. They used their own cameras to show the French team as it finished its lap, thereby denying viewers the sight of Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana and Haiti- two of which were former French colonies. This was one of several faux pas which prompted complaints from viewers. Also, later in the parade, they showed close-ups of happy French athletes at random moments.

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Amazing-Olympic-day-proud-volunteer-Gemma/story-16616445-detail/story.html

South Wales Evening Post

'Amazing' Olympic day for proud volunteer Gemma

by Jason Evans

30 Jul 2012

... Gemma Whyley from Ystradowen near Cwmllynfell proudly led the Tunisian team around the Olympic Stadium after volunteering to be a part of the 2012 Games. The 23-year-old also got to meet a host of celebrities including the brains behind the ceremony, film director Danny Boyle, as well as a group of Chelsea Pensioners who were taking part in the show.

She said: "Before we went out into the stadium the atmosphere was buzzing, everyone was so excited.

"It was my job to carry the team name plaque. About halfway around the lap of the stadium I really began to take it all in, everybody cheering and clapping. ..."

PS: There were also many, many drinking games, particularly during this section. Here's one which appears to be designed for people watching a recording of the parade:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/olympics-opening-ceremonies,82935/

A.V. Club

The 2012 Summer Olympics

by Noel Murray

27 Jul 2012

[comments:]

28 Jul 2012, 12:35pm, Malcolm Tucker

For the geography buffs:

one drink for every country you guarantee they mispronounced wrong. 2 drinks for if they mispronounce "Côte d'Ivoire," even though you could just say "Ivory Coast" like a normal tourist. Jesus.

28 Jul 2012, 1:12pm, Horatio Sanz Pantaloons

How do you mispronounce wrong? "Wuh-rong"?

28 Jul 2012, 1:23pm, Malcolm Tucker

Actually, it would be "Wuh-rang."

Also, I'm going back and forth on whether I should edit my comment to make it look less stupid and, therefore, making yours make no sense. Oh, edit button, you're so tempting!

As we approach the end of the Parade of Nations, here are some highlights and lowlights of the TV ratings since it began:

1-24:00 {v26.7m}; 1-27:00 {^26.8m}; 1-39:00 {v25.4m}; 1-43:00 {=25.4m}; 1-55:00 {v24.4m}; 1-57:00 {^24.6m}; 2-12:00 {v23.4m}; 2-13:00 {^23.5m}; 2-27:00 {v22.2m}; 2-29:00 {^22.3m}; 2-40:00 {v21.7m}; 2-41:00 {^21.8m}; 2-46:00 {v21.6m}; 2-47:00 {^21.7m}; 2-48:00 {^22m}; 2-52:00 {v21.9m}; 2-54:00 {^22.6m}

2-54:25: Team GB enters, enough confetti for the entire human race falls from the sky

music: "Heroes" by David Bowie (1977, UK only #24; but #46 in the "Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" [2004, 2010])

by 2-56:00 the audience is {^23.7m}

http://theaviationist.com/2012/07/27/olympics-opening/

James Bond daredevil chopper leap, helicopter's eight billion confetti air drop: some of the Olympic opener highlights

by David Cenciotti

July 27, 2012 [posted slightly before the opening- #savethesurprise]

... Another helicopter will be part of the show: an AW.101 in the "Union Flag Burst" color scheme. The +15-ton chopper, that will appear in the next James Bond's "Skyfall" movie, should drop 8 billion confetti into the stadium towards the end of the ceremony.

Comments:

Gary J. Scott - July 27, 2012

The AW101 used in the ceremony is serial ZK001, an RAF owned machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rj9LfdNnaI

Leonardo Helicopters

AW Olympics

4 Mar 2013

Leonardo Helicopters (formerly Agusta Westland) on their contribution to the OC

More confetti was dropped from hundreds of dispensers round the the inner edge of the roof, and at the moment Bowie's singing started, yet more was fired skyward from giant hidden "party poppers" around the track (more fun from Quantum Special Effects).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5OA5hqto6w

YouTube

London 2012 Opening Ceremony - Great Britain athletes parade

by Henry Noon

15 Sep 2012

This video, from right above where the teams entered the arena, shows the whole of Team GB's lap- but towards the end when they are almost invisible beyond the central performance area, as "Galvanize" is reprised, watch the complex repositioning of various marshals in the foreground.

And in case you were wondering-

https://twitter.com/StellaMcCartney

2012-07-27, 23:21:39 UTC

Thanks for the support! To clarify, Stella designed the Team GB performance kit, podium suit & villagewear, not the Olympic ceremony suits.

Next -

Bike am

3-01:25: with half of Team GB not yet in the assembly area, the announcers speak

{v23.2m} - well over a third of the entire UK population, and it's now after midnight!

3-01:35: Arctic Monkeys begin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8NUCHF7jX0

London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

by Nedas Domres

Excerpts; audience view from fairly high- good on the ending of "Thanks Tim" and the Arctic Monkeys performance

References in this song, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" (2005, an instant #1 in the UK) to 1984 seem to indicate the actual year, not the famous novel which George Orwell finished writing in the Olympic year of 1948, but Arctic Monkeys are as good as anybody when it comes to triple-meaning lyrics. Also thrown in are looks back at the Frankie and June sequence with its Romeo and Juliet moments ("no Montagues or Capulets; just banging tunes in DJ sets") and forward to the next Olympics ("Your name isn't Rio but I don't like the sand"- actually referring to Duran Duran's 1982 celebration of jet-set romance beginning "Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand"). Bearing in mind that those are the original 2005 lyrics (except, fellow pedants, that the words "like the" replace an original "care for"), you have to suspect a great deal of playfulness by all concerned!

The Arctics (formed in Sheffield) are one of Britain's best-loved bands of the 21st century, with a wide range of songs- always clever, often funny, often fierce, occasionally very beautiful- which have propelled every one of their six albums so far to the top of the UK charts (they have also had considerable international success).

- bursts of fireworks round the stadium roof accompany each chorus of the song

3-03:25: The Arctics perform The Beatles' "Come Together" as cyclists with glowing dove wings circle the track- and the last one flies up and away into the night ...

{v22.4m}

... while the ceremony programme reminded spectators of Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan, who created the first pedal-driven bicycle in 1839 (allegedly; the evidence is very suspect, and the oldest surviving rear-wheel drive bicycle was made some years later by another Scotsman, Gavin Dalzell). Check out Martin Scorsese's documentary "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" for a lovely sequence, just a few seconds long, in which a Hell's Angel rides a motorbike "no hands", using his gently-waving arms as wings like a precursor to the Olympic dove bikes. The music played there is George's song "Something" which was double A-sided on a single with "Come Together" (1969, UK #4, US #1). The Beatles' ability to produce repeated double A-sides of that quality is one of many factors which mark their colossal stature.

Obscure and peculiar fact: for Chinese viewers, CCTV5's commentators were silent through nearly all of "Dancefloor" but made up for it by talking non-stop through the first couple of minutes of "Come Together"!

Quite a few people noticed that the Arctics' singing and playing was not always perfectly in tune. Ooh, hold the front page; rock band fails to reproduce live in a sport arena the sort of sound that (in this case) took The Beatles six separate sessions to get right in the studio. On the other hand, for people like me who are fascinated by harmony, but still think mosh pits are very civilised places, it was just fine. Nifty Cavern 1960 styling too.

[A late thought on the tuning problem, which also affected Paul McCartney; the Imagination Group's behind-the-scenes video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvQUZmX-Mw , referred to earlier, reveals that the "click track" which kept all performers synhronised, consisted not of clicks, but of short tones. If this was ever played in musicians' ears without being modified to harmonise with the songs they were performing, any musician not constrained by the design of his instrument (most obviously a singer, but also, for example, the player of a fretless string instrument) might well be dragged off-key by the rhythmic tonal sound in his earpiece.]

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/americas/2012/07/the-long-and-winding-road-to-the-olympics.html

British Library Americas Studies blog

The Long and Winding Road to the Olympics

by Matthew J. Shaw (Curator, North American History, and bike volunteer)

29 Jul 2012

The New York costume designer, Suttirat Larlarb, came up with plans for wings that moved as we bobbed up and down, threaded lights along their span, and chose materials that glowed under the stadium UV lights. As she said to the press, 'the bit I'm most proud of is the dove bikes. ...'

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-no-this-broadway-costumer-doesnt-just-shop-all-day-2016may16-story.html

San Diego Tribune

No, this Broadway costumer doesn't just 'shop all day'

interview with Suttirat Larlarb by Mark Kennedy, Associated Press [AP] Drama Writer

16 May 2016 [also in other newspapers]

AP: Is there one costume that makes you most proud?

Larlarb: My favorite is the dove bikes that we did for the Olympics. At one point it was this whole big animatronic thing and smart fabric that glowed and all this stuff. But because of the budget, resources and the workforce, we had constraints. We actually curbed the idea back down to a very lo-fi version that ended up being better. It had its own magic and it was sort of human-driven - and that was the point of the Olympic ceremony.

http://www.bicycleretailer.com/north-america/2012/07/30/bob-haro-behind-scenes-london

Bicycle Retailer

Bob Haro behind the scenes at London

by Steve Frothingham

30 Jul 2012

During NBC's coverage of the Olympic opening ceremony Friday, a commentator noted that a flying dove bicycle segment reminded him of the iconic image of a flying bike from the 1980s movie classic, ET, the Extra Terrestrial.

Besides the resemblance, there was another connection: BMX pioneer Bob Haro, who was one of the stunt riders in ET and who helped choreograph the dove bikes in London. ...

Haro told BRAIN that the opening ceremony was originally supposed to feature a longer BMX performance, and he shared photos of the quarterpipe ramps set up during rehearsals. At the last minute that section was cut out because of time constraints, but the flying dove segment remained.

http://road.cc/content/news/62714-secrets-behind-bikes-olympic-opening-ceremony

road.cc: pedal powered

The secrets behind the bikes in the Olympic opening ceremony

by Sarah Barth

31 Jul 2012

According to Bike Biz, Dawes supplied 85 of its Discovery 101 and 201 bikes to Paul Gage and Phil Magnus from The Bicycle Maintenance Company in Muswell Hill. Dawes's parent company Tandem Group is the official licensee for two wheel product for the Games.

There were a few modifications to the bikes, including a rear mudguard to avoid trapping the wings in the wheels, and the front bikes in each circuit were fitted with a cycle computer so the lead rider could maintain a steady 9mph pace.

[comment:]

31 Jul 2012, monty dog

... Auditions were held at Three Mills in March, we finally got our confirmation in May and started rehearsals in June, first at Dagenham and then Stratford. One of the issues was that whilst the Bike Ballet concept was developed a long while ago, it wasn't until BMX legend Bob Haro and stunt co-ordinator Paul Hughes came on board 2 months ago to actually turn it into reality. The Bike Ballet concept was four elements - Fire Bikes, Peloton, BMX and finally the Dove Bikes involving about 240 riders. When we started rehearsals it highlighted problems - the Fire Bikes were heavy and unreliable, the BMX ramps were made to the wrong shape and the huge variation in Peloton rider speed made timing difficult - it wasn't going to be helped by the 'dead time' in getting the ramps on and off the field of play. As the Doves are an essential element of the Opening Ceremony, with the decision to shorten all 7 performances, it was sadly inevitable to remove the Fire Bike and Peloton/BMX and Danny Boyle personally expressed great regrets. Whilst the bikes may have been lowly Dawes hybrids - spray painted black, including cables, chains and everything it was the dove wings that were a triumph of design and engineering.

http://oddstuffmagazine.com/aerial-photos-of-london-2012-olympics-venues-across-the-city.html

Odd Stuff Magazine

Aerial photos of London 2012 Olympics venues across the city

photos by Jason Hawkes

4 Jul 2012 [article date]

[Photos 1 and 5 show, on the track, some of the props for the ill-fated BMX ballet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc8GcWGGqEw

Dovin' it Large

by himjim2117

28 Jul 2012

[Dove's eye view of the "Come Together" bicycle parade]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qhEgbAHcNU

Dove Bike 54

by Dean Keable

20 Aug 2012

[-and another]

Incidentally (again)- note that the blue lighting on the audience pixels, which has dominated from the parade onward, echoes the blue "sea" fabric of the earlier "Nimrod" performance.

{^22.5m}

Let the Games Begin

I very much doubt that the depiction of a "dove" suspended on wires, immediately before Lord Coe's speech, was in any way intended as a tribute to popular British TV comedy quiz "Shooting Stars".

3-06:25: the dignitaries are introduced

3-06:55: speech by Baron Coe

3-11:20: speech by Count Rogge

{v21.7m} at 3-16:00

3-17:40: Rogge asks the Queen to open the games

3-18:05: The games are open! Brief fireworks round the stadium

{^22.2m}

The Queen obeyed the rules and simply read out the official opening declaration, unlike Brazil's acting president Michel Temer, who in 2016, hoping to reduce the volume of booing at his appearance, prefaced his declaration with praise for the "maravilhoso espetáculo".

3-18:35: enter the Olympic flag, carried by 8 campaigners for justice and peace

music: the orchestral "Sundowner" again

One carrier, Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty, was never clearly seen by the camera; and some commentators spotted a reason why she might want to keep a low profile:

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/rod-liddle/2012/07/shami/

The Spectator

Shami

by Rod Liddle

30 Jul 2012

... because she had "founded" the organisation Liberty. But of course she didn't. It was founded eighty years ago, by some other people who have never been honoured. Nor was she responsible for the name change from the National Council for Civil Liberties -that happened 16 years before she arrived on the scene. ...

Apparently there was a slight script malfunction for stadium announcer Marc here; the Media Guide for the Opening specifically states that the organisation was created in 1934, and makes no suggestion that Shami (who is not 115 years old) is in any sense its founder.

3-21:05: Muhammad Ali

{^22.4m}

http://clairewillettwrites.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/claire-live-blogs-the-olympic-opening-ceremonies/

It's Kind of a Long Story (A girl who writes plays in Oregon and the strange things that happen to her)

Claire Live-Blogs the Olympic Opening Ceremonies

by Claire

27 Jul 2012

11:27: Here comes the flag, carried by a whole roster of fairly epic humanitarians including Ban Ki Moon and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. OMG, Daniel Beramboim [=Barenboim]. He's a conductor who brings together Arab and Israeli musicians to play together throughout the Middle East. TEARS. See, THIS IS WHY I LOVE THE OLYMPICS.

11:29: I cannot see Muhammad Ali without tearing up. He is eminently huggable.

A couple of days earlier, Ali (who had turned 70 on 17 January 2012) presented the first ever Beyond Sport award, on behalf of his charitable foundation, to 19-year-old Matiullah Haidar, who had come to Britain as a refugee from Afghanistan five years earlier, and established himself as both a translator and a sports coach.

[ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/muhammad-ali-meets-david-beckham-1163503 ]

PS: a couple of minutes earlier:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0016grj

BBC Sounds / Radio 4

The Reunion: The Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics

interviewer: Kirsty Wark

17 Apr 2022

Stephen Daldry (executive producer): I was troubleshooting on the night and somebody called me up in my ear and said "Muhammad Ali's not gonna go on ... he's taken too many of his controlling drugs ..." I'd been in charge of looking after Muhammad Ali because I'd asked him to do it in the first place. ... So I could see the poor chap was, you know, on his knees, and his wife, who's a really lovely woman, she said "I'm afraid, you know, this is [?]hopeless ..." and I look at him, in his face, and I say, "OK, can you do this?" ...

and then I have a- I start slapping him, across the face [nervous laughter from other interviewees]

"Wake up, can you wake up now?"

3-22:05: Olympic hymn (instrumental) as a military flag party takes the flag to the Tor and hoists it

{v22.3m}

An instrumental version of the Olympic Hymn, without words in either Greek or the home language, was played at this ceremony. Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Hymn ) indicates that this was the fourth time this had been done since the Hymn was made a permanent feature of the Ceremony in 1958 (at the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006, an abbreviated instrumental version was played both at the opening and closing ceremonies). The second instrumental playing of the Olympic Hymn in the Opening had been 20 years ago, at the 1992 Winter Games (for the Barcelona Olympics that summer, the lyrics were, in deference to local passions, sung in Catalan, Spanish and French) and the first such instance had been 20 years before that, at Munich in 1972. The International Olympic Committee has consistently refused to hold a minute's public silence in memory of the athletes who died in the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

3-24:05: cut to view along canal as the torch boat approaches

again, the orchestral "Sundowner" is played here, but a later section than for the two flag-bearing events. This section, unusually, seems to have more of an obvious percussive "beat" than the original by Blanck Mass

3-24:45: introducing Sir Steve Redgrave, and a kiss of torches, then he runs towards the stadium

{^22.8m}

This scene is captured on another timelapse video taken from outside the stadium:

https://vimeo.com/46537637

Vimeo

London 2012: Olympic Opening Ceremony Timelapse Montage

by Duncan McLean

28 Jul 2012

It only lasts three or four frames, but what's notable is when it actually occurs: about 1-44:50, near the end of the Cs in the athletes' parade! Apparently, the expert who brought the boat to a neat stop at the landing stage was worried that the rocking from the waves raised in the narrow channel by its high-speed approach would risk a tumble overboard for Beckham as he moved forward to turn on the gas in Redgrave's torch (www.icemarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Beckhams-Rocket-RIB-News-article-MBY.pdf is an article by Hugo Andreae from the October 2012 issue of Motor Boat & Yachting magazine about the boat and its journey, from the viewpoint of Jeremy Watts of Ice Marine).

[apparently there was another commercial on NBC at this point]

3-25:55: the Olympic oaths begin, athlete, then judge, then trainer [with music solemnly reprising the main melody from "And I Will Kiss"]

3-28:20: the oaths end; pause for effect & announcements

{v22.4m}

[welcome back, US viewers]

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

The name of this section is carefully left unexplained in the Media Guide. It is the title of an inspiringly troubling song by Manchester band The Smiths (and of a chapter referring to the song, in Irvine Welsh's original novel of "Trainspotting"), in which the protagonist is the sort of person from whom every budding Olympian should run a mile in record time. No short quotation from the lyrics can do it justice, but, following on from the childhood nurturing and teenage exploration sections, it can be seen as emphasising that there has to be a point where people stop looking always to others, and take positive action themselves.

3-29:25: Redgrave passes an honour guard of Olympic construction workers and enters the arena

http://enr.construction.com/business_management/safety_health/2012/0730-london-olympics-construction-is-safest-in-recent-times.asp

Engineering News-Record

London Olympics Construction Is Safest in Recent Times

by Janice L. Tuchman

30 Jul 2012

As the Olympic torch arrived to light the cauldron at Olympic Stadium on July 27, it was greeted by an honor guard of 500 hardhat-wearing construction workers, many of whom had helped to build Olympic Park on a derelict industrial site in East London.

Those workers participated in the safest Olympics construction program in recent memory, said Alistair G. Gibb, professor of complex project management at Loughborough University in England.

... the London Olympics construction program had no fatalities. Further, the overall accident frequency record was substantially below the U.K average. ...

Unnoticed while everybody's eyes are focused on the flame's entrance, the circular cover in the centre of the arena is lifted off, using the overhead cable network, then lowered into the arms of a team of dark-clad technical assistants, who will carry it away.

This was about when the ceremony had officially been scheduled to finish, and in Beijing the time was just coming up to 7:30am. CCTV5 started showing the breakfast show clock in the corner of the screen, but quickly abandoned it.

3-29:55: the flame is passed to one of seven young athletes, who circle the stadium while passing it among themselves (the specially-composed track Caliban's Dream is sung)

{^22.9m}

http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/news/Pages/OlympicOpeningCeremonyto420Worlds.aspx

Royal Yachting Association

Olympic Opening Ceremony to 420 Worlds

31 Jul 2012

On Friday 27 July, 420 sailor Callum Airlie from Great Britain was one of the seven young athletes lighting the Olympic Cauldron. ...

"I was in the audience for the first half and really got caught up with the atmosphere of the whole thing which was truly amazing. But then when we walked out I sort of switched off from it all. It didn't seem to affect me at all. It was only afterwards that I really noticed the noise, after coming back down from lighting the cauldron, and met with the Olympians. It was incredible."

The stadium announcers seem not to have had a clear view of the seven young torch-bearers on their circuit of the stadium. Having missed the passing of the torch from Cameron MacRitchie to Adelle Tracy, they gave her name when they should have been introducing Callum Airlie. They apparently realised this just in time for their next announcement, so they omitted Callum's name altogether, and instead went straight to Jordan Duckitt. However, what they did not realise was that they had in fact also missed the handover to Jordan, so they should really have skipped straight to Katie Kirk (who instead was announced at the handover to Aidan Reynolds)! They thus ended up naming the last runner, Desirée Henry, after the lap was finished. To avoid confusion the BBC DVD suppresses the announcements and adds captions.

Meanwhile, here's another interesting theory:

http://gofugyourself.com/fug-the-olympics-the-opening-ceremony-07-2012

Go Fug Yourself

Fug The Olympics: The Opening Ceremony Theatrics

by Heather

30 Jul 2012

[comment:]

30 Jul 2012, Hester

I've heard that the 7 young athletes being nominated by 7 older Olympians is a tribute to the 7/7 bombings, which had an enormous emotional impact on the UK, coming the day after the announcement about the 2012 Games was made.

3-32:25: the youngsters arrive in front of their nominators

{v22.8m}

3-32:55: British Olympians, past medal winners, are introduced as the youngsters light their torches

Names also flowed across the audience pixels above where the Olympians were standing, but, perhaps because the spectators in those seats were also standing up for a better view of the scene just below them, the pixel display was mostly obscured. [Some time after mentioning this, I discovered the following:]

http://www.barzey.com/2012/09/olympic-stadium-pixel-tablets.html

Barzey.com [blog]

Olympic Stadium Pixel Tablets

by Ursula Petula Barzey [a Mechanical in the ceremony]

28 Sep 2012

... fortunately/unfortunately the audience had so much fun that many didn't want to put them down. Also some didn't put them back so that the pixels would be facing outward.

3-33:45: the seven youngsters move off to the cauldron

3-34:25: the youngsters reach the cauldron

This may be the best moment to mention a suspicion I have had, following an online comment by the aforementioned baron-pierreIV in December 2014. Beijing also had seven torch-bearers in the stadium, but they worked in sequence, each lighting the next torch. The combination of track and aerial laps thus took around eleven minutes; did Danny Boyle deliberately choose to have the same number of bearers, but acting together rather than separately (yin/yang) for a much more efficient five minutes?

As the torch-bearers circled the track, their presence left a warm glow of light, contrasting with the deep blue which bathed most of the stadium. Now that glow followed them to the centre of the arena, where the extraordinary Olympic Cauldron was waiting (ultimately disappearing from the outer track, to be replaced by ultraviolet lighting which made the clean, white, baggy-sleeved sweaters of the marshals, holding hands round the perimeter, look like roosting doves). It took me several months to remember where I had seen something similar before: the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, in Liverpool. Basically circular, with a central tower making it look like an upturned school chemistry funnel (it has even been nicknamed "The Mersey Funnel"), this Roman Catholic cathedral, designed in 1959 and completed in 1967, has surprisingly few windows, which contain surprisingly dark stained glass, mostly in blue. Around the circumference are small chapels, with warm lighting. And the altar is right in the centre, under an extraordinary, spiky, circular canopy. For a photo, see:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davehamster/3397847349/in/photostream/

Flickr

The Sanctuary: Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool

by Dave Hamster (David Merrett)

11 Mar 2009

While Boyle and Boyce may have had that cathedral in mind, cauldron designer Thomas Heatherwick had his own very similar source of inspiration:

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/heatherwick-completes-worth-abbey-revival/8622587.article

Architects Journal

Heatherwick completes Worth Abbey revival

by Richard Waite

16 Nov 2011

Heatherwick Studio has completed its refurbishment of Francis Pollen's 1974 Abbey Church at Worth, Sussex

... the church, as shown in the article's photos, is circular, with the altar in the middle. Also perhaps of relevance is the design of new silverware for the Abbey Church, by Pruden and Smith:

http://www.jewellerynews.co.uk/index.php/10-silver-chalices-and-3-stacking-ciboria-a-new-altar-set-for-worth-abbey-by-pruden-and-smith/

Pruden and Smith: Jewellery News

10 silver chalices and 3 stacking ciboria, a new altar set for Worth Abbey

by R. Smith

14 Jun 2011

It was clear that it was not just a list of functional vessels that were required for this sacred space but a single sculpture that worked with the altar, the lighting and the church building to further enhance its meditative focus, drama and sense of wonder.

This was created by giving the ten repeated chalice forms different heights to start to break up their uniformity. To transform their form the base was flattened to the altar top, the stem reduced to be as slender as possible and the knop almost flattened out of existence with the intention of having the lower section of the chalice disappear to leave the chalice bowls floating above the altar in a cloud form.

Thanks to such influences, and perhaps to a basic reinterpretation of the significance of a ceremonial Opening, the mood of the 2012 cauldron lighting was much more spiritual and less triumphal than in earlier Olympics. For some, one particular departure from "tradition" really rankled:

http://tvnz.co.nz/olympics-2012/live-updates-olympic-opening-ceremony-4992091

As it happened: Olympic opening ceremony

by Chris Matthews

Published: 7:42AM Saturday July 28, 2012

... the seven young athletes of the future all light several torches before the flames all rise in unison and then form into one giant cauldron. Visually magnificent but you would have to say a little bit of an anti-climax because there was no Muhammad Ali figure who lit the thing.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1275965-olympic-torch-lighting-2012-how-london-botched-the-lighting-of-the-cauldron

Bleacher Report

Olympic Torch Lighting 2012: How London Botched the Lighting of the Cauldron

by Michael Moraitis

July 28, 2012

... a big name specific to the country hosting the Games has almost always lit the Cauldron and for the life of me and the rest of the Olympic watching world, I can't figure out why London decided to do things differently. ... The young athletes involved did do a great job, but it was the organizers of the event who failed us all.

However...

International Olympic Committee

Factsheet: Opening Ceremony of the Games of the Olympiad

Update- June 2012

"Innovation and symbolism often play an important role in the choice of the last torch-bearers - those who will be remembered forever as having lit the cauldron in the Olympic stadium."

In reality, the bragging contest between Moscow and Los Angeles in 1980-84 was almost the only exception to a Summer Olympic tradition of cauldron lighting by non-Olympians which continued from 1936 until 1996, when Atlanta tried to trump Paralympian Antonio Rebollo's Best Cauldron Lighting Ever by calling upon ailing legend Muhammad Ali. Even cauldron lighting by several unknowns is not a 2012 first- see Seoul 1988 (but note that, sadly, none of the three athletes involved there went on to become well-known in their sports). In London 1948, incidentally, 22-year-old John Mark was chosen:

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv9n3/johv9n3l.pdf

Journal of Olympic History

Who was John Mark?

by David Thurlow

Sep 2001

... "it was all arranged before Christmas 1947 when he was already on the Olympic Possible list for 400ms (a rugby injury kept him out of running from time to time and he never ran well after 1947)."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2179201/Olympics-2012-opening-ceremony-rehearsal-Thousands-trying-home-deserve-medal-patience.html

Daily Mail

Welcome to the final dress rehearsal... for queuing

by Adam Shergold

26 Jul 2012

One aspect of the ceremony that is most definitely still a secret is who will light the Olympic cauldron. The latest rumour is that David Beckham will light it with a flaming football.

The football star, 37, wasn't giving anything away yesterday however

...

... one bookmaker today stopped taking bets on Sir Roger Bannister to be chosen for the honour after a flurry of interest.

...

LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton wasn't giving the game away either, but he said the choice was 'easy'.

Mr Deighton, who sat on the panel which made the selection, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'It was surprising how we reached unanimity pretty quickly.'

And here's an interesting thought:

http://bakercatherine.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/can-we-rebuild-jerusalem-overthinking-the-olympic-opening-ceremony/

Catherine Baker [blog]

Can we build Jerusalem?: overthinking the Olympic opening ceremony

Probably by coincidence, given the timescales involved, this ended up resembling the aesthetic of the film version of The Hunger Games: a multi-racial group of teenagers, dressed in black tracksuits, standing in a circle, around something that looks very like a cornucopia [well, maybe a large number of little tiny cornucopias], lots of flame around, and the tallest athlete happening to look incredibly like Alexander Ludwig/Cato. But there's a deeper sense in which this felt like a Hunger Games moment, since what resonates most with me about the books is how the author prevents her protagonist becoming the classic superhero who brings complete public and private resolution; in turning away from the figure of the single heroic Olympian, there's something of that here.

Thomas Carlyle, mentioned earlier as a character in Ford Madox Brown's "Work", had grown up during the era when Napoleon Bonaparte was making his doomed bid for world domination. It was therefore perhaps natural that Carlyle had serious reservations about socio-political theories which emphasised mass action and the interplay of groups or classes within society. He saw a key role for "heroes"- individuals with effective leadership qualities who could inspire great changes by themselves. The truth of Carlyle's notion was amply demonstrated in the 20th century, when entire nations were indeed dominated, to disastrous effect, by individuals like Hitler, Stalin and Mao.

Mass media have increased the prevalence of "heroes" to the point of absurdity- and as evidenced in the "Bleacher Report" quotation above, many of us- including, in a more domestic way, the central figure of our titular Smiths song- have a positive addiction. The London Opening both satirised this trend by featuring "real life" appearances from fictional heroes such as James Bond and Mr Bean, and countered it in various ways: by featuring talented, but internationally unfamiliar performers like Emeli Sandé and Alex Trimble (and, in the original plan, Mark Rylance as Brunel); by featuring acknowledged "heroes" in unusual ways (J.K. Rowling reading J.M. Barrie, the hard-as-nails Queen, David Beckham playing 1990s James Bond, and, with gut-wrenching poignance, Muhammad Ali as his 2012 self); and perhaps most importantly, by featuring complete unknowns in starring roles when it was more appropriate to focus on the roles than the starring. For the lighting of the cauldron, that principle was multiplied by seven (and indeed multiplied by two-hundred-and-four in the design of the Cauldron itself, the first ever to be conceived specifically as a representation of all the participating nations).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yONv-D_l1ao

Encendido pebetero

by vanessafereira26

27 Jul 2012

[Pretty much all of "There is a Light..." as seen from the audience; includes a wide-angle view of the full lap by the young runners, with stadium announcements]

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singleTour.do?tourId=17024

The Poetry Archive

A Tour of the Archive With Frank Cottrell Boyce

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

The song that ushered in the Olympic torch used Auden's phrase "affirming flame" to describe the beautiful Thomas Heatherwick cauldron. The official programme doubles as a poetry anthology - with its selections from Carol Ann Duffy, Milton, and from Heaney's 'The Cure at Troy' - which became a kind of manifesto for us.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15545

"September 1, 1939", last stanza

W.H. Auden

Defenceless under the night

Our world in stupor lies;

Yet, dotted everywhere,

Ironic points of light

Flash out wherever the Just

Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them

Of Eros and of dust,

Beleaguered by the same

Negation and despair,

Show an affirming flame.

3-34:55: the cauldron is lit, accompanied by thousands of camera flashes

Sydney's amazing Cauldron is fondly remembered- but of course it actually went very wrong on the night, and for several excruciating minutes nothing visible happened, except for a frantic wobbling and rocking of the cauldron, while technicians scurried around behind the scenes trying to make it shift. Athens therefore opted for a very simple solution- a colossal torch on a single pivot, which was lit while roughly horizontal, then rose majestically to the vertical (a bit too phallic, perhaps, but the Greeks did invent the word ...). Beijing moved the Cauldron into position at leisure while the audience's attention was focused elsewhere, and the actual lighting was a fairly simple simulation of a firework-type fuse (but the discreet mechanics of that run round the stadium wall were superb). Vancouver was another mechanical failure- first sticking altogether, then presenting only part of the cauldron for lighting. Therefore:

http://english.cntv.cn/program/cultureexpress/20120806/108656.shtml

CCTV News: Culture Express

A new direction in Olympic cauldrons

editor:Yang Jie

6 Aug 2012

From the cauldron that houses the Olympic flame to the "new Routemaster" London bus, Thomas Heatherwick's innovative designs are more visible than ever. But his complex structure - made of 204 moving steel rods with copper petals - was not what organizers originally had in mind. Turns out Heatherwick has a strong will...

"One main wise piece of advice from them (the organisers) was whatever we do we mustn't have any moving parts. And so we ended up designing a cauldron with the most moving parts ever in the history of cauldrons."

http://www.heatherwick.com/projects/objects/olympic-cauldron/

It's probably just accidental that the initial appearance of the cauldron, with all its stems splayed out, echoes the pattern of dynamic lines which forms the basis of the London 2012 "look" (as seen, for example, on the medals).

Later, Heatherwick (also creator of the Manchester Commonwealth Games commemorative sculpture, "B of the Bang", designed without moving parts) explained more of the thinking behind the notion of giving each competing nation its petal as a souvenir, and why (apart from the notion of echoing the 1948 London Olympics) he didn't want it up at roof level:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/9578437/Hay-Festival-Segovia-Thomas-Heatherwick-We-thought-we-could-let-copper-have-its-day.html

The Daily Telegraph

Hay Festival Segovia: Thomas Heatherwick

interview by Mark Monahan

1 Oct 2012

... "How can we make it as ephemeral as the event itself?"

He goes on to explain that a section of the stadium roof had been specially reinforced to take the weight of whatever cauldron he came up with, but that he was deeply dissatisfied with that plan. "The job of the cauldron," he says, "was to be a focal point the way an altar is in a church, "and he amusingly adds that he didn't want it to be like "an emergency police siren" sitting on top of a car ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01mk73v

BBC Radio 4

Front Row, featuring Thomas Heatherwick

interview by Mark Lawson

12 Sep 2012

"this notion of "What's the point of having a Cauldron after an Olympics? ... There tends to be a sort of hanging on, ghost of something, and maybe you can turn it into a water feature or something like that, and we just thought "There's a lack of dignity, in a way, to that." And certainly in our researching and spending a whole weekend watching DVDs of every single ceremony there's ever been before- people didn't remember the Cauldrons. The thing that, almost without fail, people did say though, when you said you were working on it, was, they would say "Oh, I remember- wasn't there the one with the bow and the arrow ...?" ... And so it wasn't even the object, it was the moment; and- and we- we were interested that there was something that needed to be an object, but it also, possibly more importantly, needed to be one moment ..."

http://www.stageone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Betty-Olympic-Cauldron-2012-CS_v5vETC.pdf

- is a case study of the making of the London cauldron, by the manufacturers, Yorkshire performance effects specialists Stage One.

http://www.logisticsmanager.com/Articles/19638/UPS+delivers+Olympic+cauldron+petals.html

Logistics Manager

UPS delivers Olympic cauldron petals

7 Dec 2012

"The cauldron was designed around the concept of bringing 204 very small humble objects together to build a single unified creation at the centre of the stadium," said the designer Thomas Heatherwick.

At Berlin in 1936, the stadium had been designed with a notch in the rim, so the Cauldron could be seen from outside without appearing too remote from the spectators and the athletes. At London in 1948, where an existing (and utterly notchless) national stadium at Wembley was used, the Cauldron was right down among the lower tiers of seating. However, Helsinki in 1952 had two Cauldrons- one in the stadium (purely for the ceremony audience) and the long-term one atop a very tall, slender tower. Melbourne 1956 returned to the Berlin plan of a notch in the stadium rim, but later Games tended to adopt an alternative approach to the "remoteness" problem- simply making the Cauldron VERY VERY BIG. In the ecologically and economically conscious 21st century, that solution seems increasingly unacceptable, and although the London stadium was provided with a reinforced roof section to support a Cauldron weighing up to 200 tonnes, the designers chose not to use it.

The Sochi Winter Games returned to BIG, logically enough given the city's proximity to major oil and gas fields, but as I had hoped, Rio 2016 has been very imaginative in its pursuit of environmental sustainability, using two very small cauldrons (one for ceremonial purposes in the Maracana Stadium, one for public viewing on the new Olympic Boulevard, by the historic Candelaria Church) placed in front of mirrored kinetic sculptures by American (not that you'd know it from the official Media Guide) specialist Anthony Howe, which reflect the light beautifully as they turn.

3-35:50: the petals rise

{^23m}

http://themonstrousmiddleages.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/thoughts-on-danny-boyles-openeing.html

The Monstrous Middle Ages [blog by Jason R. Berg, "a non-Brit"]

Thoughts on Danny Boyle's Opening Ceremonies

by Alex Coke-Woods

29 July 2012

The final act of lighting the Olympic cauldron ... emphasises the shift from the nineteenth century fulfilment of Blake's vision of Jerusalem in Empire, to the pluralistic fulfilment of this vision now and in Britain's future. Referencing the 'spear' and 'chariot of fire' of Blake's poem, seven athletes (possibly representing the seven virtues), use their torches to work together in unity to light individual copper petals brought by the athletes of every country from around the world. These petals create a ring of molten fire that is lifted into the air, echoing the earlier elevation of the ring of fire amongst Caliban's Satanic mills. These young athletes were nominated by older British Olympic champions, signalling the transition from past to future. The mingling of hundreds of tiny sparks into one enormous flame also recalls medieval Neo-Platonist imaginings of heaven, as the return of millions of diverse and unique soul-sparks to the great fire of divine Being.

http://oregonexpat.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/london-opening-ceremony-wow/

Oregon Expat (blog by an American expatriate living in Portugal)

London opening ceremony = wow

28 July 2012

Even as the seven young athletes lit their separate tubes, and the flames spread around a great circle of these tubes, I still didn't get it. I was looking at the dark space in their center, waiting for a great cauldron to spring to life.

Then the tubes began to rise, and I suddenly remembered those "funnels" that had been carried in with each team of athletes. Here they were now, attached to the ends of all the rising tubes, burning with individual flames, and I finally got it. Oh, London- this was freaking brilliant.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-10-29/secrets-of-the-olympic-opening-ceremony-revealed

Radio Times

Secrets of the Olympic Opening Ceremony revealed

James Gill interviews Frank Cottrell Boyce

29 Oct 2012

What was the hardest part of putting it all together?

The hardest part was keeping Betty a secret -that's the name we gave the Olympic cauldron. We knew it could be so fantastic, and because of that it had to be so secret. Even the way we worked with it was very secretive -we couldn't test it until everyone had gone home, so we would be there until three in the morning waiting for the stadium to be empty so that we could see if it worked. That was very emotional, being there on your own with a tiny number of people in this huge stadium watching this thing come to life, hearing the gas piping through.

Why was it called Betty?

That was the name of our executive producer Catherine Ugwu's dog. Ridiculously we thought that if we used the name Betty people would think we were talking about the dog. ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSj-9x_WQHo

YouTube

London Olympic opening ceremony

by arijitlondon

8 Oct 2012

This wide-angle video from a spectator near the south end illustrates some of the subtleties of the stadium lighting over these few minutes. The warm lighting on the track is extinguished in an elegant and symmetrical sequence once the torchbearers leave the M25, and as the rising petals reach a mound shape, the lights on the Tor are gradually dimmed.

What Sydney had got right was the concept of cauldron lighting having three phases: lit while still under water, then rising from the pool to show its true scale, then climbing dramatically (once the technicians had finished scurrying) up to the peak of the stadium. London also had a three-phase lighting, but in the most un-triumphalist way possible, beginning with the journey of the flames round the five concentric rings of petals at ground level, accompanied by gentle "bell rounds" music (borrowed from the middle break of Underworld's 2002 song "Two Months Off"- which even without the earlier Danny Boyle connection, would have earned them a place in the soundtrack of this ceremony with its uplifting sound and lyrics like "You bring light in, to a dark place"- with subtle choral backing based on their Frankenstein piece "Dawn of Eden"), then generating gasps with the rise through a dome/ umbrella shape (which was used to extra effect in the Paralympic opening) accompanied by a solo soprano, until the stems were all fully upright, and then-

3-36:25: the blaze

This simple act, turning up the gas to produce an intense and dazzling flare, brought yet more gasps, and then cheers.

During discussions in February 2013, I tried the experiment of comparing the official Olympic Broadcasting Services (YouTube Olympic channel) presentation of the cauldron lighting with NBC's ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOa0hbnypAQ ). Here's what I found:

[VISUAL]: The young athletes turn off the running track towards the heart of the stadium

[STADIUM SOUND]: Most elements of the music fade away, leaving a repeated falling six-note sequence dominated by synth strings (meant to suggest the similar sequence of notes rung on church bells for celebrations, and already heard in the later stages of "Pandemonium").

[OBS COMMENTARY (Barry Davies)]: "I should tell you that when the competing delegations arrived in London, they each received a copper petal, we saw them being carried around during the Parade. Those petals are inscribed with the name of their country and the words 'XXX Olympiad, London 2012' "

[NBC COMMENTARY (Lauer)]: "Now these young athletes will move to the centre of the stadium, passing through the heart of the athletes gathered from all two hundred and four nations."

[VISUAL]: The youngsters reach the open area containing the cauldron

[STADIUM SOUND]: Over the continuing six-note sequence, the great Olympic Bell chimes once

[OBS COMMENTARY]: [after the bell] "They will now have a part to play, as the bell, the Olympic Bell, rings out."

[NBC COMMENTARY]: NONE

[VISUAL]: The youngsters arrive at the cauldron, and turn to display their torches

[STADIUM SOUND]: The synth strings fade, and we hear the same six-note sequence played repeatedly on actual, very small bells

[OBS COMMENTARY]: NONE

[NBC COMMENTARY (Lauer)]: "Copper leaves we talked about that were brought in with each delegation, and were placed, at the center of the stadium; [pause] now, in that array, will play a prominent role here."

[VISUAL]: The youngsters lower their torches to their chosen individual petals on the cauldron

[STADIUM SOUND]: Still the six-note sequence dominated by small bells

[OBS COMMENTARY]: NONE

[NBC COMMENTARY (Costas)]: "Each of the seven igniting a single flame within one of the copper petals."

[VISUAL]: The seven petals catch fire, and the flames begin to race around the outermost of the five concentric rings

[STADIUM SOUND]: Still the six-note sequence dominated by small bells, but getting quieter. Just after the flames start their race, there are some whistles and applause from the audience. Shortly after the first ring is completely lit, the Olympic Bell rings again.

[OBS COMMENTARY]: "Well those copper petals are now alive, and are the cauldron of the London [Bell rings at this point, Davies pauses a beat] 2012 Games. [longer pause] In a very different way, fire, has brought life, to the games."

[NBC COMMENTARY (Costas)]: "And that will shortly trigger the ignition of more than two hundred of them."

[VISUAL]: The rings are fully lit, and then the petals begin to rise

[STADIUM SOUND]: The six-note sequence fades away, the audience applauds and cheers as the petals start to rise, and a soprano voice starts singing a slow, wordless, rising tune (which had earlier been part of the backing to the main "Caliban's Dream" song)

[OBS COMMENTARY]: NONE

[NBC COMMENTARY (Lauer)]: "Bob, in cities in the past, the Olympic Cauldron has been placed high atop the stadium, [(Costas responds) "Mh-hmh"] so that it was visible in the surrounding area; and unless something dramatic happens and this, does a lotta rising, this will be, near the floor of the stadium."

[VISUAL]: The rise of the petals finishes, and the flame is turned up, so brightly that it threatens to leave a permanent mark on the imaging chips of some audience video-cameras.

[STADIUM SOUND]: The soprano tune ends on a falling note, sustained and fading away. As the flame is then turned up, the audience applauds and cheers.

[OBS COMMENTARY]: [over the audience cheers] "A very spectacular sight in the end."

[NBC COMMENTARY (Lauer)]: "And those two hundred copper leaves have formed, the Olympic Cauldron."

[OBS VISUAL]: Various shots of the cauldron, the flame from below, etc.

[NBC VISUAL]: The cauldron, gradually zooming out to show some of the surrounding mass of athletes, with a brief cutaway to a close-up of some female members of Team USA [I think these visual changes were a good idea, except that focusing on US athletes breaks the principle of neutrality for the "protocol" elements of the ceremony]

[STADIUM SOUND]: A long, low, synth note, building in intensity

[OBS COMMENTARY]: NONE

[NBC COMMENTARY]: "Tears in the eyes of some of the athletes"

Davies spoke a total of 95 words, by my word-processor's reckoning. The NBC total, 151 words, plus one "Mh-hmh". They mentioned copper objects (leaves to Matt, petals to Bob) three times, and the number two hundred, three times (plus, of course, all the times earlier in the evening when they had stated how many nations were taking part). Matt thought the climax of the ceremony (rather than the post-show discussion) an appropriate point to raise the question of the cauldron's location. Note also that, apart from the number, the copper, and the 45-word cauldron-site comment, nearly all the NBC commentary is actually just describing what can be seen on screen (by the way, the BBC commentary, which had become increasingly garrulous in the later stages of the evening, came in at 140 words for this section, with Huw adopting an irritating pattern of speaking a few words then pausing, as if he was reluctant to intrude, but didn't want us to forget he was there). NHK Japan's pair of commentators took a similar approach to Huw, but their continuing giddy delight in the whole event added its own charm. For Chinese viewers, CCTV5's two resolutely professional male commentators tag-teamed their way through the Cauldron lighting with scarcely a pause (and attempted to continue through the fireworks, almost shouting at times).

Italy's RAI commentators managed well over 200 words in the same time as Barry's 95. It's hard to tell exactly how many, because sometimes the two idiots were speaking simultaneously, particularly while the petals rose. Spain's three TVE commentators ran them pretty close; although it seemed as if a producer managed to make them shut up for a few seconds from the actual moment of lighting, they soon felt compelled to explain in advance how the petals were all going to join into a single flame. On Brazilian TV, by contrast, almost complete silence was maintained, except when the view up through the stems appeared, which brought forth the quiet and very appropriate comment "Que lindo"; normal commentary resumed once the process was complete.

Oh- and while I'm grumbling about sound issues, I think it's a pity that the DVD version "evens out" the background noise during the cauldron lighting. In spectator videos, the audible reactions to the three phases of the lighting are very apparent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybD0CFg3UPQ

London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony - Lighting The Flame

by kingleeds

Cauldron lighting to start of "Hey Jude", from the top of the lower tier of seats- very good on audience reactions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD8C3w6QVW8

I filmed this! - Lighting Of The Olympic Flame Cauldron

by Indigo Roth

30 Jul 2012

Low-resolution, but quite well filmed; also has very good sound, both for the music and for the audience reactions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzpSruO1XrM

Olympics Opening Ceremony - 27 July 2012

by VelocityRocks

Selected moments, as viewed from the £20.12 upper-tier seats; good on the torch lighting & "Hey Jude" audience participation.

3-36:55: the fireworks, with a selection of emotional Olympic moments on the screens (and a ghostly Jesse Owens running round the stadium on the audience pixels, seen best on the BBC DVD)

There had been some debate about whether, in the age of carbon concern, a massive firework display was appropriate. After seeing the extravagant London 2010-11 New Year's Eve firework display, Danny Boyle gave an interview promising that fireworks would not be banned from the 2012 ceremony ( https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturevideo/8241435/Danny-Boyle-promises-Olympic-fireworks.html ). However, where Beijing had half-a-dozen major displays throughout its ceremony, with a finale lasting several minutes, London avoided fireworks (apart from ironworks sparks and the Tower Bridge outburst) until after the athletes' parade, and its finale was accompanied by a very short but very powerful Pink Floyd song, allowing it to give maximum satisfaction in minimum time.

The fireworks actually started outside the stadium around 3-36:38, over fifteen seconds before the rooftop bursts seen first on TV. First a pillar of flame shot up from the riverbank below the Velodrome, followed over the next two seconds by around 60 more in succession, forming a 1.3km line all the way to the base of the Orbit tower, which had spent the evening in darkness. Without pause, the ignitions spiralled all the way up the Orbit, and as soon as they reached the roof of the viewing platform, huge bursts of flame erupted, like a gigantic version of the Beijing 2008 cauldron ignition (in another of my amazing feats of extreme sluggishness of intellect, I took several months to realise that the lighting of the Winter Olympic cauldron at Sochi 2014, via a line of fireworks leading from the ignition point up the tall pylon in the heart of the Olympic Park, directly echoed, on a miniature scale, these first few seconds of the London pyrotechnic finale). It seems LOCOG, or at least the Opening Ceremony team, regarded the Orbit as a sort of symbolic flameless Olympic cauldron.

I'll briefly interrupt the fireworks to note that they were provided by Kimbolton Fireworks, founded by chemistry teacher and school chaplain the Rev. Ron Lancaster in 1964; now, in the age of health-and-safety box-ticking, one of the few remaining makers of professional display fireworks in Britain. China, on the other hand, has a whole town, Liuyang, devoted to the manufacture of fireworks which are exported all over the world (even Kimbolton imports some, particularly for its retail range). And thereby hangs an intriguing tale.

Just before the 2012 Opening Ceremony, China's Xinhua news agency released a report stating that "All the fireworks to be set off at the London Olympics are from China and three-fourths come from Liuyang city of Central China's Hunan province" according to Ye Xinglong, chairman of the Liuyang Apple Fireworks Artist Display Co Ltd. There are a few problems with that story.

First, until 2013, only suppliers who were also sponsors of the Games were allowed to publicise their involvement, and that company was not on the list of sponsors.

Second, nearly all non-Asian news outlets seem to have ignored the Xinhua release- and the claim was never mentioned again after August 2012.

Third, as Kimbolton manufacture their own fireworks, why would they turn down the opportunity to show off their skills to the world? It's not unreasonable to think that they might import some fireworks for the display from China- but "all the fireworks"?

All in all, I suspect a cheeky bit of "ambush marketing".

After a few seconds of pyrotechnic mayhem atop the now brightly-lit Orbit, another line of firework pillars streaked from the north of the Olympic Park, this time ending with a run round the stadium roof. That was immediately followed by a third run of fire pillars, and then (as a burst of golden light swept up from the heart of the arena across the stadium audience) the sky exploded.

https://www.titaniumfireworks.com/2015/07/london-2012-olympic-and-paralympic-ceremonies/

Titanium Fireworks

London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Ceremonies

by titanium-fireworks

23 Jul 2015

... four amazing and very different ceremonies, the opening and closing for the Olympic and Paralympic games. Prior to setting up Titanium Fireworks the four directors, Darryl, Simon, Toby and Ian can claim one of their proudest and greatest achievements was to design, project management and deliver the four ceremonies.

- The Olympic Stadium required 8.5km of shielded data cable to network 145 FireOne firing modules.

- 25,000 single shot stadium pyrotechnic units were fired across the four ceremonies from the Olympic Stadium.

- Nearly 80,000 cable ties were used to rig the pyrotechnic units during the ceremonies, the cost of cable ties alone was £4,000,

- 50 pyrotechnicians were required for the Olympic Opening Ceremony alone.

- A total of 350 FireOne field modules were used to fire approx. 10,500 cues in just under 4 minutes for the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

...

https://www.titaniumfireworks.com/2020/07/the-london-2012-olympic-ceremonies/

Titanium Fireworks

The London 2012 Olympic Ceremonies

by emily

27 Jul 2020

8 years on the pride of a nation seems to be a dim and distant past, especially with these very unprecedented times we are living in, where events themselves have ceased overnight. We thought it would be a positive approach to look back fondly on more happier times while we wait for the current pandemic to disappear and allow the events industry back to what we do best, wow, dazzle and amaze. ...

There were several significant hazards highlighted, for example the Basketball Arena was made of a non-flame proof material, its location from the river also meant it was potentially 350 meters downwind of a barge position in prevailing wind conditions. ...

The final plan was to fire from 5 barges positioned 200 meters apart along the river Lea, with flanked barrages of shells producing an overlapping wall of star bursts covering one-kilometre distance of the park. To produce an extra dimension and to add continuity to the display we also opted to fire lower level roman candles from multiple front positions running along the tow path which ran alongside the river. ...

The barges would be rigged and loaded off site at a dock on the Thames. Prior to each ceremony the barges would be towed up Bow creek, through a lock and take their final journey in to the Olympic Park, where we would lay and connect the final home runs from the central control position ...

for a period of 12 weeks the Olympic Park was to be one of the most secure locations in the country, clearly trying to get a few tonnes of fireworks in to the park by road and waterway was not going to be straight forward. A very sensible and satisfactory compromise was agreed with the security representative. ...

https://whaddupjp.com/2012/08/02/london-2012-olympic-park-opening-ceremony/

Whaddup JP

London 2012 Olympic Park Opening Ceremony

by Jon Parker

2 Aug 2012

I have seen many notable firework displays, at the London Millennium night and at three Edinburgh Hogmanays to name a few, but this time we were not just watching the fireworks – we were in them! If you watch the footage back you will see what I mean. The explosions just got louder and louder and lower and lower until we felt every bone in our bodies shake as the cloud of noise swallowed us up.

Here's a small selection from the many firework videos which were made available online by people in various parts of east London (I've found about three hundred so far- some so distant from the Olympic Stadium that the sound of the fireworks takes tens of seconds to catch up with the images- and the idiosyncracies of search algorithms mean that more and more, often viewed by hardly anybody in the years since 2012, keep emerging from obscurity; I've attempted to map them at http://www.pastpresented.ukart.com/marksnow/fireworkmap2012.htm ):

http://vimeo.com/46534000

Vimeo

2012 London Olympic Opening Ceremony Fireworks

by Masafumi Gucci Yamaguchi

[Shot from Keeling House in Bethnal Green]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O96kayMQCo8

Youtube

Olympic Fireworks, London 2012 Opening Ceremony

by David Madelin

28 Jul 2012

[Concentrating on the Orbit and stadium, from the south]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkbATuxO-2A

Youtube

London Olympics 2012 Opening - Fireworks Finale

by Andrew B

30 Jul 2012

[ditto from the east, over the Waterworks River, showing the riverside line better]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZae3EJSFFg

Youtube

LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS UFO AND HOLOGRAPHIC FIREWORKS PLUS ORBS ALL AROUND ME 27 JULY 2012

by spacecowboyuk

28 Jul 2012

[A false flag attack theorist monitors the "too perfect" and probably holographic fireworks from a safe distance: the Northala Mounds, near Wembley on the opposite side of London, over 20km away]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKBPezuoErU

Youtube

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony Fireworks- Amazing

by qian shi

28 Jul 2012

[Detail of the riverside line]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D8sROmTIY4

Youtube

London 2012 Opening Ceremony Fireworks

by Michael Buxton

29 Jul 2012

[Really really close detail of the line along the river, from "right underneath it", with good view of the beginning]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eilIw_2iSk

Youtube

LONDON 2012 // ROOFTOP RAVE // APOC OLYMPICS OPENING FIREWORKS

by Djunsei

29 Jul 2012

[From Hackney Wick, with partying rooftop spectators]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7EVrQoGkA0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvn4S4gCDjI

YouTube

London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony Fireworks Parts 1 + 2

by Rana Brightman

18 Aug 2012

[From a flat in Omega Works, Bow. In Part 2, as the smoke drifts away and the camera pans to the stadium, from which the paying spectators will have seen almost none of the astonishing eruption the flat-partygoers have just witnessed, a man asks "Thing is- if you're in that s- who was that for?". A woman replies "That's for us!" Man: "Wow!"]

Some members of the UK Fireworks Forum went so far as to send formal complaints to the BBC about their minimal coverage of the fireworks, intercut with video of athletes- but others suspected that it might be a deliberate move by director Danny Boyle. As we see here, some among the vast numbers watching the fireworks live from East London recognised the truth of that suspicion- the display, nearly 1.5 kilometres long and maybe up to 250 metres high, was their special treat, their unique experience. The aerial views shown on the official TV coverage (controlled not by the BBC, but by Boyle and Olympic Broadcasting Services) were designed to complement the live views from Stratford, Bow, Hackney etc., not to be a substitute.

One of the points raised in the Gamesbids discussion:

7 Feb 2013, by daveypodmore: "The shape the flowing metal made linked to the ring. Kinda like a sperm ish. Was that shape done to mirror the fireworks later cause they looked very similar."

And so they do- the fireworks along one of the two channels of the River Lea which flow either side of the Olympic Stadium formed a very neat counterpoint to the channel from furnace to mould in the making of the Olympic Ring. My guess is that, having decided to concentrate the fireworks along waterways for safety reasons, ideas flowed... Given the sexual imagery of chimneys and Olympic rings coming together in Pandemonium, a sperm would be perfectly appropriate.

The live broadcast presented many of the Olympic moments full-screen, but NBC concentrated on the fireworks, preferring to show the sporting moments as they appeared on the stadium screens, against the firework background (although they did a pretty good view of the spirit of Jesse Owens [2020 note of suspicion: NBC showed the film of Owens running in 1936 for less than a second, then cut to an aerial view of the fireworks before cutting back to the running ghost on the pixels- whereas the standard version cut from longer historic film of Owens straight to an admittedly inferior view of the stadium pixels]). As tended to be the case with NBC's visual changes, I think this treatment worked well (and for once the commentators shut up, though that meant they did not explain about the Owens imagery).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwq3ZMmx8us

YouTube

London Olympics 2012 | Opening ceremony fireworks

Peter Fuller's Vision Thing

If you're having fun with the firework videos, you should watch this one (from a Hackney rooftop) last.

http://theaccidentallondoner.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/let-games-begin-olympic-opening-ceremony.html

The Accidental Londoner blog ("Explorations of a city by a girl born and raised in the Midlands.")

28 July 2012

Let the Games begin: The 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony

"The torch sculpture assembles itself, lifting the flame high up into the centre of the stadium into a bouquet of copper flowers. There are more fireworks, that I watch on a muted television so I can hear their boom across London, out of the stadium and in through my open window."

- which missed out on Pink Floyd, but given the opportunity, I believe I might have done the same.

The Pink Floyd song "Eclipse" (from the 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon", estimated to be the 3rd highest-selling album of all time) which accompanies the fireworks (and some lovely prismatic colours on the audience pixels), points out at the very end that "the Sun is eclipsed by the Moon". While this is another of those reminders that the greatest of us are as mortal as the least, it can also be seen, in retrospect, as having a cunning double meaning in this particular context. A month after the Olympic opening, an image of the Moon within the stadium accompanied the opening of the 2012 Paralympic Games, which, as it turned out, genuinely did eclipse the Olympics as a celebration of spirit in motion.

Back at the time of the 1948 Olympics, Ludwig Gutmann, a German Jewish doctor who had settled in Britain, held a sporting competition among the patients at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital .....

3-38:25: Olympic rings (as sent up by balloon at the start) are seen in the stratosphere, with Earth far below

{v22.6m}

http://www.haaretz.com/news/sports/london-2012/olympic-games-16-days-of-pure-magic-1.453983

Haaretz

Olympic games: 16 days of pure magic

Uzi Dann

27 Jul 2012

... The Games create a natural, simple unity among human beings, one that every sensible person dreams and yearns for in our world. It includes excellence - physical, mental and human - of the most noble nature. And you don't even have to win a medal in order to stand out. History will remember Gabriela Andersen-Schiess, who literally crawled to the finish line, more than any medal winner from that marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. ...

Now we return to the yin/yang theme. If you paid close attention to the coverage of the 2008 Olympic Opening in Beijing, you will have noticed that after the ceremony, as the commentators were trying to put the experience into words, they were almost drowned out by a pop concert. This, it transpired, was a means to slow down the exit of the audience, so that the local transport system was not overwhelmed. China being China, it seems a fair bet that, apart from the ubiquitous (opera trained) Jackie Chan, none of the performers was well-known much beyond the nation's border.

In the London opening ceremony, the notion was turned on its head, and the postlude for the 60% of the audience who hadn't left during the fireworks was performed by Sir Paul McCartney, possibly the most widely-known musician alive (an aside here- note the total absence of Sir Elton John, the normal go-to musician for big occasions; I think this was probably a conscious choice so that the Olympic ceremony organisers could say to absolutely anybody else "Yes, we decided not to use you, but we also decided not to use Elton John").

3-38:40: McCartney plays the end of "The End" (from the 1969 Beatles album, "Abbey Road")

After the song ends, the great bell is shown ringing one last time (to be precise, the fifth time- five bell rings for five Olympic rings), to signify the official close of the ceremony, and the arena lighting simultaneously changes from blue to a warm yellow.

3-39:25: "Hey Jude" (1968, #1 in UK, US, Netherlands, Switzerland and probably many other countries; also #8 in the "Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" [2004, 2010])

{v21.5m}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPXf8bzhaQM

Olympic Games London 2012 Opening Ceremony

by SLCTDchannel

Excerpts from "Hey Jude" as seen and sung at the Victoria Park big screen site

TF1

Jeux Olympiques de Londres 2012: La Cérémonie d'Ouverture

commentary by Gilles Bouleau

28 Jul 2012

"... cette chanson merveilleuse, Hey Jude, composée par Paul McCartney et John Lennon pour un petit garçon qui s'appelait Julian Lennon en 1967. Ne pleur pas, ne soit pas triste, la vie continue; c'est çà le sens des paroles. C'est aussi le sens de cet esprit- de cet esprit sportif, de cet esprit Olympique ..."

- which is not really an accurate description of the lyrics as recorded by The Beatles (or the year, which was 1968), but it did remind me that the song was indeed originally conceived as "Hey Jules" in an attempt by one generation to provide encouragement to the next.

http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=1&p=12535&more=1&c=1

NME

Olympics Opening Ceremony - How Arctic Monkeys Helped Britain Come Together

By Owen Nicholls

Posted on 07/30/12 at 09:59:11 am

'Hey Jude' was akin to the moment when the clubowners want everyone to leave so they play a shit tune.

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93460

DRUMMERWORLD OFFICIAL DISCUSSION FORUM

Topic: Olympic ceremony music!

danielgbuchan 08-13-2012, 12:16 PM

I know what Happened to Paul McCartney at Olympics. I mean I know hes old, but his voice even in the last month has never been THAT bad. I love Macca.. people are telling me after there was a cock up he lost his nerves. so anyway:

Similarly to the failing microphone on "Let It Be" during Live Aid back in 1985, McCartney's appearance on the opening of the olympics had issues. McCartney was supposed to partially mime his performance. His live vocals were the ones that would be heard in the stadium, while his pre-recorded studio-perfect vocals were to accompany the television broadcast. [... Daniel here describes the successful synchronisation of "The End" ...]

McCartney started one bar and a half too soon with playing, resulting in hearing the audio on television as planned: just like on 'The End' no 'live' direct feed from the stage with only the stadium atmosphere microphones on, pre-recorded audio on full. But since those were out-of-sync because of McCartney missing the cue, you could hear a disastrous mix of them playing 'Hey Jude' in the stadium, with a bit later the pre-recorded version. Quickly the television audio crew turned off the backing track, and turned on the live band and vocals. If you look at the band members during the very first seconds of the song, notice Wix [keyboard player and band director Paul Wickens] possibly trying to save something by skipping the backing track a bar and a half, which is technically possible. So that's what we heard at the live worldwide broadcast. Of course, for the tape-delayed butchered NBC version on the American television, this was 'fixed' by muting the pre-recorded 'backing track' from the very start. This resulted in hearing McCartney noticeable laughing about the huge mess-up, because he undoubtedly knew what happened.

In support of the above interpretation; my sister saw McCartney perform an epic three-hour set in Manchester a few months before the Olympics, and thought his show was brilliant.

[NBC edited out the false start; the BBC DVD not only does this, but also improves other aspects such as the volume level of the audience's vocals; they took the sad singing and made it better :-) ]

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhpWlwucOUc Published on 30 Jul 2012 by coachnorrie )

Audience footage of "Hey Jude"

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxf0FfB62QA Published on 31 Jul 2012 by Joyjoy1818 )

Audience nanana na participation

By the way, it's worth taking a close look at the spotlight beams. In the closing ceremony of the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, searchlights were used to create a conical "dome" of light over the Berlin stadium. Like the Olympic Bell, the similar use of lights here- which of course also echoes the use of searchlights in this neighbourhood during the Second World War- may be a deliberate response:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_NbRsxVSUU

YouTube (Getty Images via SuperPopVIP Channel)

London 2012: Opening Ceremony on July 27, 2012 in London

[by Ming Yeung]

6 Dec 2013

Afterglow

PWoodroffe, small hours of 28 July 2012: Patrick leaves the stadium quickly and heads for Canary Wharf, where a friend with another Dutch barge is waiting to take the family back upstream to Cadogan Pier [that pier, where Alora and other boats were moored, is next to the Albert Bridge, Chelsea, over a kilometre from the nearest station- hence his preference for commuting by scooter]. Offered a chocolate Gold Medal by his daughter, he suddenly realises he hasn't eaten for 12 hours.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAfhSvNBHoA Published on 27 Jul 2012 by TVporti )

.... on the way home

http://www.afterellen.com/content/2012/07/london-olympics-opening-ceremony-includes-lesbian-kiss-seen-around-world

AfterEllen

The London Olympics opening ceremony includes a lesbian kiss seen around the world

by the linster

28 Jul 2012

[comment:]

29 Jul 2012, Ruby Wolfe

... I was watching it in a park on the big screen.

I know this comment isn't relevant to lesbian interests, BUT OH MY GOD BEST NIGHT OF MY ACTUAL LIFFFEEEE.

I've never. Ever. Felt patriotic in that way before. I've never cheered so hard and NOT been waiting to laugh at it all going to shit! I loved it so much! THE FORGING OF THE RINGS YOU GUYS! I CRIIIED! AND THEN I DANCED TO 'HEY JUDE' WITH LIKE A THOUSAND STRANGERS AND IT WAS THE BEST MOMENT EVER OF MY LIFE.

http://www.vogue.com/vogue-daily/article/olympics-dispatch-stella-mccartney-on-the-opening-ceremonies-in-london/#1

Vogue

Olympics Dispatch: Stella McCartney on the Opening Ceremony in London

July 29, 2012

I had to rush out just before the end of "Hey Jude" in order to beat the traffic and do a good, old-fashioned runner. Our group (about 20 of us) caught a golf buggy and were dragging on its little electric engine. As we drove away, we saw that all the Olympians who had just walked around the stadium were now milling around. It was amazing to be surrounded by them and all mixed in together. A truly peaceful moment with everyone so happy, running with smiles and waving flags. It was quite different to anything that I had ever experienced. Everyone was high on pride and everyone had come together as one. The Olympics really do stand for something magnificent.

http://debikirksey.blogspot.com/2012/07/olympic-size-birthday-party.html

It was the best of times... A Tale of Two Cities [blog]

Olympic Size Birthday Party

by Debi Kirksey [an American in London]

29 Jul 2012

... what a show it was!

I've never been to an event with such sensory overload--there were so many things happening above us, below us, around us, that we couldn't keep up with it all. I'm so anxious to view it on TV to catch all the things I might have missed, that I'm just now reading about in the papers.

...

In a program that was full of spectacle and awe, the show's directors can be most congratulated for giving us an event with great "heart."

https://olympicsgeek.wordpress.com

olympicsgeek [blog]

Opening Ceremony reflections

29 Jul 2012

I've just watched it again (with the benefit of a fast forward button - no one can sit through that parade of athletes again surely?). And what strikes me is how different the TV experience is to the one of being there. For a start, there was so much more going on that I realised.

Suffragettes? No idea - didn't see 'em. Child catcher - where was he? Cruella De'Vil - ah that's what that was. Helicopter over the stadium? I knew it was happening (my previous job working with the man from air traffic control who planned all the airspace over the stadium for the broadcasters helped in that one) but you couldn't see or hear it from where I was sitting.

And there were other bits that looked less on the TV than they did in the stadium. The Marys Poppins, for example, came into the stadium right above my head.

* I took my seat early, wanting to get away from the hoards outside and keen to milk every ounce of atmosphere and build up. I'd say the stadium was less than 10 per cent full when I sat down, but already it buzzed. Over the course of the following couple of hours the crowd grew constantly and everyone was buzzing. The space, quite literally, hummed.

...

* My favourite part of any ceremony is the lighting of the cauldron and this one was a huge surprise. I'll admit that I was concerned throughout the whole show that I was going to miss it. My ticket was restricted view - although you could have told me, I had a great view - so I was sure that the cauldron was on the roof of the stadium above me. Wrong. It was slam in front of me, simple, elegant and beautiful. The way it came together was mesmerizing and, suddenly, right that it was lit by young hopefuls rather than Sir Steve, as we had all speculated. But wasn't it great to see him bring it in and pass the flame on?

http://live.china.org.cn/2012/07/27/live-london-olympic-games-opening-ceremony/

China.org.cn

Live: London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

28 Jul 2012 (9pm in London was 4am the next morning in Beijing)

[quoted comments:]

(06:53:00) Naxiaoyao_nana77 said:

... "was worth watching overnight. It seemed more like a British film rather than an opening ceremony. Danny Boyle indeed gets the Oscar for Best Director. I felt so surprised when the Queen appeared with 007! I also felt so excited when Voldemort appeared! I laughed when Mr. Bean turned up! I was intoxicated when David Beckham appeared! I felt so excited when Chinese delegation was parading! Now, I am waiting for the lighting of the flame!"

(08:06:00) Yingguonaxieshi'er said:

"How do you feel about lighting of the [Olympic] flame? If one torch went out, there will be hundreds of them behind it. With more than 200 backups, they can't all be blown out. In addition, I like the calm process of lighting the flame."

https://unionmetrics.com/blog/2012/07/the-2012-summer-olympics-opening-ceremony-in-tweets/

The Union Metrics Blog

The 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in tweets

by Jenn Deering Davis

July 30th, 2012

On Friday during the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony, 6.32 million tweets were posted from 2.65 million unique Twitter accounts* about the London Olympic games.

...

*These tweets were collected from 20:00 UTC July 27 through 07:00 UTC July 28, to include the live UK broadcast of the opening ceremony, as well as the time-delayed East and West Coast US broadcasts of the event.

Twitter themselves published statistics for a different search over the same timeframe, without the word 'Olympic':

https://web.archive.org/web/20120729195118/http://blog.uk.twitter.com/2012/07/today-on-twitter_28.html

Twitter UK Blog [old page, via Web Archive]

Today on Twitter

by Lewis Wiltshire

28 Jul 2012

Here at Twitter, we saw a worldwide total of 9.66 million mentions of the Opening Ceremony from the start at 8pm last night until the end of its broadcast in the US ...

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/story/2012-07-28/Olympic-Opening-Ceremony/56551368/1

USA Today

Olympic opening ceremony: Boisterously, Britishly odd

by Robert Bianco

28 Jul 2012

[comment by David Jackson, 28 Jul 2012]

Just watched the ceremony with my daughter last night. She thought it was great and had a lot of fun dancing with the music.

http://www.aspiringkennedy.com/2012/07/the-olympic-opening-ceremony-live.html

Aspiring Kennedy

The Olympic Opening Ceremony: LIVE

by Lauren

28 Jul 2012

[comment by shermantheschnauzer 29 Jul 2012]

I watched it online on some BBC stream (probably got a virus, boo) because I knew NBC would drive me bonkers later. Then watched it again anyways and sure enough, Matt Lauer drove us crazy. It was SO fun. I really enjoyed all of it.

[comment by Sarah, 1 Aug 2012]

I watched them with a 4 year old commentator. "What are they doing, Mommy? Who is that? Why do they have a big baby in there? Why are all those kids sleeping?"...etc, etc. Of course, ever since she saw and realized there is a REAL queen, it is all I have heard about.

So, my memories of the opening ceremonies were of educating a 4 year old on the monarchy...who kept wanting me to rewind the tv to see her again. :)

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?p=10200840

BritishExpats.com (discussion forum)

topic: Is anyone going to watch the Olympic opening ceremony live?

comment by Cresta57

Perspective:

For £27million, Danny Boyle got The Queen, James Bond, David Beckham, Sir Steve Redgrave, Bradley Wiggins, Mohammed Ali, Sir Kenneth Brannagh, Mr Bean Sir Paul McCartney and a cast of thousands.

For £35million, Liverpool F.C got Andy Carroll

[just one of many many social media comments making the same point]

http://www.standard.co.uk/olympics/olympic-news/this-is-for-everyone-the-peoples-opening-ceremony-7987292.html

Evening Standard [London]

This is for everyone. The People's Opening Ceremony

by Sophie Goodchild (Health and Social Affairs Correspondent) [+ others as noted]

30 July 2012

Thousands of young volunteers headed into Hackney and Dalston for a series of wild late-night after-parties. At one in the Hysteria bar in Kingsland Road, hundreds of participants re-enacted their part in the show, despite having performed their sequences to the world barely two hours earlier. ...

Dancer Juliette Gilford, 27, who stayed out until 6am, said she had made "friends for life" during the intense three months of training. She said: "We were all screaming when we got our cue. The feeling will stay with me forever. It was just a mad feeling. Everyone had been working since April on it and finally we could let off steam.

"It was kind of emotional because it's not something that any of us are ever going to do again. It's going to be hard to match that."

She was about to leave the Dalston party when she heard "our song"- the Dizzee Rascal segment. "I ran over and we all started doing the routine again. The dancefloor became our stage."

For another group doing much the same, out in the street on their way home, see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFkqZhXkID0

YouTube

London 2012 Opening Ceremony Dance Crew flash mob commuters

by Dekan Apajee

27 Jul 2012

http://contemplatingtheclouds.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/london-2012-olympic-opening-ceremony-utterly-mad-utterly-inspired/

[aka] What do you see when you stare out the window?

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Utterly Mad, Utterly Inspired

by Craig (from Edinburgh)

28 Jul 2012

[comment:]

28 Jul 2012, Jan:

On balance I'm an Olympics cynic, because of the politics involved, the er...corporate activites etc. But when it's right in front of me I put all that aside for the sake of the athletes and for the sake of the vision of this incredible event. The Opening Ceremony made me laugh, go "WTF?" and cry (a lot). And making people laugh, cry, and above all, go "WTF?" is what Britain is all about.

http://www.britishfuture.org/blog/the-olympic-ceremony-as-seen-in-serbia/

British Future

The Olympic ceremony: As seen in Serbia

by Almir Koldzic (co-director of Counterpoints Arts)

18 Sep 2012

... To start with, the ceremony made no sense and I thought here we go again -this is going to be a Terminal 5 like fiasco wrapped up in a few surreal recreations of our glorious past. A few moments and shots of rakia later, we were all into it. Dazzled by the lights and unavoidable bling bling, we happily went along with the flying Queen, umbrellas, bikes, monsters. It was chaotic, eccentric, funny, creative and packed with historical and cultural references, some of which also flew over our heads. It made no difference.

Naprotiv [on the contrary], my Mum said. She liked it precisely because it was nothing like the Chinese militaristic routine, which depended so much on everyone following the script and no one standing out. This seemed so much more spontaneous and free flowing. The neighbour liked that the stereotype of the "traditional" and "hierarchical Britain" was exchanged for a more modern and energetic one. ...

sapodilla.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html

Guyana

Letter to Danny Boyle and all the people who worked on the Show

by neena maiya (guyana gyal)

30 Jul 2012

[...]

Heh.

Men writing about it gon can't say this, being men...but I can, being a gal an' all...

...them children singing and signing; the performance of Abide With Me; Paul McCartney, they make me eyes sweat profusely.

[...]

A mad montage, no matter when I look - today, tomorrow - I gon discover something else.

Just as we do with literature, people gon have their own interpretation of this show. Some gon say it was about the media; some, music; others, about barmy British humour. Me? I think it was life with all she madness and sudden surprises...

http://gofugyourself.com/fug-the-olympics-the-opening-ceremony-07-2012

Go Fug Yourself

Fug The Olympics: The Opening Ceremony Theatrics

by Heather

30 Jul 2012

[comment:]

30 Jul 2012, Wilma

I hated the Beijing ceremony with the fire of a thousand suns. It degraded human beings to cogwheels. It's not good watching something and hoping that none of the participants mess up because you don't know what's going to happen to them. One of my best friends fled China because his father was involved with the student protests of 1989. He does not know what has happened to his father. When people praise the Beijing ceremony I cringe inside.

I loved the London ceremony. It was warm, human, quirky and intelligent. The people putting it on had fun and looked proud of themselves. As a Dutch woman I still got most of the references. The lighting of the flame gave me goosebumps and made me teary. Out of many one indeed. Afterwards I felt like a citizen of the world.

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/thoughts-on-an-opening-ceremony-london-olympics-2012

Vice

Thoughts On An Opening Ceremony

By Gavin Haynes

28 Jul 2012

... it produced an effect which defied all natural laws. Sometime in this, approximately between 9.17PM and Angola, everyone's Twitter feeds stopped filling with bare-bones sarcasm, and started to sound like a lot of reflexively cynical youths trying out optimism for the first time in their internet lives.

http://www.wahm-bam.org/2012/07/london-2012-olympic-opening-ceremony-pleasantly-surprised-to-feel-proud-of-this-country/

WAHM BAM!

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Pleasantly surprised to feel proud of this country

by Tasha Goddard

28 Jul 2012

[comment by blog author] Tasha says: 31 July 2012 at 9:34 am

It was great to see people changing their tune on twitter - starting off (like me) somewhat cynical and ready to take the mick, only to be taken over by the atmosphere and completely get into it!

BBC Radio 4

'Today'

Discussion featuring Frank Cottrell Boyce, screenwriter of the opening ceremony

28 Jul 2012

“... maybe you shouldn’t have been able to interpret it that much, because it was about wonder.

The theme of the show was to take things that we’re very familiar with, and make them seem again wonderful to us: the things that you know about the industrial revolution and the internet, and say ‘Aren’t these things astonishing, that we live in the middle of?’ and to kind of re-polish the pattern of life. So maybe it’s alright that you were a little bit bewildered.”

I was interested to find a video of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV's "Top 10" roundup of moments from the ceremony:

http://video.2012.sina.com.cn/p/olympic/open/v/2012-07-28/121661812415.html

Although it counts down from 10 to 1, the clips are in chronological order, so it is more instructive to observe how much screen time each one gets:

Bradley Wiggins ringing the huge ceremonial bell (9 seconds)

The coming of the Industrial Revolution (9 seconds)

The Olympic Rings come together and shower sparks (23 seconds)

James Bond escorts the Queen / helicopter jump (9 seconds)

Voldemort (9 seconds, including a fraction of a second for J.K. Rowling)

Mr Bean (25 seconds)

David Beckham at Tower Bridge (23 seconds)

The "wall of memories" (27 seconds)

China's team parading (38 seconds)

The cauldron (35 seconds)

(Observant readers will spot that one major section got 0 seconds)

http://readerjanedavis.wordpress.com/category/olympic-opening-ceremony/

readerjanedavis

'This is for everyone' made me feel patriotic for the first time ever

by Dr. Jane Davis (who happens to be a friend of Frank Cottrell Boyce)

28 Jul 2012

... He did tell me it was going to be massive but I was still thinking ordinary Olympic ceremonies, the unreal worldly realism of ribbon twirling and uniformed masses marching in time. I should have known there would be none of that. ... What we got was music, poetry, story and belief. ...

https://intentionalworkplace.com/2012/08/02/team-danny-boyle-5-lessons-in-leadership/

The Intentional Workplace ["Transforming Work One Conversation at a Time"]

Team Danny Boyle: 5 Lessons in Leadership

by Louise Altman, Partner, Intentional Communication

2 Aug 2012

Adam Hanft writes, "We need leadership at the top that creates cultures where internal Danny Boyles can do their thing, get recognized and succeed. And I'm not just talking about areas where creativity should flourish, like marketing and R&D. But everywhere. Our resistance to the untried knows no corporate boundaries."

A leader like Danny Boyle understands he's the catalyst for individual creativity. That's his key role - to create the conditions for greatness to emerge - and thrive.

Leaders (I wonder if he even thinks of himself in that way) like Boyle know everything is about the people ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6-BGU80VSc

YouTube: BAFTA Los Angeles channel

Behind Closed Doors with Danny Boyle

interview by Sandro Monetti

13 Mar 2013 [uploaded 9 Feb 2017]

Sandro: "... what's been the reaction like when you walk through East London, I mean, how has it touched your heart to have the gratitude of the, of the people?"

Danny [after a few seconds of utter incoherence]: "It isn't like that really; it's funny actually, it's funny. I am, I am not pretending to be, erm, modest, I, um, I suffer from ego just as much as anybody else about the films, and about the theatre plays and, you know, good reviews are great and bad reviews are awful, and all that kind of stuff, but this was different. This didn't feel like that at all; and people do come up, and they're very complimentary, and ... but you can sense from them, erm, something that we felt, which was that this was a job we were doing on everybody's behalf. It wasn't a kind-of like, er, something that we should get a badge for. It was actually w- it- this was our job. We were the right people to do it, at the right time, and, and thanks to their involvement, all the volunteers and everybody, we made a decent job of it, and they ... and they c- so people come up and they, they stop you and go [points at Sandro] ... 'Good. Well done.' like that, [turns away] and then they walk away, and they don't want an autograph, they don't want a picture, they just wanna go [points at Sandro again] 'Yes, that was alright that, good.' ..."

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/armchair-pundit/masterpiece-not-ceremony-020036474.html

Eurosport - Yahoo!

A masterpiece, not a ceremony

by Alex Chick

28 Jul 2012

Did the night have anything to do with sport? Not really. And Boyle was gracious enough to acknowledge enough at the start of the show.

Nothing to do with sport, but anything to do with the Olympics? Absolutely.

The Opening Ceremony sets the tone. Whether the rest of the Games can live up to Friday night's standard is doubtful, but here was a promise of an Olympics full of joy and imagination.

Aftermath:

Having added, for the 2018 edition of this ever-expanding work, more detail about the preparations for the Opening Ceremony, I feel it's only fair to use some of the same sources (particularly timelapse videos) to tell the story of what happened in the stadium after "Hey Jude" ended.

{v18.2m}- overall, 84% of all people watching TV at home since 9pm had been watching BBC

Aftermath Day 1, Saturday 28 July 2012, starting 00:46am

With the cauldron still glowing in the centre of the arena (and briefly on the upper screens, until it was replaced by gold Olympic rings on a black background at 00:48) the great exodus began.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWoDtCJYJ5o

YouTube

Opening Ceremony London 2012: The Cauldron and Paul McCartney

by OlympicFlame2028

11 Aug 2014

From the Cauldron lighting to the very end- kept filming even after the announcers said goodbye, and the sound of tinkling bells accompanied the audience on their journey back to reality.

Around 40,000 of the spectators (and thousands of athletes) had stayed to the end, but by 00:51 almost everybody who could bear to leave had done so. BBC coverage, as Gary, Sue, and Michael Johnson summed up the evening (Mr Lineker's chosen adjectives: bold, bonkers, brilliant and British ) showed marshals forming lines, hand in hand, and sweeping reluctant athletes out of the north-west vom. Meanwhile, as the choirs departed the Tor, some of the drummer-marshals assembled at its foot and began a jam session.

By 1am, only a few dozen spectators were left, and at 1:03 the marshals, having completed the job of evicting the athletes, returned from the northwest vom to the performance area, where jamming and chatting and photo-taking continued for a few minutes, until the great Olympic Bell rang to hint that it was time to leave. At this time, NBC's Meredith Vieira had just started interviewing Danny Boyle (rather dishevelled, but still mostly very articulate) somewhere in the vicinity of the VIP seating. The Bell rang again a minute later as Danny was explaining the Queen's acting role. NBC then (i.e. hours later in the real world) showed a chat between Matt Lauer and Ryan Seacrest, which was actually filmed a few minutes earlier as the spectators were leaving!

About 1:10, as the marshals drifted off towards the southeast vom (remember, unlike most performers, they had changing facilities in the temporary buildings at the south end of the stadium) the auditorium lights were switched off and most of the performance lights around the arena were switched on, almost drowning out the warm yellow which had dominated since the start of "Hey Jude". Also, the Tor tree was hoisted into the air again. This echo of "Pandemonium" was the cue for the final transition of the opening ceremony from reality to memory. It wasn't quite the end of the wind-down though, because now, for just a few minutes, dozens of black-clad ceremony staff emerged from the shadows, gathering to the north of the Cauldron for a group photo around 1:15.

Involving some 270 workers over the course of this first night, the great metamorphosis began with the destruction of the barriers round the mosh/posh pits, and with the removal of the flags from the Tor. Meanwhile, at 1:18, the upper screens went blank, and the very last ceremony participants reluctantly left the cauldron. It remained ablaze until 1:26, when there was an odd little ceremonial moment. Most of the bright performance lights were turned off again, leaving just the warm yellow as the cauldron flame began to be dimmed. The uppermost floodlights on the stadium's "crown" then faded up as the cauldron gas flow was reduced to its low "economy" setting. Finally, at 1:29, the yellow lighting, barely detectable in the new dazzling brightness, was turned off. Trolleys and small vehicles began to arrive as the posh-pit demolition moved to a new phase, ripping out the banking to make a large entrance to the huge space underneath the main performance area. Then the same process was applied to the rest of the banking; removing the turf, lifting the various flights of steps up onto the main stage to expose more entrances, and gradually removing all the boarding. The turf was also removed from between the M25 and the stage, and from the Tor. Between 2:30 and 3am, larger vehicles and cherry-pickers arrived to start the process of heavy removals.

When the first hint of dawn touched the stadium crown, around 4:30, roughly half of the banking and nearly all the Tor turf was gone, and the great map of London on the stage was beginning to show numerous holes. As Saturday progressed, the growing medium was removed from the Tor, revealing its moulded structure. Also that morning, the main stage started to shrink, first losing some of its ramps, then a long strip leading south from the still-burning cauldron. The waterwheel was stripped back to its original intended "green and pleasant" size, less than 3 metres in diameter, and its mounting was then lowered to the appropriate height. Starting around lunchtime, the moulding of the Tor was stripped away to leave just the core of girders. The waterwheel was lifted out of its position and taken away; the main stage got smaller and smaller with the aid of five large cranes and a constant supply of trucks. But as night fell, the Cauldron was still gently burning in the centre of it all, the flames captured by a camera mounted directly above (allegedly).

(

https://landscapermagazine.com/unique-olympic-legacy/

The Landscaper

Unique Olympic legacy

Autumn 2012

Chichester’s Weald and Downland Open Air Museum have benefited from a unique Olympic legacy that will protect rare native wildlife in West Sussex – a donation of wildflower turf used at the Olympic Stadium and featured in Danny Boyle’s ‘Green and Pleasant Land’ opening sequence this summer. ...

)

The other opening ceremony!

There was another Olympic Opening Ceremony on Saturday evening, at Weymouth, venue for the sailing events. This was the culmination of an artistic festival called "Battle for the Winds" which for this one night only merged with another project called "Breathe" that focused on aerial dance (see "making of" video at https://vimeo.com/49224838 ). The fireworks were disappointing, but the climactic performance event, 2012 people wading into the sea, carrying torches, was most memorable. Here are three representative videos (the last of which includes other moments from earlier in the day):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqU8EZxJYAE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hkpNqdQHKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUCGR-5XUW0

See also:

https://vimeo.com/colourburn/weymouth-2012

https://vimeo.com/49224838

Breathe - Olympic opening ceremony, Weymouth 2012

by Colourburn

‘Breathe’ was a breathtaking outdoor performance of circus, dance and cabaret to open the Olympics for the sailing in Weymouth. A local and international cast of disabled and non-disabled performers created the most diverse outdoor performance the South West has ever seen.

Aftermath Day 2: Sunday 29 July 2012

Sunday's dawn saw workers preparing a path for the Cauldron through the remains of the stage to the south end of the arena, and during the morning it left its circular platform, still burning (it was accompanied by a large white box which presumably contained a portable gas tank, as a flexible hose linked the two). Later that morning, the Oak Tree was finally lowered back down onto the skeleton of the Tor, and then its weight was transferred to a crane which lowered it to the ground for dismantling. Meanwhile, behind the Tor, testing began on the main northern video screens (unfortunately, the time-lapse footage does not show the south end of the arena). At lunchtime, Rings began to be lowered from the roof and dismantled.

(

https://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/11875295.olympics-opening-ceremony-tree-placed-at-heart-of-library-at-epsom-primary-and-nursery-school/

Your Local Guardian: Epsom

Olympics opening ceremony tree placed at heart of library at Epsom Primary and Nursery School

by Alice Foster

24 Mar 2015

A life-size oak tree used in the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony is now sitting at the heart of a school’s new "enchanted" library.

...

Simon Moore, from the architects Felce and Guy Partnership, said while doing research for the school project he was put in touch with Simon Kenny from scenery builders Souvenir Scenic Studios. Mr Moore said: "It was quite an unreal moment.

"I called him to ask if he knew how we could create a tree to become part of the EPS library and he laughed and said ‘I have a very special tree, sitting unloved and unused in my yard and I would love for it to have a home and a resting place that will be enjoyed by generations to come, and fulfil the sustainability legacy of the games’."

)

Outbreaks of rain that afternoon did not stop the demolition process, which had now reduced the stage to a couple of platforms either side of the Cauldron, and was steadily shrinking the Tor skeleton- once that was low enough, just after 6pm, the northern screens began showing a digital clock. Glows of coloured light under the Stadium roof suggest that from the outside (except from the Orbit tower), it was probably almost impossible to guess that anything significant was happening. By 10pm, the arena floor was almost completely clear- except of course that it was still covered with the tough flooring which had been laid down in May to take the brunt of all this activity. After the day's sport finished, the Cauldron was extinguished, with the flame transferred to a safety lamp as it had been at various times during the Torch Relay (yet miraculously its image continued to burn on the big stadium screens). Around 11pm it set off to complete its southward journey. Behind it, the flanking stage remnants were finally removed (and the Tor structure continued to shrink).

Aftermath Day 3: Monday 30 July 2012

With most heavy machinery no longer needed, removal of the protective flooring began around 2am. Just after 4am, a large crane lifted the Cauldron very slightly off the ground, and swung it round to place it in its niche at the south end of the arena, echoing the position of the Olympic Cauldron at Wembley Stadium in the 1948 London Games. The ceremonial re-lighting took place a few minutes before 8am.

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2117917_austin_playfoot_relights_olympic_cauldron

get SURREY

Austin Playfoot relights Olympic cauldron

by Amy Taylor

30 Jul 2012

THE Olympic flame is a gift that just keeps on giving for Guildford torchbearer Austin Playfoot, who reached new heights on Monday morning.

Mr Playfoot, 82, carried the torch through Guildford in 1948, repeating the honour when the 2012 torch relay passed through Surrey this month, and then got his third Olympic experience in Stratford when he was lifted 30ft in the air to relight the stadium cauldron.

It should be noted at this point that the 1948 precedent excuse for the Cauldron location was not enough for many visitors to the Olympic Park (which of course contained numerous other sporting venues).

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--fans-disappointed-they-can-t-see-olympic-flame.html

Yahoo Sports

Fans disappointed they can't see Olympic flame

by Martin Rogers

29 Jul 2012

... "They have done a disappearing act with it," said Londoner Colin Millard, 58. "We can't wait to see some events, and it doesn't spoil your day, but of course you would like to think it is all part of the experience. You come to the Games, you get a photo with the flame." ...

"It was like, now you see it, now you don't," said Linda Samuel, of Essex, just outside London. "I loved the Ceremony, and the flame was a dramatic moment. But now it's like it's not here." ...

One French outlet took that Yahoo report and turned it into Fake News, introducing French translations of the same quotations as follows:

http://www.gentside.com/jeux-olympiques-d-%E9t%E9-de-2012/jo-2012-la-flamme-olympique-etait-invisible-pour-la-majorite-des-spectateurs-du-stade_art43230.html

Gent Side

JO 2012 : la flamme olympique était invisible pour la majorité des spectateurs du stade !

by Sébastien Courtin

30 Jul 2012

Des spectateurs du stade olympique ont critiqué avec virulence les organisateurs des Jeux Olympiques de Londres car au cours de la cérémonie d'ouverture, un très grand nombre d'entre eux étaient incapables de voir la légendaire flamme olympique. ...

In reality, views of the Cauldron from every part of the arena, except for a few of the seats behind the Oak Tree, were excellent during the ceremony. However, the International Olympic Committee, which was generally pleased with the Ceremony, to the extent of recommending some of London's organisational innovations as future best practice, decided that it agreed with the complaints about the final Cauldron location:

http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Games_London_2012/Final Cocom Report London 2012 EN.pdf

Final report of the IOC Coordination Commission: Games of the XXX Olympiad

The trade-off for the cauldron's modest size, environmental sustainability and proximity to athletes in the main stadium was that it was not visible from all areas of the Olympic Park or beyond, therefore not allowing all spectators and visitors to take photos.

The cauldron should be placed in a way that allows most visitors and fans to take photos.

Some athletes found the 9 p.m. start for the Opening Ceremony too late and many would make a strong case for being seated in the Stadium from the start rather than joining the Ceremony only in time for the parade, future OCOGs should consider this

The late start resulted from a geographical peculiarity. London is, by well over 1,000km, the furthest Summer Olympic venue from the equator since Moscow 1980, and hence the first to have to reconcile the modern fashion for night-time ceremonies with very late summer sunset times. For Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020, the problem does not arise, but Paris 2024, though 300km closer to the Equator than London, is, astronomically speaking, in the wrong time-zone, so a night-time ceremony would have to start very late indeed. The exclusion of the athletes is another matter, to which I will return later in a brief discussion of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic opening ceremony.

The early hours of Monday daylight saw the final end of the Tor, and the uncovering of the whole central area of the arena, its layered stucture intact and ready to receive new turf. At lunchtime, a methodical process began, at the east side: water a strip of the prepared ground, then lay down rolls of turf which were being brought to the stadium by a fleet of lorries (part of the protective flooring over the running track had been left in place at the south and east sides, and the north-west corner, so that tractors could safely move in and out).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2167959/London-2012-Olympics-Stadium-grass-comes-Samantha-Camerons-fathers-garden.html

MailOnline

How the Olympics will be fought out on SamCam's old lawn ...

Louise Eccles

3 Jul 2012

The grass being used for the athletics field at the Olympic Games comes from Samantha Cameron's father's sprawling 'back garden'.

It has emerged that the turf in the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium was grown at Sir Reginald Sheffield's Normanby Hall estate near Scunthorpe.

County Turf, which rents land from the Sheffields, was sub-contracted to supply the grass for the stadium's infield by the Olympic Delivery Authority.

https://www.hortweek.com/turf-companies-reveal-12-hour-re-turfing-olympic-stadium-opening-ceremony/turf/article/1192989

Horticulture Week

Turf companies reveal 12-hour re-turfing of Olympic stadium after opening ceremony

by Sarah Cosgrove

26 Jul 2013

County Turf managing director Andy Fraser said: 'A 12 hour schedule is extremely tight and there was no margin for error. We had a strict plan in place to ensure success and we built a new specialist harvester unit to cope with harvesting all of the turf in the allotted time. We operated two crews of staff throughout the night to ensure that the turf was only rolled up for a maximum of seven hours to ensure a green surface and no deterioration.'

As night fell, with the turf-laying more than half completed, the protective flooring on the east side was removed, and as the need for heavy vehicles dwindled, the rest followed until just the north-west entrance was in use.

Aftermath Day 4: Tuesday 31 July 2012

Around 2:30am on Tuesday 31 July 2012, the turfing was completed. The rest of the stadium floor was given a good wash, and as the sun rose the Olympic Stadium was almost completely ready for its main purpose, with only the Cauldron and utilities like the overhead cables, pixel paddles and speakers left from the opening extravaganza for later re-use.

http://scottcawley.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/proud/

Scott Cawley (blog)

Proud

by Scott Cawley (audio producer and Pandemonium volunteer)

29 Jul 2012

... It's over and it's sad now. Danny also said something to us that I was reminded of in this account by one of the Working Men and Women: "There will be an emptiness that you'll now have to fill with some other part of your lives". It's only 48 hours since the ceremony, but it's completely true. ...

Post-postscript:

For a lovely lunar moment, see:

http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2012/08/06/attempting-to-shoot-the-moon/

Reuters Photographers Blog

Attempting to shoot the moon

Luke McGregor

August 6, 2012

[a Twitter user, I think originally @jonholmes1, proposed the caption: 'Moon taken to court by IOC for violating Olympic brand ban,' ]

PLAGIARISM !

(well, not really, but it got your attention)

Atopia is a design company (not to be confused with the Atopia Projects arts organisation), including the charitable Atopia Research, founded and led by two English architects, David Turnbull and Jane Harrison, who for a number of years have been working in America, teaching at the Cooper Union and Princeton University. In 2006-7, Atopia presented ideas for implementing the "One Planet" aspect of London 2012, and was consequently invited to submit a proposal for the Olympic Park's One Planet Pavilion. The submission (a five-page concept description, without pictures) was received by LOCOG in late 2007, but was not chosen for progress. Nonetheless, somehow, both key concepts and the actual appearance of Thomas Heatherwick's 2012 Olympic Cauldron matched details in an Atopia sketchbook from 2008.

Unfortunately, Jane Harrison's statement in the original (19 Jun 2013) Guardian article which broke the story, though literally true in every word, is more than a little disingenuous:

"It looked identical to something we had proposed to the London Olympic committee back in 2007"

Yes it did look identical, but Harrison knew that LOCOG couldn't have known it, because they had never been shown any pictures of the 2007 concept. Nor had Thomas Heatherwick. Nor had Danny Boyle.

However, the most damning section of the Guardian article was a quotation from Kevin Owens, who had been Design Principal for London 2012 (and, coincidentally, in April 2013 was judge and keynote speaker at the RSA US Student Design Awards in New York, chaired and co-ordinated by David Turnbull). Although he confirmed that he had never seen pictures of the Atopia design, he observed that concepts from their work must have "stayed in the psyche" of LOCOG personnel who read it, so that "Strands of their work became part of what was taken forward, and I wish there was a way we could acknowledge that."

The Guardian explained the long delay in Atopia's coming forward with their claim as a result of the International Olympic Committee's system to protect sponsors, which had prevented non-sponsor suppliers and contractors from using their involvement with the Olympics for publicity. In January 2013 the UK Government had paid the IOC to agree a licensing scheme, so that non-sponsor suppliers could be awarded permits to mention their Olympic involvement when promoting themselves. The odd thing about that is, that if their Pavilion proposal was not used, then Atopia were not contractors for the Pavilion, and could not apply for a permit to promote it either before or after the IOC deal. Also, as it happened, all this was taking place a fortnight after the official announcement, in the London Gazette of 5 June 2013, that LOCOG no longer existed as a going concern; its job done and its accounts for the 2012 tax year duly signed off, the directors formally relinquished their duties from 31 May 2013.

Anyway- the next day, it was Heatherwick's turn to express outrage at the "spurious nonsense", with full support from Boyle and from Martin Green, London 2012 Head of Ceremonies, who emphasised that, far from incorporating Atopia's work in his brief for the Opening Ceremony, he had "never even heard of them" [UPDATE, 24 Jul 2014: As noted at the end of this section, his memory was slightly at fault on this]. In the same article, Jane Harrison belatedly acknowledged that Atopia had not provided illustrations to LOCOG "because we wanted to safeguard our intellectual property. But that obviously didn't help." [UPDATE, 3 August 2014: In an article in design magazine De Zeen, 25 July 2014, (http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/25/atopia-not-going-to-answer-questions-over-olympic-images/), responding to a direct question about whether the images were shown to anybody at LOCOG, David Turnbull revealed that the above-mentioned Kevin Owens had been a student of his at Yale (c1996), and they had informally exchanged a great deal of information in 2006-8 when Atopia were bidding for LOCOG work; his statement that "There is uncertainty about who else at LOCOG saw the material." thus carries a vague implication that Owens, contrary to his and Jane Harrison's assertions above, might have been sent visual material relating to the cauldron-like design]

In an article in Building Design magazine, 20 June 2013 ("Thomas Heatherwick 'outraged' by Olympic plagiarism row" by Elizabeth Hopkirk,

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/thomas-heatherwick-outraged-by-olympic-plagiarism-row/5056643.article) LOCOG's former Communications Director said of the sketchbook "We haven't seen those images at all." The article also showed a picture of Heatherwick as a student, back in 1993, with a sculpture he had made from numerous vertical sections (intended to be given to different people) which broadened at the top from narrow stems, and when brought together formed a round chalice.

Finally, Atopia released an official statement that "We have never accused Thomas Heatherwick of plagiarism. We have never claimed to be designers of the cauldron. We are entirely focused on the issue of how ideas transmit through large organisations, often organically and unconsciously." They further stated that although the astonishing sketchbook illustrations had formed the core of the press coverage, "It is the narrative scenario along with our other tender content that we believe proved inspirational at LOCOG and this is what it was intended to do. We have sought a formal acknowledgement for this from LOCOG since July 2012." That date reference would explain why Atopia sought publicity after LOCOG was wound up, having evidently got nowhere in private negotiations. Yet Heatherwick Studio's position was that they had "never seen this project before, nor were we made aware of it by Locog." Even without the illustrations, if Atopia had, in those eleven months, raised specific concerns about the design and ceremonial assembling of the Olympic Flame, which could tarnish the reputations of Heatherwick and Boyle, surely LOCOG had a duty to notify them.

Curiously, Heatherwick Studio could have seen the Atopia work before June 2013 before if they had been looking in the right direction. Atopia had (in apparent defiance of the IOC rules) first mentioned their proposals for "innovative objects ... which would be carried into the opening ceremonies by the national teams and assembled in real time on television to make a unique Olympic structure." on their website on 16 November 2012, and made the sketchbook available online from 19 February 2013. Nobody seems to have noticed on Twitter or Facebook- or anywhere else.

To help us understand all this, let's take a close look at the famous sketchbook (dated 02/2008, apparently somewhat later than the original submission to LOCOG).

http://issuu.com/atopia/docs/london_2012_sketchbook_copyright/9?e=0/3652939

First, note that although the sketchbook has a "rough and ready" appearance, it contains no signs of revision. Even if it was created on a screen rather than in a paper sketchbook, one would expect to see, for example, occasional gaps in the text where two or three words had been revised down to one (and to prepare a text document in rough handwriting rather than using a keyboard requires considerable faith in character recognition software). We have, however, been told by Jane Harrison that the text here is identical to the text received (without pictures) by LOCOG. This is, therefore, almost certainly not a working draft for the pavilion concept; it is a presentation document deliberately designed to look like a sketchbook (note the neat left-justification and indenting of text), or perhaps, if created on paper, the storyboard for an illustrated presentation based on the finalised text. That would also explain why the sketchbook seems to post-date the actual proposals.

So, what does the content of this document tell us? In the first caption, on page 4, the objects forming the pavilion are described as "umbrellas like flowers". Without any pictures, what sort of flowers would you think of when reading that phrase- something forming a deep hollow, like pitcher plants, or something wide and flat like daisies?

All the pictures in this sketchbook show the former. Note also that in the picture on page 5, assuming the people shown in the picture to be just over 1.8 metres high, the "flowers" with their stems are about 15 metres tall, with cups averaging about 2 metres wide.

On pages 8 and 10 it is explained that the "umbrellas" will be brought in to the stadium by representatives of each nation, and handed over to children, "the next generation", who will take them to the One Planet garden. If you think you are seeing here the genesis of the "next generation" theme in the Opening Ceremony, then it's time for a history lesson, so I'll just note for now that in the picture on page 9, assuming the athletes to be just over 1.8 metres high, holding the "flowers" two-handed, the "flowers" are about 5.5 metres tall, with cups averaging about 1.6 metres wide (challenging to carry on a windy day, I suspect). Also, the picture of the One Planet garden on page 11 does not show any bare stems ready to accept the portable flowers to make up the missing 9.5 metres of height.

History lesson

LONDON 2012: THE NEXT GENERATION

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20070506093704/http://www.london2012.com/documents/candidate-files/introduction.pdf

London 2012 Candidate File, Introduction

Letter from the UK Prime Minister to Count Jacques Rogge, IOC President

by Tony Blair

13 Oct 2004

... Just as the London Games in 1948 inspired men and women to take part in sport so we believe that hosting the Games in 2012 will encourage future generations of young people. ...

To emphasise the point, the bid file was delivered to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 15 November 2004, by a 14-year-old schoolgirl basketball player from the East End, Amber Charles (with help from a British Airways stewardess, as the file box was quite large and heavy).

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20070506093704/http://www.london2012.com/documents/bid-publications/bid-bulletin-december-2004.pdf

London 2012 Candidate City: Bid Bulletin

London Games to be 'for the next generation'

"20/12 Special Edition", Dec 2004

London's Olympic Games and Paralympic Games would be an event for the next generation, according to bid Chairman Sebastian Coe. ... "Games that will inspire, excite, engage and be owned by the next generation ..."

Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell added at the bid's official unveiling that the Government was committed to bringing the Games to Britain.

She said: "This will be the next generation Games – but Games that this generation is determined to deliver with style and skill ..."

The bid file included one specific cultural/educational project which would link and inspire young people around the world:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20070506093704/http://www.london2012.com/documents/candidate-files/theme-17-olympism.pdf

London 2012 Candidate File, Theme 17: Olympism and Culture

Cultural and Ceremonial Events

Nov 2004

To convey Olympism in a unified and dramatic way, London 2012 proposes the concept of the Olympic Friend-ship: a full-size, ocean-going clipper, crewed by young people, artists, philosophers and students * under the command of professional officers. Launched at the Beijing Games in 2008, the ship will travel the world in the lead-up to the 2012 Games. In parallel, a virtual vessel will sail the internet and form the basis of a four-year education programme linked to the National Curriculum for schools in the UK.

The Olympic Friend-ship's voyage will be a journey of discovery, carrying a cargo emblematic of the UK's cultural riches. In turn, every nation visited will have the opportunity to contribute to the vessel's cargo – either in real terms or virtually via the website. Through dialogue and exchange, creativity and sharing, the UK will use this voyage to redefine its relationship to world cultures and celebrate London's new role as Host City.

To herald the Games, the Olympic Friend-ship will make a triumphant entrance up the River Thames to the mouth of its tributary River Lea, which leads to the new OlympicPark. The ship's arrival will formally proclaim the renaissance of East London.

[ * In later documents summarising the bid, this was amended to "young people, artists, environmentalists, and scientists".

See for example http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmcumeds/552/5101802.htm ]

The overall "next generation" theme was strongly reinforced at the final bid presentations to the IOC in Singapore, on 6 July 2005, in which Amber Charles again took part, alongside Olympic luminaries such as Sir Steve Redgrave (and she may also have had the chance to meet Muhammad Ali, who was a member of the New York bid delegation). Lord Coe spoke of his own childhood inspiration, the 1968 Olympics, and he noted that "to make athletes it takes millions of children around the world to be inspired to choose sport". The first part of the film which formed the heart of the London presentation was introduced by British IOC member Craig Reedie:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Wx3aApXSl8sC&pg=PA176

The Race for the 2012 Olympics

by Mike Lee

Random House, 2012

... Reedie introduced London's special vision for the 2012 Olympics. He said: "If you grant the Games to London, you will place in our hands the Olympic spirit. We will guard that spirit, we will cherish it and we will proudly hand it on to young people like those in this film".

http://darylgoodrich.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/DSC00506.pdf

London Evening Standard

Emotion and inspiration as London makes one last pitch

by Adrian Warner

6 Jul 2005

... As 30 children from the East End sat alongside David Beckham in the auditorium, Seb Coe's team promised to stage a "Games for a new Generation" in 2012 which would transform London and unite the world.

The centrepiece of the 45-minute presentation to the International Olympic Commitee members was an uplifting film showing children from Mexico, Russia, China and Africa taking up a variety of sports after watching a London Games. ...

And later that day, the London next-generation Olympics beat the Parisian men-in-smart-suits Olympics by 54 IOC votes to 50. Sir Steve Redgrave hugged Amber Charles, and the rest is history (in 2012 Amber, logically but somehow unbelievably aged 22, also became the last bearer of the London Olympic torch before it went to City Hall to await the arrival of David Beckham's speedboat).

End of the History Lesson

Returning to the Atopia sketchbook, the picture on page 13 appears to show that the location of the One Planet garden is the centre of the stadium, most inconvenient for shot-putters (but in other sketches and text, notably on pages 22-3, it is clearly apparent that the garden must be located elsewhere).

The picture on page 15, assuming the human figures to be the children, about 1.2 metres tall, rather than the athletes, once again shows the deployed flowers as being at least 15 metres high, with cups at least 3 metres wide.

On page 14 it is stated that although the individual "flowers" appear fragile, "together, they are stong and robust", implying that they are joined in some way. On page 16 it is further stated that the flowers will form "a lightweight canopy for events". However, the illustrations throughout the sketchbook show "flowers" of different heights with no joins, and gaps between them which would let in the London rain.

The mock-up photograph of parading athletes on page 25 shows the "flower" as (assuming it is being carried two-handed) about 3 metres tall, with a cup about 70 centimetres across. At this scale, the gaps between stems in the pavilion would be too narrow for wheelchair access

The mock-up photograph on page 27, assuming the height per storey in the blue prefab building to be 2.5 metres, shows the "flower" as just under 8 metres tall, with a cup about 1.25 metres wide.

Throughout the sketchbook, the shape of the "flower" heads is not shown to change significantly at any stage of their arrival and deployment- unlike an umbrella, which is normally carried as a slim rod-shaped object, then opened out for use. The result is either a pavilion with supporting "stems" uncomfortably close together (as the sketchbook illustrations seem to indicate), or a structure which does not form the promised "lightweight canopy" at all, just a wasteful assemblage of widely separated "flowers". Now try to imagine instead a 4-metre diameter hexagonal, translucent but colourful umbrella, with joining devices at the end of each spoke, carried to the One Planet garden closed, as a slender, 2-metre high object which is then planted *, opened (the canopy inverted from the normal umbrella usage, because the aim is to collect rainwater and direct it down the stem) and securely linked with its neighbours at the spoke ends. 204 of those joined together (with some external anchors to counteract wind action) and you've really got a pavilion!

*Actually, I would have just the canopies carried in the ceremony, point downward, and attached with bayonet fittings to pre-planted stems; this would solve a number of problems, most obviously allowing the pavilion ceiling to be higher than the longest stem a person could comfortably carry.

Overall, these sketches illustrate the 2012 Cauldron, and even its ceremonial location, better than they illustrate the 2007 text they are supposed to accompany; a truly bizarre situation.

Next, take a close look at the pictures on page 17 of the sketchbook, specifically the group of three shapes at far right, and compare them with the photo of a concept model on page 26. The concept model can be seen to have been made from paper cones, with separate stems inserted through the pointed end of the cone, made from something like round lollipop sticks. However, the bottom shape on page 17 shows something rather different- a flat shape incorporating both a stem and a curved triangular head with a small flap along one edge. There is an arrow in the opposite corner to the flap, indicating that the edge with the arrow should be rolled over and, as shown in the uppermost of the three illustrations, stuck with the flap to form a three-dimensional shape. Those three drawings are, I think, the reason for the sketchbook's existence, and I suspect that I can also guess the reason for the drawings' existence.

My guess is that a paper model using this sort of design came first. Having formed the basic concept of the "umbrella pavilion", Atopia would probably have created computer-graphic visualisations, but, as the other pictures on page 17 (a pop-up book etc.) suggest, they seem also to have attempted to create physical models in a form which children might make for themselves. In doing this, Atopia would very quickly have discovered that making such models is harder than it looks. Umbrella shapes with tubular stems have to be created as two pieces, stem and canopy, and it is quite difficult to make a sturdy and neat join between the two at model scale.

On the other hand, using the design shown on page 17, it is possible to make an attractive one-piece pitcher-plant "flower" which doesn't look much like an umbrella at all. The flower head will be asymmetrical along the join axis, but that is aesthetically advantageous, as is the considerable variability of its precise shape when joined. I think, then, that having made a few such paper pitcher-plants, Atopia recognised that a structure incorporating one such "flower" for each competing nation, although useless as a pavilion, would look gorgeous. Hence the model seen on page 26 (made with lollipop stick stems, because the one-piece design is rather fiddly to roll and stick 204 times).

So, there they were with a gorgeous model that was of no use to them in developing their pavilion concept. They probably spotted a use it might have in the Games though- a multi-burner Olympic Flame. Even if they didn't recognise exactly that possibility, what they did was a very sensible move to allow for future developments. They created the sketchbook, linking the pitcher-plant design (in a range of sizes and profiles) to the pavilion commission and establishing a firm date, February 2008, for legal purposes- then if they were really smart, they would put a copy in secure storage, with a receipt. They chose not to show any pictures at all to LOCOG, but even if they had won that commission, I think their pavilion would have looked very different indeed from the images in the sketchbook.

There is one more major oddity about the Atopia Pavilion proposals.

In the History Lesson, I included a quotation from the London 2012 Olympic bid, November 2004, about the Friend-Ship, which was to be crewed by young people and cultural mentors, to exchange cultural gifts around the world, and to moor at the mouth of the River Lea after a triumphal progress up the Thames "to herald the Games". It is clear that, in the original vision for London 2012, the return of the Friend-ship was to be linked with the Opening Ceremony of the Games, and that the organisers of the Ceremony might wish to incorporate the vessel's crew and cargo directly into the event, perhaps travelling on small boats up the Lea to bring the gifts into the stadium.

There was just one catch with the "Friend-Ship" project. It was an utterly stupid idea in almost every possible way. Four years of voyaging to Olympic nations meant four years in which teenagers could die, or be held to ransom, or be photographed taking drugs in some far-off port in an over-enthusiastic effort to be friendly, or ....

http://www.london.gov.uk/mqt/public/question.do?id=16974

The London Assembly: Mayor answers to London

FriendShip

Response by Mayor Ken Livingstone to question by Jenny Jones (Green Party)

13 Dec 2006

"The sentiment behind the original friendship proposal is still very much alive and the London Olympic Games Organising Committee are investigating how best to meet the stated aims of promoting friendship and intercultural exchange between young people. This review includes considering whether a physical ship is the best way to meet these objectives and no final decision has yet been made about precisely how the friendship element of the cultural programme will be delivered."

Jenny Jones made sure that the above Mayoral statement was picked up by the press in the quiet period after the seasonal holidays, but in the absence of any firm decision, the fuss soon died down.

As far as the general public was aware, no decision had been made about the Friend-Ship even as late as February 2008, when the Atopia sketchbook was made. Atopia had studied the 2004 Bid while creating their "white paper" on media and technology in the Cultural Olympiad, so they should have been aware that elements of their proposal- the flowers as gifts from competing countries which "have been on a journey" (but also, after the Games, souvenir gifts TO the competing countries), and youngsters bringing the gifts into the stadium during the Opening Ceremony, were clashing with actual or likely elements of the Friend-Ship proposal.

However:

It looks as if LOCOG hoped everybody would forget about the Friend-Ship, but part of the art of good journalism is spotting when something is in danger of being forgotten about, and wondering why. Over a year after Jenny Jones's story hit the press, the BBC asked LOCOG bluntly just what was going on, and the truth was revealed:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/london_2012/7290404.stm

London 2012 to shelve ship idea

by James Pearce

11 Mar 2008

Plans to promote the 2012 Olympics using a ship sailing around the world advertising Britain's "cultural riches" have been ditched, the BBC has learned. ...

Aside from the debate about the increase in the budget for the Games, the decision by the organisers to scrap the Olympic Friend-ship is probably the most significant broken promise since the bid was won in July 2005. ...

It seems most likely, then, that Atopia and other potential designers were among the few who were told before 2008 that the Friend-Ship had been abandoned, and they were aware when preparing their 2007 proposals that the involvement of young people in a symbolic "gift exchange" with all the competing nations could well be looked upon favourably by LOCOG.

Atopia never got the chance to dust off their 2008 sketchbook for an Olympic "Pavilion" Flame design. In 2010, a different arm of LOCOG appointed Danny Boyle as director of the Opening Ceremony, and Thomas Heatherwick was selected to design the Olympic Flame.

A key function of the Opening Ceremony would be to channel the spirit of the Bid into the launch of the Games. That included the spirit of Amber Charles carrying a very large Bid file to Switzerland in 2004, the spirit of 30 East End children forming a major part of the London delegation in 2005, the spirit of "Games that will inspire, excite, engage and be owned by the next generation", the spirit of "you will place in our hands the Olympic spirit. We will guard that spirit, we will cherish it and we will proudly hand it on to young people". Studying the documents and presentations which expressed that spirit, the 2012 Ceremonies team could not fail to be reminded of the lost Friend-Ship. There, perhaps, was the inspiration for David Beckham's speedboat journey up the River Lea with teenage footballer Jade Bailey, and there most of all, I suspect, was the inspiration for an Olympic Flame made of gifts for every competing nation, brought into the stadium by youngsters.

Even the fact that Heatherwick's design looks almost identical to Atopia's is a near-inevitable consequence of that basic decision to make the Flame with separate components representing each country. The Olympic and Paralympic Flames had to represent different numbers of countries, and countries could drop out at the last moment, so the structure needed to be fully modular. The gas burners had to be some sort of conical shape to allow the gas to burn efficiently and form a united flame- which latter condition dictated that the burners had to be on roughly the same level (an Olympic Flame using narrow, clearly separated flame jets would be spectacular, but noisy, and it would need to be very cleverly designed to avoid being likened to a burning hedgehog). The result would look from above like a bunch of flowers, so the gas pipes should be straight "stems". Heatherwick's actual concept was different from Atopia's in some truly brilliant ways, hiding the purpose of the "copper petals" by not parading them attached to their stems (it may even be that the proposal to have the tall umbrella-flowers "carried like standards", thus diverting attention from the national flags, was one of the factors which made LOCOG reject Atopia's pavilion proposal) and most distinctively- utterly unforeseen by Atopia- having them come together from an initial splayed-out configuration of five concentric rings.

It is possible that somebody in LOCOG who had been informed about ATOPIA's 2007 proposal influenced the 2012 Flame plans. However, given LOCOG's determination to avoid the "castration by committee" which befell the Millennium Dome's creative content, it is very unlikely that any such person other than Martin Green (who seems to have no conscious memory of them, and may never have read the summary which was sent to him) was in a position to exert influence until Heatherwick and Boyle had formulated the core of their response to the basic brief. Astonishing though it may seem, I think what we have here is not even a coincidence, but a sort of mental-magic trick. Both Atopia and Heatherwick / Boyle were probably trying to salvage something symbolic from the Friend-Ship project, and both created ceremonial interpretations of what might have happened if the clipper had returned, laden with gifts, from its four-year mission, to mark the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Since I wrote the above, on 23 July 2014 (the day of the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and three days before a version of the Cauldron reconstructed with the first set of test petals was due to go on display at the Museum of London) news has emerged of a settlement between Atopia and the liquidators of LOCOG, for an undisclosed sum which Atopia will use for their charitable projects in Africa. The statement by the liquidators of LOCOG makes no attempt to consider fault at all (their spokesman Phillip Sykes confirmed that it "excludes any confirmation or acceptance of any liability"), it merely lists two sets of five concepts from Atopia's proposals for "showcasing sustainability" at the Games. The first five were from Atopia's earlier report on general sustainability issues, which is not related to the cauldron design; the second five to the pavilion "design scenario":

http://www.moorestephens.co.uk/LOCOG_statement.aspx

Statement issued by the joint liquidators of LOCOG

18 Jul 2014

- the live-time construction of the pavilion in the opening ceremony for the Games;

- the pavilion being made from 200+ flower shaped forms, one for each of the participating nations;

- the flower-shaped forms to be brought into the opening ceremony by 'bearers' in each participating nations team;

- as part of the ceremony the 'bearers' to pass each flower shaped form to the 'next generation' to be 'planted' and 'deployed' as a pavilion; and

- after the Games the flower shaped forms to be returned to the participating nations.

All of these five are, I would suggest, covered by the scenarios I outlined above. News reports make it clear that no attempt was made to involve Heatherwick or Boyle in the negotiations, and that Head of Ceremonies Martin Green, who received a summary of the Atopia proposals at the time (the details of which have not been made public), still denies using concepts from it in his briefing to Boyle and Heatherwick two years later.

Less explicable as either magic or coincidence was this:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2013/jul/11/danny-boyle-olympic-ceremony-design-copyright?CMP=twt_gu

The Guardian: Architecture and Design Blog

Olympic ceremony subject to further claims of design similarities

by Oliver Wainwright

11 Jul 2013

"I designed a glowing duvet 10 years ago, when I was a student at the Royal College of Art," says Rachel Wingfield, co-director of Loop.pH, which specialises in light installations. "Danny Boyle spotted it and invited me in for a meeting in 2005 when he was working on the set design for the film Sunshine. He thought the illuminated bedding would look great on the spaceship - and he even commissioned one for his own home.

Wingfield's project, titled Light Sleeper, was designed as a personal alarm clock, waking sleepers gently by simulating a natural dawn.

Given that the principal designers on Sunshine were the same as the principal designers on the London Opening, it is fair to assume that the majority of the core creative team for the London Opening had seen, several years earlier, Rachel's 2001 design. So far, I have discovered just three mitigating factors. First, the illuminated bed could almost certainly have regarded as an invention, and patented, which would have simplified claims against copyists. Second, since about 2009 a company called Lumigram, apparently quite unconnected with Rachel, has been selling illuminated bed-linen (for fun, not for gentle waking), so if she didn't make a fuss about that, her claim against Danny Boyle seems rather a severe case of sour grapes. Third, if the actual origin of the glowing beds in the London Opening was the story element of the girl reading by torchlight under the bedclothes, then coincidence is genuinely possible; but I can't help feeling that there's a generous helping of subconscious memory from 2005 in there too. However, Boyle and co. will have been advised not to acknowledge any claim, because most, however strong they appear superficially, will be based on wishful thinking.

There had been a much earlier public accusation of plagiarism in designs for the London opening. Back in 2009, a Hull-based artist, Lee Merrill Sendall (aka Corona Smith), had submitted as a competition entry a landscape art design he had conceived some years previously, called "Large Spiral Mound", a Humberside rival to the late Robert Smithson's 1971 "Spiral Hill" and the Northala Fields mounds, created in 2004-8 by FoRM Associates from the rubble of the old Wembley Stadium. The competition, "Artists Taking the Lead," was part of the Cultural Olympiad, and the prize was Arts Council funding to help the winning design to be realised. Mr Sendall's blog on the project is here:

http://vantage2012.wordpress.com/page/2/

To cut a long story short, he did not win the competition, but in the summer of 2012 he and his friends were astounded to see that the "Green and Pleasant" land set for the Olympic opening ceremony looked uncannily like artwork showing the Large Spiral Mound in the rural landscape in 2012, published on his blog 3 October 2009. As there had already been allegations by another artist that the competition was rigged, Mr Sendall decided to investigate further. He swiftly contacted "Arts Professional" magazine, and a feature appeared in the September issue. Shortly afterwards, his story was featured in local and national newspapers, and won him wide support.

What nobody seems to have mentioned, which I discovered myself quite by accident, is this:

You can see terraces (they don't really function as steps) on this mound, but from this angle you can't see what first alerted me to it while looking for something completely different on Google Earth. Just off the right of the picture is the start of a path, which ascends to the summit of the mound in a spiral, crossing the terraces. This mound, with its spiral, has stood since the 1990s in Mile End Park, just to the southwest of the Olympic Park. Would it surprise you to learn that Danny Boyle's London home is just to the southwest of the Olympic Park?

Mr Sendall can be forgiven for not noticing an obscure park feature, little known outside the East End. Less forgiveable is his failure to mention another, earlier piece of artwork, which, as many TV viewers around the world instantly noticed, bears a significantly closer resemblance to the "Green and Pleasant" set than the Spiral Mound illustration, and which may even have been an unconscious influence on Sendall himself, because it's a picture which has been seen by millions of British children since the 1930s.

http://mancave.cbslocal.com/2012/07/30/our-favorite-parts-of-the-london-2012-opening-ceremony/

Man Cave Daily

Our Favorite Parts of the Olympics Opening (Aren't What You Think)

by Richy Craven

30 Jul 2012

... The pre-industrial era London set looked so much like Hobbiton that we half expected to see Frodo and Sam making out at the top of that weird twisty hill thing. ...

Specifically, if you were seated somewhere to the left of the Olympic Bell, looking down on the waterwheel, you would see most of the key elements from J.R.R. Tolkien's colour illustration in "The Hobbit", titled "The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the Water", in the same relative positions. Moving from foreground to background we have: the waterwheel on the stream; small fields with hedges and fences (as opposed to the stone walls more common in my part of England) and a few trees; some buildings with light-coloured walls in the middle distance (again unlike the dark slate walls of my region); beyond the fields a hill which has been hollowed out, and has people inside it. The hill also has a tree on its summit, and a track with branches winding up the front face (unlike Mr Sendall's design, the Olympic hill was actually not a spiral- the side facing away from the field of play lacked a path network; the tracks up the real Glastonbury Tor, although they are on both sides, are also not exactly a spiral, because it has additional terraces and paths which form a labyrinth pattern). Tolkien fans will be aware that The Hill also has on its lower slopes the Hobbit equivalent of a mosh pit- the Party Field. Finally, in the far background, a feature of which Mr Sendall made special mention- fluffy clouds, two of which in Tolkien's picture really do look as if they could be made from a bunch of balloons.

Enthusiasts spotted much more ....

LOTR

The "Green and Pleasant" set design has emerged as one element of a strong (if occasionally frivolous) internet meme based on comparisons of stills from the ceremony and from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, identifying numerous echoes of Tolkien's work in the London Opening.

http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/7/30/olympics-opening-ceremony-shout-out-to-lord-of-the-rings.html

In his foreword to "The Lord of the Rings" J.R.R. Tolkien stated categorically that:

"I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."

The devisers of the London 2012 opening, on the other hand, created one of the biggest allegories ever performed, to represent centuries of British history in the 15-minute "Pandemonium" musical scene-change, and took great delight in using other literary and artistic tricks throughout the evening, making the show work on a variety of levels. Consider too, that Tolkien's work is an alternate attempt to accomplish what William Blake proposes in his introduction to "Milton"- creating a body of legend and myth that might have grown thousands of years ago in what is now Britain, inspired by the Atlantic rather than the Mediterranean, and independent of Greco-Roman culture.

Spoiler Warning: The rest of this section gives away key plot points from "Lord of the Rings"!

Tolkien's work, some of the most influential literature ever to come out of Britain, is never openly acknowledged by the London Opening. The only mention of it by a member of the creative team seems to be this response by writer Frank Cottrell Boyce to a direct question:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZsL_e91frEMdBjldtNH5MrdYWBj-mU_48cXDXazKt60/edit?pli=1

Copy of Frank Cottrell Boyce review

A lecture and Q&A session with Stuart Maconie, at St. George's Hall, Liverpool

summary by volshy

23 Apr 2013

SM: some people thought they could see the Hobbit in there? Was it?

FCB: No, not really. I can see what they mean, but that was never deliberate.

But what if part of the artistic vision of the show makes it essential for the viewers to make up their own minds about the Tolkien connection, and consider the implications themselves? Treating Tolkien as the elephant in the room raises all sorts of possibilities. For example, it provides an explanation for the numerology of the event, in the famous verse from LOTR which lists the various odd-numbered sets of rings of power:

One oval Olympic stadium

Three dignitaries (The Queen, Baron Coe & Count Rogge) for the elf kings

Tolkien omits five, the number of the Olympic Rings, presumably to suggest that the five wizards, the Istari (including Gandalf and Saruman) resisted the temptation to have such trinkets made for them.

Seven teenage cauldron-lighters for the dwarves

Eight-plus-one Olympic flag-bearers for the short-lived humans

Tolkien's Gollum seems to have been inspired by Caliban (though not so much Shakespeare's original as Robert Browning's brooding interpretation in the poem "Caliban Upon Setebos"). Looking at the sculptures on the BBC's Broadcasting House building, in retrospect Prospero looks a lot like an inspiration for Gandalf, and the smaller Ariel like a naked hobbit, rather chilled in the London climate. Ariel (got the pun yet?) also appears on other sculptures around the building.

However, the main theme of "Lord of the Rings" is resistance to imperialist invasion. Sauron of Mordor, a ruthless tyrant with access to vast resources and countless troops, intends to dominate the whole continent of Middle Earth (with an implication in the back-story that his long-term goal is to cross the ocean and conquer the supposedly unreachable lands in the West). He is stopped only by an alliance of all those he seeks to enslave, in which the least powerful turn out to be the most effective, partly because they are so easily underestimated. Although "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" are stories of heroes, they are not stories of "heroes" in Carlyle's sense. In both, great leaders are shown as fallible and corruptible (Thorin in "The Hobbit"; the rulers of both Rohan and Minas Tirith in "LOTR") and small practical deeds as much as leadership are the keys to victory. This would reflect Tolkien's own experiences in the First World War, where ordinary soldiers and front-line officers often achieved results despite, rather than because of, the generals' ingenuity.

As it turns out, there is a second imperialist tyrant in "Lord of the Rings"- Saruman, meant to be an inspiration to the free but actually corrupt and devious. To see the particular relevance of his plot to the London Opening, we need to look at chapter 8 of book 6 in "LOTR", in which the four hobbits who had set off with the One Ring from their tranquil, rural homeland of the Shire, return there after a long absence during which every one of them has played a major role in the war against ultimate, power-hungry evil. They find that Bilbo Baggins's cousin Lotho, to whom the family property was entrusted, had conspired with outsiders (ultimately controlled by Saruman) to invest in an industrial revolution: factories, pollution, high-density workers' housing, all backed up by taxation (aka "gathering and sharing") and an enlarged police force, mostly comprised of locals but relying ultimately on the outsiders' muscle. Though individually strong, the outsiders are few in number, and when the returning heroes persuade whole communities to band together, the hobbits are able to free themselves. In real life, unfortunately, it's rather more complex than that. Nations find themselves with multiple Lothos, all trying to get the best deals with the outsiders, regardless of the negative effects on their own communities

http://www.afp.com/en/node/722336

Agence France Presse

Bangladesh factory fire death toll soars to 121: fire chief

AFP (agency)

25 Nov 2012

... many workers jumped from the factory's upper floors to escape the flames before firefighters arrived to put the blaze out.

The cause was not immediately known but fires as a result of short circuits and shoddy electrical wiring are common in Bangladeshi garment plants, which use cheap labour to produce clothes shipped to Western countries.

In any world view where China, with its ruthless leadership commanding limitless hordes and vast resources, is seen as a version of Sauron's Mordor, it would be a mistake not to consider that, over a period of centuries, many very ordinary people in Britain and other western countries have, with the full support of their governments, practised the role of innovative, devious, manipulative Saruman (as the Chinese themselves have occasionally been reminded in dramatic and unpleasant fashion). There are various reasons for the existence of individual nations and states- Olympic sport is not one of them.

BREAKING NEWS (20 Dec 2012): It has just been reported that the film of Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" (disliked by Moore, but it has its own integrity, and is still inspirational to protest movements worldwide) has been shown on television in China. Does this mean that the Chinese authorities are coming to accept the notion that internal dissent can be a defence against the self-centred leadership complacency which ensures success for Sarumans?

AFTERLIFE (on YouTube)

The first serious official attempt to put an entire Olympic ceremony online had been the opening of Vancouver 2010, released via YouTube several weeks after the Games had concluded. In 2012, although the recording of the Olympic Channel livestream was initially only available in markets where no broadcaster had acquired TV rights, fourteen videos of short extracts from the ceremony, plus an additional highlight compilation, were released immediately, to benefit from the intense social media interest. In addition, the BBC released videos of two short sequences it had filmed for the ceremony, effectively duplicating two of the Olympic Channel videos. On 29 July 2018, I checked the view statistics for all of them, plus others which had been released later (and then on 6 August 2019, I checked how many views had been added since, as a total and as a percentage of the 2018 figure):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7YHDfLxZi0

Isles Of Wonder Intro - Opening Ceremony | London 2012 Olympics

508,391 (2019: +20,595, 4.1%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tm7NWsxRRc

London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder - BBC

265,353 (2019: +10,341, 3.9%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QL_uG2GSZo

Opening Ceremony - London 2012 Olympics | Industrial Revolution Performance

1,604,644 (2019: +61,853, 3.9%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AS-dCdYZbo

James Bond and The Queen London 2012 Performance

[THE FOURTH MOST POPULAR VIDEO ON THE OLYMPIC YOUTUBE CHANNEL]

19,347,026 (2019: +5,202,766, 26.9% [AND UP TO THIRD IN CHANNEL POPULARITY])

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW5abat5NEU

James Bond escorts The Queen to the opening ceremony - London 2012 Olympic Games - BBC

2,709,689 (2019: +498,356, 18.4%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwzjlmBLfrQ

Mr. Bean Live Performance at the London 2012 Olympic Games

[THE SECOND MOST POPULAR VIDEO ON THE OLYMPIC YOUTUBE CHANNEL, AFTER THE 2012 100 metres]

24,600,814 (2019: +10,486,653, 42.6% [AND UP TO FIRST IN CHANNEL POPULARITY])

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60nEMZeHim8

Dizzee Rascal - Opening Ceremony Performance | London 2012 Olympics

[BADLY EDITED, POSSIBLY DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES]

534,966 (2019: +16,917, 3.2%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKlcaDwQiIY

Torch Montage including David Beckham - London 2012 Olympics

935,392 (2019: +46,679, 5.0%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnPqFq1lIGg

Athletes Parade - Opening Ceremony | London 2012 Olympics

1,034,706 (2019: +58,361, 5.6%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdGsXJ7WuFU

Lord Sebastian Coe Speech - Opening Ceremony - London 2012 Olympic Games

81,844 (2019: +7,498, 9.2%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdGpaWZMMPE

Jacques Rogge Speech - Opening Ceremony - London 2012 Olympic Games

64,215 (2019: +3,010, 4.7%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cipn_UIy0Vs

Muhammad Ali Makes A Special Appearance At The Opening Ceremony - London 2012 Olympics

976,835 (2019: +50,573, 5.2%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJG_Qu41IQw

Queen Elizabeth II Officially Opens The London 2012 Olympics - Opening Ceremony

[I SUSPECT MANY PEOPLE CLICK ON THIS EXPECTING THE QUEEN/OO7 VIDEO!]

1,412,050 (2019: +103,029, 7.3%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk-sDskIFeQ

David Beckham & Sir Steve Redgrave Pass Olympic Torch - London 2012 Opening Ceremony

1,031,427 (2019: +37,151, 3.6%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HlTciqDbkE

The Olympic Oath - Opening Ceremony - London 2012 Olympic Games

139,584 (2019: +6,159, 4.4%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei54TO1VBlM

Olympic Cauldron is lit for London 2012

1,412,682 (2019: +80,347, 5.7%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VPSjHnc2E

Opening Ceremony - London 2012 Olympic Games

[EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO; poor quality; abandoned but not deleted]

434,123 (2019: +17,403, 4.0%)

The full ceremony, as livestreamed on the Olympic Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4As0e4de-rI

The Complete London 2012 Opening Ceremony | London 2012 Olympic Games

9,279,707 (2019: +1,209,472, 13.0%)

The late additions to the collection are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0ZFBun4WMs

James Bond - London 2012 Opening Ceremony | Epic Olympic Moments

[RELEASED 30 Dec 2015]

473,189 (2019: +133,916, 28.3%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48lhlh_Qg_s

London One Year On - Opening Ceremony | London 2012 Olympics

[A TEASERS SELECTION, 90 seconds long, RELEASED exactly when you'd expect]

42,659 (2019: +2,662, 6.2%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKtoUQLzOPA

I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys live @London 2012 | Music Monday

[RELEASED 6 Nov 2017]

379,832 (2019: +184,513, 48.6%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azZZZbSwLQg

Paul McCartney - Hey Jude - Live At London 2012 | Music Monday

[RELEASED 3 Sep 2018]

(2019: +833,683, 100%)

It is possible that the 2012 experiment in releasing short extracts immediately was not popular with TV rights holders, because for Rio 2016 a very different release strategy was employed. The short videos were released on the day of the closing ceremony, and even more curiously, only one was a full scene from the cultural performance: Gisele Bündchen's catwalk. Others showed Michael Phelps leading the US team, and the standing ovation for the new Refugee team. The rest of the initial batch of videos explored very different approaches: three "Top 10" compilations (smallest countries; uniforms; "moments"); a look at the story of the Cauldron lighter Vanderlei de Lima, and a 96-second teaser selection. The full livestreamed ceremony was not made available in most countries until 25 September. Around the one-year anniversary, various other short videos were added over a period of several weeks, ranging from music performances to "making of" extracts from a full-length TV documentary "Viva!". In terms of arousing enthusiasm, this strategy appears to have failed (not that any Olympic videos achieve success on anything like the billion-scale of some YouTube channels): even Gisele had only been viewed about 1,330,000 times by 29 July 2018 (2019: +522,644, 39.4%).

Here are a couple of graphs showing how weekly viewing of the full Rio opening ceremony video changed over time between its first week on release and the first anniversary, with the figures for the full London ceremony over the same period, and a few significant dates marked (bear in mind that Brazil hosted the 2014 quadrennial FIFA World Cup):

Between 29 July 2018 and 6 August 2019, the complete Rio video added 818,452 views (35.0%); the complete London video added 1,209,472 views (13.0%; passing the 10 million total on 21 February 2019). Although that means the complete London video had 47.8% more views over the year than Rio (and indeed, more every individual week of the year), there were days when Rio was well ahead, most intriguingly on 27 July 2019 when the Rio video was viewed 31.0% more than London's. This was nothing to do with the London anniversary: the opening ceremony of the Pan American Games was held in Lima, Peru, on the evening of 26 July, which naturally stimulated Brazilian nostalgia. Delving a little deeper we find London had 5,389 views between 10pm on the 26th and 27th, but 7,430 between the 27th and 28th (then falling to a more normal 4762 between the 28th and 29th): suggesting that quite a few people took a look at it after they got home from Saturday night carousing.

I have not updated the figures in 2020 or 2021, because many views are the result of the fake claims about "predictive programming". However ...

On 23 July 2021, the day of the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic opening ceremony, the Olympic YouTube channel cheekily released a modified version of the 2012 cauldron lighting video, under the title "Lighting the cauldron at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony!" By lunchtime on 27 July, it had been viewed 1,876,929 times (we'll probably never know how many viewers only noticed the word "cauldron" and expected to see Tokyo's) which was actually more than the 1,811,597 views the original version had managed in the 9 years since its release! Over those same few days, the Rowan Atkinson video added nearly 1.5 million views, for a total since 2012 of 84,961,174 (as at 25 December 2022, it's up to 108,478,434, while the Olympic Channel version of the Queen/Bond video is on 64,982,230 views, as a result of events happy and sad in recent months- and the Platinum Jubilee sequel, featuring a British film franchise which did not exist in 2012, sparked a craze for marmalade sandwiches).

Afterthoughts:

On the timeline

The official Media Guide to the ceremony provided timings for each section, to the nearest second, giving a grand total of 3 hours 8 minutes and 35 seconds. The actual timeline of the event, as seen on the BBC DVDs, bore only the vaguest resemblance to the Guide figures- which is odd, because most of the times were constrained by the music. On closer examination, it becomes apparent that the compilers of the Guide were a little less scrupulous than they might have been. The most glaring examples are the complete omission of the five-minute torch relay montage / Tower Bridge section (plus its two-minute sequel in the Olympic Park with Steve Redgrave), and the decision to make a couple of Beatles classics doubly timeless: Arctic Monkeys' stated performance timing of 3 minutes 1 second does not allow the extra three minutes needed for "Come Together," and the seven-minute length of "Hey Jude" is mentioned in the text but not included in the section timing. As noted earlier, the Parade of Nations overran by ten minutes, but in percentage terms that was nothing compared to the official speeches and oath-taking. 12 minutes 24 seconds had been allotted, but the actual time was around 21 minutes 45 seconds (I suspect that ceremony organisers deliberately quote short times for official speeches; in Rio 2016, the Media Guide allowed six minutes for the two main speeches, but Carlos Nuzman's alone took nine, and the IOC's Thomas Bach added nearly another eight). The only section which seemed significantly shorter on the night than the Guide time was "Frankie and June" (about three and a half minutes less than the stated time of 20 minutes 57 seconds).

lautir cinataS neve ro cinosaM a saw ynomereC gninepO eht taht detseggus evah elpoep emoS

You might think that; I couldn't possibly comment.

Or to quote an expert:

http://groupnameforgrapejuice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/opening-of-abyss-ceremony.html

Groupname For Grapejuice [blog]

Opening of the Abyss Ceremony

by znore [a student of the occult]

1 Aug 2012

There should be no surprise that there was no false flag doom at the Opening Ceremony on 7/27. The scripts of conspiracy theorists are not usually followed by the conspirators.

...

Danny Boyle has created the Finnegans Wake of Olympic opening ceremonies. Like the Wake, the Opening Ceremony has been criticized for being boring, too long, confusing, dark, full of inside jokes and obscure literary references, disjointed, etc. But also like the Wake, it contained profound depth, lyric beauty, staggering interconnections and coincidences, and the vast scope of epic poetry.

...

Like Finnegans Wake, the whole ceremony is a holographic tissue of interconnection and synchronicity.

During the coronavirus pandemic which began early in 2020, somebody noticed that the NHS scene looked rather like TV news footage of the Nightingale Hospitals; high-capacity specialist units for COVID-19 patients which were rapidly created in case the normal hospitals were overwhelmed. More and more "coincidences" were quickly spotted, not least by conspiracy enthusiasts whose expectation that the 2012 Olympics would feature a world-changing event (anything from a UFO to a nuclear attack) had been cruelly dashed by the happy reality.

So Voldemort became either the "grim reaper" or a forced vaccinator (his wand acting like a syringe and shooting vaccines which would lead to mind control by The Elite).

The Queen of Hearts became UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (who had himself been hospitalised with COVID-19).

The fact that the patients shown were children, rather than the older people who were in reality the vast majority of victims, was explained by claiming that there would be a second wave of the virus, more deadly to the young. The elliptical shape of the performance area, with its various entrances, was likened to a 2-D depiction of the coronavirus, and to many, the triangular projections on the stadium roof, formerly claimed to be Masonic pyramids, now became more coronavirus spines.

If you're reading this any time after about 2021, you'll know that these "predictive programming" claims were all nonsense. My publisher David Bradbury has made a visual study of one of the early sources of conspiracy claims about the 2012 Olympics, available via my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5PyP9MJhBI

YouTube: Mark Snow channel

False claims about the London 2012 Olympics in a 2008 blog

by David Bradbury

22 July 2020

Looking backward

The accounts of London 2012 Ceremonies Ltd. show that from its formation in 2010 to the end of 2011, it spent £9,970,198, then during 2012 (at the end of which year it was effectively dissolved, although the legal process took until 2014 due to issues like VAT) it spent £84,398,275. This gives a total budget for all the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies some £14 million (about 18%) higher than the allotted £80 million. Because so much was shared and recycled between the ceremonies (see http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk/documents/pdfs/sustainability/cs-london-2012-ceremonies.pdf for some surprising examples), it is probably impossible to state exactly what costs should be attributed to each one. Also, this budget would not include any share of general costs such as security, which probably explains why the total reported by LOCOG to the National Audit Office was £110 million (see the NAO's "London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: Post-Games Review" which also indicates that the additional expenditure came from LOCOG budgets, and the direct Government contribution was £41 million- i.e. effectively just the money Jeremy Hunt had authorised).

On the topic of recycling:

http://www.liverpoolconfidential.co.uk/News-and-Comment/Exclusive-Olympic-Games-costumes-up-for-grabs-at-Oxfam

Liverpool Confidential

Exclusive: Olympic Games costumes up for grabs at Liverpool Oxfam

10 Sep 2012

... Bold Street's Oxfam is inviting passers-by to "own a part of Olympic history" for as little as £19.99 as the great Olympics clear-up gets under way. ...

The authentic clothing is part of a consignment which has made its way into 12 Oxfam stores in the UK, Liverpool Confidential understands, after London 2012 organisers decided to do their bit for charity.

For some pictures relating to the Oxfam initiative, see:

Flickr: Veronica's Closet photostream

posted 23 Oct 2012

Petticoat:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/veronicapaige/8116204373/

Oxfam label:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/veronicapaige/8116201623/

And on the topic of initiatives:

http://allevents.in/London/422984851076517

All Events.in London

Olympic and Paralympic Ceremonies Reunion

Created By : Phil O'Flaherty

... I was thinking of a get together. I'm from County J (WMW) and I initially thought it'd be good for just my county, but then thought 'why not all of the counties? And anyone else who wants to come. After all we all feel the same.

So, on Saturday 15th of September how about we all get together in Hyde Park for a mass picnic. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather and a fab day will be had by all. ...

[WMW= Working Men & Women, from the Pandemonium section]

(see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzkzFeZxSxA + http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMACGFqnbBU + http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQBTEuGxnyE etc.)

http://ukfeminista.org.uk/2012/10/lobby_media/

UK Feminista

Media round-up: Lobby of Parliament

October 25, 2012

On 24 October around 350 women and men from across the country descended on Westminster for our Feminist Lobby of Parliament. They were joined by Helen Pankhurst, great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, as well as the 'Olympic Suffragettes' The campaigners were calling on MPs to stop the growing attacks on women's rights and to start driving progress on women's equality forwards.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/women-dressed-period-costume-enact-march-parliament-suffragettes-photo-135858296.html

Yahoo! News India [caption to picture from Reuters]

Women dressed in period costume re-enact a march on Parliament by the suffragettes during a rally by feminist organisations to demand equality for women, in Westminster, central London, October 24, 2012. Women who earned less than men on the same pay grade when they worked for a local authority today won a battle for equal pay compensation at the UK's highest court according to local media reports.

http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/end.html

Freedom of Excess (blog)

Favorites Friday: Moments From the London 2012 Opening Ceremony

by Darci, who likes the Olympics

27 Jul 2013

In honor of the first anniversary, I decided to do my first re-watch of the ceremony... and I was NOT expecting to get as emotional as I did. Though, in my defense, I cried at the same things I did last year. And it probably didn't help that I just got a "one year on" thank-you email from my old London 2012 Ceremonies volunteer coordinator in the middle of the athlete procession. (So. Many. Feelings.)

Darci, an American Olympic enthusiast, worked as an administrative volunteer on the Ceremonies team at London 2012, and her blog includes numerous entries relating to the Opening Ceremony. Sadly, she was unable to stay in England for the ceremony itself. At least one young American volunteer did though:

http://lexi-hiland.tumblr.com/thestory

http://lexi-hiland.tumblr.com/thestudio

http://lexi-hiland.tumblr.com/page/3

Finding London

If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It

by Lexi Hiland

2011-12

I recommend reading the "story" and "studio" pages first, then go to the last entry on page 3 and work up!

Trance

After the Olympic excitement, Danny Boyle returned to the film Trance. A remake of a decade-old TV movie, his version had been designed to lead viewers through a plot blending reality with hypnotically-induced fantasy by the use of clues and cues (notably the use of colour). Viewing the rough cut he had made at the end of filming, he quickly realised that he was going to have to be rather more generous with this help, because even he struggled at times to work out what was going on.

Trance was eventually released at the end of March 2013. It looks and sounds fantastic, with all contributors from the three lead actors to the composer (Rick Smith again) performing magnificently. However, the plot, even with post-Olympic tinkering, simply doesn't work well enough. For fans of the wonderful tv tropes website ( http://tvtropes.org ), I'd say my biggest problems, apart from the curiously primitive way the complexities were wrapped up, were the two tropes "There Are No Police" and/or "Police Are Useless". The more outlandish your story, the more convincing its internal logic has to be (see for example the elegantly preposterous "Source Code", directed by Duncan Jones from a script by Ben Ripley, released early in 2011).

However, here's an interesting thing Danny Boyle said during his promotional appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, on ITV in the UK (23 Mar 2013):

"Scorsese says about- the cunning is to smuggle in something, within the entertainment, that you can take away, and reflect on afterwards, but the process of watching the film is a visceral, thrilling, kinda ride really, that you- I mean I love people being, assaulted by the movies ..."

I'd say you can see that principle at work in both Trance and the Olympic Opening, and as principles go it ain't bad.

Sochi 2014

Leaving aside the political complications which, perhaps not accidentally, coincided with it, the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, on 7 February 2014, smuggled quite a lot in with the entertainment. Where the 2012 ceremony could be interpreted as an artistic response to Beijing 2008, Sochi, in a sense, seemed to be responding to all its predecessors, taking elements from them and saying "this is how we would do it". The principal source of this inspiration was Sydney 2000, from which Russia took the narrative framework of a girl's dream journey through her native land, and other elements such as the evocation of urban development (Sydney's Tin Symphony), and the use of "dancing" suspended objects (Sydney's Deep Sea Dreaming sequence). Sochi's response to Beijing focused on precision mass-movement, given an extra dimension and emotional force by Russia's ballet tradition. The use of floor projection combined with aerial objects, which had been very effective in the previous Winter Olympics, Vancouver 2010, was again taken to new levels, thanks to the incorporation in the purpose-built stadium of a roof equipped with nine inverted railway tracks, and a dizzying integration of projections with live action.

It all began, however, with a couple of nods to London 2012. The opening short film based on the Cyrillic alphabet, like the Thames journey in 2012, both set the mood and offered important clues about the content of the presentation to follow. Then the countdown to the live performance (neatly continuing the film by adding the Russian number-names to the letters) was presented via "audience pixels", implemented in Sochi as battery-powered badges which the audience could take home. The pixels were not needed to give a vertical dimension to the action in the body of the performance, because the breathtaking arrivals on the nine railway tracks accomplished that very nicely. The "emotional roller-coaster" effect, which had been a key part of London's response to Beijing, was achieved very well in Sochi, as you would hope in a nation with such strong storytelling traditions. The Russians also, of course, responded to London's use of music and literature, while adding some glorious references to 20th century art and design (they even had their own variety of bells to end the colourful celebration of St. Basil's cathedral in Moscow).

Sochi's handling of the athletes' parade was particularly interesting. The timing of the parade was much earlier than London's, in line with official Winter Olympic policy which reserves seats for the much smaller number of athletes competing, but still not at the very start of the ceremony, and I suspect that, whatever the athletes' wishes in this matter, the preferences of broadcasters will always overrule them. The novelty, though, was the abandonment of the full stadium lap, instead sending teams alternately to left and right for half-laps, from a central entrance ramp (making good use of the raised stage). My guess is that this, while marginally acceptable in a compact stadium like Sochi, will not be approved by the IOC for the larger venues used in Summer Olympics. [As it happened though, the Rio 2016 opening ceremony was held in a football stadium, significantly smaller than an athletic stadium, and the alternating model was tried again.]

The failure of the fifth Olympic ring provided material for a nice joke in the Closing Ceremony, and the only really disappointing aspect of the whole occasion was the strangely isolated lighting of the Olympic Cauldron, which was apparently a last-minute substitution for an ambitious plan which would have given the stadium audience much more of a feeling of inclusion (see the spectator video by OlympicFlame2028: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4fmhbICcr8 - but note also that other videos from the same source reveal how the Sochi opening cheated the stadium audience in other ways, being seen to best effect only from the western side, where the main TV cameras were: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO15Qf0skAw ).

Glasgow 2014

The opening of the 20th Commonwealth Games, in Glasgow, Scotland, on the evening of 23 July 2014, was, in its way, far more radical than London 2012. The nation's highlights were presented in the course of a five-minute comedy song, and that, plus a few songs from familiar Scottish singers, constituted the "artistic programme". Instead, the focus of the event was the parade of nations, arranged by region and with appropriate popular music for each (maintaining the same brisk pace thoughout, of course). Every region was introduced by a short film featuring UNICEF celebrity ambassadors and Scottish volunteers, then at the end of the parade, the public were given the opportunity to donate.

Building up to a flat start in this way, on a show available to hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide, was a recipe for clogged phone lines and websites, so inevitably a message had to be broadcast later urging people not to repeat the process if their donation appeared not to have been accepted. Reports shortly after the ceremony indicated that £2.5 million was raised through phone donations in the UK alone, and the total by the end of the Games was around £5 million, so clearly the underlying concept worked.

I could go on and look at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Youth Olympics, in Nanjing, China, on 16 August 2014, which attempted a more showbiz variation of the mass-movement style- but a line has to be drawn somewhere.

in conclusion

Criticisms of the London opening focused on aspects like, "fussiness" or "lack of cohesion" and "parochialism". The first and second resulted largely from the "yin/yang" approach to Beijing, and the need for apparent chaos, but I hope I have illustrated that this was largely an illusion, with a fairly logical chronological flow, and themes subtly recurring and echoing throughout the presentation. The last was, I suspect the result of the viewers' own parochialism. Sydney could say to American viewers "hey, we have sort-of cowboys" and "hey, our ancient indigenous peoples (what's left of them) have an interesting culture" and "hey, we had pioneers building themselves new lives in an untamed landscape" etc. Athens could offer symbolic stories from 3,000 years ago, which people vaguely recognised. China played up the advantages of 5,000 years of isolationism, and casually offered an array of wonders which were almost totally ignored, beyond its own borders, by viewers gawping at all the people forming neat patterns.

But there we see another way in which China and Britain are yin and yang; little tiny offshore island Britain never was, and never could be, isolationist. With the possible exception of the United States ("World Series"? By what definition of "World"?), no nation has spread its culture around the entire globe in so many ways, with so many fundamental developments and so many iconic figures. And of course Britain also made the United States- or at least made the United States capable of making itself (the Revolutionary War was a win-win situation for Britain, which eventually gained the Silver Medal in a field of six competitors). Hence viewers were presented with a vast number of cultural references which they more-or-less recognised, but which they had originally just accepted without having to think of them as being specifically British in origin (far outnumbering the genuinely parochial- and even some aspects which might have seemed parochial to most of the audience, like the brief clip from "Kes", were actually invitations to extraordinary experiences). Athens was arty and intimate, Beijing was grandiose and opulent, London was rich and strange.

Some have observed that the Olympic opening focused essentially on Britain's past. That very nearly ended up in my list of invalid complaints about Olympic openings- if the main purpose of the event is to present the host nation's culture to the world, then things which have not happened yet should not play a major part, because any jumped-up smarty can present an idealised vision of things to come. However, Beijing 2008 did indeed try to hint at a glorious future not restricted by the confines of planet Earth. Once again, London did it differently. The six major sections of the London Opening had very specific background themes: first (Green and Pleasant), the legendary, idealised, distant past, including the ancestors we can know only through their DNA within us; second (Pandemonium), history/ancestry which is known, but beyond our memory; third, childhood within living memory; fourth, approaching adulthood in the recent past; fifth (the Parade of Athletes), peak performance at the present time- but note that this is, with historical and universal aptness, directly after the key meditation on death, "Abide With Me", a reminder that we cannot assume we will live to three score years and ten; sixth, passing the flame to the next generation (which can alternatively be seen as the next generation accepting its responsibility to help build "the better world, the world of real freedom and true equality"). From this moment, the immediate future was to be the Olympic Games, but in the longer term- well, if you've watched the 2012 ceremony without too much interruption, you should have gained a pretty good idea. Great contributions to the world can come from almost anybody, anywhere, and the next one will be...

#startthesurprise

Detailed Contents List

Readme bits

Main video sources

Introduction

(with added Marmite)

First Principles

(basic misconceptions about Olympic Opening Ceremonies)

Second Principles

(basic concepts behind the London Opening) including: the Five Audiences; following Beijing 2008; ignoring 5000 years of British civilisation; TV vs Stadium spectators; "emotive" or "boring"?

Negative views

(both from casual viewers and professional critics)

#nbcfail

(a rant) including: Pandemonium commentary sample; viewer comments; time delay like it's 1948; ... with spoilers; "pretend real time" (goodbye Johnny Rotten); contrast and consequences

TV commentary around the world

(many styles, few triumphs)

"For one thing she did"

(a brief digression to consider Shakespeare's writing style as an inspiration for the Opening) including: a plea from Danny Boyle; the real-life witch of Algiers; Ariel as a genie;

THE GREAT BIG TIMELINE

(the long countdown) including:

early preparations, 2010

the embryo develops, 2010-11; turning ideas into a show; diversion 1: Frankenstein; unwanted but essential turf; diversion 2: Trance;

making it happen (2011-12): auditions; in-show graphics; Three Mills & Dagenham rehearsals; transforming the stadium; the Torch Relay

the last month: the performers meet the stadium; BBC promos, featuring Elbow; Friday the Thirteenth; one week to go!; dress rehearsals: #savethesurprise

TIMELINE continued

(show day) including: cyber-security alert; All The Bells; gathering guests

welcome to the Olympic Stadium; hello Chinese TV viewers; hello UK TV viewers (ft. Benedict Cumberbatch); the beginning begins (little fluffy clouds); carnival of the (farm) animals

the last hour of waiting: more from China; random notes on the souvenir programme; go Curtis W., audience pixels and Red Arrows; go Tash and participation practice; go Frank Turner and country sports; Green & Pleasant MAP; more participation practice- with pixels; go (genuine) pouring rain; go Danny B.; go Frank T. and numerous friends; go beekeepers and parasol ladies; go Ban Ki-Moon of the UN (and stop Curtis); go LSO On Track and the light blue sea; random notes on the stadium announcers; SIXTY SECONDS TO LIVE WORLD* BROADCAST (*except the USA, North Korea etc.)

ISLES OF WONDER

(video introduction to the ceremony) including: journey down the Thames; Olympic posters montage, with omissions; live ceremony balloons countdown & bell

GREEN AND PLEASANT

(make the most of it while it's still there) including: national songs, Rugby and Baron de Coubertin; horse-buses and stove-pipe hats; Branagh as Brunel as Caliban; "The Tempest" and colonialism; Work and workers (and hills); thoughts and dreams

PANDEMONIUM

(a national epic in 15 minutes) including: Evelyn G. and the drumming crew; workers, miners, managers, music; "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! Look at that!"; Brunel, "Great Eastern", photography; suffragettes; poppies and remembrance; work resumes; Pandemonium MAP; procession groups; Meanwhile, another procession .... July's Critical Mass; (and its aftermath); Rings; Pandemonium epilogue- the inventions in context

HAPPY AND GLORIOUS

(partly on video) including: the new Bond Girl; parachuting safety; the flag party

STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING

(nearly bedtime, kids) including: Mike and the Medics; Beveridge and the Welfare State; Mike Oldfield soundtracks Dennis Potter; Robert Galbraith reads J.M. Barrie; the Child Catcher mystery; Poppinses; "In Dulci Jubilo", the big baby, and medical inventions

CHARIOTS DE FEU

(partly on video) including: the LSO and not Mr Bean; children's reactions; Eric Liddell

FRANKIE AND JUNE

(brace yourself, 'cos this goes deep) part 1 including: the British Broadcasting Corporation; the Mini (car); weather joke- ruined by NBC; Winifred Atwell; June's family; "Enola Gay" and culture; multicultural vs pancultural; nuclear fission, including: a digression to Wellington Farm, including: a digression to the decade 1805-1815; nuclear fission concluded; computing, from Colossus to ARM, via Bob & Vint; (which explains the smartphones); family mealtime; teen rebels

F & J continued

(part 2: girls and boys come out to play) including: introducing the lads; railways and tunnels (and Brunel again); the "audience pixels"; Ferdinand/Frankie sees Miranda/June

F & J continued

(part 3: dances to the music of time) including: the 1960s, and phinding the fone; the 1970s, and how the **** did she get his call?; Bowie, and five-pointed stars; Marc and masks and masques; will you do the Fandango (in 3-D)?; Pretty Vacant; the 1980s, and a Smiley; the 1990s, and fires were started

F & J continued

(part 4: "many goodly creatures") including: Bubbles, West Ham and the City; the kissing montage; house party with Dizzee; Heaven and the World Wide Web; NBC ruins another joke; Tim, ENQUIRE and WWW

THE TORCH RELAY

(mostly on video) including: 1948 meets 2012; Max Power lights up Tower Bridge

MEMENTO MORI

(a pause for reflection) including: the value of abrupt changes of mood; the memorial "wall" (and NBC again); "Abide With Me"; ... and Cup Finals

THE PARADE OF NATIONS

(aka the International Fashion Show) including: the Get Set guard of honour; the soundtrack; the recycled drummers; comments, commentators & events; Team GB

BIKE A.M.

(what was left of it) including: "Good on the Dancefloor"; "Come Together" & dove bikes

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

(the dignified bit) including: speakers and flag-bearers; the instrumental Hymn; oaths as Torch approaches

THERE IS A LIGHT

(the surprisingly spiritual bit) including: 500 construction workers; confused announcers; Roman Catholic inspirations; say No to superstars; cauldron design concepts- and secrecy; contrasting commentaries, NBC & OBS; the firework finale (hello Orbit); the campfire singalong

AFTER THE GREAT BIG TIMELINE

Afterglow: "Not bad ..."

Aftermath: from dreamworld to sport venue: (with a digression to the Weymouth opening ceremony); (also featuring the relighting of the invisible Cauldron)

PLAGIARISM! (not)

(two murky stories) including: the cauldron: Atopia vs Heatherwick; sorry, no, that should be Atopia vs LOCOG; Atopia's sketchbook, interrupted by: London 2012 history lesson; back to the sketchbook; paper pitcher plants; the Friend-Ship mystery; the Friend-Ship probability; the Tor: Sendall vs Boyle

LOTR

(a theory) including: new myths for Britain; imperialists (and running dogs)

AFTERLIFE

(on YouTube) including: graphs of viewing of the main London and Rio videos

AFTERTHOUGHTS

(they think it's all over) including: the delayed finish; claims about ritual weird stuff; looking back; "Trance"; Sochi 2014; Glasgow 2014

in conclusion: generations, genius and generosity

(it is now)

Table of Contents

Copyright details

Contents

Further conditions and readme bits

Introduction

First Principles

Second Principles

Negative views

#nbcfail

TV commentary around the world

"For one thing she did"

THE GREAT BIG TIMELINE:

the embryo develops (2010-11)

making it happen (2011-12)

Show day!

welcome to the Olympic Stadium

the last hour of waiting ...

ISLES OF WONDER

GREEN AND PLEASANT

PANDEMONIUM

HAPPY AND GLORIOUS

STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING

CHARIOTS DE FEU

FRANKIE AND JUNE (at home)

F & J continued (going Underground)

F & J continued (dancefloor decades)

F & J continued (love and thanks Tim)

THE TORCH RELAY

MEMENTO MORI

THE PARADE OF NATIONS

BIKE A.M.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

THERE IS A LIGHT

AFTER THE GREAT BIG TIMELINE

PLAGIARISM! (not)

LOTR

AFTERLIFE (on YouTube)

AFTERTHOUGHTS

Sochi

Glasgow 2014

in conclusion

Detailed Contents List