The Paralympics Opening Ceremony

As if to reinforce that the excellent opening ceremony for the preceding Olympic games wasn’t a one-off in terms of British eccentricity, an even weirder and wackier visual spectacle was delivered for the opening of the Paralympic games that made a sky-diving queen seem almost rational.

For a reason that was never quite made clear, the opening ceremony followed the theme of science, discovery and invention, making way into literature, in a narrative that wasn’t quite as easy to follow as in the preceding one, though the template of moving from the industrial revolution to the NHS to kids bedtime stories of the first was reflected in this ceremony’s hodge-podge of randomly connected ideas not entirely connected to the idea of the Olympics.

There were several elements that transferred over, from the stereotypical obsession with umbrellas, to the eccentricity to the mind- and bum- numbingly long athlete walk on. But it was very much a truncated opening ceremony, running an hour over its allotted time but feeling less spectacular as the first, though it did have a lower budget. The event kicked off at eight pm with half an hour off waffle from the presenters in the channel four studio, with Jon Snow in particular looking like he’d only just woken up to present the show and looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, laid back in his chair and stumbling over his speech. At least he was regularly interrupted by adverts, Channel 4 obviously cramming them in before the ceremony started proper to run the main event without too many advert breaks… well, at least that was my theory, which was disproven by the regular advert breaks. Even ITV in its big events doesn’t do that much advertising. Obviously, the commercials are C4’s bread and butter but their reliance on them during the coverage was more like a foot-long Subway with extra cheese. And their coverage at the start was dogged by clashing sound that rendered the early Rihanna remix uncomfortable to listen to.

The ceremony opened with a welcome appearance from Professor Steven Hawking before the theme really kicked out, randomly represented by a wheelchair athlete atop a giant rotating apple (to represent Isaac Newton), an equally large book of human rights, and a huge representation of the decisively un-huge Higgs Boson particle, that famous, er, Swiss discovery. We also got an, admittedly impressive, representation of the big bang and Sir Ian Mckellan hamming it up as Prospero from the Tempest, another throwback to the other opening ceremony, and the arrival of the Queen in a more traditional way than being Daniel Craig’s parachute buddy.

With the eccentric first half an hour over, we came to the parade of athletes which was, though slightly less formal than the first with athletes waving banners and such like, still as boring and dragged out as ever, with only the thoughts of potential world war breaking out in the ad breaks as Channel 4 cut away to Direct Line and Sainsbury’s commercials instead of showing the walk-on of the Chinese team, which several other countries losing out on an appearance in favour of someone important sponsorship messages.

At least there was plenty more after the two hours of that particular bit of tedium with some impressive choreography and wire work from lots of athletes and dancers, though still smattered with moments of head-scratching eccentricity with a whole section on the power of books and reading – with books flapping like seagulls – and the whole audience simultaneously taking bites out of an apple each. A close-up of the crowd showed some people happily munching away whilst others looked on bemused. We also got a huge recreation of the famous Alison Lapper artwork, Paralympic Philip Craven bigging it up for Bolton like a wannabe Northern gangster, and several oaths, with later accompaniment from an on-form Beverley Knight singing ‘I Am What I Am’, an unusual song to choose beyond the title’s reflections on society’s preconceptions about disability when it’s more commonly adopted as an anthem for the gay community (making an awkward connection between homosexuality and disability which I don’t think was intended and obviously not connected), and a song that was dragged out for a good ten minutes with verses repeated well beyond their lifespan, but Knight held it all together perfectly.

We also got an impressive firework display and some great spectacle from the mock-moon and the half-globe that lifted up mid-way through the show.

Overall, the opening ceremony wasn’t as amazing as the Olympics one, mainly down to the lack of music in my opinion, but it was well done with the smaller budget, with the wire work and athletics very impressive. The theme of the show was a little puzzling at times and there were several awkward moments, none the least the questionable Ian Dury track “Spasticus Autisticus” which, without much context, could be seen as, you know, a tad offensive, but it was a good visual spectacle with the boat scene a particular highlight, but it also suffered from the athlete walk-on which, coming after only half-an-hour of opening ceremony, was even less welcome the second time around due to less viewer reward before it, and some dodgy timing decisions and commentary from Channel 4, but thankfully not to Trevor Nelson standards.

There was a lot of nice touches, though, with the songs accompanied by a BSL interpreter, the lead work by Nicola Miles-Wildin as Miranda, and some dancing by Flawless, so overall not a bad show but without the reach – and, of course, the budget – of the atmospheric and touching Olympic opening ceremony. Considering that much of the cast was made up of disabled actors, actresses and dancers, the work involved was every bit as impressive as the earlier opening ceremony with what was achieved.

The London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony

And so the Olympics came to an end with a ceremony of British music, wrapped up as three-and-half-hour trip through the ages of the UK’s artists, thankfully without an out of tune Paul McCartney in sight.

Though not as arresting or visual effective as the marvellous opening ceremony, the closing one was still very much worth seeing, thankfully not having the long and tedious parade of Olympians as part of it even if they did make a nod towards that.

The set piece was a fun design decision, looking like London wrapped up like a fish and chip supper. There was me half expecting the Lancashire Hotpots turning up to give us a rendition of ‘Chippy Tea’ but – silly me! – why would we get something as eccentric as that. Instead we got Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill sticking his head out of a model Big Ben next to an out of scale and small London Eye. There, far more serious.

Once more opting to create a spectacle, but one that was probably incomprehensible to anyone not sharing the British in-joke, the opening was pretty fun to watch. Spall did a good job as Churchill but I still think Ian McNeice, as seen as him on-stage and in Doctor Who, would have made a better one.

Emile Sande’s singing of her version of Professor Green’s ‘Read All About It’ was beautifully sung, even if she appeared dressed as a Blackpool landlady and has better solo hits of her own, and an appearance by Stomp were welcome and it was interesting to see the Queen was replaced by Prince Harry for this ceremony. Perhaps being thrown out of a plane with Daniel Craig sixteen days earlier had done it for her. Or maybe she feared Elton John would perform again.

Perhaps the most in-jokey of everything we’ve had – and, boy, have both ceremonies had these, was the appearance of the ‘Only Fools and Horses’ three-wheeled van out of which emerged actors pretending to be David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst as Del Boy and Rodney as Batman and Rodney, before the van then exploded and Michael Caine announced ‘You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off’. Honestly. I’ve not been taking drugs. That actually happened. What foreign countries must have made of that I’m not sure, with one episode of a television show from fifteen years ago mixed in with the Italian Job. Actually, we don’t need to imagine, NBC commentators (for what quality they have been) said that the characters were, and I transpose, ‘Folk heroes like Robin Hood’. No, NBC. They were two actors playing two other actors playing two characters playing two other fictional characters from a camp sixties comic adaptation. So that clears things up there. It was funny though.

And now we get into the music and first up was Madness. Now I’m a big fan of Suggs and the gang but I have to say that they were a little bit flat in this performance of ‘Our House’, which is a shame as I know they can sing live. Must have been an off-day for Suggs but it was nice to see the ambassadors for ska represented here, a band that still release quality music as 2009’s ‘The Liberty of Norton Folgate’ shows.

A band version of ‘Parklife’ followed which was a fun interpretation. Of course Blur, one of the main bands of the era we know as BritPop, couldn’t perform it live as they were performing at a rival concert at the same time in one of the daftest scheduling decisions since the finale of ‘One Foot In The Grave’ was run against the first millionaire winner on ITV’s flagship Chris Tarrant-hosted gameshow, but that had at least been unforeseeable... ish.

The Pet Shop Boys appeared for a spirited version of ‘West End Girls’ and One Direction’s two-song medley was well done but I’d hardly utter them in the same breath as Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe in the annals of British Music. As I noted on Twitter, which of course was alight during the ceremony, the only direction I’d really want them to go in was out of the stadium on the back of the lorry they were on.

We then got the winners of Britain’s Got Talent 2010, ‘Spellbound’ performing some admittedly impressive dance work, and Ray Davies giving us a welcome rendition of the Kinks classic ‘Waterloo Sunset’, which was well done even if he looked out of it. One of my friends at this point asked who ‘The Kinks’ were. I promptly evicted him from my flat and told him to come back when he’d heard of bands earlier than Steps.

Emeli Sande then re-appeared to perform a longer version of part three of ‘Read All About It’ (I still to this day am not sure where part two went) and, concluding the new music for the moment, Elbow appeared for the classic and anthemic ‘One Day Like This’, plus the equally fun ‘Open Arms’.

Next somebody slipped the iPod connected to the PA back to replay mode and we got all the songs we’d just heard, albeit in studio form, again. Now I’m all for hearing some songs twice in a short space of time, but we have over sixty years of music to draw from – surely we could have found time to throw in some music from some other British bands that have been influential over the years to fill the gap? Franz Ferdinand. The Sex Pistols. The Automatic. There. Covering three countries. That would have done it and that’s just three names off the top of my head whilst drinking cider. Imagine what acts you could come up with after seven years of planning.

Declining the invitation to appear in person, we couldn’t avoid the music of Kate Bush but at least they picked the enjoyable ‘Running Up That Hill’ while a nice display of boxes was put up with the meaning lost on me until I just read the Wikipedia page. Either I missed the explanation because me and my friends were enjoying the music and making our conversation or the commentators had been told to tone it down after the opening ceremony. I’m not sure. We then got the final medal ceremony of the Olympics which must have been a big honour for those athletes.

Back to the music and the classic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was a much welcome inclusion, as was John Lennon’s image being created out of individual elements on stage, even if it was as creepy as it was impressive. We then got George Michael – surely a dodgy choice for a sporting event trying to avoid accusations of drugs taking (and, presumably crashing your car into buildings) – performing an impressive version of ‘Freedom’ and then, not so impressively, ‘White Light’ which is an OK track and genius and annoying in equal measure, but more importantly released as a single on that day. Whilst every other act got lumbered with a classic or thematically important song, Michael got a second song that many didn’t get and should have got, to plug his new single over, I don’t know, ‘Club Tropicana’ or ‘Careless Whisper’. Not fun.

Moving on, we got an impressive display of Mods and Rockers with Yorkshire’s own Kaiser Chiefs, complete with lead singer Ricky Wilson singing whilst riding pillion, performing The Who’s ‘Pinball Wizard’. Now it was a great rendition and the band nailed it, but it would have been great to have heard some original material from the band, especially when the original singers were to appear later. According to a post-event interview with Wilson they were originally lined up to perform ‘I Predict A Riot’ (I could have told the organisers a year ago this was a bad idea) but it was changed for the cover. Surely they could have done ‘Ruby’. Or ‘Never Miss A Beat’. Or even ‘The 100 Metres Is Not A Competition (But I’m Winning)’, but I may have made that last one up.

With David Bowie joining Kate Bush in the event decliners, we got a medley of his music which was fun enough, but would have been great to hear him live, before getting ‘Little Bird’ by Annie Lennox. Clearly whoever planned this event was too concerned with not upsetting the youth of London by dropping ‘I Predict A Riot’ from the song list to have heard the Jubilee concert and realise that Lennox is not the ideal candidate for a celebration of music, being that she’s not exactly on top form. And even if they must have had her, surely some big Eurythmics song would have been the call?

We did get a ship appearing on stage, though, which I can only assume was the Somalian team arriving late.

At least we could rely on the closing ceremony to tick off some boxes as we reached some interesting collaborations. Ed Sheeran joining the drummer from Pink Floyd on their hit ‘Wish You Were Here’ was interesting on paper and performed well enough but not a particular highlight for me, and the same could be said for Russell Brand performing the Beatles’ ‘I Am The Walrus’ dressed as ‘Gene Wilder’, alongside orchestra ‘Bond’ which was visually stimulating but it was like asking Huw Edwards to perform ‘Paint It Black’ by the Rolling Stones, that is a fun suggestion but musically questionable.

At least the appearance of Fatboy Slim in a giant octopus playing the radio edits of two of his big hits, whilst pretending to mix on a pair of CD-Js, was welcome. (Remember, I’m not making any of this up, and the cider has worn off).

The triple-act of Jessie “I look naked – is this suitable for a family audience” J; Tinie “Shades are cool” Tempah and Taio “What? He’s actually not American?” Cruz was a highlight of the ceremony for me. Jessie’s ‘Price Tag’ was fun even if it sadly lacked some BOB action like the concert was put together by Radio 2’s Programme Controller and the theme of the song, set aside the fiscal extravagance of London 2012, was an usual juxtaposition, but her work on ‘Written With The Stars’ alongside Tinie, Cruz’s ‘Dynamite’ and then the triple-play on the Bee Gees’ classic ‘You Should Be Dancing’, was all fun and a brilliant set of mash-ups.

The much anticipated ‘Spice Girls’ reunion was up next and was actually very much fun and they handled the songs brilliantly, even if Victoria seemed to be keeping her distance from the rest of the group and it looked like at one point girl power would be extinguished as Mel B looked to be getting run over by a minicab. Ah, well it is London.

Then it got strange. Noel Gallagher appeared on stage with his band with the drum proudly declaring ‘Beady Eye’. Surely we wouldn’t be getting a hit from the band otherwise known as ‘The less successful sibling band next to ‘Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’? No, we got a little-known track called ‘Wonderwall’. Actually, it was a great rendition of the Noel-less track but it was a little like Paul Simon arriving on stage singing a Simon and Garfunkel song with a new backing band and doing the audio equivalent of a middle finger towards his old song-writing partner. They should have got Blur.

Oh, sorry, Damon Albarn was wailing depressingly in Earl’s Court whilst this spectacular was going on.

Perhaps they couldn’t have Oasis on the drumkit as the only drink they could promote would be Coca Cola?

After a welcome interlude of ELO’s amazing ‘Mr Blue Sky’ we got another highlight of the event. It might not be quite up to another Mr. Bean or James Bond moment, but Eric Idle’s spirited version of the Monty Python classic ‘Always Look On The Bright Side of Life’ was great and he even got away with the word ‘shit’ and some casual racism, so those family friendly boxes ticked there. Oh, and there were morris dancers too so thumbs up again.

Moving on we got Muse camping it up to do their, admittedly well done, live version of their oompah-loompah Queen-knock-off ‘Survival’ before we got the genuine article. Well, Freddie on a large screen doing his fun, live vocal harmony crowd-engagement thing from beyond the grave, before we got a decidedly greying Brian May doing some more impressive guitar work alongside drummer Roger Taylor, before Jessie J decided she’d come back for another bite of the cherry in a less revealing dress to contribute to a cover of ‘We Will Rock You’. She’s been criticised for her performance of this but I actually think it worked really well.

After some impressive orchestral work and Rio’s four-year-hint towards what we’ll get over there in 2016 (no Duran Duran performing ‘Rio’ here), including an appearance by Pele, there was just time to extinguish the flame which, though impressive, could well have been the opening ceremony played backwards, before Take That appeared to perform ‘Rule The World’. For Gary to appear mere days after his personal tragedy was spirited of him and they performed the track flawlessly. It would have been nice to have seen Robbie join them but he didn’t appear on the original version of the track and, possibly, may have done something outrageous. I’m not sure that a song called ‘Rule The World’ was the most sane of choices for a country that, er, once ruled the world under questionable means, but it was an enjoyable rendition. We then got three tracks by ‘The Who’ to round things off, giving them four songs in one form or another during the closing ceremony. I wonder who they had to sleep with for that?

(Apparently they omitted the line ‘I hope I die before I get old’ from ‘My Generation’. I didn’t notice this but the change was appropriate as they’re all now pensioners.)

And that, over half-an-hour longer than I expected, was the closing ceremony. It couldn’t quite hold a candle – sorry, Olympic torch – to the bonkers and visually impressive opening ceremony but it also didn’t have the budget. It covered lots of eras of British music and it’s hard to pick fault with their musical choices but there were a few strange omissions such as ‘The Rolling Stones’ and a few unusual inclusions such as Russell Brand, and perhaps a few dubious song choices – George Michael and the under-used Kaiser Chiefs – being two examples, but they were never going to please everyone.

The vast majority of the music performances sounded great, which is more than could be said for the nearest similar event of the Jubilee concert, and there were also enough visual elements to keep it interesting.

A great musical round-up to an Olympics dominated by the best of British music with just a few dodgy decisions to let it down. Mash this up with the best bits of the Jubilee concert – i.e. more Robbie, less Elton, Paul and George – and it would have been a winner!

(7/10)

My Thoughts On Super Hi-Vision

Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing another technological innovation at Bradford’s increasingly exciting National Media Museum, a place that sits proudly in Bradford with its fantastic free exhibits, video game area and IMAX screen that compares excellently in price to the over-priced screens available elsewhere in the city and delivery a picture many times the size for a not dissimilar price.

One thing they are showing now – in conjunction with the BBC and only one of three places in the country to do so – is a new technology known as ‘Super Hi-Vision’. Though it does sound like something that would have been proudly promoted in front of a screening of ‘Thunderbirds’ it is actually a genuine technology, delivering a hi-def picture sixteen times more hi-def than hi-def with a 22.2 channel sound, which is like a beefed up 5.1 sound system except with twenty-two speakers and two bass channels.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. If you’ve just upgraded to a 42’’ plasma with full 1080p HD and a 7.1 surround sound speaker systems and feel miffed about the emergence of 3D television systems that will overtake it, you don’t need to feel short-changed by yet another new system. As the set-up, based in the small Cubby Broccoli cinema within the NMM, requires a 300 inch screen (this one set-up to receive images from a hefty projector) with sixteen speakers around the main screen and the other six elsewhere, it’s not going to be a system that will fit in the average living room, even if you could afford it.

At this point I’m going to be controversial. I’ve never really been that taken aback by standard HD. It’s only benefit I can see is that, as television’s get bigger the flaws in standard definition have become more obvious, and that’s its main benefit. I honestly don’t feel, in watching a HD broadcast, that I feel any more like I’m in the sporting stadium or up close with a panda. It’s just clearer and crisper. The only time I’ve really felt there is in the IMAX showings of the Dark Knight four years ago where, as the camera panned over shots of skyscrapers, I felt like I was up there. And, let’s face it. Who could house an IMAX screen in their living room?

But I still wanted to see this Super Hi-Vision to see what it was like. And, though the marketing speak of it being like a window into the room is not entirely spot-on – it still feels like you are watching the action on a screen – it is by far the crispest and clearest picture I’ve ever seen, the images on the screen bright and vibrant.

The set-up in the museum is not quite how I had it in my head. I’d imagined – and this is purely what I’d made up not what I’d read – that the hour would be that moment’s Olympics delivered in Super Hi-Vision but it’s in fact a forty-minute taster of the system. It starts with a five money explanation of its history and how it compares to Hi-def and it was this, combined with the specially generated sound, that showed off the increase in detail and improved sound.

What we got after this was a selection of material. Firstly there was elements from the Olympics opening ceremony, namely the forging of the rings section, the James Bond video and abseiling and the walk on of Team GB in the procession; then the 400m women’s swimming race where Rebecca Adlington won bronze (Sunday 29th July); and then chosen highlights from the basketball match where the USA beat Nigeria by, well, a “few” points.

Graphically, the Opening Ceremony looking brilliant in Super Hi-Vision and you could see everything in the stadium from the action in the centre to what people were wearing on the back row, even to the emergency exit signs right at the back top. Though a lot of the detail was due to the huge screen, it’s hard to deny that the new system makes more detail much clearer, but it’s still just a television image to me. Sorry to be a downer but it’s not quite the looking through a window feeling advertised, but this is most likely down to the lack of the atmosphere associated with the picture which is impossible to transfer. The people behind me in the cinema, before the showing, actually had an interesting conversation about smell and other aspects that make a thing feel real and whether that could ever be conveyed realistically. Also, it’s the ability to look around and change your viewing angle that makes “being there” realistically so perhaps the future will be combining Super Hi-Vision with Kinect style technology and some sort of modern smell-o-vision?

But, as far as new technology goes, being able to get a wide angle viewing of the opening ceremony where you could make out each individual participant and each one of the individual lights by people’s seats that lit up to form images was impressive to see.

The second element of the opening ceremony was a little bit of a missed opportunity. It spent most of the time pointed at one of the large screens showing the James Bond pre-video section which, one assumes, wasn’t filmed in Super Hi-Vision, so aside from the static shot of the stadium in the format it was like someone demonstrating High Definition by showing you a film of it on their mobile phone.

The athlete walk on was the most impressive part with the small elements of ticker tape fired onto Team GB being very crisp and life-like and the huge shot of all the athletes in the stadium visually very impressive.

Onto the swimming and the sound was impressive but not as good as the pre-generated sounds in the opening titles. It didn’t quite feel like we were there but it was immersive. The water as the swimmers did their bits was clear and you could make out all the ripples and I spent much of my time looking far at the back to the crowds, which were all crisp, emphasising the detail. I also noted that there were very few empty seats, you’ll be glad to know.

Oh, and how many people there are wandering around with steadi-cams getting in the faces of swimmers, something you obviously don’t see on ordinary television broadcasts.

Oh, and how they need two people to present the winners, one with a medal then another with a small bunch of flowers. Weird.

Sound wise the basketball one was the most impressive with the individual noises of each player on the court audible. But it never felt like I was in the crowd. The impression of people sitting behind me and noise from all around wasn’t really captured and the sound seemed very front facing, certainly not as impressive as the audio demo at the start comparing the music of a live orchestra on a 2, 5.1 and 22.2 sound system. But, again, all the detail of the crowd was visible and it was a very detailed picture.

After a forty-minute showing the film came to an end and I could reflect on what I’d seen. Detail wise the images are impressive and the sound involving, but as we’ve had these sort of images thrust at us over the last few years the immediate wow factor isn’t present. If it was physically possible for the average house to have a 300-inch screen in their home then this technology would be fantastic, as showing HD on that screen would be as low-quality as watching standard definition on a 40’’+ television is now. But, whereas HD and 3D have found their way into homes I don’t see this finding it anytime soon due to the lack of difference on a living-room sized set. And, for all the extra speakers, the sound system wasn’t any more startling than in your average cinema screen I’m afraid, and I wouldn’t have known it was 22.2 if I hadn’t been told. Whether that is down to the lack of microphones picking up the sound in the Olympic stadium compared to the purposeful set-up in the orchestral demo, I don’t know.

Where I do see it working will be in cinemas and theatres embracing the special showings like they have of the Olympics and the Wimbledon final, the latter in 3D, where people go to the cinema to get an experience, like IMAX, that it’s impossible to get at home. That’s where I see Super Hi-Vision coming into its own, not at consumer level.

That is, of course, if cinemas have the funds to upgrade their screens and sound systems after investing heavily in digital and 3D screens.

So though I wasn’t blown away by Hi-Vision, just impressed by the detail, I am happy that the National Media Museum has, once more, secured a technology on display, for free, in Bradford, the only other city outside of London and Glasgow. That is certainly something to celebrate alongside our increasing gold medal tally.