There can be few constants in Britain’s contemporary history, than the high regard that its musicians are held by the rest of the world. So it was fitting that the closing ceremony of the hugely popular London Olympics should feature musicians and songs that have crossed boundaries and appealed to the varying rock and pop tastes of the post-war generation.
Less radical in its political and social narrative than Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony, this was an evening that resonated with the universality of a nation’s achievement in having music, like sport, break through prejudice and division – from gay rockers ( men and women) to rappers, from Beatles- evoked trips led by Lennon’s Imagine to Indian dance, punctuated by Eric Idle of Monty Python, from Pink Floyd and the Who to cockney rebels and the Spice Girls, via Waterloo Sunset. Team GB signed and sealed once again in its dynamic multi-cultural mix, and its essential democratic spirit- summed up in the word ‘FREEDOM’ flashed across the stadium, as George Michael strutted his stuff.
The Rolling Stones were notable absentees as was Robby Williams who did not join Take That on the night- but then they might have tried to monopolise the evening in a way that would have jarred with its collective spirit, as George Michael came very close to doing. There was something deeply poignant by contrast in Garry Barlow’s appearance soon after the loss of his and his wife’s baby daughter . The legacy of these Olympics should give us faith in the future, despite the setbacks of our lives.
