The newspapers around the world had a mixed response to the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.
Here are a few of the negative ones? I picked them because you can learn more from mistakes than success.
Do you agree with the criticism?
What criticism do you have of the ceremony?
“Music meant pop music of course, but having just been stirred to the bone-marrow over the past two weeks by the dedication and graceful modesty of athletes, it was a bit galling to see an X Factor parade of stars, banging out numbers they could probably do in their sleep.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/aug/13/london-2012-closing-ceremony-review?newsfeed=true
“Instead of symbolism we got celebrity – and mostly mediocre ones at that.
If we’re hoping that the legacy of these Games will be an end to the inanity of talentless non-entities such as Brand and One Direction it seems we still have a long way to go.”
“The second act, the much hyped “Symphony of British Music,” was a massive, exuberant celebration of British pop eccentricity, not complete or comprehensive by a long shot, and certainly lacking in star power, but chaotic and cheesy, shamelessly overwrought, overdressed and obsessive in the best British showoff style.”
I wonder what people would have enjoyed more?
If we use the Spice Girls as the dividing line between nostalgia acts and ‘recent’ acts, do Taio Cruz, Jessie J, Tinie Tempah, Emeli Sandé, Ed Sheeran, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse, Elbow, One Direction and Russell Brand represent the best of the past 18 years in Britain? The Spice Girls were over by 1998, they only lived on in Karaoke and brief and not very successful reunion tours. I am not including Liam Gallagher in the ‘recent’ list because he was there covering a hit from his previous band Oasis. We must remember that the song he ‘performed’ with Beady Eye was from the before the Spice Girl’s two year period as chart toppers.
What acts would you have included in the show?
What would have made it better?
the wildhearted outsider
