>THE OLYMPIC OPENING CEREMONY

The Olympic Stadium, Stratford, London
27 July 2012


The Olympic Games Opening Ceremony - the night we had all been waiting for. The blood, the sweat and the tears of London 2012. 

On July 6 2005 it was announced that London would be the host City for the 2012 Olympic Games. Who would have thought that the following 7 years would pass us by so quickly! For me, the opening and closing ceremonies of any Games are the real high-point - and the London 2012 opening ceremony has to be one of the most incredibly creative and spectacular so far! Artistic Director, Danny Boyle, brought us the £27 million spectacular - Isles of Wonder - and what a wonder it was...

The shopping list for the spectacular included: 640,000 pixels spread across 70,799 small panels mounted between the seats. 15,000 square metres of staging. A flying system capable of lifting 25 tonnes. 12,956 assorted props. A million-watt PA system using more than 500 speakers and 50 tonnes of associated sound gear. 7346 square metres of turf. 7,500 volunteer cast. 1,000 drummers. 40 years of British pop music. 12 horses, three cows, two goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, nine geese, 70 sheep and three sheep dogs.

An 80,000 capacity crowd watched the spectacular ceremony live at the Olympic Stadium. A further audience of 27 million Britons watched the proceedings from the comfort of their own homes, and a guesstimated global audience of 4 billion tuned-in from afar.

Hope you enjoy my selection of what I considered to be the visual and emotional high points from that incredibly spectacular and moving evening...


The Red Arrows start the show

A green and pleasant land

The incredible Dame Evelyn Glennie

The drumming signifies pandemonium

The industrial Revolution erupts from the earth

Kenneth Branagh as Isambard Kingdom Brunel 

...while the chaps pull some moves...

The Chelsea Pensioners

The Pearly Kings and Queens - the other Royal Family

The molten steel flows to cast the Olympic rings

A spectacular sight as the rings hover above the Stadium

The Queen arrives with Daniel Craig as James Bond

God Save the Queen was performed by Kaos Signing Choir
for deaf and hearing children

Voldemort gives the kids nightmares 

Mary Poppins (x 100) flies in to save the day

Ziggy Stardust takes to the sky during the 40 years of
iconic British music section

House music and everything in between - Fire starter!

Po-going Punks and pyrotechnics

Sir Tim Berners-Lee - inventor of the WWW

Akram Khan company - a moving tribute to the victims of July 7 2005

Emeli Sande’s beautiful performance of Abide With Me

Team GB during the Parade of the Nations

75 Dove bikes are released as the Arctic Monkeys
perform The Beatles’ Come Together

The Olympic flag is carried in by Ban Ki-Moon, Daniel Barenboim,
Shami Chakrabarti, Sally Becker, Leymah Gbowee, Haile Gebrselassie,
Doreen Lawrence and Marina Silva

Muhammad Ali

David Beckham and Jade Bailey bring the flame up the Thames

 The Olympic cauldron is lit by 7 young ambassadors

Thomas Heatherwick has designed a work of art

The finale of a wonderful and unforgettable evening

The music used throughout the ceremony was just wonderful - From Nimrod to Fire starter and everything in between! Universal Music has announced that Isles of Wonder – Music for the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games is to be released digitally within hours of the conclusion of the opening ceremony. In addition to the digital release, it will also be released as a 2-disc CD album on 6 August.


10 out of 10!