Posts Tagged With: Olympic Games

The Olympic Games Closing Ceremony

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Mark

Olympic-Games-Closing-Ceremony-2012

Take your seats please, ladies and gentlemen because the party’s nearly over. But not until The Fab Lady sings.

Kate Bush Olympic Games Closing Ceremony Mark Wallis The Vibes

Kate Bush is rumoured to be performing Running Up That Hill at the Olympic Closing Ceremony. If it’s true then let me tell you, the top of my head will blow off and all manner of fantasmagoria will erupt like the cover of Never For Ever. The astonishingly inept Amazon might have accidentally posted the Running Up That Hill 2012 remix too early and spoilt the surprise…and then removed it again – so I’m taking that as confirmation that she’s on the bill.Kate Bush Never For Ever Album Art

The last time she performed live was 1987 (apart from a mere cameo vocal in 2002 with Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd), and her last tour was in 1979! This a monumental event for British music and Kate’s vast fandom. It’s been a fantastic fortnight of sporting achievement, but this really is the cherry on the cake. I hope she jumps out of one!

We’ll be celebrating in Manchester with Boots’ Chocolate Gold medals and mucho Absolut.

Kate Bush Running Up That Hill 2012 Remix cover art

+ + + UPDATE: track available on iTunes, click image to preview + + +
+ + + UPDATE2: Kate Bush no show + bunting taken down + + +
Main picture based on original motion graphics created by Anthem and Mammoth Graphics. Closing ceremony Sunday 21:00 GMT on a TV screen near you, unless you have NBC and then you’ll have to wait for an edited version.
Categories: Design, Music, Random | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Gold Rush for Great Britain – Six in One Day!

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Mark

Super Saturday Great Britain Olympic Gold Medals 2012 The Vibes

Team GB won six gold medals and a silver on Day Eight of the Olympics, taking the Great British Goldrush to 14, with 7 silver and 8 bronze. Super Saturday marks the UK’s best performance in the Olympiad for over a century. The crowd in the stadium went wild as Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis stole the show. There’s a wonderful sense of pride in Britain tonight, not least because we are the host nation, and on every television there are tears of joy, shock and awe as the athletes realise their own achievements.

Women’s Heptathlon – Jessica Ennis
Men’s Longjump – Greg Rutherford
Men’s 10,000m – Mo Farah
Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland
Men’s Four – Andy Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed, Andy Gregory and Tom James

Kind of makes up for the Japanese complaints about their gymnastic placing, depriving Britain and the Ukraine of their original medals. Japan, you were really crap. (So much for good grace and sportsmanship…)

Categories: Random, Vibe Monitor | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Are the Olympics Absolutely Fabulous?

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Mark

Patsy and Eddie speak for the nation!

Absolutely Fabulous Olympic Games Special Patsy and Eddie Torch

© BBC Photographer: Jack Barnes

In this week’s excellent Olympic Games Special, Patsy Stone and Edina Monsoon eloquently voiced the real feelings of the British people about the biggest event in the history of London. Yes there’s a lot of flag-waving and it’s great for tourism, but it’s a whole different ball game when you actually live here.

Eddie and Patsy present their pre-Games make-over plans to Saffy.

Eddie “We’re gonna be liposuctioned, lasered and lifted, darling. I’m going to be wearing my buttocks as a head rest by the time…”
Saffy “Well you better hurry up because it starts this week.”
Eddie “What?”
Saffy “The Olympics.”
Eddie “What? No! [to Patsy] Darling did you know it started this week?”
Patsy “What?’
Eddie “[panicking] The…running-the Olympics!”
Patsy “Where?”
Saffy “Oh my god! How could you have missed it? Even coming from the airport – it’s everywhere!”
Eddie “Yeah, darling, it’s been ‘everywhere’ for FIVE BLOODY YEARS, hasn’t it? Excuse me if I missed that it actually started! It’s been like tinnitus!”

Absolutely Fabulous Olympic Special Patsy and Eddie running

Image © BBC 2012

Patsy and Eddie find themselves in the Olympic Stadium just days before the big day.

Patsy “It’s empty.”
Eddie “That’s cos nobody could get tickets, isn’t it darling?”

Absolutely Fabulous Patsy lights cigarette from Olympic Flame

Image © BBC 2012

Perhaps the best quote of all is Eddie’s Mother, staring bemused at some unused tickets…

Mother “I don’t see why anyone would actually want to be there when they can watch it in comfort on the good old Auntie Beeb.”

You can watch this episode on the Dear Old Auntie Beeb here and also some big sporting events which are happening this weekend…

All quotes © BBC Saunders and French Productions MMXI
Categories: Random, Vibe Monitor | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

London’s Buzzing

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Mark

mustard fields  First Class Virgin Trains
London Road Sign  Green Park Tube Sign

I took a Virgin train to London, speeding through the yellow fields of the Home Counties to the West End. Butterflies always start to flutter in my stomach around Watford Junction as the farmland is replaced by proud Edwardian townhouses backing onto the tracks, and in places you can still see the blackened Dickensian underbelly of the old Victorian city. A quick flash of history, and suddenly Euston – the station that welcomes me to my native south.  The excitement is instant: the people, the noise, the buzz…

Tube Station Street sign  Union Jack
Vintage-London-Bus  big ben clock face

Cool Britannia!

 

The whole of London is red, white and blue! You would never guess that up until recently, any overt display of national pride in Britain was associated with political extremism. Fortunately we’ve reclaimed our identity with the double whammy of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic games. It’s OK to wave The Union Jack again, and believe me, everyone’s waving them. It’s been called the Union Jack since 1600 and I think the word Jack has a certain swagger to it, representing the British character: a cheeky kind of resilience, a spark of tenacity beneath our famous reserve. You might hear some apologists calling it the Union Flag, but quite why anyone would want to snip away part of our heritage when the Torch has only just arrived is beyond me.

You’re going to be seeing an awful lot of Union Jacks over the next few months, wherever you are in the world.

Categories: Photography, Travel, Vibe Monitor | Tags: , , , , , , | 16 Comments

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