Pool/Getty Images Sir Paul McCartney performs during the Aperture Commemoration of the London Olympic Games at the Olympic Amphitheater in London, England The U.K.'s bedrock and pop big accoutrements featured heavily in an anxious and quintessentially British 2012 Olympics aperture ceremony, as the London Games began with a bang. Stars including Paul McCartney, Arctic Monkeys, Mike Oldfield and Dizzee Rascal all performed reside in a amazing and occasionally surreal appearance at the Olympic Amphitheater in Stratford, East London.
McCartney topped the bill, convalescent from an antecedent soundfeed botheration to abutting the appearance with an affecting adaptation of "Hey Jude" that included a casting of bags singing forth with the "nah-nah-nahs."
Earlier, Arctic Monkeys performed a agitated adaptation of their 2005 hit "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," accompanied by a beauteous fireworks show. The Sheffield bandage followed that with a added aged arrangement of The Beatles' "Come Together" as men on bikes cycled about the amphitheater antic huge neon affable wings.
But even an camp moment like that was overshadowed by the show's capital talking point: a pre-recorded abbreviate blur featuring amateur Daniel Craig, as James Bond, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II that saw the absurd duo allegedly parachuting from a helicopter into the Olympic Stadium.
None of the agreeable moments could attempt with the sheer, jaw-dropping wow agency of the commonly aloof autocrat acting in a account but, beneath the aesthetic administration of moviemaker Danny Boyle (of Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting fame) and his music admiral Underworld, bedrock and pop played a key role appropriate from the aperture montage, if the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" and The Clash's "London Calling" were heard.
One of the capital sections of the "Isles of Wonder" appearance featured a montage of archetypal British music through the ages. Among the 1960s artists featured on the soundtrack were the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and the Kinks. The 1970s were represented by glam rockers David Bowie, Queen and Mud and jailbait rockers The Jam and the Sex Pistols, as huge puppets with Mohican haircuts pogoed on the stage. The 1980s area featured the brand of New Order and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, while the 1990s covered Britpoppers Blur and ball acts such as the Prodigy and Underworld themselves, with dozens of dancers in day-glo apparel staging their own mini-rave.
Things were brought blast up to date with music from the brand of Amy Winehouse, Muse and Tinie Tempah. Current British rap brilliant Dizzee Rascal, who hails from the adjacent East London adjacency of Bow, was called to accomplish in the stadium, singing his U.K. Number One hit "Bonkers."
Mike Oldfield performed "Tubular Bells" and "In Dulci Jubilo" in addition key section, featuring National Health Service workers dancing about hospital beds. Ascent burghal brilliant Emili Sandé sang "Abide With Me," the aria commonly articulate at abounding U.K. antic occasions, in a area committed to the victims of the London 7/7 bombings, which happened the day afterwards London was appear as the Olympics host city-limits in 2005.
Other action and ball stars arena a role in the three-hour commemoration included amateur Rowan Atkinson, actualization as Mr. Bean in a Chariots Of Fire spoof; amateur Kenneth Branagh, who portrayed architect Isambard Kingdom Brunel; Harry Potter columnist J.K. Rowling; World Wide Web artist Tim Berners-Lee; soccer amateur David Beckham; rower Sir Steve Redgrave and Tour de France-winning cyclist Bradley Wiggins. Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Blast Bang and Peter Pan were aswell referenced in a absolute anniversary of British accepted culture, forth with references to British automated and political history.
More British music featured in the athletes' parade, with the brand of the Pet Shop Boys, Adele and the Bee Gees announcement out as competitors from over 200 nations marched about the stadium. Aggregation Great Britain entered the amphitheater to the activation sounds of David Bowie's "Heroes," while Pink Floyd's "Eclipse" played as the Olympic alembic was lit by a aggregation of adolescent British athletes.
Meanwhile, the show's countdown saw punk-folk accompanist Frank Turner accepting some hard-earned acknowledgment to a common TV admirers estimated at one billion, singing his song "I Still Believe" as actors portrayed a archetypal English apple scene, complete with reside cows, sheep and geese. Other surprises included Alex Trimble of ascent alt-rockers Two Door Cinema Club singing reside as the Olympic blaze entered the amphitheater and beat cyberbanking artists Fuck Buttons' song "Surf Solar" featuring on the commemoration soundtrack, as Boyle brought an another bend to the proceedings.
As the aperture commemoration unfolded, the BT London Reside Anniversary Concert was demography abode in London's Hyde Park. It featured artists from anniversary of the United Kingdom's four countries, with Paolo Nutini (Scotland), Stereophonics (Wales), Duran Duran (England) and Snow Patrol (Northern Ireland) all assuming live.
That gig apparent the alpha of a concert alternation that will run throughout the Games, absolute with a "best of British" agency of Blur, New Order, Bombay Bicycle Club and the Specials in Hyde Park on August 12th. An appropriately music-heavy appearance is aswell accepted for the official Closing Commemoration at the Olympic Amphitheater on the aforementioned day, with acts like the Who and the Spice Girls accounted to be appearing. But whether any of the music or antic ball over the next 16 canicule will be able to bout the appulse of Boyle's aperture amazing charcoal to be seen.
