So it looks like the closing ceremony is even better than the opening one.

[sp1814]

Can we really complain about the sheer quality of the show?

Not too 'Leftist' or too multicultural is it? (apart from Tinie, Jessie and Taoi).

[douglas9401]

"Jessie J stole the show." Aye Gromit but luckily she was captured at the gates.

[craft1948]

I loved it, once I'd decided to listen to it through my surround sound rather than just the TV, that was rubbish.

[Kromovaracun]

I thought it was really, really, really, really, really, really boring. I was watching it with a group of people, and all of us were bored.

And I enjoyed the opening ceremony.

[ludwig]

I wouldn't say it was better than the opening ceremony, It couldn't be because they had four years to set up the opener, and about a day to do this, so they couldn't do the big set pieces like the chimneys coming out of the ground and the rings coming together etc.
It was bl00dy good though.

[Mick-Talbot]

Jessie J stole the show.


Nah,,,,,, Mr Daltrey did.

[ludwig]

// I thought it was really, really, really, really, really, really boring //

How come you didn't turn over then?

[sunny-dave]

Alwaays look on the bright side of life ....

[craft1948]

I thought Tinie was excellent.

[douglas9401]

Horlicks!

[craft1948]

Was that to me Douglas?

[Ann]

Best musical piece of the show was the really jolly Brazilian National Anthem :) everyone was dancing to it as it was so bright and cheerful - why can't ours be like that?
Sad they didn't choose to sing Land of Hope and Glory somewhere in the show (but maybe I missed it?) that would be a celebration of British music in my opinion.

[Ann]

Anyone know if the televised closing ceremony is to be repeated - friend missed it.

[jno]

Can we really complain about the sheer quality of the show?

Everyone seems to be having a crack at it. Grumbles about just about everyone who was on it, and some speculative grumbles about people who might have been but weren't.

Sometimes I wonder if the British actually deserve the quality of popular music they've had over the last 50 years.

[tamborine]

Missed Chas n Dave, alas musn't grumble

[Gromit]

Looking for a few reviews.

The Times of India
// The sometimes spectacular, and often quirky and surprising opening ceremony of the Olympic Games had been matched for craziness and bizarre sights in the closing ceremony at the Olympic Stadium, but with one big difference -- it was even more madly bonkers.
The most surreal moment of a truly mad evening was the appearance of Monty Python star Eric Idle singing 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' -- often sung by defeated sports fans to cheer themselves up -- complete with roller-skating nuns, morris dancers, dancing Roman centurions, frantic Indian Bhangra dancers and a kilted-bagpipe band. //

[venator]

Don't know who the blonded lady who opened the show was, but she was singing American music in a strong American accent.

Where was Katherine Jenkins, then?

I could have stood a lot more Queen and Eric Idle...

And where was the Royal Family? Surely LIzzie could have shown her face for 10 minutes, and Anne, as an Olympian, would have been my choice.
I suppose they wanted to show off the younger, more with it royals...

[Gromit]

New York Times
// With a gaudy three-hour farewell that mashed up theater, acrobatics, fashion and a few generations of musical idols, London extinguished the Olympic torch Sunday night, capping two weeks of athletic achievements with a jukebox collection of songs and a marathon display of endearingly wacky stagecraft. //

That article contains a funny correction.
// The man waving the Olympic flag in that picture was Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, not Jacques Rogge, the president of the the International Olympic Committee. //

Easily mixed up.

[Gromit]

Venator,
I'm sure I spotted HRH Princess Anne there.