Mike Oldfield and other prog in Olympics - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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Fox On The Rocks View Drop Down

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 00:51

Here's an article regarding Mike's invitation and preparation for the ceremony:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9431694/Mike-Oldfield-interview-How-Tubular-Bells-led-me-to-the-Olympic-opening-ceremony.html

cstack3

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 01:07

Here's one YouTube posting....problem is, I want to slap the French announcer until he SHUTS UP!!

I'm sure there will be more posted shortly. It was a nice bit to hear, very well done.

Raccoon

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 01:30

cstack3 wrote:

Here's one YouTube posting....problem is, I want to slap the French announcer until he SHUTS UP!!

I'm sure there will be more posted shortly. It was a nice bit to hear, very well done.

THANKS for putting this up. I wish they had a moment of silence to listen to the masterpiece...
Instead, they had to keep saying his name.

Edited by Raccoon - July 28 2012 at 01:39

Check out my FREE album: A one-man project The Distant Dynasty

https://distantdynasty.bandcamp.com/

Raccoon

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 01:35

Slartibartfast wrote:

Raccoon wrote:

Could someone post this on youtube? I have Dish and because Comcast bought out the Olympics, I don't get to see any of it

Can I just take this moment... to say to you now... unless you have a thing for inane commentary... you really aren't missing anything. My wife has also observed...that Mike Oldfield... was looking pretty good...I missed it...now I'm wondering...how she would know that... as she's not really a prog fan... Tongue

he was looking snazzy. He got a good few seconds in. And I'm sure your wife knew who he was by the French commentator going "MI-KE OUUULDFIEEELD" over and over. I was wondering if they were gonna play the full 50 minutes of Tubular Bells Tongue

richardh

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 01:46

He also played some of Tubular Bells Part 2 for the National Health Service bit and also surprisingly TB3 which I particularly like.

Other prog moments were Dark Side Of The Moon (Eclipse) closing the main part of the opening ceremony and also Muse - Map Of The Problematique and Zep's Trampled Underfoot

No Genesis, King Crimson, Yes, Deep Purple etc but we know Danny Boyle is a big fan of punk and new wave so I was grateful for what we did get. Also a lack of representations of female artists of which Britain has produced a number of the years. Kate Bush especially stood out as missing.

Fast forwarded through The Arctic Monkeys the one down note as far as I was concerned but Macca closed the ceremony with a great sing along.

Overall it was very enjoyable with my absolute highlight -Mr Bean performing Chariots Of Fire

Raccoon

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 01:55

(watching it now) it's always a pleasure to see Paul McCartney playing at these kind of events. Even if he lost his voice, he's a huge figure in music history.

Dean

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 04:19

Mike Oldfield also played In Dulci Jubilo and Muse's Uprising was featured quite prominently. Dame Evelyn Glennie was a live highlight for me.

The Floyd pig over Battersea Powerstation was a great start, the snippet of Time as they passed The Palace of Westminster Clock Tower, the NHS hostpital beds layed out like Momentary Lapse of Reason and the heartbeat running around the stand (I thought the 80,000 audience pixel's were brilliant btw) were nice little Floyd references, however the use of Eclipse to mark the formation of the flame crucible was "odd" but most welcome - certainly fitting music with all the fireworks and stuff and the lyrics do seem to be stirring and rousing until you get to that last line.

What?

Snow Dog

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 05:13

AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:

Could do without the Harry Potter trash though

Yeah. The best selling books ever by a british person should not have had a part of it at all.

akamaisondufromage View Drop Down

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 07:13

Snow Dog wrote:

AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:

Could do without the Harry Potter trash though

Yeah. The best selling books ever by a british person should not have had a part of it at all.

Yes, why on earth would you have this 'trash' in the children's lit section - I mean outside the UK who has ever heard of this.

Anyway, loads of stuff I enjoyed, inventive, funny, emotional involving etc. I think my favourite bits were, 'Abide with Me' with the dancing which was incredible. The Punks were great and The Queen herself with James Bond. I mean I'm not a royalist (far from it) but it was a surprise.

I thought the lost mobile and the couple was a bit dodgy though and sometimes there was too much going on to follow.

I like the way it took the piss out of ourselves and the lesbian kiss

who else would have let that in!

Help me I'm falling!

Dean

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 07:53

The show was a show - it had some silly moments and some serious moments - most of all it was amusing and fun - people on the interweb are whinging about it being too British (?!?), too confusing, too leftie, too political, too boring - people do like to moan don't they. After the London Transport "Transformer" bus at Beijing I was dreading the worse, but it was a good show. Well done Danny Boyle. I wish the BBC had turned the volume up on the music a bit - it was too quiet compared to the comentators voice-overs - a shame but not the end of the world.

Even though it was arse-numbingly long to watch all 205 teams entering the stadium I loved the fact the athletes were allowed to be casual, take photographs and goof around to the TV cameras, I don't know whether this is normal (I don't usually watch the opening ceremony), but I seem to remember in the "old days" they had to march like regimented platoons and be earnestly serious about it all - last night they looked like they were enjoying the moment and that was great - we take this stuff far too seriously at times - it's a sporting event. I also loved the idea of giving the honour of lighting the Olympic crucible to 7 aspiring athletes, and the crucible itself was spectacular.

Seeing Muhammad Ali as a flag bearer was a moving moment.

What?

richardh

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 07:57

Well said Dean

fuxi

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 08:30

akamaisondufromage wrote:

Snow Dog wrote:

AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:

Could do without the Harry Potter trash though

Yeah. The best selling books ever by a british person should not have had a part of it at all.

Yes, why on earth would you have this 'trash' in the children's lit section - I mean outside the UK who has ever heard of this.

I thought the lost mobile and the couple was a bit dodgy though and sometimes there was too much going on to follow.

I like the way it took the piss out of ourselves and the lesbian kiss

who else would have let that in!

I'm no fan of J.K. Rowling, but surely you're aware her books are popular around the world? They've been translated into just about every language you can think of.

I'll agree with you, though, that "Abide with me" was deeply moving. This must have been the most thoughtful opening ceremony of all... I can't imagine what non-Brits made of all the references to the NHS.

Popovych

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 10:46

Friends! before the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremonies we could see a video with aereal images of the Thames, and I could see the Battersea Power Station (Pink Floyd Animals album cover...) with the same pig as in the cover!

How can I re-see that images?

-------------

Pretty performing of Mike Oldfield in the ceremony!

frippism

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 11:51

also the drummer girl was Evelyn Glennie who made an entire movie with Fred Frith :D

There be dragons

JonnyM79

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 12:20

Eclipse off DSOTM made part of the musical backdrop to the finale

frippism

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 12:46

also the Animals cover had a snippet in the opening video

There be dragons

CPicard

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 15:28

frippism wrote:

also the drummer girl was Evelyn Glennie who made an entire movie with Fred Frith :D

Oh, I didn't know that she was playing!
I wonder if the commentators mentionned the fact that she is a deaf musician: a strong symbol.

Dean

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 15:53

CPicard wrote:

frippism wrote:

also the drummer girl was Evelyn Glennie who made an entire movie with Fred Frith :D

Oh, I didn't know that she was playing!
I wonder if the commentators mentionned the fact that she is a deaf musician: a strong symbol.

Commentators mention her deafness everytime she's on TV.

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cstack3

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Posted: July 28 2012 at 18:40

CPicard wrote:

frippism wrote:

also the drummer girl was Evelyn Glennie who made an entire movie with Fred Frith :D

Oh, I didn't know that she was playing!
I wonder if the commentators mentionned the fact that she is a deaf musician: a strong symbol.

Yes, the commentators DID mention her hearing impairment (ABC in the US). VERY impressive indeed!

richardh

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Posted: July 29 2012 at 03:02

cstack3 wrote:

CPicard wrote:

frippism wrote:

also the drummer girl was Evelyn Glennie who made an entire movie with Fred Frith :D

Oh, I didn't know that she was playing!
I wonder if the commentators mentionned the fact that she is a deaf musician: a strong symbol.

Yes, the commentators DID mention her hearing impairment (ABC in the US). VERY impressive indeed!

Apparently she can feel the vibrations through her feet ( I think thats what they said on UK commentary)

BTW she once expressed an interest in recording/playing the percussion concerto that was composed by Joseph Horowitz for Carl Palmer . Not sure if that went anywhere though.