[kevin]

Originally Posted by Roysten

Have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the opening ceremony, it went without a hitch and actually stands up well to Bejing. Bejing was meant to impress and London seems to want to entertain, and I was entertained so thumbs up there.

Yeah, I liked most of what they did - while it started out looking a bit like The Shire I liked the depiction of the Industrial Revolution, the tribute to the National Health Service and the kids (I had read about the giant Voldemort and thirty Mary Poppins' flying in beforehand and wasn't sure how that would work) but I thought the four decades of music bit didn't work as well.

I liked the forging of the Olympic symbol in the sky and then the idea and execution of the Olympic flame being lit and it's design.

Have to applaud the organisation and co-ordination of making it all work to schedule, and i think the only snafu was a sound issue at the start of Paul McCartney.

[Roysten]

Gotta agree there, the depiction of the country, NHS and culture was all really nice. Thought the Tim Berners-Lee tribute was a nice touch and the Rowan Actkinson/Bean sketch whilst they were getting everyone offset was a stroke of genius.

Agree with the music as well, I quite like Arctic Monkeys but I didn't think they were appropriate for the ceremony. I think it should have ended with a live rendition of Pink Floyd's eclipse like they had with the releasing of the final fireworks rather than Paul McCartney, it looked like he fluffed his lines, or was it a sound issue? Either way Hey Jude... nice song but not what I'd end the ceremony with.

Still though, was a good contrast to Bejing, hats tipped to Danny Boyle.

[Southern2356]

YAWN. When I was a kid it was a big deal. Now it's just a big commercial and a lot of stupid made up events.

Originally Posted by Roysten

Not that I'm hugely bothered myself but I noticed that there aren't any topics regarding the Olympics and I wondered how people felt about them, excited, indifferent, irritated?

I'm personally nervous about whether England can pull off an opening ceremony after China and may follow a couple of events but ultimately have been mostly uninspired, perhaps that's with being a Northerner.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Roysten

Gotta agree there, the depiction of the country, NHS and culture was all really nice. Thought the Tim Berners-Lee tribute was a nice touch and the Rowan Actkinson/Bean sketch whilst they were getting everyone offset was a stroke of genius.

Agree with the music as well, I quite like Arctic Monkeys but I didn't think they were appropriate for the ceremony. I think it should have ended with a live rendition of Pink Floyd's eclipse like they had with the releasing of the final fireworks rather than Paul McCartney, it looked like he fluffed his lines, or was it a sound issue? Either way Hey Jude... nice song but not what I'd end the ceremony with.

Still though, was a good contrast to Bejing, hats tipped to Danny Boyle.

To be honest I don't really remember much about Bejing apart from faking the little girl at the start.

I don't know with Macca - sounded like a sound or a synching problem. I think they went with 'Hey Jude' because it lets everyone get in for the singalong. Though I thought the Arctic Monkeys were a bad choice.