Monday, August 13, 2012

Olympic British Pop Ends With A Blast: Part IV

Children's Choir Singing, 'Imagine' (own screen grab)
Sixties music stars and today's pop wonders performed on decorated lorry tops to celebrate the end of the Olympic Games 2012.  It included songs from 30 British hit singles in the past five decades. 

Annie Lennox who came in what looked like a slave ship was among the singing celebrities that gathered at the Wembly, the largest of the six Olympic stadiums, for the closing ceremony.  Ray Davies of The Kinks provided his pop majestic solo appearance with the London ballad Waterloo Sunset.
Ray Davies performed 'Waterloo Sunset'
One of the highlights was the video appearance of the late Freddie Mercury that lit up the crowd with guitarist Brian May on stage and provided the Queen classic We Will Rock You.  The Pet Shop Boys were there too. They were all the cream, dream team.

Brian May:  'We Will Rock You' (own screen grab)
What kept me awake for a while was the image of the late John Lennon singing Imagine accompanied by a children's choir appropriately dressed with the single-word title splashed across their white gowns. 

I guess the lyrics are appropriate enough, "Imagine there's no heaven, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine there's no countries, Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too, all the people living life in peace..."  More Olympic meets should do it. I guess I'm a dreamer too.

John Lennon Video (own screen grab)
George Michael sang his popular song Freedom to the roaring crowd of athletes and spectators. Dressed in a tight black outfit complete with moon-glasses he screamed, "Remember, right now, you are at the center of the universe." Liam Gallagher of Oasis, Spice Girls who yelled Wannabe and Spice Up Your Life from taxi tops and Muse all performed to the delight of 90s pop fans.

George Michael Singing 'Freedom' (own screen grab)
I dozed off.  I prefer the 60s chappies.

Information: Relevant Websites.
Images: Home Screen Grabs and Google.

6 comments:

  1. peter13.8.12

    I luv this. Damn bloody good ole chappie as they say...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-SE172lZQw

    Nice swing beat like songs u hear in the standard of "White Cliffs of Dover"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you sir. "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." I should have featured the guy who sang it at the Closing Ceremony.

    Will put up the You Tube connection soon on the right-bar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group.

    Loosely structured as a sketch show, but with an innovative stream-of-consciousness approach, it pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in style and content.

    Their influence on British comedy has been apparent for years. In North America it has coloured the work of cult performers from Saturday Night Live through to more recent absurdist trends in television comedy.

    "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" is a comedy song written by Eric Idle that was originally featured in the 1979 film "Monty Python's Life of Brian".

    It has gone on to become a common singalong at public events.

    Since this blog discusses 60s music I am leaving it to the reader to pursue this genre further by clicking to the Wikipedia connection above.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The song "Always Look..." at the Olympics closing was sung by Eric Idle himself.

    ReplyDelete
  5. PnR from ENGLAND28.8.12

    As far as the Olympics opening ceremony is concerned, we missed the first hour or so, but quite enjoyed the rest of it.

    The music took me back over the years, and enjoyed that too. The only jarring note was Paul Macartney's excruciating performance, but I suppose he is getting on a bit!

    In general we thought the whole affair went very well and we were delighted with the final medal tally.

    Take care and kind regards,

    P n R

    ReplyDelete
  6. PnR from ENGLAND28.8.12

    As far as the Olympics opening ceremony is concerned, we missed the first hour or so, but quite enjoyed the rest of it.

    The music took me back over the years, and enjoyed that too. The only jarring note was Paul Macartney's excruciating performance, but I suppose he is getting on a bit!

    In general we thought the whole affair went very well and we were delighted with the final medal tally.

    Take care and kind regards,

    P n R

    ReplyDelete